List of IWGP Intercontinental Champions
The IWGP Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. On October 3, 2010, American promotion Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) announced that it had reached an agreement with NJPW for the promotion to run its first shows in the United States.[1] NJPW officially announced the tour, titled NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast, on January 4, 2011, during the Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome event, announcing events for May 13 in Rahway, New Jersey, May 14 in New York City and May 15 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2] It was also announced that during the tour, New Japan would introduce a new "IWGP Intercontinental Championship", which would become the promotion's fifth active title.[2] Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome. Overall, there have been thirteen reigns shared among eight wrestlers. Kenny Omega is the current champion in his first reign, after defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi for the vacant title on February 14, 2016.[3]
Title history
| # | Order in reign history |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific wrestler listed |
| Event | The event in which the title was won |
| Successful defenses | The number of successful defenses the champion had during his reign |
| — | Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign |
| N/A | The information is not available or is unknown |
| + | Indicates the current reign is changing daily |
| # | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Days held |
Location | Event | Successful defenses | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MVP | 1 | May 15, 2011 | 148 | Philadelphia, United States | NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast | 2 | Defeated Toru Yano in an eight–man tournament final to become the inaugural champion. | [4] |
| 2 | Masato Tanaka | 1 | October 10, 2011 | 125 | Tokyo, Japan | Destruction '11 | 3 | [5] | |
| 3 | Hirooki Goto | 1 | February 12, 2012 | 161 | Osaka, Japan | The New Beginning | 2 | [6] | |
| 4 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 1 | July 22, 2012 | 313 | Yamagata, Japan | Kizuna Road | 8 | [7] | |
| 5 | La Sombra | 1 | May 31, 2013 | 50 | Mexico City, Mexico | Super Viernes | 1 | This was a two out of three falls match. | [8][9] |
| 6 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 2 | July 20, 2013 | 168 | Akita, Japan | Kizuna Road 2013 | 3 | [10] | |
| 7 | Hiroshi Tanahashi | 1 | January 4, 2014 | 92 | Tokyo, Japan | Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome | 1 | [11] | |
| 8 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 3 | April 6, 2014 | 76 | Tokyo, Japan | Invasion Attack 2014 | 1 | [12] | |
| 9 | Bad Luck Fale | 1 | June 21, 2014 | 92 | Osaka, Japan | Dominion 6.21 | 0 | [13] | |
| 10 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 4 | September 21, 2014 | 224 | Kobe, Japan | Destruction in Kobe | 3 | [14] | |
| 11 | Hirooki Goto | 2 | May 3, 2015 | 147 | Fukuoka, Japan | Wrestling Dontaku 2015 | 1 | [15] | |
| 12 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 5 | September 27, 2015 | 120 | Kobe, Japan | Destruction in Kobe | 2 | [16] | |
| — | Vacated | — | January 25, 2016 | — | Tokyo, Japan | — | — | Vacated due to Nakamura leaving NJPW. | [17] |
| 13 | Kenny Omega | 1 | February 14, 2016 | 79+ | Nagaoka, Japan | The New Beginning in Niigata | 1 | Defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the vacant title. | [3] |
Combined reigns
As of May 3, 2016.
| † | Indicates the current champion |
|---|
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined defenses |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 5 | 17 | 901 |
| 2 | Hirooki Goto | 2 | 3 | 308 |
| 3 | MVP | 1 | 2 | 148 |
| 4 | Masato Tanaka | 1 | 3 | 125 |
| 5 | Hiroshi Tanahashi | 1 | 1 | 92 |
| 5 | Bad Luck Fale | 1 | 0 | 92 |
| 7 | Kenny Omega † | 1 | 1 | 79+ |
| 8 | La Sombra | 1 | 1 | 50 |
References
- ↑ Meltzer, Dave (October 3, 2010). "New Japan Pro Wrestling comes to the U.S.". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on October 6, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
- 1 2 Caldwell, James (January 5, 2011). "NJPW News: New Japan to introduce new title on U.S. tour, officially announces dates & venues for "Invasion" tour". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
- 1 2 "The New Beginning in Niigata". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ↑ "NY遠征最終日、真壁がライノ撃破! 初代インターコンチ王者はMVP！ ライガーまさかの王座陥落!!（結果速報）". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). May 16, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ↑ "Destruction '11". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved October 10, 2011.
- ↑ "The New Beginning". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved February 12, 2012.
- ↑ "NJPW 40th anniversary Tour Kizuna Road". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved July 22, 2012.
- ↑ Salazar López, Alexis A. (June 1, 2013). "Resultados Arena México Viernes 31 de Mayo '13". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 1, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
- ↑ ラ・ソンブラが新インターコンチネンタル王者に！ 中邑がメキシコで王座陥落！. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). June 1, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
- ↑ "吉野家Presents Kizuna Road 2013". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved July 20, 2013.
- ↑ "バディファイトPresents Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 東京ドーム". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2014.
- ↑ "Invasion Attack 2014". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved April 6, 2014.
- ↑ "Dominion 6.21". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved June 21, 2014.
- ↑ "Destruction in Kobe". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved September 21, 2014.
- ↑ "レスリングどんたく 2015". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved May 3, 2015.
- ↑ "Destruction in Kobe". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved September 27, 2015.
- ↑ 中邑真輔が退団会見でインターコンチ王座を返上し、深々と礼。 新日本のレスラー人生を振り返り「こんなレスラー、他にいなかったなと」【1.25会見】. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
External links
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