Changes: GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship

Revision as of 15:22, 21 June 2020

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

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

Miyagi

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

June 23

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Tokyo

Kenta Kobayashi

8:27

Tokyo

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

13:34

June 21

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

Toyama

BJ Whitmer

7:12

June 24

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Aichi

Juventud Guerrera

17:17

June 17

Makoto Hashi

15:02

Oyama

Naomichi Marufuji

June 23

Naomichi Marufuji

19:02

June 15

Satoru Asako

Tokyo

Juventud Guerrera

Niigata

Matt Murphy

11:21

June 20

Satoru Asako

11:04

Tokyo

Juventud Guerrera

Title History

#	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	1461+	2

Gallery

Champions

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