List of NEVER Openweight Champions
Title history

List of NEVER Openweight Champions

Section Title: Title history
Table Section Text: None

No.	Champion	Championship change	Reign statistics	Notes	Ref.

Date	Event	Location	Reign	Days	Defenses

1	Masato Tanaka	November 19, 2012	Shodai NEVER Musabetsu Kyu Oza Kettei Tournament Final	Tokyo	1	314	4	Tanaka defeated Karl Anderson in the finals of a sixteen-man tournament to become the inaugural champion.

2	Tetsuya Naito	September 29, 2013	Destruction	Kobe	1	135	2	Naito's Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate was also on the line.

3	Tomohiro Ishii	February 11, 2014	The New Beginning in Osaka	Osaka	1	138	4

4	Yujiro Takahashi	June 29, 2014	Kizuna Road 2014	Tokyo	1	106	1

5	Tomohiro Ishii	October 13, 2014	King of Pro-Wrestling	Tokyo	2	83	1

6	Togi Makabe	January 4, 2015	Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome	Tokyo	1	41	0

—	Vacated	February 14, 2015	—	—	—	—	—	The title was vacated due to Makabe being sidelined with influenza.

7	Tomohiro Ishii	February 14, 2015	The New Beginning in Sendai	Sendai	3	74	0	Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the vacant title.

8	Togi Makabe	April 29, 2015	Wrestling Hinokuni	Mashiki	2	166	2

9	Tomohiro Ishii	October 12, 2015	King of Pro-Wrestling	Tokyo	4	84	1

10	Katsuyori Shibata	January 4, 2016	Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome	Tokyo	1	120	3

11	Yuji Nagata	May 3, 2016	Wrestling Dontaku 2016	Fukuoka	1	47	0

12	Katsuyori Shibata	June 19, 2016	Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall	Osaka	2	139	3

13	Evil	November 5, 2016	Power Struggle	Osaka	1	10	0

14	Katsuyori Shibata	November 15, 2016	Wrestling World 2016 in Singapore	Singapore	3	50	0

15	Hirooki Goto	January 4, 2017	Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome	Tokyo	1	113	3

16	Minoru Suzuki	April 27, 2017	Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2017: Aki no Kuni Sengoku Emaki	Hiroshima	1	252	4

17	Hirooki Goto	January 4, 2018	Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome	Tokyo	2	156	3	This was a hair vs. hair match.

18	Michael Elgin	June 9, 2018	Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall	Osaka	1	8	0	This was a three-way match also including Taichi.

19	Hirooki Goto	June 17, 2018	Kizuna Road 2018	Tokyo	3	92	1

20	Taichi	September 17, 2018	Destruction in Beppu	Beppu	1	47	0

21	Hirooki Goto	November 3, 2018	Power Struggle	Osaka	4	36	0

22	Kota Ibushi	December 9, 2018	World Tag League	Iwate	1	26	0

23	Will Ospreay	January 4, 2019	Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome	Tokyo	1	92	1

24	Jeff Cobb	April 6, 2019	G1 Supercard	New York City	1	15+	0	Cobb's ROH World Television Championship was also on the line.

Sentence(s)

Masato Tanaka holds a record for the longest reign in the title's history, at 314 days.

final_sentence: Masato Tanaka holds a record for the longest reign in the title's history, at 314 days.