Tetsuya Naito Becomes First Ever Dual IWGP Champion
Tetsuya Naito and Kazuchika Okada battled to determine the first ever concurrent IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 2. Naito took the win in the bout after hitting a huge reverse brainbuster followed by a final Destino.
Tetsuya Naito and Okada earned the right to challenge for the belts at Night 1. Okada defeated Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Conversely Naito defeated Jay White to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to secure his slot in the main event of Night 2. New Japan were billing this mini-tournament style event as ‘Double Gold Dash,’ as Naito had previously claimed that he was desperate to be the first ever double IWGP champion on New Japan Pro Wrestling history.
Naito recently made the following comments regarding his want to become the first ever ‘dual’ Champion at Wrestle Kingdom to NJPW1972.com. “There’s always been a distinction between the two titles; people wrestling for the Intercontinental Championship haven’t mixed with the Heavyweight contenders. So rather than have people think that I’ve gone back to just wrestling for the IC title; I wanted to say, no, I’m going to have this and wrestle for the heavyweight title as well,” Naito stated. “I wanted to get rid of this idea that once you’re in that position of wrestling for the IC; you never move away from it. Bear in mind, too, that I never had any interest in the Intercontinental belt in itself. The Heavyweight title has always been the number one belt to me.”
