List of NEVER Openweight Champions

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]

Current champion Shingo Takagi

There have been twenty-nine reigns shared among seventeen wrestlers with one vacancy. Shingo Takagi is the current champion in his first reign, having defeated Hirooki Goto on February 1, 2020 at The New Beginning in Sapporo.

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 DaysDefenses
1 Masato Tanaka November 19, 2012 Shodai NEVER Musabetsu Kyu Oza Kettei Tournament Final Tokyo, Japan 1 3144 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 1352 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 1384 [6]
4 Yujiro Takahashi June 29, 2014 Kizuna Road 2014 Tokyo, Japan 1 1061 [7]
5 Tomohiro Ishii October 13, 2014 King of Pro-Wrestling Tokyo, Japan 2 831 [8]
6 Togi Makabe January 4, 2015 Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 410 [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 3 740 Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the vacant title. [11]
8 Togi Makabe April 29, 2015 Wrestling Hinokuni Mashiki, Japan 2 1662 [12]
9 Tomohiro Ishii October 12, 2015 King of Pro-Wrestling Tokyo, Japan 4 841 [13]
10 Katsuyori Shibata January 4, 2016 Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 1203 [14]
11 Yuji Nagata May 3, 2016 Wrestling Dontaku 2016 Fukuoka, Japan 1 470 [15]
12 Katsuyori Shibata June 19, 2016 Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 2 1393 [16]
13 Evil November 5, 2016 Power Struggle Osaka, Japan 1 100 [17]
14 Katsuyori Shibata November 15, 2016 Wrestling World 2016 in Singapore Singapore 3 500 [18]
15 Hirooki Goto January 4, 2017 Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 1133 [19]
16 Minoru Suzuki April 27, 2017 Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2017: Aki no Kuni Sengoku Emaki Hiroshima, Japan 1 2524 [20]
17 Hirooki Goto January 4, 2018 Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 2 1563 This was a hair vs. hair match. [21]
18 Michael Elgin June 9, 2018 Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 1 80 This was a three-way match also including Taichi.
19 Hirooki Goto June 17, 2018 Kizuna Road 2018 Tokyo, Japan 3 921 [22]
20 Taichi September 17, 2018 Destruction in Beppu Beppu, Japan 1 470
21 Hirooki Goto November 3, 2018 Power Struggle Osaka, Japan 4 360
22 Kota Ibushi December 9, 2018 World Tag League Iwate, Japan 1 260 [23]
23 Will Ospreay January 4, 2019 Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 921 Ospreay is the first junior heavyweight to win the title.
24 Jeff Cobb April 6, 2019 G1 Supercard New York City,
New York		 1 270 Cobb's ROH World Television Championship was also on the line.
25 Taichi May 3, 2019 Wrestling Dontaku 2019 Fukuoka, Japan 2 370
26 Tomohiro Ishii June 9, 2019 Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 5 830
27 Kenta August 31, 2019 Royal Quest London, England 1 1272
28 Hirooki Goto January 5, 2020 Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 5 270
29 Shingo Takagi February 1, 2020 The New Beginning in Sapporo Sapporo, Japan 1 149+1

Combined reigns

As of June 29, 2020.

Five-time champions Tomohiro Ishii (left) and Hirooki Goto (right) are the only two men to have held the NEVER Openweight Championship on more than four occasion
Masato Tanaka is inaugural, one-time and longest reigning champion at 314 days.
† Indicates the current champion
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns		 Combined
defenses		 Combined
days
1 Tomohiro Ishii 5 6 462
2 Hirooki Goto 5 7 424
3 Masato Tanaka 1 4 314
4 Katsuyori Shibata 3 6 309
5 Minoru Suzuki 1 4 252
6 Togi Makabe 2 2 207
7 Shingo Takagi † 1 1 149+
8 Tetsuya Naito 1 2 135
9 Kenta 1 2 127
10 Yujiro Takahashi 1 1 106
11 Will Ospreay 1 1 92
12 Taichi 2 0 84
13 Yuji Nagata 1 0 47
14 Jeff Cobb 27
15 Kota Ibushi 26
16 Evil 10
17 Michael Elgin 8

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. 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). Archived from the original on December 28, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  4. 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). Archived from the original on November 22, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  5. "Destruction". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  6. "The New Beginning in Osaka". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  7. "Kizuna Road 2014". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 29, 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  8. "King of Pro-Wrestling". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  9. Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  10. 【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. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  11. "The New Beginning in Sendai". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  12. レスリング火の国. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 1, 2015. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  13. "King of Pro-Wrestling". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 14, 2015. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  14. Wrestle Kingdom 10 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  15. レスリングどんたく 2016. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 5, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  16. "Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  17. 戦国炎舞 -Kizna- Presents Power Struggle. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 5, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  18. "Wrestling World 2016 in Singapore". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  19. 戦国炎舞 -Kizna- Presents Wrestle Kingdom 11 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  20. Road to レスリングどんたく 2017 ～安芸の国 戦国絵巻～. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  21. ブシモ 5th Anniversary Wrestle Kingdom 12 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2018.
  22. http://www.njpw.co.jp/152304
  23. https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/33210?showResult=1
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