Tetsuya Naito wins first championship since NJPW departure
Tetsuya Naito is a champion once again.
On Friday, Naito captured the Singapore Pro Wrestling Southeast Asia Championship, the first title he’s won since leaving NJPW earlier this year. He defeated The Statement and then-champion Da Butcherman in a three-way bout on the show. The Statement is company founder Andruew Tang.
“The title win that shocked the region! Tetsuya Naito defeated Da Butcherman and The Statement to become your NEW SPW Southeast Asia Champion. Naito pinned Da Butcherman after hitting him with a Destino,” SPW wrote on Facebook.
Naito and his LIJ teammate BUSHI left NJPW following the expiration of Naito’s contract earlier this year. Negotiations between him and the company are said to have fallen through due to money issues. Our own Bryan Alvarez wrote to his subscribers on X in April, “The impression I have gotten when it comes to Naito is simply that he wanted a lot more money than they were willing to pay him. Good chance this had been awhile in the making.”
Naito is booked to wrestle for the SAJ (Squash A Jobber) promotion on January 31 in Milan, Italy. He and BUSHI are also booked for wXw next year, after they pulled out of the promotion’s November 15 show at the last minute.
Dave Meltzer wrote in today’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
“After smoothing over things with Tetsuya Naito and Bushi after they pulled out of the 11/15 show at the last minute, both will now be coming in again on 2/21 in Hamburg and for 16 Carat weekend in March. Both will be in the tournament.”
SPW’s Facebook post about Naito’s title win is below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.