Will Ospreay is the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion!
Ospreay’s star has been on a rise since turning heel late last year and the former NEVER Openweight Champion is finally the top dog of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The match between Ospreay and Kota Ibushi was nearly a 30-minute affair that saw The Empire leader get the victory thanks to the Storm Breaker.
This ends a short title reign for Kota Ibushi, who won the belt back at Wrestle Kingdom 15 and successfully defended it against Jay White, SANADA, and El Desperado. This marks the first IWGP Heavyweight title reign for Will Ospreay.
The IWGP Heavyweight Championship wasn’t the only belt that changed hands as Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) are the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. The duo was forced to vacate the tag titles in August after YOH suffered a knee injury. YOH and SHO are now five-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.
Check out the full results for NJPW’s Genesis pay-per-view below:
Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, Taichi, & Zack Sabre, Jr.) def. Bullet Club (Jado, Tama Tonga, & Tanga Loa) by pinfall
Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & YOSHI-HASHI) def. Bullet Club (Dick Togo, EVIL, KENTA, Taiji Ishimori, & Yujiro Takahashi) by pinfall
THE EMPIRE (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan, & Jeff Cobb) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, Shingo Takagi, & Tetsuya Naito) by pinfall
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Satoshi Kojima def. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & “Switchblade” Jay White) by pinfall
Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) def. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c) by pinfall to win the IWGP Junior Tag Team titles
Will Ospreay def. Kota Ibushi (c) by pinfall to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.