The IWGP 3rd Belt Heavyweight Championship (3代目IWGPヘビー級王座 3-Daime IWGP Hebī-kyū Ōza) was the top singles championship in the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was introduced in 2006, when NJPW stripped Brock Lesnar of the lineal IWGP Heavyweight Championship due to missing a scheduled title defense.
The title shares its name with New Japan Pro Wrestling's (NJPW) IWGP Heavyweight Championship from which it split due to a decision made by IGF and NJPW founder Antonio Inoki. Since its brief inception, the title was subject to much controversy due to the split between Lesnar and Inoki with NJPW. Within all title holders, NJPW did not recognized them as the "lineal" champions, instead it recognized them as holders of the third version of the belt. IGF was a territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), thus the title was additionally recognized by the NWA as the NWA Japan Championship.
The title also saw the involvement of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which also recognized it as the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. TNA assisted in the title's retirement in 2008 when, after much controversy sorrounding the title, TNA wrestler Kurt Angle lost to Shinsuke Nakamura to unify Angle's IGF title with Nakamura's lineal IWGP Heavyweight Championship to unite both versions of IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This led to NJPW create a fourth version of the belt after Nakamura returned the second version to Shinya Hashimoto's family, with the lineal IWGP Heavyweight Championship being retired in 2021.
As a professional wrestling championship, the title was won via a scripted ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. All title changes occurred at IGF- or NJPW-promoted events. There were a total of three reigns among three wrestlers during the title's brief history.
History[]
Background[]
Brock Lesnar, the inaugural champion.
On July 18, 2005, Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. During Fujita's reign, Fujita was awarded the second version of the title until July 11, giving the first version to Shinya Hashimoto's family, after the he had passed away. This led to NJPW to creating a third version of the title in the United States, which was inaugurated on September 30 by NJPW President Simon Kelly Inoki. On October 8, at New Japan Pro Wrestling's (NJPW) Toukon Souzou New Chapter event in Tokyo, former WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar defeated Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono in a three-way match to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He held the title for 280 days, having three successful defenses, until he failed to show up for a scheduled title defense due to "visa issues"; however, Lesnar claimed he was owed money by NJPW and did not want to lose the title to Hiroshi Tanahashi, keeping the physical belt with him, which forced NJPW to return to the second version of the title.
After this series of events, NJPW founder Antonio Inoki left NJPW and created a new promotion, the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF). Inoki then recognized Lesnar as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion due to Lesnar not losing the title, and also due to the fact that he held the physical possession of the title belt. NJPW recognized Lesnar as the IWGP 3rd Belt Heavyweight Champion instead of the lineal IWGP Heavyweight Champion, maintaining their stance on having stripped him of the title in 2006.
Establishment[]
On June 29, 2007, IGF held its debut show with Lesnar defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle in the main event. Angle defeated Lesnar to win the championship at the show with Angle going on to appear in the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion with the physical title belt. TNA also referred to the title belt as the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the same manner as the IGF, recognizing Angle as the lineal IWGP Heavyweight Champion. NJPW did not recognize Angle as the lineal IWGP Heavyweight Champion, instead it viewed Angle as the second IWGP 3rd Belt Heavyweight Champion.
Angle went on to have two successful defenses as champion. His first defense came in TNA in a feud against Samoa Joe. Angle first appeared with the title belt in TNA on the July 5, 2007 episode of TNA's television program TNA Impact!. The title belt became relevant to the storyline rivalry between Joe and Angle heading into TNA's Hard Justice PPV event. Leading up to TNA's Victory Road PPV event on July 15, 2007, TNA X Division Champion Joe and TNA World Heavyweight Champion Angle teamed together to face TNA World Tag Team Champions Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray) in a Tag Team match with the stipulation being whoever scored the pinfall or submission for their team won the championship of the person pinned or made to submit. Joe pinned Brother Ray in the bout, thus winning the World Tag Team Championship for himself and a partner of his choosing. Joe chose to hold the title alone and challenged Angle to a Winner Take All match at Hard Justice for the TNA World Heavyweight, TNA X Division, TNA World Tag Team, and the IWGP Heavyweight Championships on the July 19 2007, episode of Impact!. Angle accepted the match, with Joe and Angle facing at Hard Justice on August 12, 2007 in Orlando, Florida for all of the titles. Angle defeated Joe at the event to win the TNA World Tag Team and TNA X Division Championships, while retaining the TNA World Heavyweight and the IWGP Heavyweight Championships.
Unification and return of the belt to NJPW[]
TNA afterwards slowly faded out using the IWGP Heavyweight Championship with Angle going on to defend the title at IGF and NJPW promoted shows, with the title being referred to as both the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP 3rd Belt Heavyweight Championship. Angle's second defense of the title was at NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom II in Tokyo Dome event on January 4, 2008, where he defeated former NJPW recognized IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata to retain the IWGP 3rd Belt Heavyweight Championship.
Angle's last defense was against then NJPW recognized IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura in a unification match on February 17, 2008 at NJPW's Circuit 2008 New Japan ISM event where the winner would be the unified IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Nakamura defeated Kurt Angle in a unification match on February 17, 2008, at the Circuit2008 New Japan Ism tour to win the IGF version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship or the IWGP 3rd Belt Championship, known in NJPW, unifying it with the NJPW version of the title. On March 2 at Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max's 7th-anniversary show, Nakamura defeated Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max's Kohei Sato. After the match, Nakamura handed the second version of the title to Shinya Hashimoto's son Daichi Hashimoto, to honor his father's death, leading NJPW to create a fourth version of the title to replace the second version, which was unveiled on March 7. IGF later introduced another title five years later with the IGF Championship being established on December 31, 2013.
Belt design[]
The title design featured a black leather base with five gold plates spaced evenly apart and the center plate being the largest. On the center plate, the words "IWGP Heavyweight Champion" were featured alongside the caricature of an eagle or similar bird of prey.
Names[]
| Name | Years | Promotions |
|---|---|---|
| IWGP Heavyweight Championship | July 15, 2006 – February 17, 2008 | IGF |
| NWA Japan Championship | NWA | |
| IWGP World Heavyweight Championship | TNA | |
| IWGP Third Belt Heavyweight Championship | NJPW |
Reigns[]
Overall, there have been three reigns shared among three wrestlers. The inaugural champion was Brock Lesnar, when Lesnar left NJPW and Antonio Inoki recognized Lesnar as the lineal champion due to Lesnar never having lost the belt. At 629 days, Brock Lesnar's reign is the longest in the title's history. Lesnar has the most successful defenses in his reign with 3. Shinsuke Nakamura's reign holds the record for shortest reign at less than one day as champion.
The championship was retired on February 17, 2008 at NJPW's Circuit 2008 New Japan ISM event, when Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kurt Angle to win the thrid version of the belt and unify it with lineal IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
| # | Fighter | Reign | Date | Days held |
Location | Successful defenses |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brock Lesnar | 1 | October 8, 2005 | 629 Days | Tokyo | 3 | Title was made due to Lesnar being unable to defend the title because of "problems with a working visa." Lesnar refuses to turn over the championship belt, and later is recognized by the Inoki Genome Federation as their first champion, using the same belt. |
| 2 | Kurt Angle | 1 | June 29, 2007 | 233 Days | Tokyo | 2 | |
| 3 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 1 | February 17, 2008 | <1 Day | Tokyo | 0 | Nakamura defeated Kurt Angle on February 17, 2008 on the Circuit2008 New Japan Ism tour to unify the NJPW and IGF versions of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, before revealing the 4th version of the belt two days later. |
| — | United | — | February 17, 2008 | — | — | — | Unified with the lineal IWGP Heavyweight Championship to form the fourth version of the title. |
Combined reigns[]
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined defenses |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brock Lesnar | 1 | 3 | 629 |
| 2 | Kurt Angle | 2 | 233 | |
| 3 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 0 | <1 |
Gallery[]
