First Look At New Title Belts Ahead Of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

NJPW

During the NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 press conference, new championship belts were revealed with one being set for a three-way match.

First up is the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship belt, as seen below, which will see its inaugural champion crowned at Wrestle Kingdom 18 in Tokyo Dome.

The title replaces the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship with Will Ospreay as the final champion.

The match will see Will Ospreay vs Jon Moxley vs David Finlay in a three-way for the new championship.

Finlay was confident that he would be walking out with the championship, describing his opponents as “the bedrock (Moxley) and the shiny new toy (Ospreay) of AEW” before saying it would be his pleasure to beat them both.

With Moxley and Ospreay agreeing to a “ceasefire” for the first five minutes of their match to deal with Finlay, they promised to give fans what they wanted – a singles match between Moxley and Ospreay

Earlier in the press conference, the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships were revealed, modelled by current champions Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney of Bullet Club War Dogs.

The new belts, which can be seen below, will be defended against Catch 2/2 (TJP & Francesco Akira) on the January 4 show.

Referring to the old IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship belts, Moloney said they were of the faded era:

“of Jyushin Liger and the Young Bucks, we don’t give a f**k about that.”

This came after Akira, who was without TJP, had warned that the Bullet Club War Dogs members:

“You don’t need to worry about where TJ is, but *what* TJ is. The Aswang is coming.”

TJP had been “shipped off to the morgue” according to Connors at Road to Tokyo Dome, with the promise that the same would happen to Akira.

Moloney and Connors have held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships since defeating Catch 2/2 at NJPW Independence Day on July 4, 2023.

Catch 2/2 are two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions with their first title reign starting in June 2020.

The IWGP Global Championship. #njwk18 pic.twitter.com/IRThNIgjqA

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) January 3, 2024

Moloney and Connors have unveiled new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship belts!#njpw #njwk18 pic.twitter.com/ZoKGLUAiUa

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) January 3, 2024

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• iwgp global championship
• IWGP
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