Leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon Tetsuya Naito captured the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 14. The former G1 winner and IWGP Heavyweight Champion hit a brainbuster and Destino to pin Jay White and take the Championship.
Naito will now go on to Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom, to face the winner of tonight’s main event between Kota Ibushi and Kazuchika Okada. That match will be contested for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Kota Ibushi won last year’s G1 Climax tournament to earn his shot at Okada for January 4th. Ibushi defeated Naito’s Wrestle Kingdom opponent Jay White in the finals of the tournament to earn that opportunity.
Naito recently made the following comments to NJPW1972 regarding his want to challenge in both the IC and Heavyweight divisions. “There’s always been a distinction between the two titles; people wrestling for the Intercontinental Championship haven’t mixed with the Heavyweight contenders. So rather than have people think that I’ve gone back to just wrestling for the IC title, I wanted to say, no, I’m going to have this and wrestle for the heavyweight title as well. I wanted to get rid of this idea that once you’re in that position of wrestling for the IC, you never move away from it. Bear in mind, too, that I never had any interest in the Intercontinental belt in itself. The Heavyweight title has always been the number one belt to me. “
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