Will Ospreay Becomes New IWGP World Heavyweight Champion

Will Ospreay has become the first-ever British IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in New Japan Pro-Wrestling history.

Going down at today's Sakura Genesis event, Ospreay pulled off the shock victory against Kota Ibushi in the main event, hitting a Stormbreaker for the monumental win. In the wake of the biggest moment of his career so far, Ospreay called out his Wrestle Kingdom 15 opponent Kazuchika Okada in the aim of avenging his loss against him at said event.

However, Shingo Takagi interrupted this moment, stating that he deserved a title shot first after beating Okada in the New Japan Cup's first round. After agreeing with Takagi, Ospreay will now defend his newly won title against Takagi first and Okada afterwards.

During his time working for NJPW since 2016, Ospreay has gone on to hold the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on three occasions, the NEVER Openweight title, and won both the New Japan Cup and Best of the Super Juniors tournaments, winning the latter on two occasions.

What the future holds for his rival, Ibushi, remains to be seen as this marked his first officially defence of the newly unified IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Hopefully the pair run it back some time in the near future, but for now, Ospreay reigns supreme alongside his ever-expanding United Empire.