Wrestling Dontaku 2015

Promotional poster for the event, featuring caricatures of several NJPW wrestlers

## Information

### City

Fukuoka, Japan

**Wrestling Dontaku 2015** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on May 3, 2015, in Fukuoka, Fukuoka at Fukuoka Kokusai Center and featured nine matches, three of which were contested for championships. In addition to airing worldwide through NJPW's internet streaming site, New Japan Pro Wrestling World, the event also aired in Japan as a regular PPV through SKY PerfecTV!'s Sukachan service. It was the twelfth event under the Wrestling Dontaku name.

## Production

### Storylines

Wrestling Dontaku 2015 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.

Wrestling Dontaku 2015 was main evented by Shinsuke Nakamura defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Hirooki Goto. After failing to win the 2015 New Japan Cup and earn himself a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Goto announced he was changing his target and was now going for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Initially Nakamura did not take Goto's challenge seriously, but this changed on April 5 at Invasion Attack 2015, when he was pinned in a six-man tag team match by Goto, who then publicly challenged him to a title match, which was made official the following day. Goto is a former one-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion and lost the title to Nakamura in July 2012. Prior to the title match, Goto announced his goal was to first win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and then unify it with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Wrestling Dontaku 2015 also featured two more title matches, contested for NJPW's junior heavyweight titles. First, new champions Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero), who won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at Invasion Attack 2015, were set to make their first title defense in a three-way match against previous champions The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) and former one-time champions reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly). Meanwhile, Kenny Omega was scheduled to defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Alex Shelley. This match was a result of events taking place at Invasion Attack 2015, where, after successfully defending his title against Máscara Dorada, Omega nominated Shelley as his next challenger.

The semi-main event of the show built up the July Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall IWGP Heavyweight Championship main event between A.J. Styles and Kazuchika Okada with Styles teaming with his Bullet Club stablemate Yujiro Takahashi to take on Okada and his Chaos stablemate Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match. The previous year at Wrestling Dontaku 2014, Takahashi turned on Chaos and jumped to Bullet Club by costing Okada the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a match against Styles. One of the matches at Wrestling Dontaku 2015 pitted three sets of rivals against each other in a six-man tag team match as Kazushi Sakuraba, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano were set to take on Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata and Togi Makabe. Sakuraba and Shibata started their rivalry with each other following Invasion Attack 2015, where Sakuraba submitted his former protégé in a tag team match, Ishii and Makabe had feuded since the beginning of the year over the NEVER Openweight Championship, which Makabe won from Ishii on both January 4 and April 29, while Yano and Tanahashi had feuded since March's New Japan Cup with Yano scoring multiple upset wins over his rival. Another big match would see Bullet Club's Amber Gallows, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson take onThe Kingdom's Maria Kanellis, Matt Taven and Michael Bennett in a six-person intergender tag team match. At Invasion Attack 2015, Taven and Bennett defeated Gallows and Anderson to capture the IWGP Tag Team Championship, largely thanks to a distraction from Bennett's wife Maria Kanellis. The following day, it was announced that Bullet Club would be bringing in Gallows' wife, wrestler Amber Gallows, to take on Taven, Bennett and Kanellis in a rare intergender match. This marked the first NJPW match involving female wrestlers since October 2002.

## Event

The event started with a ten-bell salute to Ashura Hara. In the first title match of the event, The Young Bucks won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the third time by defeating Roppongi Vice and reDRagon in a three-way match, pinning Beretta to end his and Rocky Romero's title reign in their first defense. In the following match, Kenny Omega successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Alex Shelley. The match featured outside interference from The Young Bucks, who pulled the referee out of the ring as Shelley was about to win and who were then attacked by his tag team partnerKushida. Following his win, Omega announced that he would not be taking part in the upcoming Best of the Super Juniors and would instead next defend his title against the winner of the tournament at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall. Next up was the six-person intergender tag team match between Bullet Club and The Kingdom. Throughout the match, NJPW continued a storyline, where Karl Anderson's infatuation with Maria Kanellis distracted him from the match. In the finish of the match, Anderson went to kiss Kanellis, but got hit with a low blow instead by Kanellis, who then pinned Amber Gallows for the win. After the match, Anderson turned on Kanellis, throwing her into a punch from Doc Gallows, which was followed by the two performing their signature double-team move, *Magic Killer*, on her, before being chased away from the ring by Bennett and Taven.

The seventh match of the event saw Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata and Togi Makabe defeat Kazushi Sakuraba, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano. In the finish of the match, Tanahashi used Yano's own tactics against him by grabbing him by his hair and then pinning him to finally pick up a win over his rival. The semi-main event saw Bullet Club's A.J. Styles and Yujiro Takahashi defeat Chaos' Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi with Styles pinning Yoshi-Hashi for the win. After the match, Styles and Okada both tried to hit their respective finishing moves, *Styles Clash* and *Rainmaker*, on each other, but both managed to avoid them. Okada then posed with Styles' IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt, before handing it back to him. In the main event of the show, Hirooki Goto defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for the second time. Following the win, Goto reiterated that his goal was to unify the Intercontinental and Heavyweight Championships.

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 レスリングどんたく 2015  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2015-05-03.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 新日本プロレスレ「レスリングどんたく 2015」  (in Japanese). *Sports Navi*. Yahoo! (2015-05-03). Retrieved on 2015-05-03.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Meltzer, Dave 2015-05-03. New Japan Dontaku live coverage 5-3 Fukuoka - RPG Vice vs. Bucks vs ReDRagon, Nakamura vs. Goto, Omega vs. Shelley and Maria teases Karl Anderson . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved on 2015-05-03.
4. ↑ 5月3日（日）17:00～ スカチャン4で『レスリングどんたく2015』をPPV生放送!!  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2015-05-01). Archived from the original on 2015-05-15. Retrieved on 2015-05-15.
5. ↑ Grabianowski, Ed. How Pro Wrestling Works . *HowStuffWorks, Inc.*. Discovery Communications. Retrieved on 2015-04-06.
6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 5月3日（日）『レスリングどんたく』全カード決定! メインは中邑vs後藤のIC戦! ケニーvsシェリー! Jr.タッグ3Way戦! なんとマリアが試合に出場!  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2015-04-06). Archived from the original on 2015-04-06. Retrieved on 2015-04-06.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Caldwell, James 2015-04-05. NJPW news: Huge upcoming matches - Styles vs. Okada announced for July PPV, three title matches & historic six-person tag announced for next PPV in May, more . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2015-04-06.
8. ↑ Macklin, Matthew 2015-04-06. New Japan announces Wrestling Dontaku lineup, largest G-1 tournament in history and more . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2015-04-06.
9. ↑ 洋央紀 中邑のＩＣ王座に標的変更  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-04-02). Retrieved on 2015-04-06.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 洋央紀が中邑からフォール！ＩＣ王座に挑戦へ  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-04-06). Retrieved on 2015-04-06.
11. ↑ 洋央紀が史上初のＩＷＧＰ＆インターコンチ統一戦構想  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-04-28). Retrieved on 2015-04-28.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Macklin, Matthew 2015-04-30. NJPW Wrestling Dontaku preview . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2015-04-30.
13. ↑ *ja:柴田が師匠・桜庭に宣戦布告* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-04-14). Retrieved on 2015-04-30.
14. ↑ *ja:真壁ＮＥＶＥＲ王座奪還の裏に浜ちゃんあり* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-04-30). Retrieved on 2015-04-30.
15. ↑ *ja:【新日ＮＪＣ】棚橋 天敵・矢野にまさかの１６７秒負け* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-03-06). Retrieved on 2015-04-30.
16. ↑ ＲＯＨ軍が"お色気作戦"でＩＷＧＰタッグ王座強奪  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-04-06). Retrieved on 2015-04-06.
17. ↑ 新日マットで阿修羅原さん追悼１０カウントゴング  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-05-04). Retrieved on 2015-05-04.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Caldwell, James 2015-05-03. Show results - 5/3 NJPW'S "Wrestling Dontaku 2015" in Tokyo, Japan: Nakamura vs. Goto IC Title main event, new IWGP Jr. Tag Champs, Omega-Shelley, Styles, more . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2015-05-04.
19. ↑ 絶対王者・中邑撃破！洋央紀３年ぶりＩＣ奪還  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-05-04). Retrieved on 2015-05-04.