On Saturday night in the main event of New Japan Pro Wrestling‘s Resurgence show in Los Angeles, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Lance Archer to become the new IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion. In doing so, he is the first man to ever win every single championship in the history of NJPW. Tanahashi also becomes the first Japanese wrestler to hold the championship as well.
The win for Hiroshi Tanahashi is just another career-defining victory for him. He becomes the sixth man to ever hold the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, following in the footsteps of Kenny Omega, Jay White, Juice Robinson, Jon Moxley, and his opponent at Resurgence in “The Murderhawk Monster.”
At the conclusion of the match, Archer congratulated him for the win and told him that when Tanahashi does ever go to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Archer wants to be the first man to face him over anyone else. In Tanahashi’s post-match promo, he doubled down on his return to the United States saying that as its champion, he would be back soon.
It is likely that with Tanahashi winning the championship, he will be bringing it back to Japan as it will serve as the secondary title like the IWGP Intercontinental Championship had been over the past decade before it was unified with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship earlier this year.
Tanahashi will now get to build the title’s legacy up moving forward.
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