NJPW making Strong titles exclusive to USA shows

Hiroshi Tanahashi has commented on the future of the NJPW Strong titles.

The championships have primarily been defended on NJPW shows in the United States, but have played a role on a few shows in Japan and other countries as well. Eddie Kingston defeated KENTA for the Strong Openweight belt at the Independence Day show at Korakuen Hall last summer. Stephanie Vaquer won the NJPW Strong Women’s title on a Stardom show at Korakuen Hall in March and also defended it at a RevPro/CMLL Fantasticamania show in England last month.

However, Tanahashi recently told NJPW1972.com that he wants to clarify the roles of NJPW’s titles, and that involves making the Strong belts exclusive to shows held in the United States.

Tanahashi said:

“Taking into account the opinions of wrestlers and fans, we want to clarify the roles and concepts of each championship belt, and raise the status of our championships. This will see various forms, but firstly, the NJPW STRONG Championships will be restored to their original roles of being defended only on American events.”

Tanahashi continued:

“Well, first of all, we want to make the STRONG titles American exclusive. Additionally, there have been a lot of new titles of late, and it’s important I think for wrestlers to understand what championships they want to aim toward, and for fans to understand that as well. Each title can have a role in different events, but we want the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to consistently be the peak and have those roles take place after that.”

Our own Tom Lawlor was the inaugrual NJPW Strong Openweight Champion. He defeated Brody King in the finals of the New Japan Cup USA 2021 to win the belt.

The NJPW Strong Tag Team Championships and the IWGP Tag Team Championships will be defended at NJPW Dominion on Sunday in a triple threat match. Strong Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo, IWGP Champions KENTA & Chase Owens, and Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi will be the three teams in the match.