page_title: ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds (2014)
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds (2014) / Production / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: English: Michael Elgin at a Squared Circle Wrestling event in Vaughan, ON
context_page_description: War of the Worlds was a professional wrestling supershow co-produced by the American Ring of Honor and Japanese New Japan Pro-Wrestling promotions. The event took place on May 17, 2014, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York, U.S. and aired live on Internet pay-per-view through Ustream.
  All matches on the iPPV featured wrestlers from ROH taking on wrestlers from NJPW. As a result, bookers from both promotions worked together to put the event together. The event featured nine matches with five championships on the line; three from ROH and two from NJPW. In the only title change, reDRagon regained the ROH World Tag Team Championship from The Young Bucks. The event was headlined by a double main event for the top titles from both promotions. In the first, Adam Cole successfully defended the ROH World Championship against Jyushin Thunder Liger and in the second A.J. Styles successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a three-way match with Kazuchika Okada and Michael Elgin.
context_section_description: War of the Worlds featured nine professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
  On March 22, 2014, ROH announced a match for its April Supercard of Honor VIII event between Kevin Steen and Michael Elgin, where the winner would get to challenge Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at War of the Worlds. Another match at Supercard of Honor VIII was used to determine who would challenge The Young Bucks for the ROH World Tag Team Championship at War of the Worlds. Elgin and reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) won the two matches, making the first two matches official for War of the Worlds. reDRagon are former two-time ROH World Tag Team Champions and lost the title to The Young Bucks on March 8, 2014. On May 12, ROH announced that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Tom Lawlor would be in reDRagon's corner for the match. Lawlor is a self-described "diehard pro wrestling fan" and has appeared on Wrestling Observer Radio talking about NJPW events. ROH later backtracked on the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match announcement, noting that Okada first had to defend his title at NJPW's Wrestling Dontaku 2014 on May 3 against A.J. Styles and the winner of that match would go on to face Elgin. In the end, Styles won the match to become the new champion and move on to face Elgin at War of the Worlds. The match at War of the Worlds was to be the third one to take place between Styles and Elgin; the first on February 22, 2014, ended in a time limit draw, while Elgin won the second on April 19 to earn a future shot at the ROH World Championship.
  On April 22, ROH announced that Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson would defend the IWGP Tag Team Championship at War of the Worlds. The following day their challengers were revealed as former eight-time ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes (Jay and Mark). Also announced was Jyushin Thunder Liger challenging for the ROH World Championship. His opponent would be the winner of a title match between Adam Cole and Kevin Steen at Global Wars, while the loser would go on to face Shinsuke Nakamura. On May 10, Cole defeated Steen to retain his title, moving on to the title match with Liger, while Steen was now set to face Nakamura. Two more interpromotional matches were also announced; in the first Jay Lethal would defend the ROH World Television Championship against Kushida and in the second Hiroshi Tanahashi would face Michael Bennett. The day after Okada had lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, NJPW announced that he would be facing ROH's Cedric Alexander at War of the Worlds. NJPW also announced the final two interpromotional matches for the event; a tag team match, where Gedo and Jado were set to take on The Decade's B.J. Whitmer and Roderick Strong and a six-man tag team match, where Alex Koslov, Rocky Romero and Takaaki Watanabe would take on ACH, Matt Taven and Tommaso Ciampa. ROH completed the card with the addition of an all-ROH match, where Caprice Coleman was set to take on Silas Young. On May 14, ROH pulled Alexander from War of the Worlds as a result of a storyline injury suffered at the hands of The Decade at Global Wars.
caption: Michael Elgin, who entered War of the Worlds as the number one contender to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
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