| GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling junior heavyweight championship owned by the Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH) promotion. "GHC" is the acronym of Noah's governing body, the Global Honored Crown. The title was introduced on June 24, 2001, at a NOAH show. Only wrestlers under the junior heavyweight weight-limit may hold the championship. NOAH currently controls two junior heavyweight championships: the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship and the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The weight-limit for the tag team title is 100 kg (220 lb); it is assumed that this title has the same weight-limit. The title has been defended outside Japan several times, mainly in the USA but also in Europe. All GHC Junior Heavyweight Title matches and contract signings were overseen and introduced by NOAH title commissioner Joe Higuchi until his death in October 2010 and he was replaced by Harley Race.
Overall, there have been 36 reigns shared among 19 wrestlers. Title changes happen mostly at NOAH-promoted tours, as it has only changed hands at non-NOAH events or tours three times. The inaugural champion was Yoshinobu Kanemaru, who defeated Juventud Guerrera on June 24, 2001, in the finals of a tournament. Kanemaru holds the record of most reigns, with 7. At 405 days, Taiji Ishimori's first reign is the longest in the title's history. Kanemaru, with a combined 7 reigns, holds the record for most days as champion at 1,876. Ricky Marvin and Makoto Hashi's only reigns holds the record for shortest reign at one day. With 10 successful defenses, Ishimori's first reign. Over Kanemaru's 7 reigns, Kanemaru successfully defended the title 28 times, the most of any champion. With zero, Hashi's first reign, Kotaro Suzuki's first reign under the ring name "Mushiking Terry", Katsuhiko Nakajima's first and second reign, Marvin's only reign are all tied for least successful defenses.
Tournament[edit | edit source]
NOAH held a 12-man tournament to crown the first champion, held over its month-long, 11-event Navigation for the Bright Destination tour. The tour was held from June 9 through June 24, 2001.
| First round | Second round | Semifinals | Final | |||||||||||||||
| June 16 | Path Finder | 12:15 | ||||||||||||||||
| June 9 | Path Finder | Pin | Miyagi | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | Pin | |||||||||||||
| June 23 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | Pin | ||||||||||||||||
| Tokyo | Kenta Kobayashi | 8:27 | ||||||||||||||||
| Tokyo | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi | 13:34 | ||||||||||||||||
| June 21 | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi | Pin | ||||||||||||||||
| Toyama | BJ Whitmer | 7:12 | ||||||||||||||||
| June 24 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | Pin | ||||||||||||||||
| Aichi | Juventud Guerrera | 17:17 | ||||||||||||||||
| June 17 | Makoto Hashi | 15:02 | ||||||||||||||||
| Oyama | Naomichi Marufuji | Pin | ||||||||||||||||
| June 23 | Naomichi Marufuji | 19:02 | ||||||||||||||||
| June 15 | Satoru Asako | Pin | ||||||||||||||||
| Tokyo | Juventud Guerrera | Pin | ||||||||||||||||
| Niigata | Matt Murphy | 11:21 | June 20 | Satoru Asako | 11:04 | |||||||||||||
| Tokyo | Juventud Guerrera | Pin | ||||||||||||||||
Title History[edit | edit source]
| # | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Location | Length | Defenses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 1 | June 24, 2001 | Nagoya | 117 Days | 2 | Defeated Juventud Guerrera in tournament finals. |
| 2 | Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 1 | October 19, 2001 | Yokohama | 51 Days | 1 | |
| 3 | Naomichi Marufuji | 1 | December 9, 2001 | Tokyo | 119 Days | 1 | |
| 4 | Makoto Hashi | 1 | April 7, 2002 | Tokyo | 1 Day | 0 | |
| — | Vacated | April 8, 2002 | — | Hashi refused the title after winning by referee stoppage due to Marufuji injuring his knee. | |||
| 5 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 2 | May 26, 2002 | Sapporo | 308 Days | 3 | Defeated KENTA in a tournament final to win the vacant title. |
| 6 | Michael Modest | 1 | March 30, 2003 | Fukuoka | 166 Days | 2 | |
| 7 | Takashi Sugiura | 1 | September 12, 2003 | Tokyo | 114 Days | 2 | |
| 8 | Jushin Thunder Liger | 1 | January 4, 2004 | Tokyo | 188 Days | 5 | |
| 9 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 3 | July 10, 2004 | Tokyo | 373 Days | 5 | |
| 10 | KENTA | 1 | July 18, 2005 | Tokyo | 321 Days | 6 | |
| 11 | Takashi Sugiura | 2 | June 4, 2006 | Sapporo | 202 Days | 1 | |
| 12 | Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 2 | December 23, 2006 | Tokyo | 126 Days | 2 | |
| 13 | Mushiking Terry | 1 | April 28, 2007 | Tokyo | 182 Days | 0 | |
| 14 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 4 | October 27, 2007 | Tokyo | 323 Days | 5 | |
| 15 | Bryan Danielson | 1 | September 14, 2008 | Tokyo | 29 Days | 1 | |
| 16 | KENTA | 2 | October 13, 2008 | Hiroshima | 121 Days | 3 | |
| 17 | Katsuhiko Nakajima | 1 | February 11, 2009 | Tokyo | 18 Days | 0 | |
| 18 | KENTA | 3 | March 1, 2009 | Tokyo | 243 Days | 3 | |
| — | Vacated | — | — | — | — | Vacated due to a knee injury. | |
| 19 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 5 | October 31, 2009 | Tokyo | 400 Days | 6 | Defeated Jushin Thunder Liger in the finals of the Junior Heavyweight League to win the vacant title. |
| 20 | Kotaro Suzuki | 2 | December 5, 2010 | Tokyo | 292 Days | 7 | Previously known as Mushiking Terry. |
| 21 | Katsuhiko Nakajima | 2 | September 23, 2011 | Tokyo | 9 Days | 0 | |
| — | Vacated | — | October 2, 2011 | — | — | — | Nakajima was forced to vacate the title after undergoing surgery for acute appendicitis. |
| 22 | Ricky Marvin | 1 | October 16, 2011 | Tokyo | 0 Days | 0 | Defeated Satoshi Kajiwara to win the vacant title. |
| — | Vacated | — | October 16, 2011 | — | — | — | Marvin vacated the title, declaring that he wanted to earn it by defeating Katsuhiko Nakajima. |
| 23 | Katsuhiko Nakajima | 3 | November 27, 2011 | Tokyo | 164 Days | 4 | Defeated Ricky Marvin to win the vacant title. |
| 24 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 6 | May 9, 2012 | Tokyo | 143 Days | 3 | |
| 25 | Shuji Kondo | 1 | September 29, 2012 | Tokyo | 120 Days | 3 | |
| 26 | Taiji Ishimori | 1 | January 27, 2013 | Osaka | 405 Days | 10 | |
| 27 | Daisuke Harada | 1 | March 8, 2014 | Tokyo | 273 Days | 7 | |
| 28 | Atsushi Kotoge | 1 | December 6, 2014 | Tokyo | 99 Days | 1 | |
| 29 | Taichi | 1 | March 15, 2015 | Tokyo | 283 Days | 4 | |
| 30 | Taiji Ishimori | 2 | December 23, 2015 | Tokyo | 63 Days | 1 | |
| 31 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 7 | December 23, 2015 | Tokyo | 212 Days | 4 | |
| 32 | Atsushi Kotoge | 2 | September 23, 2016 | Tokyo | 94
Days |
3 | |
| — | Vacated | — | December 26, 2016 | — | — | — | Title vacated due to Kotoge moving to the heavyweight division. |
| 33 | Hajime Ohara | 1 | January 7, 2017 | Tokyo | 140 Days | 2 | Defeated Taiji Ishimori in a decision match to win the vacant championship. |
| 34 | HAYATA | 1 | May 27, 2017 | Osaka | 29 Days | 0 | |
| 35 | Taiji Ishimori | 3 | June 25, 2017 | Fukushima | 98 Days | 1 | |
| 36 | Daisuke Harada | 2 | October 1, 2017 | Yokohama | 394 Days | 6 | |
| 37 | Kotaro Suzuki | 3 | October 30, 2018 | Tokyo | 47 Days | 2 | |
| 38 | Daisuke Harada | 3 | December 16, 2018 | Yokohama | 84 Days | 1 | |
| 38 | Minoru Tanaka | 1 | March 10, 2019 | Yokohama | 147 Days | 1 | |
| 39 | HAYATA | 2 | June 4, 2019 | Tokyo | 106 Days | 3 | |
| 40 | Yoshinari Ogawa | 1 | January 4, 2020 | Tokyo | 154 Days | 1 | |
| 41 | Kotaro Suzuki | 4 | April 19, 2020 | Kanagawa | 203 Days | 5 | |
| 42 | Daisuke Harada | 4 | November 8, 2020 | Tokyo | 96 Days | 2 | |
| 43 | Seiki Yoshioka | 1 | February 12, 2021 | Tokyo | 20+ | 0 |
Gallery[edit | edit source]
