Date established January 5, 2011 Date won September 25, 2016 | Current champion(s) Tetsuya Naito First champion(s) MVP | |
Promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) Most reigns Shinsuke Nakamura (5 reigns) | ||
The IWGP Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. On October 3, 2010, American promotion Jersey All Pro Wrestling announced that it had reached an agreement with NJPW for the promotion to run its first shows in the United States. NJPW officially announced the tour, titled NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast, on January 4, 2011, during the Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome event, announcing events for May 13 in Rahway, New Jersey, May 14 in New York City and May 15 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was also announced that during the tour, New Japan would introduce a new "IWGP Intercontinental Championship", which would become the promotion's fifth active title. The title is unofficially considered part of the "New Japan Triple Crown" (新日本トリプルクラウン, Shin Nihon Toripuru Kuraun) along with the IWGP Heavyweight and NEVER Openweight Championships. Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome. Overall, there have been fifteen reigns shared among ten wrestlers. Tetsuya Naito is the current champion in his first reign, after defeating Michael Elgin on September 25, 2016.
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Championship tournament
On April 8, 2011, NJPW announced the participants in the tournament to crown the first IWGP Intercontinental Champion. The list of participants included former World Wrestling Entertainment performer MVP, who had signed a contract with NJPW in January 2011, Kazuchika Okada, who had been on a learning excursion to American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) since February 2010, Hideo Saito, who had been on a similar tour of Puerto Rican World Wrestling Council since September 2010, former IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi of No Limit, NJPW regulars Tama Tonga and Toru Yano and American independent worker Dan Maff, who made his first appearance for NJPW during the tour. On May 6 it was announced that Tonga had suffered an injury, which would force him out of the tournament. He would be replaced by former TNA and Ring of Honor performer Josh Daniels. On May 15, MVP defeated Yano in the finals of the tournament to become the inaugural champion.
Nakamura and elevation
Through MVP's inaugural reign and the subsequent reigns of Masato Tanaka and Hirooki Goto, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship was largely a midcard title, remaining firmly behind the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Tag Team Championship in importance. However, after Shinsuke Nakamura captured the title from Goto on July 22, 2012, Nakamura was already a former three-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and, with his first reign of 313 days, the title began gaining importance. Nakamura also made the title international again, defending it in both the United States and Mexico. On May 31, 2013, while on tour with Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, with whom NJPW has a working relationship, Nakamura lost the title to La Sombra. This marked the first time the title had changed hands outside of NJPW. Nakamura regained the title back in NJPW two months later on July 20, and in the process became the first two-time holder of the title.
Nakamura continued elevating the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, culminating with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship match receiving top billing over the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at NJPW's biggest annual event, Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2014, where former multi-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi became the new champion. Afterwards, Tokyo Sports wrote that the Intercontinental and Heavyweight Championships were now equals, while Dave Meltzer wrote that Nakamura and Tanahashi made the Intercontinental Championship feel like "the real world title belt". Nakamura regained the title from Tanahashi in another main event match on April 6 at Invasion Attack 2014. Nakamura's association with the championship continued to 2016, when he successfully defended it against former IWGP Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome. On January 25, 2016, Nakamura was stripped of the title due to his departure from the promotion at the end of the month.
From 2012 to 2016, Nakamura held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for a record five times and defended it at four consecutive Wrestle Kingdom events. The title was also associated with Nakamura as it was he who personally introduced the current title belt design shortly into his first reign in August 2012. He was outspokenly disapproving of the first belt design with bronze plates on a black strap for its resemblance to a 10 yen coin and saw it as a mockery of the IWGP. The new design featured gold plates on a white strap. The white strap was unprecedented for the IWGP, and symbolized a clean slate for its holder to add to and define.
Reigns
There have been fifteen reigns shared among ten wrestlers. MVP was the first champion in the title's history. Shinsuke Nakamura holds the record for most reigns with the title, being a five-time champion. His first reign of 313 days is the longest reign in the title's history. La Sombra's only reign of 50 days is the shortest in the title's history. Tetsuya Naito is the current champion in his first reign.