Kota Ibushi has rejected an offer from Hirooki Goto to face him for the NEVER Openweight Championship. Evidently, Ibushi seems unsure as to what the NEVER Openweight title is for and so he won’t challenge for it.

Ibushi sent out the following Tweet earlier today...

Google translate offered up little help:

“Mr. Goto. I had a chance to speak directly in Okinawa yesterday, but I didn’t understand it very well. Can anything be done about the belt of Never, a free belt that can explode? To say that… What is it? I am anxious about what can be violent freely. I still don’t know. So… Reject!”

Chris Charlton translated a better description of what Ibushi said:

“Ibushi still rejecting Goto’s invitation to challenge for the NEVER belt until Goto proves its worth. Goto has said NEVER represents freedom because you can represent it how you like but Ibushi doesn’t know what that’s supposed to mean.”

Unlike most of NJPW’s titles, the NEVER Openweight title has no weight restrictions and is open to all wrestlers. The title is actually an acronym for “New Blood”, “Evolution”, “Valiantly”, “Eternal”, and “Radical” but it’s unclear what that means. The title was originally for wrestlers who were from outside NJPW but it eventually just became a lower ranked singles title.