NEVER_Openweight_6-Man_Tag_Team_Championship

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

Professional wrestling trios tag team championship


The NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (NEVER無差別級6人タッグ王座, NEVER musabetsu-kyū 6-nin taggu ōza) is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. The current champions are Toru Yano, Oleg Boltin and Hiroshi Tanahashi, who are in their first reign as a team, while it's the fifth individually for Tanahashi and Yano, and the first for Boltin. They defeated House of Torture (Evil, Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) at Wrestling World 2024 in Taiwan.

Quick Facts Details, Promotion ...

The title was announced on December 21, 2015, with the first champions crowned on January 4, 2016. Through NJPW's relationship with Ring of Honor (ROH), the title has also been defended in the American promotion. The championship is contested for by teams of three wrestlers and is the first title of its kind in the history of NJPW. The title's openweight nature means that both heavyweight and junior heavyweight wrestlers are eligible to challenge for it.

Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a match with a predetermined outcome.

History

On December 11, 2015, NJPW announced that at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2016, the Bullet Club trio of Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi would take on Toru Yano and two mystery partners.[8][9] Eight days later, Yano revealed his partners as the Ring of Honor (ROH) tag team The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe).[10] On December 21, NJPW added that the match would be for the newly created NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, the promotion's first six-man title.[1][11] The title's name carried the acronym NEVER, which stood for "New Blood", "Evolution", "Valiantly", "Eternal", and "Radical" and was a NJPW-promoted series of events that ran from 2010 to 2012 and featured younger up-and-coming talent and outside wrestlers not signed to the promotion.[12] This is the second title to carry the NEVER name, after the NEVER Openweight Championship, which was introduced in November 2012.[1][13]

(Left to right) David Finlay, Satoshi Kojima and Ricochet upon winning the title in September 2016

On January 4, 2016, Toru Yano and The Briscoe Brothers defeated Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi to become the inaugural champions.[2][14] After losing the title to Fale, Tonga and Takahashi on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka,[15] Yano and The Briscoe Brothers also became the first two-time winners of the title, when they regained it three days later at The New Beginning in Niigata.[16] Later that month, the title was defended outside Japan for the first time, when new champions Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) successfully defended it against A. C. H., Kushida and Matt Sydal at ROH's 14th Anniversary Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.[17][18] On September 25, 2016, the title was vacated for the first time due to one of the champions, Matt Sydal, failing to make it to a scheduled championship defense because of "travel issues".[19] NJPW crowned new champions that same day.[20]

On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, the Los Ingobernables de Japón (L.I.J.) trio of Bushi, Evil and Sanada won a four-team gauntlet match to capture the title for the first time.[21][22] They then began exchanging the title with members of the Taguchi Japan stable, resulting in them becoming record three-time champions on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2017.[23] The quick title changes resulted in the title earning a reputation as a "hot potato",[24][25] with Japanese media nicknaming it the "short life championship" (短命王座, tanmei ōza).[26] During its first 20 months of existence, the title changed hands 12 times, with no championship team successfully defending it more than two times until L.I.J.'s record-breaking third title reign.[26][27][28] The title was also slotted on the undercards of NJPW events and some championship matches took place as early as the second match on a seven-match show with no other title matches. Bushi publicly criticized NJPW's handling of the title, claiming that the booking was costing the title credibility.[27] L.I.J.'s record-setting reign ended on December 17, 2017, when they were defeated by Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa in their fourth defense.[29]

Reigns

There have been 26 reigns shared among 36 wrestlers and 20 teams with 2 vacancies.[30] Chaos (Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe and Toru Yano) were the first champions in the title's history.[2] Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi) hold the record for the longest reign and most defenses in an individual reign , while Los Ingobernables de Japón (Bushi, Evil and Sanada) hold the record for the shortest reign in the title's history, with their first reign of one day being the shortest. They also hold the record for most reigns as a team with three.[30] Individually, Evil holds the record for five reigns.

The current champions are Toru Yano, Oleg Boltin and Hiroshi Tanahashi, who are in their first reign as a team; it's the fifth individually for Tanahashi and Yano, and the first for Boltin. They defeated House of Torture (Evil, Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) at Wrestling World 2024 in Taiwan.


References

  1. 【WK10】1.4東京ドームは“8大選手権”! 第2試合は初代NEVER無差別級6人タッグ王座戦! 第3試合はROH世界選手権に! NJランボー参戦選手も追加!. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). December 21, 2015. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  2. 鈴木みのる. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  3. デビッド・フィンレー. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  4. バッドラック・ファレ. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  5. マット・ジャクソン. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  6. リコシェ. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  7. 真壁&本間 1・4東京ドームでIWGPタッグ挑戦. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). December 11, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  8. "NJPW Tokyo Dome Updates – Briscoes vs. Bullet Club for new titles, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. December 20, 2015. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  9. Nextジェネレーション育成 新プロジェクト「NEVER」シリーズがスタート!!. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). July 12, 2010. Archived from the original on December 28, 2010. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  10. Caldwell, James (October 5, 2012). "News items: Velvet Sky launches clothing line, Details on Nash's next int'l tour, NJPW introducing new title". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
  11. "ROH 14th Anniversary". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  12. 【新日1・4ドーム】NEVER6人タッグはSanada組が制す. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). January 5, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  13. “田口ジャパン”またNEVER陥落…ロス・インゴが3度目戴冠. Daily Sports Online (in Japanese). Kobe Shimbun. May 4, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  14. Meltzer, Dave (February 20, 2017). "February 20, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE financials, death of Chavo Guerrero, more". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Campbell, California. p. 20. ISSN 1083-9593. The show was built around five title matches, with one change, the hot potato Never trios titles which went back to Sanada & Evil & Bushi, who defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Manabu Nakanishi.
  15. 【新日本】LIJ NEVER6人タッグ王座V3. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). September 11, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  16. 【新日本】NEVER6人タッグ王者のBushiが試合順に難クセ. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). February 16, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  17. "JRA presents Road to Tokyo Dome". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  18. "NEVER Open 6 Men Tag Class". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved August 3, 2017.

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