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NEVER Openweight Championship

Professional wrestling championship

Field	Value
championshipname	NEVER Openweight Championship
image	NEVER Openweight Championship.PNG
caption	The NEVER Openweight Championship belt
currentholder	Aaron Wolf
won	January 4, 2026
promotion	New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW)
created	November 19, 2012
mostreigns	Tomohiro Ishii (6 reigns)
firstchamp	Masato Tanaka
shortestreign	Michael Elgin ( days)
longestreign	Masato Tanaka ( days)
oldest	Minoru Suzuki ()
youngest	Will Ospreay ()
heaviest	Jeff Cobb (120 kg)
lightest	Kenta (85 kg)

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 an NJPW-promoted series of events, which featured younger up-and-coming talent and outside wrestlers not signed to the promotion. The project was officially announced on July 12, 2010, On October 5, 2012, NJPW announced that NEVER was going to get its own championship, the NEVER Openweight Championship. The current champion is Aaron Wolf, who is in his first reign.

The title was originally scheduled to be defended exclusively at NEVER events, but this plan was quickly changed and since its foundation, the title has been defended on the undercards of NJPW events. Instead, through the likes of Katsuyori Shibata, Togi Makabe, and Tomohiro Ishii, the NEVER Openweight Championship became known for its "gritty" title matches and "hard hitting" style. Though named an "openweight" championship, NJPW has also categorized the title as a heavyweight title. The title forms what has unofficially been called the "New Japan Triple Crown" (新日本トリプルクラウン, Shin Nihon Toripuru Kuraun) along with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. The title's openweight nature means that both heavyweight and junior heavyweight wrestlers are eligible to challenge for it.

History

On October 5, 2012, over two years after the founding of NEVER, New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced the creation of the project's first championship, the NEVER Openweight Championship. The title was originally created with the idea of using it to "elevate younger wrestlers".

Inaugural championship tournament (2012)

The first champion was to be determined in a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament, which was set to take place November 15 and 19, 2012. Much like regular NEVER events, the tournament also featured wrestlers not signed to New Japan; freelancer Daisuke Sasaki, Hiro Tonai, Kengo Mashimo, Ryuichi Sekine, Shiori Asahi and Taishi Takizawa from Kaientai Dojo, and Masato Tanaka from Pro Wrestling Zero1. In the final of the tournament, Tanaka, the 39-year-old, who, despite officially being affiliated with Pro Wrestling Zero1, had worked for NJPW regularly since August 2009, defeated Karl Anderson to become the inaugural NEVER Openweight Champion. Though the title was originally designed to be defended at NEVER events, NJPW has not held a single NEVER event since the championship tournament.

Tournament bracket

Reigns

Main article: List of NEVER Openweight Champions

As of October 13, 2025, there have been 50 reigns shared among 26 wrestlers with one vacancy. Masato Tanaka was the first champion in the title's history. He also holds the record for the longest reign at days during his only reign. Tomohiro Ishii has the most reigns with six. Michael Elgin's only reign of 8 days is the shortest in the title's history. Minoru Suzuki is the oldest champion when he won it at 52 years old, while Will Ospreay is the youngest champion at 25 years old.

Aaron Wolf is the reigning champion in his first reign. He defeated previous champion Evil for the title at Wrestle Kingdom 20 in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2026.

References

link. [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
link. [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
link. [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
link. [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
link. [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
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.
link. (July 12, 2010). [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
"NEVER．1". [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]].
link. (February 28, 2014). [[Tokyo Sports]]
link. (March 20, 2016). [[Tokyo Sports]]
"New NEVER 6-Man Tag Champions to be crowned in Korakuen tournament | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING".
Andrews, R.W.. (January 27, 2017). "New Japan Feud Focus: Tracking the key matches in the Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makable rivalry from Wrestle Kingdom 9 to". Pro Wrestling Torch.
"Kizuna Road 2014". [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]].
link. (June 30, 2014). [[Tokyo Sports]]
link. (February 29, 2016). [[Tokyo Sports]]
link. (May 15, 2014). [[Tokyo Sports]]
link. (October 5, 2012). [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
link. (October 5, 2012). [[Nikkan Sports]]
link. (May 24, 2013). [[Tokyo Sports]]
link. (October 11, 2012). [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
link. (October 11, 2012). [[Nikkan Sports]]
link. (November 20, 2012). [[Nikkan Sports]]
link. (November 23, 2012). [[Tokyo Sports]]
link. (October 3, 2013). [[Tokyo Sports]]
link. [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]]
link. [[Kaientai Dojo]]
link. [[Kaientai Dojo]]. (April 2020)

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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