Background King of Pro-Wrestling is considered NJPW's biggest event between August's
G1 Climax and the
January 4 Tokyo Dome Show.
Storylines King of Pro-Wrestling 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. King of Pro-Wrestling was main evented by
Kazuchika Okada defending his
IWGP Heavyweight Championship against
A.J. Styles in a rematch from July's
Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, where Okada defeated Styles to become the new champion. Following Dominion 7.5, both Okada and Styles entered NJPW's annual premier tournament, the
G1 Climax, where they wrestled in separate blocks. Both entered their final
round-robin matches with a chance to advance to the finals of the tournament, but were both eliminated after losing to
Shinsuke Nakamura and
Hiroshi Tanahashi, respectively. On August 16, the final day of the tournament, Okada and Styles faced off in a six-man tag team match, where Okada teamed with
Matt Taven and
Michael Bennett and Styles with his
Bullet Club stablemates
Doc Gallows and
Karl Anderson. Styles won the match for his team by scoring a direct pinfall over Okada and afterwards posed with his IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt. On August 24, NJPW announced a title rematch between Okada and Styles for King of Pro-Wrestling. This would mark the fifth singles match between the two with both having won two of their previous encounters. One of the top matches would see 2015 G1 Climax winner Hiroshi Tanahashi put his prize for winning said tournament, a contract for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at
Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome, on the line against
Tetsuya Naito. After successfully defending the contract against Fale at Destruction in Kobe, Tanahashi himself nominated Naito as his next challenger. Naito also teased bringing in a
pareja (
Spanish for "partner") to witness the match at King of Pro-Wrestling. Over the summer, Naito had joined
Los Ingobernables, a
stable based in the Mexican
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion, which led to him debuting a new villainous persona in NJPW. Between the G1 Climax and King of Pro-Wrestling, Naito had been involved in a heated rivalry with
Katsuyori Shibata. The event was also set to feature the fourth NEVER Openweight Championship match of 2015 between
Togi Makabe and
Tomohiro Ishii. The previous matches took place on January 4 at
Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, April 29 at
Wrestling Hinokuni and July 5 at
Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall and were all won by Makabe. After successfully defending his title against
Kota Ibushi at
Destruction in Okayama on September 23, Makabe was confronted by Ishii and promptly accepted a challenge for another title match between the two. Both of NJPW's
junior heavyweight championships were also defended at King of Pro-Wrestling.
Kenny Omega would defend the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against former
Dragon Gate and
WWE worker
Matt Sydal. Sydal debuted for NJPW at Destruction in Okayama, however, his title match with Kushida never came to fruition as the same day, Kushida lost the title back to previous champion Kenny Omega, setting up a title match between Sydal and Omega instead. Four days later at Destruction in Kobe, Sydal pinned Omega in a six-man tag team match. Meanwhile, the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions reDRagon (
Bobby Fish and
Kyle O'Reilly) would defend their title against
Roppongi Vice (
Beretta and
Rocky Romero). This match stemmed from Destruction in Kobe, where Roppongi Vice attacked reDRagon after they had successfully defended their title against
Time Splitters (
Alex Shelley and Kushida). King of Pro-Wrestling also featured a six-man tag team match between the Bullet Club trio of Bad Luck Fale and
IWGP Tag Team Champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson and the trio of
Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinsuke Nakamura and
Toru Yano, which builds to a future IWGP Intercontinental Championship match between champion Nakamura and challenger Anderson. The
undercard also featured a singles match between
Tomoaki Honma and
Yoshi-Hashi, stemming from the fact that Yoshi-Hashi wanted to take part in the 2015 G1 Climax, but was ultimately forced to sit out with Honma taking the final open spot in the tournament. NJPW also suggested that the winner of the match could be in line for a shot at the NEVER Openweight Championship. ==Event==