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- NJPW has been on a bit of a decline over the last few years in terms of buzz and hype, which has also led to their top belt, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship suffering from the same fate too. However, despite this brief dip, the belt does still hold a strong level of prestige, with it being held by some of the all-time greatest competitors. Some newer fans to wrestling especially might not know a whole bunch about the title, seen as NJPW as a whole has dipped a little with its popularity. There may also simply be several facts, figures, and other pieces of information that even the most avid of fans may now know either.
For many modern die-hard pro wrestling fans, the most prestigious title in all of wrestling isn’t the WWE Championship, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, or even the AEW World Championship. Instead, it’s New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, formerly known as the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which has been held by legends like The Great Muta and Masahiro Chono and modern stars like AJ Styles and Kazuchika Okada.
However, fans might not know that much about NJPW’s top belt, since the promotion only got popular with Western fans in the 2010s. Let’s take a look at the history of the belt and what fans should know about it, from its earliest days to its modern incarnation.
UPDATE: 2022/09/24 15:30 EST BY Andrew Kelly
NJPW has been on a bit of a decline over the last few years in terms of buzz and hype, which has also led to their top belt, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship suffering from the same fate too. However, despite this brief dip, the belt does still hold a strong level of prestige, with it being held by some of the all-time greatest competitors. Some newer fans to wrestling especially might not know a whole bunch about the title, seen as NJPW as a whole has dipped a little with its popularity. There may also simply be several facts, figures, and other pieces of information that even the most avid of fans may now know either.
13 Kazuchika Okada Is The Longest Reigning Champion
When it comes to the greatest champions to hold a belt, it doesn’t always necessarily mean it is the individual with the most reigns, with a singular run being enough to make someone feel like a phenomenal champion and an absolute star.
When it comes to the IWGP Title, Kazuchika Okada has the longest reign out of anybody, holding the gold for 720 days before dropping it to Kenny Omega after around two years at the top of the food chain.
12 Hiroshi Tanahashi Has The Most Reigns As IWGP Champion
Hiroshi Tanahashi is the individual with the most reigns with the prize, totalling an astonishing 8 separate reigns. His first came all the way back in 2006 as he won a tournament for the vacant prize, with his most recent coming over a decade later in 2019.
Tanahashi is one of the greats of NJPW, with his time at the top being clear proof of exactly that, especially when looking at his list of accomplishments. His reigns were mostly substantial too, and it was never really a case of him playing hot potato with the gold to rack up his number of times being champion.
11 There Have Been 35 Different IWGP Champions
Throughout the several different iterations of NJPW’s top title, there have been many different champions, dating back to the 1980s all the way up to the present day.
There have been 35 different individuals who have had the championship around their waist, including older greats like Hulk Hogan, The Great Muta, and Antonio Inoki, in addition to more modern day favorites like Kenny Omega, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kota Ibushi, and Kazuchika Okada.
10 Originally Part of the G1 Climax
The IWGP World Heavyweight Championship is tied with the G1 Climax in a number of ways. These days, the winner of the G1 gets a title shot at Wrestle Kingdom, but back in 1983, the inaugural winner received an early version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
The first winner would be Hulk Hogan, who had to defend the title the following year against the winner of the 1984 G1, who turned out to be NJPW founder Antonio Inoki.
9 Officially Established In 1987
The year 1987 marked the establishment of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as a traditional pro wrestling championship, with regular title defenses rather than the annual title defense that the G1 originally established.
To crown the first champion of this new lineage, it was determined that the winner of the 1987 G1 Climax — then known as the IWGP League — would receive the belt. With a field that included Akira Maeda, Scott Hall, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, the finals of the tournament would come down to Antonio Inoki vs. Masa Saito.
8 Antonio Inoki Was The First Champion
In the finals of the 1987 IWGP League tournament would be held in Ryōgoku Sumo Hall on 6/12/1987, with Antonio Inoki reversing Masa Saito’s signature Saito Suplex to earn a pinfall and become the inaugural IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
This landmark reign would last 325 days and four successful title defenses against opponents like Steve Williams, Riki Choshu, and Bam Bam Bigelow. However, it would end in the first vacating of the belt, with Inoki fracturing his foot in May 1988.
7 Big Van Vader Was The First Gaijin Champion
March 1988 marked the completion of the Tokyo Dome’s construction, and with it New Japan’s first show at the brand-new stadium. Battle Satellite was held in late April 1989, and for the occasion IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vacated the belt so a champion could be determined at this Dome show. Fujinami would only make it to the semifinals, losing to rising monster heel Big Van Vader.
Vader would defeat Shinya Hashimoto in the finals of this tournament, becoming the fourth champion and the first gaijin to ever hold the belt. Over the course of his career, Vader would capture the title three times, which remains a record for gaijin wrestlers.
6 The IWGP Third Belt
Vader wouldn’t be the only recognizable gaijin to hold the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar defeated Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono in a three-way for the belt in 2005, but ended up unable to return to Japan, resulting in a situation where Lesnar was stripped of the title but still had the belt.
Brock took the belt over to Antonio Inoki’s new promotion, Inoki Genome Federation, which adopted the title as its own. Brock would drop the belt to Kurt Angle, who’d bring it back to New Japan, who’d call it the IWGP Third Belt. The title would then be unified with the “real” IWGP Heavyweight Championship after Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Angle.
5 The Double Gold Dash
In 2019, the upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 14 — held on 1/4/2020 — was scheduled to be a two-night event, and to mark the occasion a bold challenge was issued: Night 1 would feature separate bouts for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, while Night 2 would be a winner-take-all main event between the respective champions of Night 1.
The angle was officially named The Double Gold Dash, with IC champion Tetsuya Naito capturing the Heavyweight Title from Kazuchika Okada, becoming a double champion in the process.
4 The Double Championship
With Tetsuya Naito’s victory at Wrestle Kingdom 14, the first IWGP Double Champion was crowned, but it wasn’t technically a unification. Despite the Double Championship moniker, Naito still carried both belts, which were considered distinct championships simply held in tandem.
Naito also seemed determined to defend the belts separately, but never got to do so. The closest he ever got was after losing the belt when he challenged Kota Ibushi for the IC strap in order to prevent an impending unification.
3 Unified With The Intercontinental Title in 2021
Tetsuya Naito lost the dual championship to Kota Ibushi in the main event of Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom 15, after which Ibushi began campaigning for an official unification of the two belts. In early March, it officially happened, with the Heavyweight and Intercontinental Titles being unified to form the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
Rather than simply be awarded the belt, Ibushi’s previously non-title match with El Desperado at New Japan’s 49th Anniversary Show was made into a title match for the newly unified belt.
2 The New Title Design Was Controversial
Kota Ibushi’s victory over El Desperado made him the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in early March, but a new belt to represent the unified title wasn’t unveiled until the end of the month.
Rather than replicate the design of the Heavyweight or Intercontinental belts, the World Heavyweight Title adopted a whole new design with a winged shape on the front plate. Many fans, however, were critical of the redesign, unfavorably comparing the new look to that of the old butterfly-shaped WWE Divas Championship.
1 Okada Tried To Bring Back The Original
In 2021, Kazuchika Okada defeated Kota Ibushi in the finals of the G1 Climax, earning a shot at Shingo Takagi’s World Heavyweight Title at Wrestle Kingdom 16.
However, rather than carry the Money in the Bank-esque briefcase signifying his contendership, Okada carried the old pre-unification version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. However, after defeating Takagi to win the World Title at the Tokyo Dome, Okada carried the redesigned World Title belt rather than the original.