IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
Men's professional wrestling world championship From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (IWGP世界ヘビー級王座, IWGP Sekai hebī-kyū ōza) is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship 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).[1] The championship was created on March 1, 2021, by the unification of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. The reigning champion is Hirooki Goto, who is in his first reign.
| IWGP World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The championship belt | |||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | March 1, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Current champion | Hirooki Goto | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date won | February 11, 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
History
Summarize
Perspective
In 2019, when he was IWGP Intercontinental Champion, Tetsuya Naito declared his intention of making history by becoming the first to hold the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the Intercontinental Championship at the same time.[2] By the end of the year, Jay White, who had won the Intercontinental Championship from Naito, and Kota Ibushi, who was the next challenger for the Heavyweight Championship, also expressed the same desire. After a fan vote, it was decided that Naito, White, Ibushi, and Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada would compete at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 4–5, 2020, where one would end up with both titles.[3] Naito achieved the feat to become the first "Double Champion" and the two titles were defended together since (apart from one time). During 2020, Naito said his original intention was for the titles to be defended separately. He requested for this, or otherwise for the titles to be unified, but no change happened.[4]
After Ibushi won the titles from Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 15 on January 4, 2021, he expressed his desire for the titles to be unified.[5] On March 1, 2021, with Ibushi still champion, the unification of the titles to create the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship was officially announced, with Ibushi as the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion. After the announcement, Ibushi, who was scheduled to face El Desperado at the NJPW 49th Anniversary Show on March 4, 2021 in a non-title match, requested for the match to be for the Double Championship.[6] His request was granted with the title unification delayed until after the match, of which the winner would be final Double Champion and, therefore, the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion.[7] Ibushi won the match.[8]
With the announcement of the new championship was the announcement of a new championship belt.[5] Until the new belt was ready, Ibushi continued to hold the old IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championship belts. The new belt was eventually revealed and presented to the champion Ibushi in a presentation ceremony on March 30, 2021.[9] Its design incorporated the past belt designs of the two old titles.[10]
Reigns
Summarize
Perspective
As of May 5, 2025, there have been twelve reigns shared among ten wrestlers with one vacancy. Kota Ibushi was the inaugural champion. Sanada's singular reign is the longest at 271 days, while Ibushi's reign is the shortest at 31 days. Hirooki Goto is the oldest champion when he won it at 45 years old, while Will Ospreay is the youngest, winning it at 27 years old. Naito and Kazuchika Okada are tied with the most reigns at two.
Hirooki Goto is the reigning champion in his first reign. He defeated previous champion Zack Sabre Jr. for the title at The New Beginning in Osaka in Osaka, Japan on February 11, 2025.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| + | Current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | |||||
| New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||
| 1 | Kota Ibushi | March 4, 2021 | 49th Anniversary Show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 31 | 0 | After Ibushi, who was the reigning IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Champion, successfully defended both titles against El Desperado at the event, they were unified into the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, with Ibushi as the inaugural champion. | [8] | |
| 2 | Will Ospreay | April 4, 2021 | Sakura Genesis | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 46 | 1 | [11] | ||
| — | Vacated | May 20, 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | The championship was vacated due to Will Ospreay sustaining a neck injury. | [12] | |
| 3 | Shingo Takagi | June 7, 2021 | Dominion 6.6 in Osaka-jo Hall | Osaka, Japan | 1 | 211 | 3 | Defeated Kazuchika Okada to win the vacant championship. | [13] | |
| 4 | Kazuchika Okada | January 4, 2022 | Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 1 |
Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 159 | 4 | [14] | ||
| 5 | Jay White | June 12, 2022 | Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall | Osaka, Japan | 1 | 206 | 2 | [15] | ||
| 6 | Kazuchika Okada | January 4, 2023 | Wrestle Kingdom 17 | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 94 | 2 | [16] | ||
| 7 | Sanada | April 8, 2023 | Sakura Genesis | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 271 | 4 | [17] | ||
| 8 | Tetsuya Naito | January 4, 2024 | Wrestle Kingdom 18 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 99 | 2 | [18] | ||
| 9 | Jon Moxley | April 12, 2024 | Windy City Riot | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | 1 | 79 | 4 | [19] | ||
| 10 | Tetsuya Naito | June 30, 2024 | AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door | Elmont, New York, U.S. | 2 | 106 | 1 | [20] | ||
| 11 | Zack Sabre Jr. | October 14, 2024 | King of Pro-Wrestling | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 120 | 4 | [21] | ||
| 12 | Hirooki Goto | February 11, 2025 | The New Beginning in Osaka | Osaka, Japan | 1 | 83+ | 5 | [22] | ||
Combined reigns
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As of May 5, 2025.
| † | Indicates the current champion |
|---|
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined defenses |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanada | 1 | 4 | 271 |
| 2 | Kazuchika Okada | 2 | 6 | 253 |
| 3 | Shingo Takagi | 1 | 3 | 211 |
| 4 | Jay White | 1 | 2 | 206 |
| 5 | Tetsuya Naito | 2 | 3 | 205 |
| 6 | Zack Sabre Jr. | 1 | 4 | 120 |
| 7 | Hirooki Goto † | 1 | 5 | 83+ |
| 8 | Jon Moxley | 1 | 4 | 79 |
| 9 | Will Ospreay | 1 | 1 | 46 |
| 10 | Kota Ibushi | 1 | 0 | 31 |
References
External links
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