Konosuke Takeshita Admits He Feels The Pressures Of Being IWGP World Heavyweight Champion

By: Lewis Carlan

Konosuke Takeshita has been experiencing a true megastar year in 2025 while competing for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, DDT Pro-Wrestling & All Elite Wrestling. His accomplishments for the year including holding the NEVER Openweight Title, the AEW International Title and he was the winner of the prestigious NJPW G1 Climax 35 tournament.

On Oct. 13th, Takeshita accomplished his biggest feat of the year when he won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Zack Sabre Jr. at Ryogoku Kokugikan. This is, without a doubt, the highest ranking championship he has ever won and it immediately turned him into the new face of NJPW.

With the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship comes great responsibilities and added pressures, something that Takeshita appears to be well aware of.

In a new interview now available on the NJPW website, Takeshita was asked how he felt being the new champion, here is how he responded:

From Konosuke Takeshita:

“Winning it, honestly from the bottom of my heart I was so happy. Then, the next day, that’s when I started to feel the pressure that comes along with it. I spent about two months wrestling in America with that sense of pride in being the G1 winner. Now it’s as the IWGP champion. It’s hardly like I let up any when I wrestle, but now I’m standing in that ring as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and that means the pressure is just that bit stronger.”

Photo Credit: NJPW

It was brought up to Takeshita that he had indicated that nobody understands how much the IWGP means more than he does.

From Konosuke Takeshita:

“Absolutely. Just because I won this on my first try doesn’t mean that it was an easy belt to win. It was the culmination of everything I’ve done in wrestling. Now I have it, I definitely feel all the responsibility that comes with it.”

Takeshita will make his first defense against former champion Hirooki Goto on November 2 in Gifu. During the course of the interview, Takeshita gave his thoughts on Goto as well as Goto’s reign as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in the first half of 2025.

From Konosuke Takeshita:

I think it takes guts to stand up to me on the roll I’m on right now. So I appreciated the guts Goto had, and I would have accepted the first person to come out and challenge me. But I did kind of figure there would be masses of people running out and that didn’t happen. I thought that me taking the belt would send that level of a shockwave. So I was fine with Goto coming out, but I did think ‘so that’s it?’ If that was it, well nobody can bitch and moan that I’m champion. You all had your chance.

Photo Credit: NJPW

From Konosuke Takeshita on Goto’s reign as champion:

“He’s been doing this for 20 years and he’s still getting better. He hasn’t stopped evolving, that’s why he was able to finally get the title after all those times trying. I honestly respect what he’s done, but I don’t agree with any of his Goto Revolution stuff.  I’m doing things that nobody has ever done. I’ve put myself out there in the world, I’ve produced results out there in the world, and I’m proving just how incredible Japanese pro-wrestlers can be to the world. I’m more of a revolutionary than he is. Goto has stood by and protected NJPW this whole time, and I understand where that drive and passion comes from, but it’s conservative, right? Whether in Japan, or worldwide, I’ve always been drawn to the revolutionaries and their way of life. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to spark a revolution in pro-wrestling. That’s been my way of life. So I think a fake revolution is a bit of an insult.”

To close out the NJPW interview, Takeshita gave his final thoughts on his upcoming title defense against Hirooki Goto:

From Konosuke Takeshita:

“Every time I wrestle I want to elevate the status of pro-wrestling. I’ve always pursued strength, and now that I have the IWGP title, I need to have the kind of matches for this belt that nobody’s ever seen. That level of competition has made the IWGP what it is over its history. I’m not a NJPW born project. So it’s on me to elevate the status of the IWGP even further with a new style of wrestling. It isn’t about surpassing history, it’s about making an all new IWGP, my IWGP for the world to see. That’s the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in my hands. The world in that title is key; as long as I have this belt, the world will see that the IWGP title is the absolute pinnacle of professional wrestling.”

Konosuke Takeshita’s first title defense as well as all NJPW events can be seen on NJPW World subscription streaming service.