List of NEVER Openweight Champions

Five-time and current champion Shingo Takagi.

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]

There have been 46 reigns shared among 23 wrestlers with one vacancy. Masato Tanaka was the first champion in the title's history. He also holds the record for the longest reign in the title's history at 314 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.

The current champion is Shingo Takagi, who is in his fifth reign. He defeated Henare at Destruction in Kobe on September 29, 2024 in Kobe, Japan to win the title.

Title history

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Defenses Number of successful defenses
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days Defenses
1 Masato Tanaka November 19, 2012 Shodai NEVER Musabetsu Kyu Oza Kettei Tournament Final Tokyo, Japan 1 314 4 Tanaka defeated Karl Anderson in the finals of a sixteen-man tournament to become the inaugural champion. [4]
2 Tetsuya Naito September 29, 2013 Destruction Kobe, Japan 1 135 2 Naito's Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate was also on the line. [5]
3 Tomohiro Ishii February 11, 2014 The New Beginning in Osaka Osaka, Japan 1 138 4 [6]
4 Yujiro Takahashi June 29, 2014 Kizuna Road 2014 Tokyo, Japan 1 106 1 [7]
5 Tomohiro Ishii October 13, 2014 King of Pro-Wrestling Tokyo, Japan 2 83 1 [8]
6 Togi Makabe January 4, 2015 Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 41 0 [9]
— Vacated February 14, 2015 — — — — — The title was vacated due to Makabe being sidelined with influenza. [10]
7 Tomohiro Ishii February 14, 2015 The New Beginning in Sendai Sendai, Japan 3 74 0 Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the vacant title. [11]
8 Togi Makabe April 29, 2015 Wrestling Hinokuni Mashiki, Japan 2 166 2 [12]
9 Tomohiro Ishii October 12, 2015 King of Pro-Wrestling Tokyo, Japan 4 84 1 [13]
10 Katsuyori Shibata January 4, 2016 Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 120 3 [14]
11 Yuji Nagata May 3, 2016 Wrestling Dontaku Fukuoka, Japan 1 47 0 [15]
12 Katsuyori Shibata June 19, 2016 Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 2 139 3 [16]
13 Evil November 5, 2016 Power Struggle Osaka, Japan 1 10 0 [17]
14 Katsuyori Shibata November 15, 2016 Wrestling World 2016 in Singapore Singapore 3 50 0 [18]
15 Hirooki Goto January 4, 2017 Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 113 3 [19]
16 Minoru Suzuki April 27, 2017 Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2017: Aki no Kuni Sengoku Emaki Hiroshima, Japan 1 252 4 [20]
17 Hirooki Goto January 4, 2018 Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 2 156 3 This was a hair vs. hair match. [21]
18 Michael Elgin June 9, 2018 Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 1 8 0 This was a three-way match also including Taichi. [22]
19 Hirooki Goto June 17, 2018 Kizuna Road 2018 Tokyo, Japan 3 92 1 [23]
20 Taichi September 17, 2018 Destruction in Beppu Beppu, Japan 1 47 0 [24]
21 Hirooki Goto November 3, 2018 Power Struggle Osaka, Japan 4 36 0 [25]
22 Kota Ibushi December 9, 2018 World Tag League Iwate, Japan 1 26 0 [26]
23 Will Ospreay January 4, 2019 Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 92 1 Ospreay is the only junior heavyweight to win the title. [27]
24 Jeff Cobb April 6, 2019 G1 Supercard New York City, U.S. 1 27 0 Cobb's ROH World Television Championship was also on the line. [28]
25 Taichi May 3, 2019 Wrestling Dontaku Fukuoka, Japan 2 37 0 [29]
26 Tomohiro Ishii June 9, 2019 Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 5 83 0 [30]
27 Kenta August 31, 2019 Royal Quest London, England 1 127 2 [31]
28 Hirooki Goto January 5, 2020 Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome
Night 2 		Tokyo, Japan 5 27 0 [32]
29 Shingo Takagi February 1, 2020 The New Beginning in Sapporo Sapporo, Japan 1 210 3 [33]
30 Minoru Suzuki August 29, 2020 Summer Struggle in Jingu Tokyo, Japan 2 70 0 [34][35]
31 Shingo Takagi November 7, 2020 Power Struggle Osaka, Japan 2 84 1 [36][37]
32 Hiroshi Tanahashi January 30, 2021 The New Beginning in Nagoya Nagoya, Japan 1 93 1 [38][39]
33 Jay White May 3, 2021 Wrestling Dontaku Fukuoka, Japan 1 194 1 [40]
34 Tomohiro Ishii November 13, 2021 Battle in the Valley San Jose, California, U.S. 6 52 0 Had Ishii lost, he could never challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship again. [41]
35 Evil January 4, 2022 Wrestle Kingdom 16
Night 1 		Tokyo, Japan 2 117 2 [42]
36 Tama Tonga May 1, 2022 Wrestling Dontaku Fukuoka, Japan 1 42 0 [43]
37 Karl Anderson June 12, 2022 Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 1 206 2 [44]
38 Tama Tonga January 4, 2023 Wrestle Kingdom 17 Tokyo, Japan 2 119 1 [45]
39 David Finlay May 3, 2023 Wrestling Dontaku Fukuoka, Japan 1 159 1 [46]
40 Tama Tonga October 9, 2023 Destruction in Ryōgoku Tokyo, Japan 3 19 0 [47]
41 Shingo Takagi October 28, 2023 Fighting Spirit Unleashed Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. 3 68 1 [48]
42 Tama Tonga January 4, 2024 Wrestle Kingdom 18 Tokyo, Japan 4 16 0 [49]
43 Evil January 20, 2024 The New Beginning In Nagoya Nagoya, Japan 3 77 1 This was a Lumberjack match. [50]
44 Shingo Takagi April 6, 2024 Sakura Genesis Tokyo, Japan 4 71 3 [51]
45 Henare June 16, 2024 New Japan Soul
Night 1 		Sapporo, Japan 1 105 1 [52]
46 Shingo Takagi September 29, 2024 Destruction in Kobe Kobe, Japan 5 40+ 1 [53]

Combined reigns

As of November 8, 2024.

Inaugural champion Masato Tanaka holds the record for longest reign at 314 days
Record six-time champion and longest combined reigning title holder at 514 days, Tomohiro Ishii.
† Indicates the current champion
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns 		Combined
defenses 		Combined
days
1 Tomohiro Ishii 6 6 514
2 Shingo Takagi † 5 9 473+
3 Hirooki Goto 5 7 424
4 Minoru Suzuki 2 4 322
5 Masato Tanaka 1 4 314
6 Katsuyori Shibata 3 6 309
7 Togi Makabe 2 2 207
8 Karl Anderson 1 2 206
9 Evil 3 3 204
10 Tama Tonga 4 1 196
11 Jay White 1 1 194
12 David Finlay 1 1 159
13 Tetsuya Naito 1 2 135
14 Kenta 1 2 127
15 Yujiro Takahashi 1 1 106
16 Henare 1 1 105
17 Hiroshi Tanahashi 1 1 93
18 Will Ospreay 1 1 92
19 Taichi 2 0 84
20 Yuji Nagata 1 0 47
21 Jeff Cobb 1 0 27
22 Kota Ibushi 1 0 26
23 Michael Elgin 1 0 8

See also

References

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