IWGP Heavyweight Championship


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The IWGP Heavyweight Championship (IWGPヘビー級王座, IWGP hebī-kyū ōza) was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship[3] owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix (インターナショナル・レスリング・グラン・プリ, intānashonaru resuringu guran puri).[4] The title was introduced on June 12, 1987, in the final of an IWGP tournament. It was unified with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship on March 4, 2021, to form the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

IWGP Heavyweight Championship

The IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt
(2008 – 2021)

Details
PromotionNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW)
Date establishedJune 12, 1987
Date retiredMarch 4, 2021
Statistics
First champion(s)Antonio Inoki
Final champion(s)Kota Ibushi
Most reignsHiroshi Tanahashi (8 reigns)
Longest reignKazuchika Okada (4th reign) (720 days)
Shortest reignKensuke Sasaki (4th reign) (16 days)
Oldest championGenichiro Tenryu (49 years, 10 months and 8 days)[1]
Youngest championShinsuke Nakamura (23 years, 9 months and 15 days)[2]

The championship was represented by four different belts from 1987 to 2021. The fourth and last generation belt was introduced in March 2008.[5] The title formed what was unofficially called the "New Japan Triple Crown" (新日本トリプルクラウン, Shin Nihon Toripuru Kuraun) along with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and the NEVER Openweight Championship.[6]

An early version of this championship was introduced in 1983 for the winner (Hulk Hogan) of the IWGP League 1983. Since then, the championship was defended annually against the winner of the IWGP League of the year. A new IWGP Heavyweight Championship arrived only in 1987, replacing the old version.[7] The 1987 version was defended regularly and was the top championship of NJPW until the introduction of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in 2021.

Throughout the history of the championship, several wrestlers were forced to relinquish the title due to an inability to participate in title defenses. When a wrestler had been injured or unable to compete for other reasons, tournaments were held to determine the new champion.[8][9]

In 2006, Brock Lesnar was stripped of the title for refusing to defend it, claiming he was owed money by NJPW. The company went on to crown a new champion, while Lesnar kept the physical belt.[10] He signed with Antonio Inoki's Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) in 2007, and lost the championship to Kurt Angle on the promotion's inaugural event.[11][12] Angle later lost the belt in a unification match to the NJPW-recognized champion Shinsuke Nakamura in 2008.

On January 5, 2020, Tetsuya Naito won the Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships. Both titles kept their individual history, but were defended at the same time. Sometimes, they were called "Double Championship".[13][14] One year after Naito's victory, Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced the unification of both titles, deactivating the Intercontinental title and forming the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.[15] On March 4, 2021, the Double Champion Kota Ibushi defeated El Desperado to unify and retire both titles.

On October 21, 2021, after winning the G1 Climax, winner Kazuchika Okada asked for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt to be awarded to him for winning the G1 instead of the typical briefcase and contract for an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 16. On October 25 at Road to Power Struggle, Okada's request was approved and he appeared with the championship; despite holding the championship belt, Okada was not recognized as the official IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the belt is still considered deactivated.

 
Final champion Kota Ibushi

There were seventy three reigns shared among thirty-one wrestlers with ten vacancies. Title changes happen at NJPW-promoted events. Big Van Vader, Salman Hashimikov, Scott Norton, Bob Sapp, Brock Lesnar, A.J. Styles, Kenny Omega and Jay White were the eight non-Japanese wrestlers (billed as gaijin) to have held the title, with Vader being the first American champion, Hashimikov being the only Soviet-born champion,[16] Omega is the only Canadian champion and White the only New Zealand champion. Antonio Inoki was the first champion in the title's history. Hiroshi Tanahashi held the record for most reigns with eight. Kazuchika Okada held the record for the longest reign in the title's history at 720 days during his fourth reign, over which he successfully defended the title 12 times, more defenses than any other title holder. Kensuke Sasaki's fourth reign of 16 days is the shortest in the title's history. Over his five reigns, Okada successfully defended the title 30 times, the most of any champion. Big Van Vader's first and third reigns, Salman Hashimikov's only reign, Riki Choshu's first reign, Tatsumi Fujinami's third and fifth reigns, Masahiro Chono's only reign, Genichiro Tenryu's only reign, Scott Norton's second reign, Hiroyoshi Tenzan's first and third reigns, Kensuke Sasaki's fourth reign, Kazuyuki Fujita's third reign, Manabu Nakanishi's only reign, Hiroshi Tanahashi's eighth reign, and Jay White's only reign are all tied for least successful defenses at zero.

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Defenses Number of successful defenses
 
Five-time champion Kazuchika Okada holds the records for longest reign at 720 days, longest combined reign at 1,790 days, most defenses in one reign at 12, and most combined defenses at 30.
 
Record eight-time champion Hiroshi Tanahashi
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns 		Combined
defenses 		Combined days
1 Kazuchika Okada 5 30 1,790
2 Hiroshi Tanahashi 8 28 1,396
3 Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta 4 19 1,238
4 Shinya Hashimoto 3 20 1,052
5 Tatsumi Fujinami 6 13 785
6 Kensuke Sasaki/Power Warrior 5 11 647
7 Yuji Nagata 2 12 570
8 Kazuyuki Fujita 3 3 478
9 Big Van Vader 3 4 451
10 Shinsuke Nakamura 3 9 390
11 Tetsuya Naito 3 3 387
12 Riki Choshu 3 5 383
13 Antonio Inoki 1 4 325
14 A.J. Styles 2 3 307
15 Brock Lesnar 1 3 280
16 Kenny Omega 1 3 209
17 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 4 2 197
18 Yoshihiro Takayama 1 3 185
19 Satoshi Kojima 2 2 168
20 Togi Makabe 1 3 161
21 Scott Norton 2 4 126
22 Nobuhiko Takada 1 1 116
23 Bob Sapp 1 1 66
24 Kota Ibushi 1 3 59
25 Jay White 1 0 54
26 Evil 1 1 48
Tadao Yasuda 1 1 48
Salman Hashimikov 1 0 48
29 Manabu Nakanishi 1 0 45
30 Masahiro Chono 1 0 44
31 Genichiro Tenryu 1 0 25
General
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  105. ^ 【新日本】飯伏勝利で２冠統一へ！菅林会長は「ＩＷＧＰ世界ヘビー級王座」新設を明言. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). March 1, 2021. Archived from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
Sporting positions
Preceded by New Japan Pro-Wrestling's top heavyweight championship
1987–2021 		Succeeded by