IWGP Heavyweight Championship

This article is about NJPW's former top heavyweight title. For the new world title, see IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. For the original version, see IWGP Heavyweight Championship (original version). For the IGF version, see IWGP Heavyweight Championship (IGF). For other uses, see IWGP Heavyweight Championship (disambiguation).
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 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.

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]

  1. ^ 永田 やるぞ！ＩＷＧＰ５０歳で戴冠！！. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). January 31, 2015. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  2. ^ 新日本・中邑、米ＷＷＥ移籍へ. Daily Sports Online (in Japanese). Kobe Shimbun. January 8, 2016. Archived from the original on August 21, 2017. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  3. ^ Meltzer, Dave (June 23, 2017). "Daily Update: WWE house shows, Cody Rhodes, Mr. Pogo". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  4. ^ "WK9 101: The Intro". Global Force Wrestling. 13 November 2014. Archived from the original on 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  5. ^ 4代目IWGPヘビー級ベルトが遂に完成！. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). 2008-03-07. Archived from the original on 2017-12-21. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  6. ^ 真壁 ＩＣ王座に照準の真意. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). 2016-02-29. Archived from the original on 2017-07-02. Retrieved 2017-01-05.