Nic Nemeth has challenged NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi to an IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship bout.
After picking up a victory in a tag team contest at Saturday’s The New Beginning in Sapporo, Nemeth challenged Tanahashi to be his first challenger for the Global title. Tanahashi was at ringside on commentary, and answered “I agree with you” in English to Nemeth.
No date has been set for the bout.
Tanahashi had been scheduled to wrestle on Saturday’s event as part of Kazuchika Okada’s team in Okada’s farewell 10-man tag, but was pulled from the show just prior to bell time with a right ankle injury.
There have been no reports as of yet to the severity of the injury to Tanahashi, but the fact that the Nemeth match was agreed to indicates that he is not expected to miss a lot of time.
Nemeth defeated David Finlay in the main event of Friday’s The New Beginning show to win the Global title in his in-ring debut for NJPW. On the same show, Tanahashi dropped the NJPW World TV title to Matt Riddle.
Also on Saturday’s show, YOH stole SHO’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight title belt in an angle to set up a future championship bout between the former tag partners.
Saturday’s event also featured Okada and Tama Tonga’s farewell matches for the promotion.
Our full coverage of The New Beginning in Sapporo is here.
Video of Nemeth’s challenge to Tanahashi is embedded below.
NJPW crowned the inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion on Thursday at Wrestle Kingdom 18.
David Finlay won a three-way match also involving AEW’s Jon Moxley & Will Ospreay to win the title and the distinction of first-ever IWGP Global Champion.
Finlay pinned Ospreay in 22:17 in a wild brawl that included interference from Finlay’s Bullet Club War Dogs stablemates Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd.
As they revealed at the pre-Wrestle Kingdom press conference, Ospreay & Moxley agreed to a truce for the first five minutes of the contest and doubled up on Finlay. Tables & chairs were used liberally throughout the no-DQ contest, and Moxley bled.
After the victory, Finlay jawed with Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler) at ringside, leading to a fight around the ringside area between the two. The debuting Nemeth looks to be the first title program for the new Global Champion.
Finlay’s destruction of Ospreay’s IWGP UK and US title belts in November was the impetus for the creation of the new Global title, as he interrupted a faceoff between Moxley & Ospreay at Power Struggle, inserting himself into the new title picture.
NJPW is introducing a Global Championship, with the first title holder set to be crowned at Wrestle Kingdom 18.
The promotion revealed in a press conference Monday that the three-way between Jon Moxley, Will Ospreay, & David Finlay set to take place at Wrestle Kingdom will decide the inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion.
The new title takes the place of the now-defunct IWGP United States/United Kingdom Heavyweight Championship that was abolished following Power Struggle in November when Finlay destroyed the title belts held by Ospreay as Moxley stepped forward to challenge Ospreay for Wrestle Kingdom.
NJPW released a statement attributed to NJPW chairman Naoki Sugabayashi explaining the decision to name the new title:
The IWGP US Heavyweight Championship came into being in July 2017 to mark NJPW’s first major event in the United States of America in Long Beach. After its introduction, it became the symbol of NJPW competition in the USA.
In the years that followed, the title would be defended in Japan, becoming familiar to Japanese fans as well. However, with the introduction of the IWGP UK Championship this summer, there was confusion among fans as to the status of the title.
With that in mind, this new championship combines and adds to the US and UK Championship roles, and will be called the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship. As has already been discussed in a recent business strategy presentation, NJPW is working to ensure that 2024 sees our presence grow not just in the UK and the US, but throughout all of Europe, the rest of Asia and Oceania.
With a mindfulness on the international space, there was discussion of renewing the defunct IWGP Intercontinental Championship, but as we see an entirely new level of international involvement, the IWGP Global Heavyweight name was decided to be the most fitting. We hope fans look forward to seeing the brand new title and the matches contested for it.
As a result, January 4’s three way at Wrestle Kingdom between Will Ospreay, Jon Moxley and David Finlay will officially determine the first IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion. Thank you
Wrestle Kingdom 18 airs on NJPW World on January 4, 2024 at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time. The card for the event:
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA defends against Tetsuya Naito
Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson
Inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match: Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi defends against El Desperado
IWGP Tag Team Champions Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions Hikuleo & El Phantasmo for both titles
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney defend against TJP & Francesco Akira
NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr. defends against Hiroshi Tanahashi
NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi defends against Tama Tonga
Several titles changed hands at Wrestling Dontaku on Wednesday.
The show took place from the Fukuoka Convention Center and was headlined by SANADA defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Hiromu Takahashi.
Hikuleo won the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship in the first title match of the night, defeating Bullet Club’s KENTA. The finish of the match saw KENTA hit a low blow followed by a Busaiku knee but Hikuleo countered a second knee attempt into a powerslam and then followed that up with a chokeslam for the win.
In the second title match of the night, NJPW TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and Jeff Cobb went to a 15-minute time-limit draw. ZSJ retains as a result. Chris Charlton mentioned on commentary that ZSJ will not be happy with this result and his program with Cobb will likely continue.
New NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions were crowned at Wrestling Dontaku. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii defeated El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita. The finish saw Okada pin Narita after a Rainmaker. After the match, the new champions were confronted by Shota Umino, who revealed that his former mentor, Jon Moxley, will return to Japan next month. It was teased on commentary that Mox, Umino, and a partner could challenge for the titles at Dominion on June 4.
Wrestling Dontaku 2023 also marked the 10-year anniversary of Bullet Club. At Wrestling Dontaku 2013, Karl Anderson turned on Hiroshi Tanahashi and aligned with Prince Devitt, Tama Tonga, and Bad Luck Fale to form the faction. On today’s show, the group’s new leader David Finlay defeated Tonga for the NEVER Openweight Championship.
After hitting a powerbomb on the ring apron and tossing Tonga into the post on the outside, Finlay had a clear advantage. He hit several power bombs on Tonga in the ring but refused to pin him in an attempt to get Jado to throw in the towel. After hitting his finisher a third time he finally pinned his opponent and won the title. Tonga had to be taken to the back on a stretcher.
After the match, Finlay was attacked by El Phantasmo, who was recently thrown out of Bullet Club at Sakura Genesis. Phantasmo tossed Gedo out of the ring and then delivered a superkick to the new champion. Finlay tried to escape by Phantasmo dove out of the ring on top of him and continued his attack. He was eventually pulled off of Finlay by the young lions at ringside.
In the night’s main event, SANADA successfully retained his title against Hiromu Takahashi. The finish of the match saw SANADA hit a shining wizard after several near falls and follow it up with his Deadfall DDT for the win.
After SANADA made his post-match comments, a video similar to the ones that have been airing all tour was played. Yota Tsuji then returned to NJPW and attacked SANADA and the rest of the Just Five Guys stable. Tsuji held up the IWGP title over SANADA as the show came to a close.
Elsewhere on the card, Aussie Open reclaimed their IWGP Tag Team title belts that had been physically stolen earlier on the tour by House of Torture’s EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi. They then challenged Bishamon and EVIL & Takahashi to a triple-threat match for the titles.
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku on 5/3 results:
CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI) defeated House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)
United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs. TMDK (Kosei Fujita, Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste)
Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA) & Shota Umino defeated United Empire (Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira & TJP)
Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)
