BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship

BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship

Daisuke Sekimoto, the longest reigning and only two-time BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion
Details
Current champion(s) Shuji Ishikawa
Date won December 21, 2014[1]
Date established April 14, 2012[2]
Promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling

The BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by the Japanese Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) promotion. It is one of two heavyweight championships promoted by BJW, the other being the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship. The two titles symbolize the two sides of BJW; the Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship the hardcore wrestling side and the World Strong Heavyweight Championship the strong style side.[6]

Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been six reigns shared among five wrestlers. Daisuke Sekimoto is the current champion in his second reign.[1]

History

On March 26, 2012, Yoshihito Sasaki defeated Daisuke Sekimoto in the finals to win the 2012 Ikkitosen Strong Climb tournament. Following his win, Sasaki requested that BJW establish a new championship that would symbolize the "strong" side of the promotion.[6] BJW already had one heavyweight championship, the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship, but it was contested exclusively in deathmatches. This led to BJW announcing the creation of the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship on April 14, 2012.[2] On May 5, Yoshihito Sasaki defeated Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) representative and the reigning wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Big van Walter in a decision match to become the inaugural champion.[7][8] Sasaki held the title for the rest of the year, successfully defending it four times.[1] On January 2, 2013, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJW) representative Manabu Soya defeated Sasaki in his fifth title defense to become the second BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion.[1][9][10] Soya's reign lasted only two months, before he lost the title to Daisuke Sekimoto on March 1, 2013.[1][11][12] Sekimoto held the title for the rest of the year, breaking Sasaki's records for the longest reign and most successful title defenses, with ten.[1][13] On December 29, 2013, Sekimoto suffered a knee injury, but made his return to the ring just two weeks later.[13] However, on January 18, 2014, Sekimoto held a press conference to announce that his quick return had led to a meniscus tear in his knee, which would require surgery, sidelining him for an estimated six weeks and forcing him to relinquish the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship.[14][15] BJW announced that a new champion would be determined between Shinya Ishikawa and Yuji Okabayashi on February 7, 2014.[1] Okabayashi was later sidelined with a shoulder injury and replaced in the match by Ryuichi Kawakami.[16][17] On February 7, Ishikawa defeated Kawakami to become the fourth BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion.[1] During his reign on September 17, 2014, BJW surprisingly announced that Ishikawa was going to retire from professional wrestling on September 23.[18] Though Ishikawa's retirement ceremony was later canceled,[19] the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship was declared vacant.[1] On December 21, Union Pro representative Shuji Ishikawa defeated Ryuichi Kawakami in a decision match to become the fifth BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion.[1] Ishikawa's reign ended in his second defense on March 31, 2015, when Daisuke Sekimoto defeated him to become the first two-time BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion.[1][20][21]

Title history

# Order in reign history
Reign The reign number for the specific wrestler listed
Event The event in which the title was won
Successful defenses The number of successful defenses the champion had during his reign
— Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign
N/A The information is not available or is unknown
+ Indicates the current reign is changing daily
# Wrestler Reign Date Days
held		 Location Event Successful defenses Notes Ref(s)
1 Yoshihito Sasaki 1 May 5, 2012 242 Yokohama Endless Survivor 4[1] Sasaki defeated Big van Walter in a decision match to become the inaugural champion. [1]
2 Manabu Soya 1 January 2, 2013 58 Tokyo New Year Korakuen Hall Tournament 1[1] [1]
3 Daisuke Sekimoto 1 March 1, 2013 323 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Tournament 10[1] [1]
— Vacated — January 18, 2014 — Yokohama — — The title was vacated when Sekimoto was sidelined with a knee injury. [1]
4 Shinya Ishikawa 1 February 7, 2014 222 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Tournament 2[1] Ishikawa defeated Ryuichi Kawakami in a decision match to win the vacant title. [1]
— Vacated — September 17, 2014 — — — — The title was vacated due to Ishikawa retiring from professional wrestling. [1]
5 Shuji Ishikawa 1 December 21, 2014 100 Yokohama Big Japan Death Vegas 1[1] Ishikawa defeated Ryuichi Kawakami in a decision match to win the vacant title. [1]
6 Daisuke Sekimoto 2 March 31, 2015 28+ Tokyo Ikkitosen: Deathmatch Survivor 1[1] [1]

List of combined reigns

As of April 28, 2015

† Indicates the current champion
<1 Indicates that the reign lasted less than one day
Rank Wrestler No. of reigns Combined
defenses		 Combined
days
1 Daisuke Sekimoto† 2 10 351+
2 Yoshihito Sasaki 1 4 242
3 Shinya Ishikawa 1 2 222
4 Shuji Ishikawa 1 1 100
5 Manabu Soya 1 1 58

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 "BJW世界ストロングヘビー級王座". Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "BJWストロングヘビー級王座新設決定～5.5大日本プロレス・横浜文体全カード / NC". Blackeye 2 (in Japanese). April 14, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 石川修司. Union Pro (in Japanese). Dramatic Dream Team. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ 征矢　学. All Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 19, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  5. ↑ 石川 晋也. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "「一騎当千」優勝の佐々木義人がベルト新設を要求 ５．５横浜でアブ小林vs.石川のデスマッチ戦開催へ". Sports Navi (in Japanese). Yahoo!. March 26, 2012. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  7. ↑ 大日本プロレス「Ｅｎｄｌｅｓｓ　Ｓｕｒｖｉｖｏｒ」横浜文化体育館大会. Sports Navi (in Japanese). Yahoo!. May 5, 2012. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  8. ↑ 佐々木義人が初代ストロング王者に. Daily Sports Online (in Japanese). Kobe Shimbun. May 6, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  9. ↑ "征矢学選手、第2代BJW認定世界ストロングヘビー級王者に!!～2013.1.2大日本・後楽園大会試合結果!!". All Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). January 2, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  10. ↑ 征矢がＢＪＷベルトを勝手にワイルド化. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). January 16, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  11. ↑ "征矢学、BJW認定世界ストロングヘビー級王座2度目の防衛に失敗!〜他団体参戦結果". All Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). March 1, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  12. ↑ 関本奥の手でストロング王座奪還. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). March 2, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 負傷欠場中の関本が強行復帰決意. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  14. ↑ 関本大介選手　右膝の手術の為､欠場のお知らせ. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). January 19, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  15. ↑ 大日関本が再欠場　ストロングＢＪ王座返上. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). January 19, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  16. ↑ 岡林裕二選手　左肩の手術の為､欠場のお知らせ. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). January 22, 2014. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  17. ↑ "大日本の二枚看板・関本、岡林欠場で石川vs河上で新王者決定戦". Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). January 23, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  18. ↑ 石川晋也選手　引退のお知らせ. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). September 17, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  19. ↑ 石川晋也選手　引退セレモニー中止のお詫び. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). September 19, 2014. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  20. ↑ "関本大介が石川修司を撃破してストロング王座返り咲き". Sports Navi (in Japanese). Yahoo!. March 31, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  21. ↑ "関本がＢＪＷストロング王座返り咲き". Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). April 1, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.

External links