Global Wars 2017 was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

tour co-produced by the American

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was so ...

(ROH) and Japanese

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority shares ...

(NJPW) promotions. The tour's four events took place on October 12 at Buffalo RiverWorks in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, October 13 at

Stage AE Stage AE is a multi-purpose entertainment complex located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It contains an indoor concert hall and an outdoor amphitheatre. It is the second indoor/outdoor concert venue in America. Modeled after its pr ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, October 14 at

Express Live! KEMBA Live! (originally the PromoWest Pavilion) is a multi-purpose concert venue located in the Arena District of Columbus, Ohio. Opening in 2001, the venues operates year-round with indoor and outdoor facilities: the Indoor Music Hall and Outdoo ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, and October 15 at

Odeum Expo Center The Odeum Expo Center was a convention center located in Villa Park, Illinois. It featured of exhibit space at the North Hall and of exhibit space at the South Hall. Both halls had pitched roofs as high as . The South Hall was also used as ...

Villa Park, Illinois Villa Park is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, within the Chicago metropolitan area. The population as of the 2020 Census is 21,113. Villa Park is a western suburb of Chicago. History When Ovaltine established its facto ...

. This was the fourth year in which ROH and NJPW co-produced shows under the

Global Wars Global Wars is a professional wrestling event held annually since 2012 by the American Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion. Originally named Border Wars, the event was renamed Global Wars in 2014 after ROH announced a partnership with the Japanese New ...

name.

Production

Background

In 2014, the American

(ROH) and Japanese

(NJPW) announced a partnership as part of which they held the first

show on May 10, 2014, in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. Global Wars, along with

War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

, became an annual tradition. In

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, the promotions held two Global Wars shows, both in Toronto. In 2016,

was held as a one-night

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

(PPV) in

Chicago Ridge, Illinois Chicago Ridge is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 14,433. History Chicago Ridge takes its name from ridges left behind when trainloads of dirt were brought out by the Wabash Railroad duri ...

. While all the previous Global Wars had taken place in May, in 2017, the event was moved to October and turned into a tour. Originally it was announced on July 14 as a three-show tour, taking place in

;

and

, before a fourth show in

was added on July 31. The first batch of wrestlers announced for the tour included

Hiromu Takahashi (born December 4, 1989) is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) where he is a member of the ''Los Ingobernables de Japón'' stable. Takahashi made his debut for NJPW on August 28, 2010, and worked ...

Killer Elite Squad Killer Elite Squad, often abbreviated to K.E.S., was the professional wrestling tag team of Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer. The team made its debut in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion in September 2012 and have since worked tog ...

(

Davey Boy Smith Jr. Harry Francis Smith (born August 2, 1985) is a Canadian professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Davey Boy Smith Jr. and his real name Harry Smith. He currently performs for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he was o ...

and

Lance Archer Lance Hoyt (born February 28, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Lance Archer. He also makes sporadic appearance for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is also known for ...

Kushida is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and former Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist, better known by his mononymous ring name Kushida. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as well as Impact Wrestl ...

and

Yoshi-Hashi is a Japanese professional wrestler. He currently works for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Yoshi-Hashi (stylized in all capital letters), where he is a former IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champion alongside Hirooki Goto. As well as a former NE ...

from NJPW and

The Briscoes The Briscoe Brothers are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers Jay Briscoe (Jamin "Jay" Pugh) and Mark Briscoe (Mark Pugh). They are known for their 19-year tenure with the American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). and ...

(

Jay Briscoe Jamin "Jay" Pugh (born January 25, 1984) is an American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Jay Briscoe. He is currently signed with Ring of Honor, where he is the current one-half of ROH World Tag Team Champions with Mark Briscoe ...

and

Mark Briscoe Mark Pugh (born January 18, 1985) is an American professional wrestler best known as Mark Briscoe. He is currently signed with Ring of Honor, where he is the current one-half of ROH World Tag Team Champions with Jay Briscoe in their thirtee ...

Bully Ray Mark LoMonaco (born July 14, 1971) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and Impact Wrestling under the ring name Bully Ray. He was previously known as one-half of The Dudley Boyz tag tea ...

Cody Cody may refer to: People *Cody (given name) *Cody (surname) * Cody (wrestler), a ring name of Cody Runnels Places Canada *Cody, British Columbia United States * Cody, Florida *Cody (Duluth), Minnesota *Cody, Missouri *Cody, Nebraska *Cody, Wyo ...

Dalton Castle Dalton Castle may refer to: *Dalton Castle, Cumbria *Dalton Castle (wrestler) Brett Giehl (born March 4, 1986), better known by the ring name Dalton Castle, is an American professional wrestler who is best known for his tenure in Ring of Honor ...

and the Boys,

Jay Lethal Jamar Shipman (born April 29, 1985), better known by the ring name Jay Lethal, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Dubbed "The Franchise" of Ring of Honor, Lethal is a two-time ROH World Champion, ...

and

The Young Bucks The Young Bucks are an American professional wrestling tag team and promoters, consisting of brothers Matthew and Nicholas Massie, who are known by their ring names Matt and Nick Jackson, respectively. They are signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW ...

(Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) from ROH. On July 31, ROH added NJPW wrestler

Kenny Omega Tyson Smith (born October 16, 1983), better known by the ring name Kenny Omega, is a Canadian-born professional wrestler. Omega is an executive vice president of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), in which he also performs. Omega is a former one-time ...

to the tour's final event in Villa Park, Illinois. Originally, the promotion announced that Omega would be defending the

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship The is a professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the . The current champion is Will Ospreay, who is in his first reign. History Backgr ...

at the show, but later retracted the title match announcement. The Omega announcement led to the final show becoming the fastest selling event in ROH history with 1,875 tickets being sold the first day. On September 22, ROH announced that Omega would work all four of the Global Wars events. Three days later, ROH again announced that Omega would defend the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship on October 15. On September 29, ROH announced that

Minoru Suzuki (born June 17, 1968) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist, currently working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as a freelancer. In NJPW, Suzuki has held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship as well as twice hol ...

would take part in all four shows of the tour, which was followed by similar announcements for

Will Ospreay William Peter Charles Ospreay (born 7 May 1993) is an English professional wrestler who is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the current IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion in his first reign and leader of the ...

and

Toru Yano , is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, trained by and currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the KOPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling), KOPW 2020 and the provisional KOPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling), KOPW 2 ...

the following day. On October 2, ROH announced that the final night of the tour would air live on internet pay-per-view (iPPV). In addition, the second and third night of the tour would be available on free live streams for all members of ROH's Ringside service.

Storylines

The Global Wars 2017 shows featured

professional wrestling matches Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed

villains A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

heroes Heroes or Héroes may refer to: * Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good Film * ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama * ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film Gaming * ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...

, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. On September 26, 2017, ROH announced the first match for the tour, which would see Kenny Omega defend the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Yoshi-Hashi on October 15. The match was set up on September 24 at NJPW's Destruction in Kobe show, where Yoshi-Hashi challenged Omega after he had successfully defended his title against

Juice Robinson Joseph Ryan Robinson (born April 10, 1989), better known by his ring name Juice Robinson, is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Robinson is also a member of the Bullet Club stable and also wrestles ...

. Omega initially dismissed the challenge, but then accepted it, considering Yoshi-Hashi "great warm up". The history between the two dated back to 2016, when Yoshi-Hashi defeated Omega during the

2016 G1 Climax The is a professional wrestling tournament held each August by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. Though it has sometimes been held as a single-elimination tournament, it is usually (and currently) held as a round-robin tournament, ro ...

. The two later had a rematch, where Omega successfully defended the

Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate The is a professional wrestling tournament held each August by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. Though it has sometimes been held as a single-elimination tournament, it is usually (and currently) held as a round-robin, with winners ...

against Yoshi-Hashi. This match would mark the first time the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship would be defended in the United States.

Results

Global Wars: Buffalo

Global Wars: Pittsburgh

Global Wars: Columbus

Global Wars: Chicago

References

External links

Official New Japan Pro-Wrestling website

Official Ring of Honor website
{{2017 ROH pay-per-view events 2017 in professional wrestling

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Events in Pittsburgh Events in Villa Park, Illinois Events in Buffalo, New York Events in Columbus, Ohio Professional wrestling in Illinois Professional wrestling in Pittsburgh October 2017 events in the United States Professional wrestling in Buffalo, New York Professional wrestling in Columbus, Ohio 2017 Ring of Honor pay-per-view events