Get Our Extension
Select Wikiz in another Language
EspañolFrançaisItaliano
Settings
A
A
Text Highlights
Notes/Citations
Edit on Wikipedia

Share This Article

About Wikiz About Us Cookies Policy Terms & Services Privacy Policy Contact Contact us Enjoying Wikipedia Content? DONATE TO WIKIPEDIA
Enjoying Wikipedia Content? DONATE TO WIKIPEDIA

Strong Openweight Championship

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Strong Openweight Championship
20210218-0142 NJPW Strong Belt.jpg
Details
PromotionNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW)
Date establishedApril 2, 2021
Current champion(s)Kenta
Date wonFebruary 18, 2023
Other name(s)
  • NJPW Strong Openweight Championship

The Strong Openweight Championship (STRONG無差別級王座, STRONG musabetsu-kyū ōza) is a professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. The title was officially announced on April 2, 2021.[1] The title is exclusively featured on NJPW's American television program NJPW Strong, which includes American wrestlers.[2] The inaugural champion was Tom Lawlor. The current champion is Kenta, who is in his first reign.

Discover more about Strong Openweight Championship related topics

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around mock combat matches that are usually performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing. The dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or—as in televised wrestling shows—in backstage areas of the venue, in similar form to reality television.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling

New Japan Pro-Wrestling

New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd. (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority shares of the company. Naoki Sugabayashi has served as the promotion's Chairman since September 2013, while Takami Ohbari has served as the president of the promotion since October 2020.

Professional wrestling promotion

Professional wrestling promotion

A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within the convention of the show, the company is a sports governing body which sanctions wrestling matches and gives authority to the championships and is responsible for maintaining the divisions and their rankings. In truth, the company serves as a touring theatre troupe, as well as event promotion body for its own events.

NJPW Strong

NJPW Strong

NJPW Strong is a professional wrestling television series produced by Japanese professional wrestling promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) which debuted on August 7, 2020. It aired on Saturday at 8pm ET on NJPW World and FITE TV.

Tom Lawlor

Tom Lawlor

Thomas Joseph Lawlor is an American professional wrestler, retired mixed martial artist and podcast host. He is best known for his time in Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he was a former one-time MLW World Heavyweight Champion and the winner of the first-ever Battle Riot in 2018 and the 2020 Opera Cup tournament. He currently appears for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he was the inaugural Strong Openweight Champion.

Kenta Kobayashi

Kenta Kobayashi

Kenta Kobayashi is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he performs as the current holder of the Strong Openweight Championship in his first reign using the mononymous ring name KENTA, and he is also a member of the Bullet Club stable.

Title history

Current champion Kenta, shown here with the NEVER Openweight Championship
Current champion Kenta, shown here with the NEVER Openweight Championship

Inaugural tournament

This template is an excerpt from New Japan Cup USA § 2021.
Qualifying
March 5, 12, 19, 26 		Round 1
April 9 		Semi-finals
April 16 		Final
April 23
        
Clark Connors Pin[3]
TJP 9:27
Clark Connors 9:57
Lio Rush Pin[7]
Rocky Romero 13:57
Lio Rush Pin[4]
Lio Rush 7:38
Brody King Pin
Brody King Pin[5]
Bateman 13:25
Brody King Pin[7]
Chris Dickinson 10:42
Blake Christian 8:53
Chris Dickinson Pin[3]
Brody King 20:05
Tom Lawlor Sub
Ren Narita Pin[5]
Misterioso 11:12
Ren Narita 13:19
Tom Lawlor Sub[7]
The DKC 9:13
Tom Lawlor Pin[4]
Tom Lawlor Pin
Hikuleo 8:58
Jordan Clearwater 7:57
Hikuleo Pin[6]
Hikuleo Pin[7]
Fred Rosser 6:22
Fred Rosser Pin[6]
J. R. Kratos 14:16

Reigns

As of March 19, 2023, there have been three reigns between three champions. Tom Lawlor was the inaugural champion. Fred Rosser is the oldest champion when he won it at 38 years old while Lawlor is the youngest champion at 37 years old.

Kenta is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated Fred Rosser at Battle in the Valley on February 18, 2023, in San Jose, California.

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Days recog. Number of days held recognized by the promotion
Defenses Number of successful defenses
N/A Unknown information
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days Days recog. Defenses
1 Tom Lawlor April 23, 2021
(air date) 		New Japan Cup USA 2021 Port Hueneme, CA 1 N/A 387 9 [8][1]
2 Fred Rosser May 15, 2022 Strong: Collision in Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA 1 279 238 7 Aired on June 25, 2022 on tape delay. [9]
3 Kenta February 18, 2023 Battle in the Valley San Jose, CA 1 29+ 29+ 0 [10]

Discover more about Title history related topics

Kenta Kobayashi

Kenta Kobayashi

Kenta Kobayashi is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he performs as the current holder of the Strong Openweight Championship in his first reign using the mononymous ring name KENTA, and he is also a member of the Bullet Club stable.

NEVER Openweight Championship

NEVER Openweight Championship

The NEVER Openweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. NEVER is an acronym of the terms "New Blood", "Evolution", "Valiantly", "Eternal", and "Radical" and was an NJPW-promoted series of events, which featured younger up-and-coming talent and outside wrestlers not signed to the promotion. The project was officially announced on July 12, 2010, and held its first event on August 24, 2010. On October 5, 2012, NJPW announced that NEVER was going to get its own championship, the NEVER Openweight Championship. The current champion is Tama Tonga, who is in his second reign.

Clark Connors

Clark Connors

Connor Deutsch, better known by the ring name Clark Connors is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was the winner of the 2020 Lion's Break Crown.

Rocky Romero

Rocky Romero

John R. Rivera is a Puerto Rican-American professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. He is currently signed non-exclusively to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), better known by his ring name Rocky Romero. Rivera is known for his tenure as the fourth incarnation of Black Tiger and for his accomplishments as a tag team wrestler. He was member of tag teams like The Havana Pitbulls/Los Cubanitos, No Remorse Corps, Forever Hooligans, and Roppongi Vice. Rivera made his in-ring debut on September 13, 1997 and over the years portrayed several different characters, including the masked characters Havana Brother I, Black Tiger and Grey Shadow and has wrestled extensively in Mexico. In the United States he is most known for his work with Ring of Honor and was one of the featured wrestlers for Lucha Libre USA.

Lio Rush

Lio Rush

Lionel Gerard Green, better known by the ring name Lio Rush, is an American professional wrestler and musician currently signed to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a member of the Chaos stable. He has also appeared for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where he performed as Aracno.

Brody King

Brody King

Nathan Troy Blauvelt, better known by his ring name Brody King, is an American professional wrestler, singer, and actor. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of The House of Black and is one-third of the current AEW World Trios Champion with Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews in their first reign.

Chris Dickinson (wrestler)

Chris Dickinson (wrestler)

Christopher Torre(born August 11, 1987) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Chris Dickinson. He is best known for his work in Game Changer Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Evolve Wrestling, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Beyond Wrestling. He has also worked for various promotions around the world, including Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide in Mexico, Pro Wrestling Zero1 in Japan, Preston City Wrestling in England, International Wrestling Syndicate in Canada, and American promotions Combat Zone Wrestling and Chikara. He is a former ROH World Tag Team Champion.

Ren Narita

Ren Narita

Ren Narita is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) where he is in his first reign as NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion with Minoru Suzuki and El Desperado.

Jordan Clearwater

Jordan Clearwater

Jordan Clearwater is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) where he is a former NWA World Television Champion.

Hikuleo (wrestler)

Hikuleo (wrestler)

Tautuiaki Taula Koloamatangi is an American professional wrestler of Tongan descent. He is currently wrestling for the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and the U.S. promotion Impact Wrestling under the ring name Hikuleo, he is a former member of Bullet Club. He has joined his brothers of the Guerrillas of Destiny as of September.

J. R. Kratos

J. R. Kratos

J. R. Kratos is an American professional wrestler. He currently appears for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is a member of Team Filthy. He also wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) where he is a former holder of the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

Battle in the Valley (2023)

Battle in the Valley (2023)

Battle in the Valley was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took place on February 18, 2023, at San Jose Civic in San Jose, California.

Source: "Strong Openweight Championship", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 16th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Openweight_Championship.

Enjoying Wikiz?

Enjoying Wikiz?

Get our FREE extension now!

Download Extension

Further Reading

Kenta Kobayashi

Minoru Suzuki

Hirooki Goto

Kota Ibushi

Tom Lawlor

Jeff Cobb

Will Ospreay

Jay White

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship

G1 Special in San Francisco

New Japan Cup USA

Team Filthy

Wrestle Kingdom 17

Battle in the Valley (2023)
See also
References
  1. ^ a b New Japan Pro-Wrestling (April 3, 2021). "Strong Openweight Championship revealed 【NJoA】". njpw1972.com. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  2. ^ Solowrestling (2021-04-03). "NJPW anuncia la creación del Campeonato STRONG Openweight". solowrestling.mundodeportivo.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  3. ^ a b "Road to STRONG STYLE EVOLVED". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. March 26, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Road to STRONG STYLE EVOLVED". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. March 6, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Road to STRONG STYLE EVOLVED". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. March 20, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Road to STRONG STYLE EVOLVED". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. March 13, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d Lambert, Jeremy (April 9, 2021). "NJPW Strong Results (4/9): New Japan Cup USA First Round Action". Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  8. ^ HBN Staff (April 3, 2021). "NJPW Unveils New NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship". heelbynature.com. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  9. ^ Defelice, Robert (May 15, 2022). "Spoiler: New NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Crowned At Collision In Philadelphia On 5/15". Fightful. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
  10. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (February 18, 2023). "NJPW Battle In The Valley Results (2/18): Mercedes Mone vs. KAIRI, Tanahashi vs. Okada, Loser Leaves NJPW". Fightful. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
External links
Categories

The content of this page is based on the Wikipedia article written by contributors..
The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence & the media files are available under their respective licenses; additional terms may apply.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use & Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization & is not affiliated to WikiZ.com.