The era of the King Of Pro-Wrestling is no more. New Japan Pro-Wrestling had announced previously that the gimmick-based KOPW championship would be retired in 2025, and according to the company's English language website, the IWGP committee which oversees the promotion's title belts officially announced the retirement of the title early Thursday.
"On behalf of the IWGP Committee, NJPW thanks fans for their support of the KOPW title, and for their votes and interaction over the years," the committee wrote in the brief announcement.
The title was introduced in 2020 by current AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada, who came up with the idea for a championship which could only be defended in gimmick matches. The champion and the challenger each picked a stipulation and the fans voted on which stipulation they'd like to see. Instead of changing hands the normal way, all champions were known as "interim champions" throughout the year, with whoever holds the belt at the end of the year being declared that year's official KOPW champion.The Great-O-Khan demanded the end of the title on December 22 of last year when he was declared the 2024 champion.
Interestingly, Okada himself never held the title; the early days of the belt were dominated by Toru Yano, who often found sneaky ways to defend the interim title or regain it. Yano held the 2020 and 2021 iterations of the championship the only person to officially hold it twice and has the most combined days as interim champion with 476. Shingo Takagi was declared the 2022 KOPW and set the record for most defenses of the interim title, while Taichi won the 2023 KOPW before finally ceding it to Great-O-Khan.
