Current Champion Teases Throwing Away Title Belt

AEW

New NJPW IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito has said that he will toss his title belt if he doesn’t become more attached to it soon.

Naito won the IWGP World Heavyweight Title in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 18, pinning SANADA to become champion.

During this week’s (January 9) NJPW press conference, Naito reminded fans that he was against the unification of the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental titles into the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in 2021.

Sharing his honest thoughts on his title, Naito teased that he will throw the belt away if he doesn’t warm to it:

“Well, I haven’t worn it yet. I hold it, but I haven’t worn it round my waist. When this belt was made, I was against it right up to the very end.

“I never had any good thoughts about this title before, and now I have it… it’s complicated. Maybe I have a little more attachment to this belt than I did before the Tokyo Dome, but just a little.

“Perhaps the more I hold it, the more attached I’ll become, and if not, well I guess I’ll just toss it. I mean, if you break belts around here they just give you new ones, right? With a different name. Seems there’s precedent.

The ‘precedent’ Naito appears to be referring to is the situation surrounding the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship, with the new title introduced after David Finlay destroyed Will Ospreay’s IWGP US/UK title belts in November 2023.

While Naito has been a NJPW world champion before, this is the first time he’s held this specific iteration of the World Heavyweight Championship.

Naito notably held the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental titles simultaneously in 2020. Kota Ibushi defeated Naito for both titles in January 2021, before they were officially unified to form the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship that March.

A number of NJPW stars were publicly against the unification, including Naito, who made it clear that he wanted the Heavyweight and Intercontinental belts to be separate.

Naito is slated to defend his gold against SANADA in a title rematch at The New Beginning in Sapporo on February 24.

Before then, another huge rematch featuring AEW’s Bryan Danielson will take place in NJPW, which you can read more about right here.

Transcription via NJPW1972.com.

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• champion
• Tetsuya Naito
• Wrestle Kingdom
• NJPW

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