Actual NJPW Champions

38 comments

1. 13, that’s a lot.

   And I honestly completely had forgotten about CHAOS being the Never 6 man tag champs.

2. When everyone’s a Champion, no one is.

3. Strong titles are so worthless

   TV title pushes it

4. There’s too much fucking shit on me, I can’t breathe

5. I forgot the women’s title exists, lol

6. Definitely too many

7. EVERYONE LOVES LOVES LOVES GIULIA!

8. Not enough

9. All we need now is 8-man tag titles for House of Torture and CHAOS to fight over for the next 45 years

10. The Strong titles are the ones that really stick out right now. You have to think they’re ideally supposed to be ones for up and coming foreign talent to go for and occasionally end up in the hands of established NJPW talent, but that’s what the US Title was originally supposed to be for before the Intercontinental Title went away.

11. If Strong isn’t going to be its own thing again it might be time to combine some belts .

12. I’m just happy to see taichi as a champion

13. 🎶Too many belts. Too many belts. Too many belts🎶

14. Christ. I remember when there were 4 championships total. 2 singles and 2 tags. And we were happy for it.

15. When ya see it all laid out, yeah I can see why some think the STRONG titles are kinda useless

16. *Disappointed Catch 2/2 fan noises*

17. Giulia is front and center as she should be. FORZA GIULIA

18. Mayus belt is in an endless void and will likely never be defended again. Hopefully she takes the strong belt from Giulia and does the same

19. Man there’s way too many fucking titles.

20. Put all the belts on SANADA for maximum sexiness

21. Too many belts. They trying to be an American promotion now?

22. I said it before cut the strong belts. And it would be much better for the company.

23. Double the amount of belts. Bring back the u-30, make the o-60, mid card jr titles, fuck it bring the ic back too, make never openweight tag titles

24. Ten years ago on this exact day, for reference:

    IWGP Heavyweight Champion: Kazuchika Okada

    IWGP Intercontinental Champion: La Sombra

    NEVER Openeweight Champion: Masato Tanaka

    IWGP Tag Team Champions: TenCozy

    IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion: Prince Devitt

    IWGP Jr Tag Team Champions: Forever Hooligans

25. That’s not even counting the occasional cameo from an outside title: Nagata was wearing the Triple Crown just a few weeks back. Way too many belts.

26. Ok I must’ve missed Willow losing the title to Giulia

27. I will never get used to Tana and Okada teaming up…

28. I do think there’s too many titles in NJPW. I also think a lot of the belts look bad. The KOPW title looks like a Walmart toy.

    But at the same time I do enjoy the 15 minute time limit of the TV title and think ZSJ has done amazing with it. So I don’t want it to go.

    And I’ve loved the KOPW title ever since Shingo won it. We haven’t really got to see what Taichi is gonna do with it, but he’s my boy so I’m sure I’ll like it too. So I don’t want it to go either.

    And the US title is my favorite looking belt out of all the NJPW belts and was the best booked championship last year when Ospreay was champ. So I think it should stay.

    So while I do think there’s too many, at the same time I’m not complaining because I’m enjoying these. If anything

    If I had to get rid of one I’d say the Never open weight championship needs to go. It’s gimmick is that it’s suppose to be open to all weight classes, but I feel like that’s very rarely utilized. I may be wrong because I’m not as much of a diehard fan as some here, but I can’t remember the last time a jr challenged for that title. And who was the last junior to be champion? Ospreay?

    6 man titles I could take or leave. Like I think they can be good depending on who’s champions. Plus it gives some guys without a direction something to do until they have something better to do.

29. Who doesn’t have a singles title? GOK and Cobb have to feel like the shits. Either of those two going to have a meaningful winning streak in the next year?

30. Sometimes I forget about all the titles NJPW has.

31. They could use another set of trios champs I think.

32. WWE has NXT, AEW has ROH, NJPW has Strong, and everywhere has too many belts. I think it’s good for wrestling that each of the big international companies have a second brand with full belts but it really seems like a flood. Oddly enough WWE’s seems the least flooding right now with the double champs and how othered NXT is.

33. I’d keep:

    * IWGP World Heavyweight
    * IWGP US
    * IWGP TV
    * IWGP Tag
    * IWGP Jr
    * IWGP Jr Tag
    * NEVER Openweight 6-Man

    I’d get rid of

    * IWGP Women’s & STRONG Women’s – Both titles are wholly irrelevant, if they want title matches on NJPW shows, use one of the many Stardom belts
    * STRONG Openweight & STRONG Tag Team – There is no STRONG brand anymore, it’s just NJPW shows in the US
    * NEVER Openweight – Lost its identity a long time ago
    * KOPW – This was a tough one as this title has given some great matches lately but we’ve already got the TV belt in the ‘gimmick’ title slot. Plus that light blue strap is garish af

34. When people said New Japan has too many titles, they really meant it.

35. How the Strong title has fallen. Eddie Kingston being mentioned in the same breath as Tanahashi and Okada is shameful.

36. that’s a shit ton of titles

37. What the hell? Tanahashi joined CHAOS?

38. 13 championships, 2 aces, 2 guys who look like those 2 aces (also another 2 who copy Shibata & Reigns), 4 G1 blocks, 30 participants and an open forbidden door to a ton of further championships… not really the best strategy to remain the most prestigeous place in pro wrestling.