IWGP Heavyweight Championship

The IWGP Heavyweight Championship is a the top singles championship in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was introduced on June 12, 1987, in the finals of a IWGP tournament.

The championship has been represented by four different belts. The current fourth generation belt was introduced in March 2008. The title forms what has unofficially been called the "New Japan Triple Crown" (新日本トリプルクラウン) along with the IWGP Intercontinental and NEVER Openweight Championships.

Overview
Throughout the history of the championship, several wrestlers have been forced to relinquish the title due to an inability to participate in title defenses. When a wrestler has been injured or unable to compete for other reasons, tournaments have been held to determine the new champion.

In 2006, Brock Lesnar was stripped of the title for being unable to defend it; however, Lesnar claims he was owed money by NJPW and kept the physical belt. He signed with Antonio Inoki's Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) in 2007, and lost the championship to Kurt Angle on the inaugural broadcast. Angle later lost the belt in a unification match to the NJPW-recognized champion Shinsuke Nakamura in 2008.

Overall, there have been 66 reigns shared among 28 wrestlers. Title changes happen at NJPW-promoted events. Big Van Vader, Salman Hashimikov, Scott Norton, Bob Sapp, Brock Lesnar, A.J. Styles, and current champion Kenny Omega are the seven non-Japanese wrestlers to have held the title, with Hashimikov being the first and only Soviet-born champion, while Omega is the first Canadian champion. The inaugural champion was Inoki, who defeated Masa Saito on June 12, 1987, in a tournament final. Hiroshi Tanahashi holds the record for most reigns, with seven. At 720 days, Kazuchika Okada's fourth reign is the longest in the title's history. Okada has the most successful defences in that reign with 12 and with a combined four reigns, also holds the record for most days as champion at 1,516. Kensuke Sasaki's fourth reign holds the record for shortest reign at 16 days. Over his seven reigns, Tanahashi successfully defended the title 28 times, the most of any champion. With zero, Big Van Vader's first and third reigns, Salman Hashimikov's only reign, Riki Choshu's first reign, Tatsumi Fujinami's third and fifth reigns, Masahiro Chono's only reign, Genichiro Tenryu's only reign, Scott Norton's second reign, Hiroyoshi Tenzan's first and third reigns, Kensuke Sasaki's fourth reign, Kazuyuki Fujita's third reign and Manabu Nakanishi's only reign are all tied for least successful defenses.

Kenny Omega is the current champion in his first reign, after defeating Kazuchika Okada on June 9, 2018, at NJPW's Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall event to win the title.

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