Konosuke Takeshita is the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion!
New Japan Pro-Wrestling held their annual King of Pro-Wrestling show with the main event being Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Konosuke Takeshita. This comes after Takeshita won the 2025 G1 Climax and instead of cashing in at Wrestle Kingdom, the 30-year-old opted to get his title shot at the King of Pro-Wrestling pay-per-view.
Coming in, Takeshita had momentum on his side as he beat Zack Sabre Jr. in the semi-finals of the G1 Climax. For nearly 30-minutes, these two had a hard fought battle when Takeshita used his strength and speed to get the advantage. Zack used his technical prowess to outsmart his opponent, but that didn’t work in the end. Takeshita got the three count following his Powerdrive Knee.
That officially put an end to Zack Sabre Jr’s 106 day title reign. Zack originally entered 2025 as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, but shockingly lost the belt to Hirooki Goto at the New Beginning at Osaka show in February. He won his title back from Hirooki Goto in June and successfully defended it twice before dropping it to Takeshita.
This is Takeshita’s first run as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. In fact, this was Takeshita first shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight title! New Japan Pro-Wrestling has been high on him for quite a while as he previously won the NEVER Openweight Championship and held that belt for 162 days.
We won’t have to wait around long for Takeshita’s next challenger as the newly crowned IWGP World Heavyweight Champion challenged anyone backstage and Hirooki Goto quickly answered his call. While Goto is confirmed as the next challenger, New Japan has yet to give an official date for the match. Congratulations to Konosuke Takeshita! He’s starting off his week strong, but he also has the opportunity to end the week just as strong since him and Kazuchika Okada will take on Brodido for the AEW World Tag Team titles at WrestleDream. Both men earned the opportunity last week on Dynamite by beating the tag champs in an eliminator match.