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The GHC Heavyweight Championship (GHCヘビー級王座, GHC Hebī-kyū Ōza) is the top singles championship in the Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH) promotion. "GHC" is the acronym of NOAH's governing body, the Global Honored Crown. The title was created on April 15, 2001 when Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Yoshihiro Takayama in a 16-man tournament final. Though its name implies a particular weight class, it has been held by junior heavyweights in the past, including Yoshinari Ogawa and former GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Naomichi Marufuji. All GHC Heavyweight Title matches and contract signings were overseen and introduced by GHC title commissioner Joe Higuchi until October 2010 when Higuchi died, at which time he was replaced by Harley Race.

Overview[]

Throughout the history of the championship, the title as vacant one, due to the reigning champion Jun Akiyama was forced to relinquish the title due to herniated discs in his back. Then it was held a decision match to determine the new champion.

Title changes happen at NOAH-promoted events or tours. Mitsuharu Misawa is the first and oldest champion in the title history, at 46 years old. Takashi Sugiura holds the record for most reigns, with 4 reigns. His first reign had the most title defenses during a single reign with 14 successful defenses. Over his 4 reigns, Sugiura successfully defended the title 23 times, the most of any champion. Sugiura, with a combined 4 reigns, holds the record for most days as champion at 1,067 days. At 735 days, Kenta Kobashi's reign is the longest reign in the title's history. Yoshihiro Takayama's reign holds the record for the shortest reign at 16 days. With zero successful title defenses, Takayama's only reign, Morishima's third reign and Marufuji's third reign are all tied for the least successful defenses. Go Shiozaki became the first freelancer to win the championship after defeating Takashi Sugiura on May 28, 2016.

Eddie Edwards became the first gaijin to hold the GHC Heavyweight Championship after defeating Katsuhiko Nakajima on August 26, 2017. On November 6, 2017, in Canada, Edwards made his second defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against El Hijo del Fantasma, being the first title defense made outside NOAH territory. On December 16, 2018, at Great Voyage in Yokohama vol.2, Kaito Kiyomiya became the youngest champion in the title's history at 22 years old.

In January 2019, LIDET Entertainment took over the ownership of Pro Wrestling Noah and as a plan to relaunch the promotion as the second largest promotion in Japan, Noah announced that the GHC Heavyweight Championship would be defended in the Ryōgoku Kokugikan, while also announcing the creation of the second version of the title to replace the first version, which was unveiled on September 20. On August 10 at NOAH The Chronicle Vol. 3, as part of Pro Wrestling Noah's 20th anniversary, Go Shiozaki faced Kenoh in a double title match for the GHC Heavyweight and National Championships, which ended in a 60-minute time limit draw.

On February 4, at Cross Over in Sendai, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Kenoh to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship, for the first time. With this victory, Wagner became the second gaijin wrestler (the other being Eddie Edwards) and the first Mexican to hold the title.

Tournament[]

NOAH held a 16-man tournament to crown the first champion, held over its month-long, 18-event Navigation for the Victory GHC tour. The tour was held from March 18 through April 15, 2001.

  First round Second round Semifinals Finals
                                     
Mar. 18  Mitsuharu Misawa Pin  
Tokyo  Akitoshi Saito 12:26  
  Apr. 4  Mitsuharu Misawa Pin  
 
  Okayama  Yoshinari Ogawa 19:44  
Mar. 21  Masao Inoue Pin
Sagamihara  Yoshinari Ogawa 14:18  
  Apr. 11  Mitsuharu Misawa Pin  
  Hiroshima  Jun Akiyama 15:05†  
Apr. 1  Jun Akiyama Pin  
Fukuoka  Takao Omori 22:49  
  Apr. 8  Jun Akiyama Pin
 
  Tokyo  Takeshi Rikio 4:02  
Apr. 2  Takeshi Morishima Pin
Beppu  Takeshi Rikio 14:33  
  Apr. 15  Mitsuharu Misawa Pin
  Tokyo  Yoshihiro Takayama 21:12
Mar. 22  Jun Izumida Pin  
Tokyo  Yoshihiro Takayama 8:22  
  Apr. 3  Yoshihiro Takayama Pin
 
  Uwajima  Kentaro Shiga 7:16  
Mar. 30  Scorpio Pin
Kumamoto  Kentaro Shiga 13:06  
  Apr. 12  Yoshihiro Takayama DQ
  Osaka  Vader 9:24  
Mar. 25  Akira Taue Pin  
Kyoto  Vader 10:40  
  Apr. 6  Vader Pin
 
  Ishikawa  Daisuke Ikeda 7:15  
Mar. 29  Tamon Honda Pin
Kagoshima  Daisuke Ikeda 15:16  

† Akiyama and Misawa were both counted out, but the match was restarted.

Title History[]

# Wrestler Reign Date Location Length Defenses Notes
1 Mitsuharu Misawa 1 April 15, 2001 Tokyo 103 Days 1 Defeated Yoshihiro Takayama in a tournament final to become the first champion.
2 Jun Akiyama 1 July 27, 2001 Tokyo 254 Days 3
3 Yoshinari Ogawa 1 April 7, 2002 Tokyo 153 Days 2
4 Yoshihiro Takayama 1 September 7, 2002 Osaka 16 Days 0
5 Mitsuharu Misawa 2 September 23, 2002 Tokyo 159 Days 1
6 Kenta Kobashi 1 March 1, 2003 Tokyo 735 Days 13
7 Takeshi Rikio 1 March 5, 2005 Tokyo 245 Days 3
8 Akira Taue 1 November 5, 2005 Tokyo 78 Days 1
9 Jun Akiyama 2 January 22, 2006 Tokyo 230 Days 2
10 Naomichi Marufuji 1 September 9, 2006 Tokyo 92 Days 2
11 Mitsuharu Misawa 3 December 10, 2006 Tokyo 448 Days 7
12 Takeshi Morishima 1 March 2, 2008 Tokyo 188 Days 2
13 Kensuke Sasaki 1 September 6, 2008 Tokyo 176 Days 2
14 Jun Akiyama 3 March 1, 2009 Tokyo 105 Days 1
Vacated June 14, 2009 Vacated the title due to herniated discs in his back.
15 Go Shiozaki 1 June 14, 2009 Fukuoka 175 Days 1 Defeated Takeshi Rikio for the vacant title.
16 Takashi Sugiura 1 December 6, 2009 Tokyo 581 Days 14
17 Go Shiozaki 2 July 10, 2011 Tokyo 196 Days 3
18 Takeshi Morishima 2 January 22, 2012 Osaka 371 Days 8
19 KENTA 1 January 27, 2013 Osaka 343 Days 9
20 Takeshi Morishima 3 January 5, 2014 Tokyo 34 Days 0
21 Yuji Nagata 1 February 8, 2014 Tokyo 147 Days 4
22 Naomichi Marufuji 2 July 5, 2014 Tokyo 253 Days 6
23 Minoru Suzuki 1 March 15, 2015 Tokyo 283 Days On August 9, 2015, Suzuki successfully defended the title against Mio Shirai at a Pro Wrestling Wave event. The defense was not recognized by NOAH, so officially, Suzuki successfully defended the title 4 times instead of 5.
24 Naomichi Marufuji 3 December 23, 2015 Tokyo 39 Days 0
25 Takashi Sugiura 2 January 31, 2016 Yokohama 118 Days 1
26 Go Shiozaki 3 May 28, 2016 Osaka 63 Days 1
27 Takashi Sugiura 3 July 30, 2016 Tokyo 85 Days 2 This was a lumberjack match.
28 Katsuhiko Nakajima 1 October 23, 2016 Yokohama 307 Days 7
29 Eddie Edwards 1 August 26, 2017 Tokyo 118 Days 2
30 Kenoh 1 December 22, 2017 Tokyo 79 Days 3
31 Takashi Sugiura 4 March 11, 2018 Yokohama 280 Days 6
32 Kaito Kiyomiya 1 December 16, 2018 Yokohama 384 Days 6
33 Go Shiozaki 4 January 4, 2020 Tokyo 405 Days 6
34 Keiji Mutoh 1 February 12, 2021 Tokyo 114 Days 2
35 Naomichi Marufuji 4 June 6, 2021 Saitama 126 Days 2
36 Katsuhiko Nakajima 2 October 10, 2021 Osaka 136 Days 4
37 Kazuyuki Fujita 1 February 23, 2022 Nagoya 63 Days 1
Vacated April 27, 2022 Vacated the title after testing positive for the COVID-19.
38 Go Shiozaki 5 April 30, 2022 Tokyo 43 Days 0 Defeated Kaito Kiyomiya in a decision match to win the vacant title.
39 Satoshi Kojima 1 June 12, 2022 Saitama 34 Days 0
40 Kenoh 2 July 16, 2022 Tokyo 71 Days 0
41 Kaito Kiyomiya 2 September 25, 2022 Nagoya 175 Days 4
42 Jake Lee 1 March 19, 2023 Yokohama 223 Days 4
43 Kenoh 3 October 28, 2023 Fukuoka 99 Days 2
44 El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. 1 February 4, 2024 Sendai 44+ 0

Combined reigns[]

As of March 19, 2024.

Indicates the current champion
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns
Combined
defenses
Combined days
1 Takashi Sugiura 4 23 1,064
2 Go Shiozaki 5 11 882
3 Kenta Kobashi 1 13 735
4 Mitsuharu Misawa 3 9 710
5 Takeshi Morishima 10 593
6 Jun Akiyama 6 589
7 Kaito Kiyomiya 2 10 559
8 Naomichi Marufuji 4 510
9 Katsuhiko Nakajima 2 11 443
10 KENTA 1 9 343
11 Minoru Suzuki 4 283
12 Kenoh 3 5 249
13 Takeshi Rikio 1 3 245
14 Jake Lee 4 223
15 Kensuke Sasaki 2 176
16 Yoshinari Ogawa 153
17 Yuji Nagata 4 147
18 Eddie Edwards 2 118
19 Keiji Mutoh 114
20 Akira Taue 1 78
21 Kazuyuki Fujita 63
22 Satoshi Kojima 0 35
23 Yoshihiro Takayama 16
24 El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. 44+


Gallery[]

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