NEVER Openweight Championship/Champion history
The NEVER Openweight Championship professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion . NEVER stands for "New Blood", "Evolution", "Valiantly", "Eternal", and "Radical" and was an 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. 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. The reign of Michael Elgin of 8 days is the shortest in the title's history. Tomohiro Ishii holds the record for most reigns with the title, being a five-time champion.
Title history
#
Wrestler
Reign
Date
Days
Location
Event
Notes
1
Masato Tanaka
1
November 19, 2012
314
Tokyo
Shodai NEVER Musabetsu Kyu Oza Kettei Tournament Final Tanaka defeated Karl Anderson in the finals of a sixteen-man tournament to become the inaugural champion.
2
Tetsuya Naito
1
September 29, 2013
135
Kobe, Japan
NJPW Destruction 2013
3
Tomohiro Ishii
1
February 11, 2014
138
Osaka, Japan
NJPW The New Beginning In Osaka
4
Yujiro Takahashi
1
June 29, 2014
106
Tokyo, Japan
NJPW Kizuna Road 2014 - Night 2
5
Tomohiro Ishii
2
October 13 , 2014
83
Tokyo, Japan
NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2014
6
Togi Makabe
1
January 4 , 2015
41
Tokyo, Japan
Wrestle Kingdom IX
—
Vacated
—
February 14, 2015
0
—
—
The title was vacated due to Makabe being sidelined with influenza.
7
Tomohiro Ishii
3
February 14, 2015
74
Sendai, Japan
NJPW The New Beginning In Sendai
Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the vacant title.
8
Togi Makabe
2
April 29, 2015
166
Kumamoto, Japan
NJPW Wrestling Hinokuni
9
Tomohiro Ishii
4
October 12, 2015
84
Tokyo, Japan
NJPW King Of Pro-Wrestling 2015
10
Katsuyori Shibata
1
January 4, 2016
120
Tokyo, Japan
Wrestle Kingdom X
11
Yuji Nagata
1
May 3, 2016
47
Fukuoka, Japan
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2016
12
Katsuyori Shibata
2
June 19, 2016
139
Osaka, Japan
NJPW Dominion 6.19
13
EVIL
1
November 5, 2016
47
Osaka, Japan
NJPW Power Struggle 2016
14
Katsuyori Shibata
3
November 15, 2016
50
Singapore, China
NJPW Wrestling World In Singapore 2016
15
Hirooki Goto
1
January 4, 2017
113
Tokyo, Japan
Wrestle Kingdom XI
16
Minoru Suzuki
1
April 27, 2017
252
Hiroshima, Japan
Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2017: Aki no Kuni Sengoku Emaki
17
Hirooki Goto
2
January 4, 2018
156
Tokyo, Japan
Wrestle Kingdom 12
This was a Hair vs. Hair match.
18
Michael Elgin
1
June 9, 2018
8
Osaka, Japan
NJPW Dominion 6.9.18 In Osaka-Jo Hall
This was a three-way match, also involving Taichi .
19
Hirooki Goto
3
June 17, 2018
92
Tokyo, Japan
NJPW Kizuna Road 2018 - Night 2
20
Taichi
1
September 17, 2018
47
Beppu
NJPW Destruction In Beppu 2018
21
Hirooki Goto
4
November 3, 2018
36
Tokyo, Japan
NJPW Power Struggle 2018
22
Kota Ibushi
1
December 9, 2018
26
Iwate, Japan
NJPW World Tag League 2018 - Night 18
23
Will Ospreay
1
January 4, 2019
92
Tokyo, Japan
Wrestle Kingdom 13
24
Jeff Cobb
1
April 6, 2019
27
New York City, NY
ROH-NJPW G1 Supercard 2019
Jeff Cobb's ROH World Television Championship was also on the line in a winner take all championship match with Will Ospreay.
25
Taichi
2
May 3, 2019
37
Fukuoka, Japan
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2019 - Night 1
26
Tomohiro Ishii
5
June 9, 2019
1776+
Osaka, Japan
NJPW Dominion 6.9.19 In Osaka-Jo Hall
