Global Wars 2017 was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

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; the promotion was subs ...

(ROH) and Japanese

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

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

Buffalo RiverWorks Buffalo RiverWorks is a multipurpose indoor venue and restaurant located on the shore of the Buffalo River in Buffalo, New York. History The property incorporates the original Wheeler grain elevator that was built in 1909. Notable events F ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, 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 pre ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, 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 Outd ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, 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, DuPage County, Illinois, United States, within the Chicago metropolitan area. The population as of the 2020 Census was 21,113. History When Ovaltine established its factory, it needed a wa ...

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

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

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 ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, 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. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and '' Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel wa ...

, became an annual tradition. In

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, 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 ...

(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. It is a suburb of Chicago. History Chicago Ridge takes its name from ridges left behind when trainloads of dirt were brought out ...

. 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 wrestling, professional wrestler. He is 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 Augus ...

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) Professional wrestling promotion, promotion in Septem ...

( Davey Boy Smith Jr. and

Lance Archer Lance Hoyt (born February 28, 1977), better known by his ring name Lance Archer, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where is a member of The Don Callis Family and one-half of The Murder Machines w ...

), Kushida and

Yoshi-Hashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he performs under the ring name Yoshi-Hashi (stylized in all caps as YOSHI-HASHI), and is a former four-time IWGP Tag Team Champion, with Hirooki Goto; as well ...

from NJPW and

The Briscoes The Briscoe Brothers, also called The Briscoes, were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of American brothers Jay Briscoe (Jamin Pugh, 1984–2023) and Mark Briscoe (Mark Pugh, born 1985). They were known for their 20-year tenure with th ...

(

Jay Briscoe Jamin Dale Pugh (January 25, 1984 – January 17, 2023), known by his ring name Jay Briscoe, was an American professional wrestler. He was known for his time with his brother Mark Briscoe as the Briscoe Brothers in Ring of Honor, where he was ...

and

Mark Briscoe Mark Pugh (born January 18, 1985) is an American professional wrestler best known as Mark Briscoe. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Ring of Honor (ROH), where he made a name teaming with his brother Jay as the Briscoe Brothers. ...

Bully Ray Mark LoMonaco (born July 14, 1971), known by his ring name Bubba Ray Dudley (also spelled Buh-Buh Ray Dudley), is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE under a legends contract. He is best known for being one-half of the Dudley B ...

, Cody,

Dalton Castle Dalton Castle may refer to: * Dalton Castle, Cumbria * Dalton Castle (wrestler) {{disambiguation ...

and the Boys,

Jay Lethal Jamar Shipman (born April 29, 1985), better known by the ring name Jay Lethal, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is best known for his tenures in Ring of Honor (ROH), Total Nonstop Action Wrest ...

and

The Young Bucks The Young Bucks are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers Matthew Massie and Nicholas Massie, who perform under the ring names Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson. , they are signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), whe ...

(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 , is a Canadian-born professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the current AEW International Champion in his first reign. He also works as an ...

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 was a professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" are the initials of NJPW's governing body, the . The final champion was Will Ospreay, who was in his second reign at the time ...

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 wrestling, professional wrestler and former Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist, known for his tenure in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former one-time IWGP Intercontinental Ch ...

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. , he is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a former two-time AEW International Champion. He is also known for his eight year tenure with New Japa ...

and

Toru Yano is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, trained by and signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was the KOPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling), KOPW 2020 and the KOPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling), KOPW 2021. He is one of the ...

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 "Glossary of professional wrestling terms#Gimmick, gimmick matches" in the Glossary of professional wrestling terms, jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick m ...

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

villains A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

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 Destruction is an annual professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event has been held since 2007 as a pay-per-view (PPV). From 2013 to 2014, the event also aired outside Japan as an internet pay-per-view (iPPV). ...

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. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Bang Bang Gang stable. He also wrestles in Ne ...

. 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 ...

. 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 ...

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 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Events in Villa Park, Illinois 2010s in Buffalo, New York Professional wrestling shows in Illinois Professional wrestling shows in Pittsburgh October 2017 in the United States Professional wrestling shows in Buffalo, New York Professional wrestling shows in Columbus, Ohio 2017 Ring of Honor pay-per-view events 2017 in Pittsburgh 2010s in Columbus, Ohio