NJPW News: Former WWE Superstar wins his first championship since leaving the company
At tonight's NJPW: Royal Quest, former WWE Superstar Kenta fka Hideo Itami won the NEVER Openweight Championship after defeating Tomohiro Ishii in an absolute barnburner of a match.
Having made his NJPW debut at Dominion 6.9, Kenta made the headlines last month when he surprisingly aligned himself with the Bullet Club after turning his back of CHAOS members Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match. In the aftermath of the attack, Kenta was attacked by his former tag team partner Katsuyori Shibata but thanks to the numbers game advantage, the Bullet Club put a brutal beating on Shibata, as well.
Tomohiro Ishii, on the other hand, won the NEVER Openweight Championship for the 5th time when he defeated Suzuki Gun's Taichi at Dominion 6.9 in the Osaka-jo Hall. Coming into Royal Quest, Ishii had competed in the G1 Climax 29 where he ended with a record of eight points.
As expected, Kenta and Ishii had a hard-hitting back-and-forth match which concluded in typical Bullet Club controversy after Kenta's fellow Bullet Club stablemates Guerrillas of Destiny ran down to the ring and took out the referee to help Kenta capitalize.
However, a resilient Ishii hit a Brainbuster on Kenta but couldn't get the three count. G.O.D got back into the ring and hit a running powerslam on Ishii before pushing the ref back into the ring, opening up for Kenta to get the pinfall victory. However, Ishii managed to kick out at 2 and a half but the challenger finally hit the G.T.S for the three-count and the win.
The victory marked Kenta's first title win in New Japan Pro Wrestling and it also means that the Never Openweight Championship is now back in the ranks of the Bullet Club for the first time since Yujiro Takahashi had won the title a few years back.