NJPW Announces New IWGP Global Title to Debut at Wrestle Kingdom 18 & Title vs. Title Match Added to Card

New Japan Pro Wrestling held a press conference on Monday to promote their upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 18 event on January 4, 2024 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.

During the press conference NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced that the company will be officially debuting a new championship called the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship at their upcoming event. Sugabayashi also announced that this belt will be replacing the IWGP United States/United Kingdom Heavyweight Championship that was destroyed at this past November’s Power Struggle 2023 event.

The winner of the Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay will be crowned as the inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion.

NJPW also announced that one new match has been officially added to the card of their upcoming event.

This is an IWGP Tag Team Championship & NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship, Title vs. Title match of Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto) (IWGP) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Hikuleo & El Phantasmo) (NJPW Strong).

Current card for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18:

• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship – Tetsuya Naito vs. SANADA (c)
• IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship – Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship – El Desperado vs. Hiromu Takahashi (c)
• IWGP Tag Team & NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships, Title vs. Title match – Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto) (IWGP) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Hikuleo & El Phantasmo) (NJPW Strong)
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship – Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira & TJP) vs. Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney) (c)
• NEVER Openweight Championship – Tama Tonga vs. Shingo Takagi (c)
• NJPW World Television Championship – Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (c)
• Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada