Strong Openweight championship match announced for NJPW The New Beginning USA
NJPW has officially announced Tomohiro Ishii’s Strong Openweight championship defense match at NJPW The New Beginning USA.
On Monday(Tuesday in Japan), NJPW shared the upcoming title match via a social media announcement. Ishii is now set to defend his title against Boltin Oleg. Ishii, 50, has held the title for 285-days now, winning it from Gabe Kidd last year in April, 2025. His upcoming opponent, Oleg, 30, is himself a former NEVER Openweight Champion as well as a NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion.
NJPW The New Beginning USA is scheduled to take place on February 27, 2026, at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey.
NJPW New Beginning USA lineup | February 27th, 2026
- El Phantasmo (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the NJPW World TV Championship
- Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Boltin Oleg for the Strong Openweight championship
- IWGP Women’s and NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion Syuri to compete
- El Desperado to compete
- IWGP Tag Team Champions the Knockout Bros (OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) to compete
- David Finlay to compete
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
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