Tetsuya Naito Thinks He Should Defend One IWGP Title At A Time, Reflects on Past Few Years

Tetsuya Naito spoke with NJPW for a new interview discussing his holding both the IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental titles plus more. You can check out some highlights below:

On reflecting on his past few years: “Hmm. Well, I guess my key year was 2015, right? I went to Mexico that May, came back in June in Los Ingobernables. Then came EVIL, BUSHI, SANADA, Hiromu and Shingo Takagi. 2015 was the start of it all … If you find yourself with a little bit of extra time on your hands in the current situation, I’d suggest reliving the last five years of Los Ingobernables De Japon.”

On Kota Ibushi saying Naito’s Double Gold Dash win wasn’t fair because he didn’t have anything on the line: “He did say that. And, hey, maybe he was right. But the fact is, he lost against Kazuchika Okada. So for him to say that after he lost two straight nights, that’s kinda uncool, right? It would be different if he’d have said that before Wrestle Kingdom … He loses two straight, and then comes back and says ‘Naito wasn’t fair’. That just makes him look like a geek. Why not say that before the Tokyo Dome, with us all gathered there? He could have turned to me and said ‘hey, you don’t belong’, and that would have been cooler. Instead, it’s just him whining because he lost. Nothing more.”

On Okada saying that he wouldn’t want to hold both titles: “Heheh. I think it’s awesome, isn’t it? He has never once shifted from that position, from that obsession with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. I really do respect that. And I think it’s a good thing to have different stances and different viewpoints being put out there. It’s good to have guys that think there should only be one belt. I mean, I think I should only be putting one belt on the line. Maybe the company should listen to that and rethink everything? Do we really need to be running these double title defences into the ground? … If every defence I have is going to be for both titles, then what’s the point of having two titles? Why not unify them at that point? Maybe that’s a conversation that we have, but for the time being there are two titles, so why not use them both? I think it should be fine to defend one title belt at a time.”