NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

Lore & Background

On December 11, 2015, NJPW announced that at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2016, the Bullet Club trio of Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi would take on Toru Yano and two mystery partners. Eight days later, Yano revealed his partners as the Ring of Honor (ROH) tag team The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe). On December 21, NJPW added that the match would be for the newly created NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, the promotion's first six-man title. The title's name carried the acronym NEVER, which stood for 'New Blood', 'Evolution', 'Valiantly', 'Eternal', and 'Radical' and was a NJPW-promoted series of events that ran from 2010 to 2012 and featured younger up-and-coming talent and outside wrestlers not signed to the promotion. This is the second title to carry the NEVER name, after the NEVER Openweight Championship, which was introduced in November 2012. On January 4, 2016, Toru Yano and The Briscoe Brothers defeated Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi to become the inaugural champions. After losing the title to Fale, Tonga and Takahashi on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, Yano and The Briscoe Brothers also became the first two-time winners of the title, when they regained it three days later at The New Beginning in Niigata. Later that month, the title was defended outside Japan for the first time, when new champions Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) successfully defended it against A. C. H., Kushida and Matt Sydal at ROH's 14th Anniversary Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. On September 25, 2016, the title was vacated for the first time due to one of the champions, Matt Sydal, failing to make it to a scheduled championship defense because of 'travel issues'. NJPW crowned new champions that same day. On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, the Los Ingobernables de Japón (L.I.J.) trio of Bushi, Evil and Sanada won a four-team gauntlet match to capture the title for the first time. They then began exchanging the title with members of the Taguchi Japan stable, resulting in them becoming record three-time champions on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2017. The quick title changes resulted in the title earning a reputation as a 'hot potato', with Japanese media nicknaming it the . During its first 20 months of existence, the title changed hands 12 times,

In Their Own Story

The arena hums with the particular electricity of a mid-card tag match. Three men stand in the ring, each gripping the middle rope, their eyes locked on the three across from them. The crowd's chant is a low, rolling wave — not the thunderous roar saved for the main event, but something more intimate, more invested. A young openweight cracks his neck, feeling the weight of his teammates' trust. Across the ring, a junior heavyweight slides into a crouch, coiled like a spring. The referee's hand drops. For the next twenty minutes, the ropes will stretch, the turnbuckles will bear the impact of bodies flung from the top rope, and somewhere in the chaos, three men will become something more than a team. The belt waits on the apron, catching the ring lights, patient as always.

Reader's Guide

There have been 34 reigns shared among 47 different wrestlers and 26 teams, with 2 vacancies. Chaos (Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, and Toru Yano) were the inaugural champions. Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, and Yoshi-Hashi) hold the record for the longest reign and most defenses in an individual reign, while Los Ingobernables de Japón (Bushi, Evil and Sanada) and Chaos (Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) both hold the record for the shortest reign in the title's history, with their reigns of one day being the shortest. Los Ingobernables de Japón (Bushi, Evil and Sanada) also hold the record for most reigns as a team with three. In addition to being one-third of the first reign and shortest reign of the titles, Toru Yano holds the record for most reigns by a single wrestler, with seven. The United Empire (Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan, and Henare) are the current champions in their first reign as a team and individually. They won the titles by defeating Bishamon-tin (Boltin Oleg, Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) on Night 2 of Wrestling Dontaku in Fukuoka, Japan on May 4, 2026.

Did You Know?

• The title was announced on December 21, 2015, and first champions were crowned on January 4, 2016.
• The acronym NEVER stands for 'New Blood', 'Evolution', 'Valiantly', 'Eternal', and 'Radical'.
• Toru Yano holds the record for most reigns by a single wrestler, with seven.
• The title was first defended outside Japan at ROH's 14th Anniversary Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.