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]
There have been 43 reigns shared among 22 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 314 days during his only reign. Tomohiro Ishii has the most reigns, with six. Michael Elgin's only reign of 8 days is the shortest in the title's history. Minoru Suzuki is the oldest champion when he won it at 52 years old while Will Ospreay is the youngest champion at 25 years old.
The current champion is Henare, who is in his first reign. He defeated Shingo Takagi at New Japan Soul: Night 1 on June 16, 2024 in Sapporo, Japan.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ "NEVER．1". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 28, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2012.