New champions crowned at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 night one

Three titles changed hands on night one of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16. 

In the main event of today’s show, Kazuchika Okada defeated Shingo Takagi to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. After his win, Okada symbolically retired the v4 IWGP Heavyweight title belt that he had used to symbolize his G1 Climax 31 victory. 

Okada will now face Will Ospreay in the main event of night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16 on Wednesday. Ospreay was the second IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, but did not lose the title in the ring, vacating it in May after suffering a neck injury. 

Shingo’s first IWGP World Heavyweight title reign ends at 211 days and three successful defenses. He originally won the title at Dominion in June 2021, defeating Okada for the title that Ospreay vacated.

World Tag League 2021 winners Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI defeated Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) to win the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. With the win, YOSHI-HASHI claims his second career NJPW title, having previously only held the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship. 

This will mark Goto’s second reign as IWGP Heavyweight Tag title holder, having previously held the titles with Katsuyori Shibata. Taichi and Sabre’s third reign with the Heavyweight Tag belts ends at 163 days and one successful defense.

In the night’s first title change, EVIL defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win the NEVER Openweight Championship in a match that included interference from EVIL’s Bullet Club House of Torture stablemates Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi and SHO, a YOH run-in, two referees, chair shots, and a belt shot. 

EVIL ends Ishii’s sixth reign with the NEVER title at 52 days and zero successful defenses. This is the second NEVER title reign for EVIL.