The BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship is the top singles championship in Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), it is exclusively defended in deathmatches. The title was established on August 9, 1998 when The Great Pogo defeated Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in a tournament final in a glass and fire coffin cremation deathmatch tournament final to become the first champion.
Title reigns are determined either by professional wrestling matches between wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines or by scripted circumstances. Wrestlers are portrayed as either villains or heroes as they follow a series of tension-building events, which culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches for the championship. Ryuji Ito as the most times reigns with 6 title reigns and he is also the longest and shortest reigning. His second reign his the shortest reign with 4 days and the longest with 850 days. The title changes occurred in multiple deathmatches like the glass and fire coffin cremation deathmatch, lumberjack deathmatch, barbed wire board deathmatch and Caribbean-style barbed wire, light tubes, light tubes board and barbed wire chess board deathmatch.
Overveiw[]
The first belt was designed on the front and sides with chair, and it was called "chair belt of the color". the design was decided by the fans public offering to them. However, CZW's Zandig returned home while he was holding the belt but during his reign BJW ended their partnership with CZW, he didn't return the belt home and created the CZW Deathmatch Championship which led to BJW to create a new belt to replace the old one. The second belt was made with a barbed wire was made by Ryuji Ito later in the form of a spider web. However, as the metal surface became aged when in 2012, they decided to update the design of the 3 belt. On April 28, 2013, the third belt was showcased and designed with chairs, fluorescent lamps and thumbtacks. It started using Yokohama style on May 5 of the same year. When Ryuji Yamakawa retired in 2012, he created and presented a replica of the original belt.
Championship Tournament[]
Big Japan Pro Wrestling held a 8-man tournament to crown the first champion, The tour was held from June 8 through August 9, 1998.
| First round June 8 |
Semifinal August 9 |
Final August 9 | |||||||||||
| Mitsuhiro Matsunaga | |||||||||||||
| Jason the Terible | 14:29 | ||||||||||||
| Mitsuhiro Matsunaga | |||||||||||||
| Shadow Winger | 10:21 | ||||||||||||
| Shadow Winger | |||||||||||||
| Shoji Nakamaki | 07:29 | ||||||||||||
| Mitsuhiro Matsunaga | |||||||||||||
| The Great Pogo | 08:36 | ||||||||||||
| The Great Pogo | |||||||||||||
| Kung Fu Lee | 09:23 | ||||||||||||
| The Great Pogo | |||||||||||||
| Shadow WX | 15:02 | ||||||||||||
| Shadow WX | |||||||||||||
| Tomoaki Honma | 16:22 | ||||||||||||
Rules[]
- Male wrestlers only who do death match not women wrestlers.
- Pinfall, Submission, Referee Stop, Doctor Stop
- Anyway the rules that can take a fall anywhere are basically rejected.
- Time limit: 30 minutes 1 win. In the case of time limit draw, the champion retains his belt.
- Unlimited time until March 2007 was one match, but from the safety aspect of the wrestlers with time restrictions were set for championship matches after April.
- In principle, do not take the rope to escape, foul count and of the site count as a rule. Pinfall has to be 3 counts.
- The challenger has the authority to present the match form of the day to the champion and announce it before the match.
- For the championship match when it becomes vacant, the match form is decided by mutual agreement among opponents.
- They can use weapons used in regular matches, such as fluorescent lights, glasses, thumbtacks, etc. You can also use weapons brought by your opponents as well as yourself.
- However, if there are weapons that are prohibited from being used under the regulations of the venue, they have to follow them.
- If a theme related to the venue or the opening time is established weapons to be used according to that theme.
- These rules can be changed by mutual agreement (Challenger entitlement and time limit can not be changed). However, the change rule in case applies only to that match.
Title history[]
| # | Wrestlers | Reign | Date | Length | Location | Successful defenses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Great Pogo | 1 |
August 9, 1998 |
14 Days | Kawasaki | 0 | Defeated Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in tournament final in a glass and fire coffin cremation deathmatch tournament final. |
| 2 | Mitsuhiro Matsunaga | 1 | August 23, 1998 | 31 Days | Osaka | 0 | This was a glass and fire coffin cremation deathmatch. |
| 3 | Shadow WX | 1 | September 23, 1998 | 109 Days | Tokyo | 1 | This was a 3 way board alligator deathmatch. |
| 4 | Abdullah the Butcher | 1 | January 10, 1999 | 49
Days |
Fukuoka | 0 | This was lumberjack deathmatch. |
| 5 | Shadow WX | 2 | February 28, 1999 | 91 Days | Tokyo | 1 | This was a barbed wire board deathmatch. |
| 6 | Ryuji Yamakawa | 1 | May 30, 1999 | 72 Days | Osaka | 1 | This was a no rope barbed wire death pallet coffin and fire deathmatch. |
| 7 | Shadow WX | 3 | August 10, 1999 | 116 Days | Osaka | 2 | This was a no rope barbed wire fire deathmatch. |
| 8 | Ryuji Yamakawa | 2 | December 4, 1999 | 29
Days |
Yokohama | 0 | This was a four corner lighttubes board deathmatch. |
| 9 | Tomoaki Honma | 1 | January 2, 2000 | 182 Days | Tokyo | 1 | This was also a quarterfinal match in the BJ Grand Prix 2000 tournament, and was a 5-inch spike nail and barbed wire double board deathmatch. |
| 10 | Zandig | 1 | July 2, 2000 | 144
Days |
Tokyo | 1 | This was a lemon, salt and mustard deathmatch. |
| 11 | Tomoaki Honma | 2 | November 23, 2000 | 98 Days | Yokohama | 0 | This was a glass and barbed wire board deathmatch. |
| — | Vacated | — | March 2001 | — | — | — | Vacated due to Honma leaving the company. |
| 12 | Zandig | 2 | May 4, 2001 | 107
Days |
Sapporo | 1 | Defeated Kintaro Kanemura in a CZW Caribbean-style barbed wire, lighttubes, lighttubes board and barbed wire chess board deathmatch. |
| 13 | Mitsuhiro Matsunaga | 2 | August 19, 2001 | 105
Days |
Yokohama | 0 | This was a 200 lighttubes and thumbtack and glass board deathmatch. |
| 14 | Zandig | 3 | December 2, 2001 | 30 Days | Yokohama | 0 | This was an exploding glass, lighttubes and thumbtacks deathmatch. |
| — | Vacated | — | January 1, 2002 | — | — | — | Vacated due to Zandig leaving the company. |
| 15 | Kintaro Kanemura | 1 | March 30, 2003 | 147 Days | Yokohama | 1 | Defeated Shadow WX in a lighttubes and glass deathmatch decision match. |
| 16 | Ryuji Ito | 1 | August 24, 2003 | 850 Days | Yokohama | 6 | This was a steel cage match. |
| 17 | Abdullah Kobayashi | 1 | January 20, 1997 | 100
Days |
Yokohama | 0 | This was a scaffold match. |
| 18 | Takashi Sasaki | 1 | March 31, 2006 | 163 Days | Tokyo | 1 | This was a lighttubes and bed of nails deathmatch. |
| 19 | Ryuji Ito | 2 | September 10, 2006 | 4
Days |
Tokyo | 0 | This was a lighttubes, bunkhouse, double hell, super high ladder, and barbed wire Hell deathmatch. |
| — | Vacated | — | September 14, 2006 | — | — | — | Vacated due to a wrist injury. |
| 20 | Takashi Sasaki | 2 | December 3, 2006 | 266
Days |
Yokohama | 2 | Defeated Jaki Numazawa in a lighttubes shrine deathmatch. |
| 21 | Jaki Numazawa | 1 | August 26, 2007 | 110
Days |
Tokyo | 1 | |
| 22 | Ryuji Ito | 3 | December 14, 2007 | 142 Days | Yokohama | 1 | This was a four corner cross of D match. |
| 23 | Shadow WX | 4 | May 4, 2008 | 229 Days | Koshigaya | 3 | This was a fluorescent lighttube boards and weapons deathmatch. |
| 24 | Yuko Miyamoto | 1 | December 19, 2008 | 501 Days | Yokohama | 4 | This was a barbed wire blast board deathmatch. |
| 25 | Ryuji Ito | 4 | May 4, 2010 | 593 Days | Yokohama | 6 | This was a 200 fluorescent lighttubes cage deathmatch. |
| 26 | Abdullah Kobayashi | 2 | December 18, 2011 | 381 Days | Yokohama | 7 | This was a Game of Death deathmatch. |
| 27 | Shuji Ishikawa | 1 | January 2, 2013 | 306 Days | Tokyo | 4 | This was a glass board and new year deathmatch. |
| 28 | Isami Kodaka | 1 | November 4, 2013 | 202 Days | Yokohama | 4 | This was a culture of death match. |
| 29 | Ryuji Ito | 5 | May 25, 2014 | 21 Days | Nagoya | 0 | This was a two out of three falls match. |
| 30 | Yuko Miyamoto | 2 | June 15, 2014 | 324 Days | Hiroshima | 5 | This was a fluorescent light tubes and block and spike board deathmatch. |
| 31 | Abdullah Kobayashi | 3 | May 5, 2015 | 76 Days | Yokohama | 0 | This was a battle position again deathmatch. |
| 32 | Ryuji Ito | 6 | July 20, 2015 | 370 Days | Tokyo | 5 | This was a 20th anniversary 20 items deathmatch. |
| 33 | Kankuro Hoshino | 1 | July 24, 2016 | 147
Days |
Tokyo | 3 | This was a scaffold and G shock. |
| 34 | Abdullah Kobayashi | 4 | December 18, 2016 | 138 Days | Yokohama | 0 | This was a light tubes double G shock deathmatch. |
| 35 | Masaya Takahashi | 1 | May 5, 2017 | 106
Days |
Yokohama | 2 | This was a fluorescent light-tubes and spike nail Board deathmatch. |
| 36 | Masashi Takeda | 1 | August 19, 2017 | 449 Days | Nagoya | 9 | This was a Light Tubes and Double Glass Board deathmatch. |
| 37 | Masaya Takahashi | 2 | November 11, 2018 | 175 Days | Tokyo | 3 | This was a Barricade Of Death Double Board & Double Barricade & Alpha Death Match. |
| 38 | Isami Kodaka | 2 | May 5, 2019 | 227 Days | Yokohama | 4 | This was a 200 Fluorescent Lighttubes & Fluorescent Lighttube Tower Death Match. |
| 39 | Abdullah Kobayashi | 5 | December 18, 2019 | 89 Days | Yokohama | 1 | This was a New Iron Cage Death Match. |
| 40 | Ryuji Ito | 7 | March 16, 2020 | 166 Days | Yokohama | 0 | |
| 41 | Minoru Fujita | 1 | March 16, 2020 | 126 Days | Yokohama | 3 | This was a Fluorescent Lighttubes & Glass Board Death Match. |
| 42 | Takumi Tsukamoto | 1 | January 2, 2021 | 202 Days | Tokyo | 1 | This was a 2-Sided Barbed Wire Board + 2-Sided Self-Board Death Match. |
| 43 | Drew Parker | 1 | July 23, 2021 | 44 Days | Tokyo | 0 | This was a Barbed Wire Casket and Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. |
| 44 | Yuko Miyamoto | 3 | September 5, 2021 | 242 Days | Aichi | 5 | This was a TLCC Death Match. |
| 45 | Drew Parker | 2 | May 5, 2022 | 8 Days | Yokohama | 0 | This was a Scaffold and Alpha Death Match. |
| — | Vacated | — | May 13, 2022 | — | — | — | Vacated due to Parker leaving the company. |
| 46 | Hideyoshi Kamitani | 1 | August 28, 2022 | 600+ | Nagoya, Aichi | 2 | Defeated Abdullah Kobayashi in a Bloody Musou Fluorescent Lighttubes Jungle deathmatch. |
Gallery[]
