During his [post-match comments](https://x.com/njpw1972/status/1690349210833674242) after losing to Naito, Will Ospreay apparently shunned the IWGP United States Heavyweight title and has re-christened it as the IWGP United Kingdom Heavyweight Championship.
No word yet on if it’s an official change, though it would put a stop to the “Why do they have a US title and a belt for the US brand?” complaints. Either way I think it’s likely to tie in to whatever match Will has at AEW’s upcoming All In show at Wembly.
13 comments
Should just make it an international / intercontinental title already lol
I dont get it, UK or US it’s the same for me.
Just make him the IC title
Update: [Article](https://www.njpw1972.com/157711) is now up on NJPW’s site. Still sounds like it’s not official and time will tell if it’s a permanent change or just a storyline for Will.
Makes 1,000% sense!
STRONG is already their US set of titles so getting the NJPW UK Title to be a thing is awesome!
Now THAT is a UK Championship.
They probably should’ve showcased this after a match he won
Odd, but cool I think. Everyone wants Will to main event WK sometime, and understandably so, but I’m totally okay with him holding his title for forever. It’s perfect on him.
I like the idea of changing the flag based on the nationality of the current holder. The intercontinental title reborn!
Now I can’t wait for All In at Wembley UK show
Is New Japan’s title situation still a mess?
Tbh, about 4 years ago, all they had to do was prune lower tier titles, have the IC title actually BE an IC title, and elevate the NEVER belt to Semi-Main potential and I think things would’ve been perfect.
Ah well.
Functionally it’s serving the same purpose the IC title did, they might as well change the name already
It’s too bad that so many of the title ideas keep getting crossed up over the years: the NEVER belt was meant to be the “young guys and non-contracted talent” belt, the IC belt was intended for the first attempt at international expansion, and the US belt was meant to be the top prize for the US arm of NJPW before the pandemic put the kibosh on any real ideas to make something more of the STRONG brand.
Makes me wonder how things might have been different if the pandemic, mainly, hadn’t happened: would we still have the IC belt? Would STRONG have gotten more of a chance to get going, thus allowing the US belt to spend more time in the western hemisphere? Would the NEVER belt still basically be serving as the “old school NJPW match” belt? Would the TV belt have been made?
No matter what ends up happening, I just want the belt to serve a clear, defined purpose. If it’s not going to be the top foreign belt, then maybe it needs to become what the IC belt was, but if not then I just want it to be something that makes sense.
I think it’d be cool if they changed the country depending on the champion. Might make for a unique title gimmick. So if Tanahashi won it, it’d be the IWGP Japan championship.