Hiromu Takahashi Wants To Defend The IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title Everywhere

Hiromu Takahashi will have his hands busy with Lio Rush at this year's New Japan Cup Finals, as he'll be defending his IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship against the former WWE NXT Cruiserweight Champion, but his mind is already on the future. When discussing defending his title in Ao-re Nagaoka in Niigata, Japan, Hiromu says that he wants to take the title to as many venues as possible.

"I'd love to go to all sorts of places with this belt — even have a title match in a tiny town with no TV, no NJPW World, just for the live audience," Takahashi told NJPW in a recent interview, saying he thinks that he and the belt could sell out any arena. 

"What I want people to really feel is how exciting it is to be in the venue and see wrestling in person," Takahashi continued. "It's great to have NJPW World and be able to watch wrestling wherever you are, but there's something you can't feel just through watching video." Hiromu even said that he's so adamant about defending the title in a live event, that he would turn down NJPW World's offer to broadcast it. "I think it'd be really fun to have a special, big match that's just for the people that show up."

The interviewer asked Takahashi about defending the title in all 47 prefectures of the country, but even that was too much for Hiromu. "I don't know if my body would hold up to that," Hiromu stated. "But I'd definitely like to defend it in places that have never seen a defense before."

The New Japan Cup Finals are set to take place Tuesday, March 21 on NJPW World at 4am ET. Takahashi has been champion since January 4, when he defeated Taiji Ishimori at Wrestle Kingdom 17.