List of NEVER Openweight Champions

Katsuyori Shibata, the current NEVER Openweight Champion, with the title belt in February 2016

The NEVER Openweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. NEVER is an acronym of the terms "New Blood", "Evolution", "Valiantly", "Eternal", and "Radical" and was a NJPW-promoted series of events, which featured younger up-and-coming talent and outside wrestlers not signed to the promotion.[1][2] The project was officially announced on July 12, 2010,[2] and held its first event on August 24, 2010.[3]

Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been ten reigns shared among six wrestlers with one vacancy. Masato Tanaka was the first champion in the title's history.[4] He also holds the record for the longest reign in the title's history, at 314 days. Togi Makabe's first reign of 41 days is the shortest in the title's history. Tomohiro Ishii holds the record for most reigns with the title, being a four-time champion. Katsuyori Shibata is the current champion in his first reign, having defeated Ishii for the title on January 4, 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome.[5][6]

Title history

# Order in reign history
Reign The reign number for the specific wrestler listed
Event The event in which the title was won
Successful defenses The number of successful defenses the champion had during his reign
— Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign
N/A The information is not available or is unknown
+ Indicates the current reign is changing daily
# Wrestler Reign Date Days
held		 Location Event Successful defenses Notes Ref.
1 Masato Tanaka 1 November 19, 2012 314 Tokyo Shodai NEVER Musabetsu Kyu Oza Kettei Tournament Final 4 Tanaka defeated Karl Anderson in the finals of a sixteen-man tournament to become the inaugural champion. [4]
2 Tetsuya Naito 1 September 29, 2013 135 Kobe Destruction 2 [7]
3 Tomohiro Ishii 1 February 11, 2014 138 Osaka The New Beginning in Osaka 4 [8]
4 Yujiro Takahashi 1 June 29, 2014 106 Tokyo Kizuna Road 2014 1 [9]
5 Tomohiro Ishii 2 October 13, 2014 83 Tokyo King of Pro-Wrestling 1 [10]
6 Togi Makabe 1 January 4, 2015 41 Tokyo Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome 0 [11]
— Vacated — February 14, 2015 — — — — The title was vacated due to Makabe being sidelined with influenza. [12]
7 Tomohiro Ishii 3 February 14, 2015 74 Sendai The New Beginning in Sendai 0 Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the vacant title. [13]
8 Togi Makabe 2 April 29, 2015 166 Mashiki Wrestling Hi no Kuni 2 [14]
9 Tomohiro Ishii 4 October 12, 2015 84 Tokyo King of Pro-Wrestling 1 [15]
10 Katsuyori Shibata 1 January 4, 2016 42+ Tokyo Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome 1 [16]

Combined reigns

Tomohiro Ishii, record four-time NEVER Openweight Champion

As of February 15, 2016

† Indicates the current champion
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns		 Combined
defenses		 Combined
days
1 Tomohiro Ishii 4 6 379
2 Masato Tanaka 1 4 314
3 Togi Makabe 2 2 207
4 Tetsuya Naito 1 2 135
5 Yujiro Takahashi 1 1 106
6 Katsuyori Shibata † 1 1 42+

See also

References

  1. ↑ Caldwell, James (October 5, 2012). "News items: Velvet Sky launches clothing line, Details on Nash's next int'l tour, NJPW introducing new title". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Nextジェネレーション育成 新プロジェクト「NEVER」シリーズがスタート!!". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). July 12, 2010. Archived from the original on December 28, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  3. ↑ "NEVER．1". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "東京・Shibuya-AX　～初代NEVER無差別級王座決定トーナメント Final～". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  5. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (January 3, 2016). "Wrestle Kingdom 10 live results: Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  6. ↑ 【新日・東京ドーム】石井とノーガードの打ち合い！柴田がシングル初戴冠. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Destruction". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  8. ↑ "The New Beginning in Osaka". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Kizuna Road 2014". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  10. ↑ "King of Pro-Wrestling". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 東京ドーム". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  12. ↑ "【お詫びとお知らせ】真壁刀義選手がインフルエンザのため、2月14日仙台大会欠場。“NEVER王座決定戦”本間vs石井が緊急決定". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ "The New Beginning in Sendai". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  14. ↑ "レスリング火の国". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  15. ↑ "King of Pro-Wrestling". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  16. ↑ Wrestle Kingdom 10 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2016.

External links

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