Tama Tonga is the new NEVER Openweight Champion.
Dating back to NJPW Dominion 2022, Karl Anderson had been in possession of the NEVER Openweight Championship. He defeated Tama Tonga to win the belt.
Six months later, Tama Tonga bested Karl Anderson at Wrestle Kingdom 17 to win back the title.
While Anderson was champion, he returned to WWE alongside Luke Gallows. There was an initial scheduled title defense against Hikuleo that had to be postponed due to Anderson being set to compete for WWE in Saudi Arabia. Anderson went on to defeat Hikuleo to set up the match with Tama Tonga.
He is a part of The O.C. in WWE with Gallows, Michin (Mia Yim) and AJ Styles. Styles is currently sidelined with a broken ankle.
