IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
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Prince Devitt with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship belt
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Details | |||||||||||
Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||
Date established | February 6, 1986 | ||||||||||
Current champion(s) | Hiromu Takahashi | ||||||||||
Date won | January 4, 2017 | ||||||||||
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Statistics | |
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First champion(s) | Shiro Koshinaka |
Most reigns | Jushin Thunder Liger (11 reigns) |
Longest reign | Jushin Thunder Liger (sixth reign, 628 days) |
Shortest reign | Juventud Guerrera (first reign, 7 days) |
The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling junior heavyweight championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was introduced on February 6, 1986, at a NJPW show. Only wrestlers under the junior heavyweight weight-limit may hold the championship. NJPW currently controls two junior heavyweight championships: the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP 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. From August 5, 1996, until November 5, 1997, the title was part of the J-Crown, or J-Crown Octuple Unified Championship. The J-Crown was an assembly of eight different championships from several different promotions. It was created on August 5, 1996, when The Great Sasuke won an eight-man tournament. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Welterweight Championship, the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship, the WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, and the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship were the eight championships that were involved. On November 5, 1997, then-champion Shinjiro Otani vacated all J-Crown belts but the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship after the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) retook control of its Light Heavyweight title, effectively ending the J-Crown. Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome.