IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Hiroshi Tanahashi with the title belt
The IWGP Heavyweight Championship ( to German IWGP ( International Wrestling Grand Prix) championship in the heavyweight division ) is the highest title for individual wrestlers wrestling in New Japan Pro Wrestling. The title has a World status because he was defended in the United States. As in Wrestling common practice the allocated according to a predetermined storyline.
History
The title was introduced in a television broadcast on June 12, 1987 under the same name. To set the title for the first time, a Number One Contender Tournament was held, the winner, Masa Saito, had to compete against the president of New Japan, Antonio Inoki. This match was won by Inoki, which thus also became the first titleholder. Since then, the title of the highest individual title in the league. By title defenses by Scott Norton WCW Monday Nitro in 1998 the title became his World status.
But the title was not without controversy. On October 8th 2005 Brock Lesnar won the title at the show Toukon Souzou New Chapter in Tokyo and was able to keep him any longer as well. On June 17, 2006 he received the title was officially withdrawn because of problems with his work permit. In truth, however, the former WWE superstar refused to give the title to Hiroshi Tanahashi. Lesnar retained then this belt, during New Japan created a new title belt. Since Lesnar had kept the third version of the IWGP Heavyweight title belt, this was to avoid confusion, renamed the IWGP Third Belt, which he, inter alia, in the new league by Antonio Inoki, the Inoki Geonome Federation, defended. On 17 February 2008, it came on the show New Japan ISM - Day 8 to a title unification match between the winners of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship Shinsuke Nakamura and the support of the IWGP Third Belt Kurt Angle, which win Nakamura and unify both titles thus could.
Current title holder
The current IWGP Heavyweight Champion is Kazuchika Okada in his second reign. He was allowed the previous title holder Hiroshi Tanahashi defeat at Invasion Attack in Tokyo on April 7, 2013.