Earlier today, New Japan issued a statement on their website that their top title, the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, had been officially vacated. This is because champion Will Ospreay, who defeated Kota Ibushi for the title in April, is suffering a neck injury. The injury took place on Night 2 of New Japan’s Wrestling Dontaku event on May 4th during Ospreay’s first title defense when he faced Shingo Takagi.
The severity of the injury isn’t fully known, but with Ospreay returning to the UK while recovering and no timeline known on how long he will be out for, New Japan seemingly had no other option but to vacate the title. Ospreay was the second-ever IWGP World Heavyweight Champion after the company unified both their IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship on March 1st.
Over the years, New Japan has been forced to vacate their top championship several times, most famously when Brock Lesnar refused to defend the title over a pay dispute and took the physical belt to the newly launched Inoki Genome Federation. Additionally, injuries have seen Antonio Inoki, Masahiro Chono, Kazuyuki Fujita, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Hiroshi Tanahashi, all giving up the IWGP Heavyweight Championship over the belts almost 34-year history.
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