NEVER Openweight Championship

[7.0] "It's a great title. It's been held by outstanding performers. But, nowadays? Seriously? The holders have been becoming a tad..... flat."

[7.0] "The NEVER Openweight Championship went from being a proposed developmental title to becoming a midcard singles title that has grown in prestige thanks to the efforts of its title holders. Tomohiro Ishii established himself as one of wrestling's top brawlers thanks to his legacy with this title. The belt has also traveled, too, being contested in CMLL and even serving the distinction of being held by a WWE-contracted wrestler despite no formal working agreement between both companies."

[6.0] "[6.0] Honestly, this title could be something if NJPW put some effort into it. Thing is though it's always changing hands. There have been exactly 3 reigns where the champion retained the belt 4 times and two of those were in the first two years of the belt's existence. Out of the 42 reigns in this title's existence, over a third ended without a successful defense 16 out of 42 specifically (I won't count Makabe having to vacate it.) 3 Reigns cleared 200 days and the longest reign was the first one and another only made it that long because of the hiatus from the pandemic in 2020. Most of the reigns in the title's lineage are lucky to hit even the 4 month mark. I really hoped that if the IC belt was going to be vacated that at least it would maybe elevate the Openweight Belt up a bit, but unlike it's brother US Title, now the Global Championship, which got elevated a bit more thanks to people like Tana and Ospreay holding it, this one has remained stagnant. I really don't have an issue with the matches themselves and every title inevitably will have it's share of questionable champions given enough time. My issue is purely on the fact that New Japan just doesn't seem to value this championship with how it's booked. There are a couple people you can associate with the belt I guess like Goto, Ishii, Shingo Takagi, but no one has really had that long, defense filled reign to make it feel important in years. I don't know, I guess I just thought by now we would've gotten something better out of this belt and nothing seems to have changed."

[4.0] "Meaningless title, who changes hands for no reason, a lot of bad champions and even more forgetful reigns. Never forget that they got rid of the beautiful and prestigious Intercontinental Championship to make this one the official second title of the company and what a joke it has been since then. Jay White long ass reign with 1 defense, Ishii jobbing out to EVIL in one of Ishii's worst match ever at WK, the Karl Anderson debacle, and now the awful Jay White dollar store reign. I'm giving this a 4 just for Shibata, Ishii, Shingo & Suzuki matches. Everything else has been awful."

[7.0] "Kind of treated as a lower mid card belt, it looked like it was going to become the main secondary belt once New Japan got rid of the IC belt, but I dont think thats going to be the case. Pretty much back to where it was before, I dont really mind it though."

[6.0] "Bah... just a title that has had some a very weird treatment in my eyes. A lot of times it is just a hot potato and sometimes there's an actual good reign."

[5.0] "Right now this is just the EVIL belt, which, if you've been watching lately, is not a good sign. The less House of Torture the better, but unfortunately, as long as this belt is on EVIL, it's just going to be the House of Torture BS spot on the card."

[8.0] "Used to have this title at a 10 because of the linage and Shingo Takagi's 2020 run. But the booking of late and match quality of late has dropped this title down a few pegs unfortunately."

[9.0] "For a title considered Openweight only a handful of challengers have been Juniors and of course even less champions with the only one being Will Ospreay the same year he would make the jump to heavyweight. The title has however had some of the most hard hitting matches in the past decade of New Japan with feuds between Ishii and Makabe and Shibata vs The Third Generation being examples of the style the title has been known for. With the Intercontinental title being defended alongside the Heavyweight title and the US title trapped for nearly a year on a Jon Moxley who has commitments in the US, it's currently debatable whether this title or the Junior heavyweight title in the NO. 2 title in the company."

[9.0] "I love this belt so much, so many legends held this belt and so many classic title matches, awesome title"

[7.0] "This title is basically a throwback to some old US Southern promotions, a way to give both up and coming workers and grizzled veterans outside the main titles scene something to feud over without creating silly and convoluted storylines. I really appreciate that and it's something more promotions should do, for not other reason it allows to put a title match on the card and to gauge how the public reacts to a main event push without too many booking risks. Starting last year the title has become a bit of a hot potato, used more to reward people like Taichi with a short title reign and to book title defenses every month or so at second tier shows and it has somewhat hurt the idea behind the belt. Still a very solid second-tier belt that has served its purpose well."

[6.0] "Sort of establishing itself as the "strong style" championship of NJPW and while it's certainly great at that, the storylines it's involved in usually seem like a bit of a booking afterthought."

[8.0] "We don't always have a good idea at what this title is supposed to be. Right now it needs some stability after a lot of very short reigns with almost no successful defences. The belt was at its best when it was the hard-hitting championship wich was held by guys like Tomohiro Ishii and Katsuyori Shibata. The NEVER Openweight Championship is now back around the waists of Ishii so we can hope he elevates this title like he did before."

[10.0] "Probably my favorite championship in NJPW and Puroresu in general. It was created for the young boys, but then, Tomohiro Ishii won it for the first time and the great championship's prestige started to rise. Katsuyori Shibata, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Yuji Nagata and Minoru Suzuki were the champions in the past, of course this championship is the most prestigious in NJPW!"

[8.0] "This belt should not be in the position it is in today. Originally created to be a belt given to younger talent (ie. Young Lions), the NEVER Openweight Title has built its way up to being one of the most hard-hitting, odds-defying belts in all of Japan."

[7.0] "Here is the main problem of this title for me: THIS IS NOT A OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP. Back in the days of Shibata, Ishii and even Makabe, this title had some value because the title holder was one of the baddest, if not THE BADDEST, member of the roster and, yeah, I can dig that. But nowadays, with Goto, Elgin and all of Suzuki bs in 2017, this title is just... a title. Like I said, this is not a Openweight Championship. The last junior heavyweight that I remember who fought for his title was Ibushi in 2014! Four years since then. It's really, really sad."

[7.0] "A very bumpy start and honestly I don't know how New Japan manage to book and kepe my interested in all these titles but they do. yet another mid card title."

[6.0] "Back in the days of Ishii and Shibata this title actually meant something. Holding this title meant you were the absolute baddest guy in the world. Ever since Goto won the belt at WK11 (in an admittedly great match) its stock has plummeted. Goto had some incredibly boring defences and ended up losing the title to Suzuki, who tarnished the title even further with his constant Suzuki-gun interferences and stupid match stipulations. I was actually thankful to have Goto win the title back at WK12, even though thus far in his second reign he has had a really boring defence against EVIL and a match against the Beer City Bruiser, which is absolutely not a match I would ever go out of my way to watch. It seems like the title is cursed with either boring matches between good wrestlers or just plain bad match-ups. I still value the title for its recent history and hope that it regains notoriety, but I'm not sure it can be revived."

[9.0] "Great championship that is about the best hardhitters in professional wrestling today with borderline shoot execution."

[10.0] "New Blood, Evolution, Valiantly, Eternal, and Radical. Very odd to see a stand alone title in a big company do so well. The matches are always fun to watch and hard fought. No bullshit title runs and except for Togi Makabe 41 day run the length of title runs is pretty good. I hope the NEVER 6 Man Tag title becomes more like this."

[10.0] "This championship has become one of the best in the world, as well as the most interesting, due to the champions and the matches they have had thus far. From its very beginning, with that little tournament, to crown the 1st champion, in Masato Tanaka, we already had two hard hitting matches against Ishii and Karl Anderson. Moving on to the Ishii era, which is arguably its best, we have seen 5 star match after 5 star match, against the likes of Honma, Makabe, Ibushi, Shibata. And now i hope we get to see the legends era with Nagata, Kojima, Tenzan, Nakanishi. All in all, this title is perfect because there are no limitations to it and im not just talking about the weight limit, but of its booking and champions alike. Sky's the limit for the NEVER openweight title !"

[10.0] "Probably better suited as the "Tomohiro Ishii Cup" or "Beat The Living Shit Out Of Each Other Championship", the NEVER Openweight Title is a relatively new crown. Be that as it may, the NEVER Openweight Title has produced some truly compelling champions and matches alike. Without doubt, one of my favourite Championships in the world today."

[7.0] "The title is still young, but if it keeps being the "title of awesome matches", then i might come back in the not so distant future and raise my valuation of the title."

[8.0] "Due the time Ishii was regining this belt actually meant somthing, it was just a great reign who featured sometimes the best match of the night. But Takahashi will destroy the title prestige. I give this title 8 only because of Ishii who was champion of the year in my opinion."