NJPW: 5 burning questions we have after Wrestle Kingdom 14
By Sonal Lad
What’s next for the NEVER Openweight Belts?
What started as a project to highlight up and coming, new talent within and outside of New Japan, NEVER was seen as a set of shows to revolutionise wrestling. Since then, even though the NEVER events have stopped the creation of the NEVER Openweight title and NEVER Openweight 6-man Tag Championships are still a prominent part of New Japan.
It is unique in the fact that any wrestler from any weight class can challenge for these titles. However, rather than being known as the titles for new stars, the titles have become hot potatos changing hands more times than a title should.
After changing hands again at Wrestle Kingdom, it raises questions on the validity and prestige of these titles and whether they are needed in a company like New Japan.
That isn’t to say that the history of the NEVER titles doesn’t have some positives. Throughout the years, we’ve seen some amazing feuds, matches and champions come out of fighting for these belts, especially the singles belt. These include the battle at Wrestle Kingdom 12 between Hirooki Goto and Minoru Suzuki, Will Ospreay and Kota Ibushi and Taichi and Ishii earlier last year.
In terms of the tag titles, we’ve seen great matches between Los Ingobernables and Taguchi Japan over the years as well as the feud between Bullet Club and The Elite.
However, the short reigns and constant title changes have meant that the belts have lost some of its sparkle and respect the other New Japan belts are known for. Bar a few reigns from Los Ingobernables de Japon, the average defence length of the champs is only one, with many with more than half failing to even defend the title once.
This is very similar with the singles title which, although has many champions defending it up to four times, has many failing to defend their titles on their first defence.
It has become a title that is easily forgotten about.
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Unless they do something about this, then something has to change with this division and these belts. I think it would be a massive shame to get rid of the concept of these titles because it blurs the lines between the divisions whether it’s a rebranding or a change of focus back to being a division for the newcomers in the company. It has the chance to really put a spotlight on undercard wrestlers and that can easily be achieved!