The International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) Heavyweight Championship is a professional championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. Its Japanese name is IWGPヘビー級選手権 (transcription: IWGP hebī-kyū senshuken).

The International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) is NJPW’s governning body.

Short facts about the championship

Owned by NJPW
Established On the 12th of June, 1987

Structure

A title holder must successfully defend his title to keep it. If he wins the match, he remains champion. If he loses the match, a new champion is crowned.

IWGP Heavyweight ChampionshipIf the current champion can’t and won’t participate in a match to defend his title, a tournament will be held to determine a new champion. This has happened several times in the history of the championship, usually because the reigning champion has been injured.

Belts

The championship has been represented by four different belts. The current belt was introduced in March 2008.

In 2006, Brock Lesnar caused commotion within the wrestling world by refusing to defend his title and refusing to return the physical belt, claiming that NJPW owed him money.

Triple Crown

The (IWGP) Heavyweight Championship consitutes one prong of the (inofficial) New Japan Triple Crown, with the other two components being the IWGP Intercontinental and the NEVER Openweight Championships.

Notable achievments

  • Antonio Inoki became the inagurual champion by defeating Masa Saito in a tournament final.
  • At the time of writing, 7-time winner Hiroshi Tanahashi holds the record for most regins.
  • As of 2016, Okada holds the record for most days as champion with 1,450+ days and counting. Okada has four reigns, with the fourth and current one being the longest of any reign in the title’s history, lasting for 650+ days and still going on.
  • The shortest reign in the history of the title was 16 days long. This is how long Kensuke Sasaki’s fourth reign lasted.
  • When it comes to successful defenses during one individual reign, Okada and Tanahashi are tied on first place with 11 successful defenses. Since Okada’s ongoing fourth reign hasn’t ended at the time of writing, he still has a shot at surpassing Tanahashi.
  • Tanahashi successfully defended his title 28 times over his seven reigns, which is the highest number of successful defenses completed by any of the champions.

Notable foreigners

A vast majority of of the championship winners have been Japanese wrestlers, but a handful of foreigners have also managed to earn their way into this exclusive groups, such as:

  • Leon Allen White (Big Van Vader) from the USA
  • Salman Alkhauzurovich Hashimikov from the Kazakh Soviet Republic (today Kazakhstan)
  • Scott Norton from the USA
  • Robert “Bob” Sapp from the USA
  • Brock Lesnar from the USA
  • Allen Jones (AJ Styles) from the USA

Title history 1987 – 2015

# Order in reign history
R Reign: The reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed
DH Days held
SD Successful defenses: The number of successful defenses the champion had during his reign
— Used for vacated reigns

 

# Wrestler R Date DH Event Location SD Notes
1 Antonio

Inoki

 1 June 12, 1987 325 Tokyo, Japan 4
— Vacated — May 2, 1988 — — — Vacated because Inoki’s foot injury
2 Tatsumi

Fujinami

 1 May 8, 1988 19 Tokyo, Japan 1 Vacant title won by defeating Big Van Vader
— Vacated — May 27, 1988 — — — Title held up after defense against Riki Choshu ended in a no contest
3 Tatsumi

Fujinami

 2 June 24, 1988 285 Osaka, Japan 7 Vacant titel won by defeating Riki Choshu
— Vacated — April 5, 1989 — — — Vacated so the title could be decided in a tournament.
4 Big Van

Vader

 1 April 24, 1989 31 Tokyo, Japan 0 Vacant titel won in tournament final; Shinya Hashimoto was defeated
5 Salman Hashimikov 1 May 25, 1989 48 Osaka, Japan 0
6 Riki

Choshu

 1 July 12, 1989 29 Osaka, Japan 0
7 Big Van

Vader

 2 August 10, 1989 374 Tokyo, Japan 4
8 Riki

Choshu

 2 August 19, 1990 129 Tokyo, Japan 1
9 Tatsumi

Fujinami

 3 December 26, 1990 22 Hamamatsu, Japan 0
10 Big Van

Vader

 3 January 17, 1991 46 Yokohama, Japan 0
11 Tatsumi

Fujinami

 4 March 4, 1991 306 Hiroshima, Japan 3
12 Riki

Choshu

 3 January 4, 1992 225 Tokyo, Japan 4
13 The Great

Muta

 1 August 16, 1992 400 Fukuoka, Japan 5
14 Shinya

Hashimoto

 1 September 20, 1993 196 Nagoya, Japan 4
15 Tatsumi

Fujinami

 5 April 4, 1994 27 Hiroshima, Japan 0
16 Shinya Hashimoto 2 May 1, 1994 367 Fukuoka, Japan 9
17 Keiji

Mutoh

 2 May 3, 1995 246 Fukuoka, Japan 5 Mutoh previously won the title as The Great Muta.
18 Nobuhiko

Takada

 1 January 4, 1996 116 Tokyo, Japan 1
19 Shinya Hashimoto 3 April 29, 1996 489 Tokyo, Japan 7
20 Kensuke

Sasaki

 1 August 31, 1997 216 Yokohama, Japan 3
21 Tatsumi

Fujinami

 6 April 4, 1998 126 Tokyo, Japan 2
22 Masahiro

Chono

 1 August 8, 1998 44 Osaka, Japan 0
— Vacated — September 21, 1998 — — — Title vacated due to Chono’s neck injury.
23 Scott

Norton

 1 September 23, 1998 103 Yokohama, Japan 4 Vacant title won by defeating Yuji Nagata
24 Keiji

Mutoh

 3 January 4, 1999 340 Tokyo, Japan 5
25 Genichiro

Tenryu

 1 December 10, 1999 25 Osaka, Japan 0
26 Kensuke Sasaki 2 January 4, 2000 279 Tokyo, Japan 5
— Vacated — October 9, 2000 — — — Vacated after Sasaki lost a non-title match to Toshiaki Kawada at Do Judge!!.
27 Kensuke

Sasaki

 3 January 4, 2001 72 Tokyo, Japan 1 Vacant title won by defeating Toshiaki Kawada in a tournament final.
28 Scott

Norton

 2 March 17, 2001 23 Nagoya, Japan 0
29 Kazuyuki

Fujita

 1 April 9, 2001 270 Osaka, Japan 2
— Vacated — January 4, 2002 — — — Title vacated due to Fujita’s achilles tendon injury
30 Tadao

Yasuda

 1 February 16, 2002 48 Tokyo, Japan 1 Vacant title won by defeating Yuji Nagata in a tournament final.
31 Yuji

Nagata

 1 April 5, 2002 392 Tokyo, Japan 10
32 Yoshihiro Takayama 1 May 2, 2003 185 Tokyo, Japan 3
33 Hiroyoshi

Tenzan

 1 November 3, 2003 36 Yokohama, Japan 0
34 Shinsuke Nakamura 1 December 9, 2003 58 Osaka, Japan 1 Nakamura defeated Yoshihiro Takayama to unify the IWGP Heavyweight Championship with the NWF Heavyweight Championship on January 4, 2004, at Wrestling World 2004.
— Vacated — February 5, 2004 — — — Title vacated due to Nakamura suffering various injuries.
35 Hiroyoshi

Tenzan

 2 February 15, 2004 26 Tokyo, Japan 1 Vacant title won by defeating Genichiro Tenryu in a tournament final.
36 Kensuke

Sasaki

 4 March 12, 2004 16 Tokyo, Japan 0
37 Bob

Sapp

 1 March 28, 2004 66 Tokyo, Japan 1
— Vacated — June 2, 2004 — — — Title vacated after Sapp lost a K-1 fight to Kazuyuki Fujita.
38 Kazuyuki

Fujita

 2 June 5, 2004 126 Osaka, Japan 1 Vacant title won by defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi.
39 Kensuke

Sasaki

 5 October 9, 2004 64 Tokyo, Japan 2
40 Hiroyoshi

Tenzan

 3 December 12, 2004 70 Nagoya, Japan 0
41 Satoshi

Kojima

 1 February 20, 2005 83 Tokyo, Japan 1
42 Hiroyoshi

Tenzan

 4 May 14, 2005 65 Tokyo, Japan 1
43 Kazuyuki

Fujita

 3 July 18, 2005 82 Sapporo, Japan 0
44 Brock

Lesnar

 1 October 8, 2005 280 Tokyo, Japan 3 This was a three-way match, also involving Masahiro Chono.
— Vacated — July 15, 2006 — — — Title was vacated as Lesnar refused to defend it.
45 Hiroshi

Tanahashi

 1 July 17, 2006 270 Sapporo, Japan 4 Vacant title won by defeating Giant Bernard in a tournament final.
46 Yuji

Nagata

 2 April 13, 2007 178 Osaka, Japan 2
47 Hiroshi

Tanahashi

 2 October 8, 2007 88 Tokyo, Japan 1
48 Shinsuke Nakamura 2 January 4, 2008 114 Tokyo, Japan 2 Nakamura defeated Kurt Angle on February 17, 2008, on the Circuit2008 New Japan Ism tour to unify the NJPW and IGF versions of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
49 Keiji

Mutoh

 4 April 27, 2008 252 Osaka, Japan 4
50 Hiroshi

Tanahashi

 3 January 4, 2009 122 Tokyo, Japan 3
51 Manabu Nakanishi 1 May 6, 2009 45 Tokyo, Japan 0
52 Hiroshi

Tanahashi

 4 June 20, 2009 58 Osaka, Japan 1
— Vacated — August 17, 2009 — — — Title vacated because of Tanahashi’s fractured eye socket.
53 Shinsuke Nakamura 3 September 27, 2009 218 Kobe, Japan 6 Vacant titel won by defeating Togi Makabe.
54 Togi

Makabe

 1 May 3, 2010 161 Fukuoka, Japan 3
55 Satoshi

Kojima

 2 October 11, 2010 85 Tokyo, Japan 1
56 Hiroshi

Tanahashi

 5 January 4, 2011 404 Tokyo, Japan 11
57 Kazuchika

Okada

 1 February 12, 2012 125 Osaka, Japan 2
58 Hiroshi

Tanahashi

 6 June 16, 2012 295 Osaka, Japan 7
59 Kazuchika

Okada

 2 April 7, 2013 391 Tokyo, Japan 8
60 A.J.

Styles

 1 May 3, 2014 163 Fukuoka, Japan 2
61 Hiroshi

Tanahashi

 7 October 13, 2014 121 Tokyo, Japan 1
62 A.J.

Styles

 2 February 11, 2015 144 Osaka, Japan 1
63 Kazuchika

Okada

 3 July 5, 2015 280 Osaka, Japan 3

This article was last updated on: April 24, 2018