King of Pro-Wrestling 2017: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

SANADA, BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi of Los Ingobernables de Japón defeated Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, Leo Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi in 6:44 to open King of Pro-Wrestling 2017 at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. WrestleFile graded the short six-man C / 6.3. Those are the exact winners and opponents in the October 9 opener, not the separate LIJ heavyweight singles challenger certificate bout that Tetsuya Naito won from Tomohiro Ishii near the finish. No title changed hands through this opening faction result. The winning SANADA-BUSHI-Hiromu trio should not be combined with the champion/challenger alignment of Okada-EVIL in the main event, where Okada retained the IWGP Heavyweight belt.

CHAOS representatives Hirooki Goto and Toru Yano defeated Suzuki-gun's Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. by COUNT-OUT in 9:18 in the second match of King of Pro-Wrestling 2017. The official result records an outside-the-ring count, not a pinfall or submission finish, and WrestleFile scored it C+ / 6.5. Goto and Yano are the winning duo, unlike their stablemate Tomohiro Ishii who later lost to Tetsuya Naito in the future Tokyo Dome challenge-rights defense. Suzuki and Sabre did not lose an IWGP title here. Preserving the unusual count-out matters for readers following precise match outcomes instead of assuming all tag wins share the same rulebook conclusion.

SHO and YOH, wrestling as Roppongi 3K, defeated defending junior tag champions Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi of Funky Future in 14:25 to WIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at King of Pro-Wrestling 2017. WrestleFile graded their third-match victory B- / 7.1. The belts passed to a new duo, unlike Killer Elite Squad's successful retention of the separate heavyweight tag titles immediately afterward. Another junior title switch later saw Will Ospreay defeat KUSHIDA for the junior SINGLES championship. Those two junior championships have different winners and former titleholders, so Roppongi 3K's tag acquisition cannot be attributed to Ospreay.

Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr., the Killer Elite Squad, defeated both Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) and War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) in a 16:10 three-way TORNADO ELIMINATION bout to RETAIN the IWGP Tag Team Championship. WrestleFile's B- / 7.1 applies to this heavyweight team defense at King of Pro-Wrestling 2017. KES entered as champions and left as champions despite two challenging pairs. The immediately preceding Roppongi 3K victory had changed the distinct IWGP Junior Heavyweight TAG titleholders. Recording all six competitors and the elimination stipulation keeps the two consecutive tag championship results from becoming one misleading belt-change story.

Kenny Omega, Cody and Marty Scurll defeated the CHAOS trio of Beretta, Jado and YOSHI-HASHI in 13:42 in the fifth King of Pro-Wrestling 2017 match. WrestleFile recorded C+ / 6.8 for the six-person Luxury Trio victory. Omega's partners were Cody and Scurll, not Roppongi 3K or the heavyweight tag challengers in the previous elimination bout. The CHAOS opponents Beretta, Jado and YOSHI-HASHI were on the losing side. The win carried no listed IWGP singles or tag championship transfer, unlike Ospreay's later junior singles acquisition. Preserving this separate match serves both team-linking accuracy and event-specific editorial context.

Kota Ibushi and Juice Robinson defeated the Ace to King pair of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe in 10:26 at King of Pro-Wrestling 2017. WrestleFile scored the sixth bout C+ / 6.5. Ibushi and Robinson were teammates on the winning side, while Tanahashi and Makabe were the defeated partnership. The later Tokyo Dome challenger certificate defense featured Tetsuya Naito against Tomohiro Ishii, not Tanahashi, and the IWGP Heavyweight champion was Kazuchika Okada. This tag victory therefore should not be described as awarding the Dome certificate or displacing Okada's current title reign. Its useful details are the two exact teams and their documented result.

Will Ospreay defeated defending champion KUSHIDA in 15:32 to WIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at King of Pro-Wrestling 2017. WrestleFile gave the singles title change B- / 7.4. Ospreay was the challenger and took KUSHIDA's belt, which is separate from the junior heavyweight TAG championship that SHO and YOH had won from Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi earlier. Killer Elite Squad also retained the heavyweight tag belts in between. The late-match Ospreay victory is part of why this 2017 show produced two new junior championship holders while the heavyweight singles and heavyweight team champions successfully defended their respective titles.

Tetsuya Naito defeated Tomohiro Ishii in 23:56 to preserve the Tokyo Dome Challenge Rights Certificate for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the penultimate match of King of Pro-Wrestling 2017. WrestleFile graded the contest B / 7.8. This was a defense of an opportunity to challenge later, NOT a championship win over reigning holder Kazuchika Okada. Okada still had to face EVIL in the following match and retained the IWGP Heavyweight title there. Naito's recorded certificate victory should thus appear as the future challenger position, distinct from both Will Ospreay's junior title acquisition and the successful heavyweight title defense that closed the night.

Kazuchika Okada defeated EVIL in 33:26 to RETAIN the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in King of Pro-Wrestling 2017's October 9 main event at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. WrestleFile's B+ / 8.4 is the best saved match grade on the nine-match bill. Okada entered as reigning holder and remained holder; his final victory did not transfer the heavyweight belt. The preceding Tetsuya Naito-Tomohiro Ishii match preserved Naito's future Tokyo Dome challenge-rights certificate, while Ospreay won junior singles and Roppongi 3K won junior tag titles earlier. Each stakes category must be kept separate: one heavyweight singles retention, one future challenge certificate, and two new junior championship owners.