Shingo Takagi Wins IWGP World Heavyweight Title At NJPW Dominion 6.6
Kazuchika Okada & Shingo Takagi battled to succeed Will Ospreay as NJPW's IWGP Champion.
Shingo Takagi is your new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, having upset Kazuchika Okada at today's NJPW Dominion 6.6 event.
Takagi pinned Okada after flattening the record-breaking former champion with his Made in Japan finisher, scoring the pinfall and the vacant championship. He now embarks upon his first run with New Japan's most valuable prize.
The new champion's first challenger will be Kota Ibushi, whom Shingo called out after the bell. Ibushi defeated Jeff Cobb in what was pitched as a potential title eliminator bout earlier on the Dominion 6.6 card. Surprisingly, he and Shingo have never gone one on one outwith the G1 Climax tournament.
The IWGP Title had been vacant since the previous champion, Will Ospreay, vacated it due to a reported neck injury on 20 May. This story emerged amidst reports of widespread unrest amongst New Japan's foreign wrestlers, owing to the NJPW office's handling of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, having gone back on a previous edict allowing talent to return home following the Wrestle Grand Slam tour's cancellation.
Ospreay, who has returned to his native United Kingdom to recuperate his injuries, has since smoothed things over with NJPW, the tension seemingly dissipating.