After losing the title at New Japan Pro Wrestling Dominion 2018 in Osaka, Hirooki Goto regained his NEVER Openweight Championship after defeating Michael Elgin in the main event of night 2 of NJPW Kizuna Road 2018 this past Sunday. Goto, who becomes a three time NEVER Openweight Champion, lost his title in a triple threat match against Taichi and Michael Elgin at Dominion 2018. The champion was never pinned that night, since it was Elgin beating Taichi with the Elgin Bomb and winning the NEVER title that night. Goto never lost to Elgin and had vowed to beat new champion in a singles match for the championship.
The match itself was a solid main event for New Japan. Elgin and Goto went at it, exchanging hard strikes and power moves. Since losing more than 30 pounds, Elgin has impressed a lot fans. There were some ref bumps and run-ins by Taichi, who was later dispatched by the returning Jeff Cobb.
Goto defeats Elgin and regains his NEVER Openweight Championship! Next No.1 contender for Goto is Jeff cobb!!https://t.co/ZDoZyub4BD#njpw #njkizuna pic.twitter.com/magn9ltnOw
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) June 17, 2018
Cobb, who tagged with Elgin in last year’s NJPW World Tag League, is scheduled to be Goto’s next challenger in the near future. Although Cobb has not participated in New Japan since the tag team tournament and since the leaked text messages were Elgin was showed bashing his tag team with Jeff Cobb, he (Cobb) will have his first title opportunity in New Japan and it seems to still have an on-screen alliance with Big Mike.
For Hirooki Goto, his third reign is a strange one – he’s always floating between the upper mid-card, but never as a main talent in the company. The lost of the title was seen as a way to get Goto to go for other main titles. He brings the traditional hard-hitting style that represents the NEVER Openweight matches, but against opponents like Elgin, he tends to fall behind in terms of ability and following. It remains to be seen if Goto will hold the NEVER Championship in the long run.
