Yota Tsuji has a goal of separating the IWGP World Heavyweight Title and bringing back the original IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Tsuji will battle Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at NJPW Sakura Genesis and in a press conference hyping the match, he said that he wanted to separate the World Heavyweight Championship if he wins, retire the IWGP Intercontinental Title and continue on with the IWGP Heavyweight Title.
“I want to make it exactly clear just how much IWGP means,” Tsuji said (per NJPW). “That means I should take the IWGP World Heavyweight title, separate it again, officially retire the Intercontinental belt, and carry the IWGP Heavyweight. Lead us into a new era while properly respecting the lineage that came before. But that’s all after I beat Naito. First I have to beat him, and it would mean a lot to defeat Tetsuya Naito in order to achieve my goals,” Tsuji said at his press conference.”
He continued, “I want to restore the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and properly retire the IWGP Intercontinental. I would want the fourth generation IWGP Heavyweight Championship. And I do want to make this very clear. The World title came about because Tetsuya Naito at first wanted to be double champion, and he achieved that. After he did, there was talk of the unification, and Naito was against that. He fought against it, and he lost. In all honesty, Naito wants that World title he has now to be separated. But his story, the route he took to get here means that he feels he can’t. I plan on doing what he’s unable to.”
The two titles were unified into the current IWGP World Heavyweight Championships at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15. NJPW Sakura Genesis takes place on April 6th in Tokyo.
