IWGP Championship History (NJPW)

[Nathan Versus]

1 Antonio Inoki
(June 12th 1987/ Tokyo, Japan)
Defeated Masa Saito in tournament final. Vacated May 2nd, 1988 after Inoki broke his foot.

2 Tatsumi Fujinami
(May 8th 1988/ Tokyo, Japan)
Defeated Big Van Vader for the vacant championship. Held up on May 27th 1988 after controversial finish to a match against Riki Choshu

3 Tatsumi Fujinami (2)
(June 24th 1988/ Osaka, Japan)
Defeated Riki Choshu in a re-match. Vacated on April 5th 1989 to allow tournament to increase title's value

4 Vader (as Big Van Vader)
(April 24th, 1989/ Tokyo, Japan)
Defeated Shinya Hashimoto in tournament final.

5 Salman Hashimokov
(May 25th 1989/ Osaka, Japan)

6 Riki Choshu
(July 12th 1989/ Osaka, Japan)

7 Vader (as Big Van Vader) (2)
(August 10th 1989/ Tokyo, Japan)

8 Riki Choshu (2)
(August 19th 1990/ Tokyo, Japan)

9 Tatsumi Fujinami (3)
(December 26th 1990/ Hamamatsu, Japan)

10 Vader (as Big Van Vader) (3)
(January 17th 1991/ Yokohama, Japan)

11 Tatsumi Fujinami (4)
(March 4, 1991 Hiroshima, Japan)

12 Riki Choshu (3)
(January 4th 1992/ Tokyo, Japan)

13 The Great Muta (Keiji Mutoh)
(August 16th 1992/ Fukuoka, Japan)

14 Shinya Hashimoto
(September 20th 1993/ Nagoya, Japan)

15 Tatsumi Fujinami (5)
(April 4th 1994/ Hiroshima, Japan)

16 Shinya Hashimoto (2)
(May 1st 1994/ Fukuoka, Japan)

17 Keiji Mutoh (2)
(May 3rd 1995/ Fukuoka, Japan)

18 Nobuhiko Takada
(January 4th 1996/ Tokyo, Japan)

19 Shinya Hashimoto (3)
(April 29th 1996/ Tokyo, Japan)

20 Kensuke Sasaki
(August 31st 1997/ Yokohama, Japan)

21 Tatsumi Fujinami (6)
(April 4, 1998 Tokyo, Japan)

22 Masahiro Chono
(August 8th 1998/ Osaka, Japan)
Vacated September 21st 1998, after Chono suffers a serious neck injury.

23 Scott Norton
(September 23rd 1998/ Yokohama, Japan)
Defeated Yuji Nagata for the vacant championship.

24 Keiji Mutoh (3)
(January 4th 1999/ Tokyo, Japan)

25 Genichiro Tenryu
(December 10th 1999/ Osaka, Japan)

26 Kensuke Sasaki (2)
(January 4th 2000/ Tokyo, Japan)
Vacated on October 9th 2000 after Sasaki lost a non-title match to Toshiaki Kawada.

27 Kensuke Sasaki (3)
(January 4th 2001/ Tokyo, Japan)
Defeated Toshiaki Kawada in tournament final.

28 Scott Norton (2)
(March 17th 2001/ Nagoya, Japan)

29 Kazuyuki Fujita
(April 9th 2001/ Tokyo, Japan)
Vacated on January 4th 2002 after Fujita suffered injury.

30 Tadao Yasuda
(February 16th 2002/ Tokyo, Japan)
Defeated Yuji Nagata in tournament final.

31 Yuji Nagata
(April 5th 2002/ Tokyo, Japan)

32 Yoshihiro Takayama
(May 2nd 2003/ Tokyo, Japan)

33 Hiroyoshi Tenzan
(November 3rd 2003/ Yokohama, Japan)

34 Shinsuke Nakamura
(December 9th 2003/ Osaka, Japan)
Vacated on February 5th 2004 after Nakamura suffered injury.

35 Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2)
(February 15th 2004/ Tokyo, Japan)
Defeated Genichiro Tenryu in tournament final.

36 Kensuke Sasaki (4)
(March 12th 2004/ Tokyo, Japan)

37 Bob Sapp
(March 28th 2004/ Tokyo, Japan)
Vacated on June 1st 2004 after Sapp lost to Kazuyuki Fujita in a Mixed Martial Arts match

38 Kazuyuki Fujita (2)
June 5th 2004/ Osaka, Japan)
Defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi.

39 Kensuke Sasaki (5)
(October 9th 2004/ Tokyo, Japan)

40 Hiroyoshi Tenzan (3)
(December 12th 2004/ Nagoya, Japan)

41 Satoshi Kojima
February 20th 2005/ Tokyo, Japan)
Also holds AJPW Triple Crown World Heavyweight Championship at the same time.

42 Hiroyoshi Tenzan (4)
(May 14th 2005/ Tokyo, Japan)

43 Kazuyuki Fujita (3)
(July 18th 2005/ Sapporo, Japan)

44 Brock Lesnar
(October 8th 2005/ Tokyo, Japan)
Defeated Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono in a three way dance. Vacated on July 15th 2006.

45 Hiroshi Tanahashi
(July 17th 2006 / Sapporo, Japan)
Won a six-man elimination tournament to win the vacant championship, defeating Giant Bernard in the final.

[stevestryker]

Wait a minute, wasn't Hulk Hogan the 1st IWGP champion or is that not recorded?

[Nathan Versus]

Not exactly.

The International Wrestling Grand Prix was a kind of league tournament held every year. Hogan did win the first league and his prize was a trophy. The following three were won by Inoki and, as a result of winning the 1987 IWGP tournament, he was declared IWGP champion and rewarded with a title belt that could be contended in normal matches.

[stevestryker]

Ah OK, cheers for clearing that up. Kudos on the Archieve board by the way, I'm very impressed.