Kurt Angle Defeats Brock Lesnar For IWGP Heavyweight Title; NJPW Threatens Lawsuit
Kurt Angle defeated Brock Lesnar Friday in Tokyo, Japan. The match was advertised as for the IWGP Title, however Lesnar still has possession of the belt. Why you ask?
Back in October 2005, Brock Lesnar won the title from Chono and Fujita in a 3 way dance. Lesnar was stripped of the title in 2006 because Lesnar didn't defend the title in Japan. Lesnar refused to return the belt; claiming he was owed money by New Japan Pro Wrestling.
NJPW held a tournament for the title, which was won by Tanahashi.
Antonio Inoki, who was the founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling, recently had severed ties with NJPW. He formed a new promotion, the IGF.
IGF held yesterday's event and advertised the IWGP title match. Lesnar following the match, kept possession due to the $$ issue. Antonio Inoki claims that since he founded NJPW, he has the right to use the IWGP name. Hence the 'title defense'. However NJPW is threatening a lawsuit against Inoki and IGP, since they own the rights to the IWGP trademark.
More on this story as it happens.
A quick note after the Angle / Lesnar match. Brock Lesnar demanded a rematch against Angle. Although Angle agreed to a future rematch, he claimed he would do so but under MMA rules.
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