IWGP Heavyweight Championship Officially Reinstated
The IWGP Heavyweight Championship has officially been reinstated by NJPW.
Yota Tsuji brought back the title at NJPW New Year Dash!!, revealing it one day after winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship from Konosuke Takeshita.
At a press conference on Tuesday, NJPW officially recognized Tsuji as the 87th IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
From Tsuji:
‘As I said before the Tokyo Dome,’ Tsuji explained, ‘when I won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship I had always planned to split the title back into its constituent parts; the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships.’ Tsuji went on to state that despite splitting the titles, he still had ‘immense respect for the holders of the world title,’ and as a result, wanted to connect the world heavyweight lineages to the heavyweight title’s.
The IWGP World Heavyweight Title was established when it was officially unified with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship by Kota Ibushi in 2021.
The IWGP Intercontinental Championship will remain retired. Tsuji will continue to defend the IWGP Global Championship separate from the Heavyweight Title.
Speaking of plans for future defences, Tsuji made it clear that the Heavyweight and Global Championships will be defended separately moving forward, with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship being contended ‘in Japan by the best of New Japan’ and the Global gold ‘on international events, or against invaders from other companies’. Further accentuating his very precise vision for the titles, Tsuji bluntly stated that he would boycott any event that has an IWGP Heavyweight title match not in the main event moving forward.
After he won the IWGP World Heavyweight Title at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20, Tsuji was attacked by Jake Lee.
Fans can find results from Wrestle Kingdom 20 here.
