The Strong Women's Championship (STRONG女子王座 STRONG Joshi Ōza) is the top women's world championship in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion's American brand division New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America (NJoA) in the United States.
Named after the NJoA's flagship program NJPW Strong, the title was announced on April 2023, with the inaugural champion being crowned on May 21, at the finals of a tournament at Resurgence. The title is meant to be defended exclusively in the NJPW Strong television series and is the second women's championship in the promotion, along with the IWGP Women's Championship.
The title's nature means that female wrestlers are eligible to challenge for it. The championship is contested by the wrestlers of NJPW's sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) and NJPW's partner promotions and is the second title of its kind in the history of NJPW.
In AEW, the title is also refered to as the Strong Women's World Championship, while in CMLL it is refered to as the Campeonato Femenil de NJPW STRONG (Spanish for "NJPW Strong Women's Championship"), which saw the involvement of both promotions in storylines involving the title.
Overview[]
Background[]
On April 28, 2023, NJPW's sub-brand New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America announced the creation of the Strong Women's Championship. The first champion would be crowned in a tournament on May 21 at Resurgence. The title is part of an American expansion plan, which NJPW had made public in the years before the announcement. Plans had been made to run extended tours in the United States with California as the base, starting in 2018, as well the creation of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.
Promotional poster featuring the tournament participants, Stephanie Vaquer, Mercedes Mone, Momo Kohgo and Willow Nightingale
The title is also part of a global expansion plan in the women's professional wrestling market, which NJPW's parent company made, following the acquisition of World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) in October 2019. In the year prior to the announcement, the IWGP Women's Championship became the first female title in a male professional wrestling promotion in Japan, established in July 2022. The international debut of female wrestlers in NJPW saw at the Rumble on the 44th Street event featuring Mina Shirakawa and Waka Tsukiyama, then part of the Cosmic Angels, taking on Tiara James and Kylie Rae, as well as Mayu Iwatani defending SWA World Championship against KiLynn King.
The championship is named after the NJoA's flagship program NJPW Strong, created after the creation of the Strong Openweight and Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships, with the title being set to become the brand's exclusive and primary women's championship. The title's nature means that female wrestlers are eligible to challenge for it. Unlike Japan, in the United States promotions are genderless specific, meaning that promotions focus on promoting male and female talent.
Inaugural tournament[]
On April 28, NJPW announced the creation of the championship, with it being contested in a singles-elimination tournament and with the bracket being revealed on the same day. The tournament matches were contested at Resurgence through NJPW's weekly television show, NJPW Strong series. The tournament also featured wrestlers from NJPW's partner promotions and its sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom), featuring Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) wrestler Stephanie Vaquer, Mercedes Mone, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) wrestler Willow Nightingale and World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) wrestler Momo Kohgo. Willow Nightingale went on to defeat Mercedes Mone in the finals to become the inaugural Strong Women's Champion.
| Semifinals Resurgence (May 21) | Final Resurgence (May 21) | ||||||||
| Stephanie Vaquer | Pin | ||||||||
| Mercedes Mone | 11:55 | ||||||||
| Mercedes Mone | Pin | ||||||||
| Willow Nightingale | 13:34 | ||||||||
| Momo Kohgo | Pin | ||||||||
| Willow Nightingale | 9:37 | ||||||||
Establishment[]
Since its creation, the Strong Women's Championship had been briefly defended in the United States with its first title defense taking place on May 31, 2023, when Willow Nightingale defended the title against Emi Sakura on All Elite Wrestling's television show AEW Rampage, marking the first time that title was defended outside of NJPW. On July 5, at NJPW Strong Independence Day, Giulia defeated Willow Nightingale to win the title, thus marking the first time the title changed hands outside the United States. On August 13, Giulia defended the title against Yuu at the 2023 Stardom X Stardom pay-per-view, thus marking the first time that the title was defended in Japan. Since then, the title had been defended mostly in Japan, with Giulia defending the title mostly in her home promotion, World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom). The only few times that title defenses are taking place outside Japan are at NJoA promoted events, such as Multiverse United 2, that saw Giulia defending the title against Impact Wrestling's Deonna Purazzo, Gisele Shaw and fellow Stardom wrestler Momo Kohgo.
The second time the title changed hands in Japan saw Stephanie Vaquer defeating Giulia at the second night of Stardom's 2024 Cinderella Tournament, to become the new champion. With the win, Vaquer became the first South American champion in NJPW and the first Latin American female champion in the history of the promotion.
Reign of Mercedes Mone[]
On May 21, 2023, after Resurgence, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the original plan was for Mercedes Mone to win the inaugural championship tournament and become the inaugural champion; however, due to Mercedes getting injured during the match, the plans shifted with Nightingale winning the match instead and becoming the inaugural champion. However, after a year, Moné debuted in AEW in March at the outset of Big Business, which took place at the TD Garden in Mercedes' adopted hometown of Boston. On the May 29 episode of AEW Dynamite, Moné defeated Skye Blue in her first title defense of the TBS Championship. After the match, she would be confronted by then-Strong Women's Champion Vaquer, with a Winner Takes All match between the two taking place at June 30 at Forbidden Door, which saw Mone defeating Vaquer to finally win the Strong Women's Champion and retain her TBS Championship. On June 4, NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi addresed various issues within NJPW. He announced that all of NJoA's championships would only be defended only in the United States including in events under the NJPW Strong banner, Since then, the most recent time the title was defended outside the NJPW Strong banner was when Mercedes Moné defended the title against Emi Sakura at the October 8 episode of AEW Dynamite's special, Title Tuesday, which saw Moné retaining both the Strong Women's Championship and the TBS Championships.
Belt Design[]
Much like the design of the Strong Openweight Championship belt, the Strong Women's Championship, features a violet leather base with the front plate being a golden circular octagon followed by two golden ovals.
The front plate is sorrounded by forty-nine white rhinestones across the plate, except on the top banner. Above is the top banner with the text "NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING" written in silver, with a purple ruby stone in the middle of the banner. At the center of the center plate, there is the logo of NJoA's premiere show NJPW Strong in violet and gold that has NJPW's logo over top of it in the same color, with a banner below the NJPW Strong logo that says "WOMEN'S CHAMPION" in a violet rectangle, with the banner being written in gold, sorrounded by forty-five silver rays emanating from the front logo.
The the side plates are sorrounded by sorrounded by thirty-seven white rhinestones, with the center of the side plate featuring the logo of the promotion in violet and gold, with two white rhinestones at the sides of the logo, sorrounded by forty-two silver rays emanating from the promotion's logo.
Title history[]
Names[]
| Name | Years | Promotions |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Women's Championship | April 28, 2023 – Present | NJPW AEW ROH IMPACT Stardom CMLL |
| Strong Women's World Championship | May 31, 2023 – June 17, 2023 July 17, 2024 |
AEW |
| Campeonato Femenil de NJPW STORNG | February 29, 2024 – June 30, 2024 | CMLL |
Reigns[]
| # | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Location | Length | Defenses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Willow Nightingale | 1 | May 21, 2023 | Long Beach, CA | 45 Days | 2 | Defeated Mercedes Mone in a tournament final to become the inaugural champion. |
| 2 | Giulia | 1 | July 5, 2023 | Tokyo | 249 Days | 9 | |
| 3 | Stephanie Vaquer | 1 | March 10, 2024 | Tokyo | 112 Days | 4 | |
| 4 | Mercedes Mone | 1 | June 30, 2024 | Elmont, NY | 204+ | 4 | This was a "Winner Takes All" match also for the TBS Championship. |
Combined reigns[]
| † | Indicates the current champion |
|---|
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined defenses |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giulia | 1 | 9 | 249 |
| 2 | Mercedes Mone † | 4 | 204+ | |
| 3 | Stephanie Vaquer | 112 | ||
| 4 | Willow Nightingale | 2 | 45 |
Gallery[]
