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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 a 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.
Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been fifteen reigns shared among nine wrestlers with one vacancy. Masato Tanaka was the first champion in the title's history. He also holds the record for the longest reign in the title's history, at 314 days. Evil's only reign of 10 days is the shortest in the title's history. Tomohiro Ishii holds the record for most reigns with the title, being a four-time champion. Hirooki Goto is the current champion in his first reign, having defeated Katsuyori Shibata for the title on January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome.
Combined reigns
As of March 14, 2017.