Kota Ibushi is not focused on the Intercontinental Title.
"The Golden Star" Kota Ibushi is a part of the field of the G1 Climax 29 tournament and his first match in the tournament resulted in a loss by way of KENTA. Ibushi suffered an ankle injury during the match but made it clear via social media that the injury will not prevent him from giving his all as long as he has say-so. It was last month at Dominion that Kota lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Tetsuya Naito and Ibushi has no interest in a rematch for the belt as he expressed to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated. Ibushi stated that he does have interest in a rematch with Naito and for that to happen between as of this writing and next month, their match will have to take place in the finals of the G1 Climax 29 tournament.
“We are of the same age and I respect him,” said Ibushi. “But if it is under the same condition, for the Intercontinental belt, I do not want the rematch. But if the condition is to become a little more special—if the next match is going to be for more than that, for the G1, I will do the rematch.”
During a recent interview, Kota Ibushi also talked about what he has learned from Jushin Thunder Liger and to read Ibushi's comments, check out Fightful's published article about the topic.