Titles change hands at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

New champions were crowned in all seven title matches at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 in Tokyo Dome on Thursday.  In the main event, Tetsuya Naito defeated SANADA in 25:42 to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Naito, the G1 Climax 33 winner in August 2023, won this iteration of the top prize in NJPW for the first time after hitting Destino and beating his former LIJ stablemate via pinfall.  After the main event, EVIL attacked Naito with help from Dick Togo to establish himself as the likely first challenger of Naito's reign. SANADA helped Naito dispatch EVIL and Togo before leaving the ring to Naito for a roll call and celebration.  The first IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion was also crowned on the show as David Finlay pinned Will Ospreay in a three-way also involving Jon Moxley to christen the new title. The debuting Nic Nemeth and Finlay had a skirmish after the match to set up Nemeth as Finlay's likely first challenger.  El Desperado pinned Hiromu Takahashi in the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship