NEVER Openweight Championship/Champion history

The NEVER Openweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. NEVER stands for "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. The project was officially announced on July 12, 2010, and held its first event on August 24, 2010.

Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been seven reigns shared among five 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 days. Togi Makabe's only reign of is the shortest in the title's history. Tomohiro Ishii is the only wrestler to have held the title more than once, being a three-time champion. Ishii is the current champion in his third reign, having defeated Tomoaki Honma for the vacant title on February 14, 2015, at The New Beginning in Sendai.

List of combined reigns
As of August 28, 2024