List of IWGP Intercontinental Champions

Shinsuke Nakamura, the current and record four-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion

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 (JAPW) announced that it had reached an agreement with NJPW for the promotion to run its first shows in the United States.[1] 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.[2] 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.[2] Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome. Overall, there have been ten reigns shared among seven wrestlers. Shinsuke Nakamura is the current IWGP Intercontinental Champion in his fourth reign, after defeating Bad Luck Fale on September 21, 2014.[3][4][5]

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.
1 MVP 1 May 15, 2011 148 Philadelphia, United States NJPW Invasion Tour 2011 2 MVP defeated Toru Yano in an eight–man tournament final to become the inaugural champion. [6]
2 Masato Tanaka 1 October 10, 2011 125 Tokyo, Japan Destruction '11 3 [7]
3 Hirooki Goto 1 February 12, 2012 161 Osaka, Japan The New Beginning (2012) 2 [8]
4 Shinsuke Nakamura 1 July 22, 2012 313 Yamagata, Japan Kizuna Road (2012) 8 [9]
5 La Sombra 1 May 31, 2013 50 Mexico City, Mexico Super Viernes 1 This was a two out of three falls match. [10][11]
6 Shinsuke Nakamura 2 July 20, 2013 168 Akita, Japan Kizuna Road 2013 3 [12]
7 Hiroshi Tanahashi 1 January 4, 2014 92 Tokyo, Japan Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome 1 [13]
8 Shinsuke Nakamura 3 April 6, 2014 76 Tokyo, Japan Invasion Attack 2014 1 [14]
9 Bad Luck Fale 1 June 21, 2014 92 Osaka, Japan Dominion 6.21 0 [15]
10 Shinsuke Nakamura 4 September 21, 2014 209+ Kobe, Japan Destruction in Kobe 3 [3]

List of combined reigns

As of April 18, 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 Shinsuke Nakamura† 4 15 766+
2 Hirooki Goto 1 2 161
3 MVP 1 2 148
4 Masato Tanaka 1 3 125
5 Bad Luck Fale 1 0 92
5 Hiroshi Tanahashi 1 1 92
7 La Sombra 1 1 50

References

  1. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (October 3, 2010). "New Japan Pro Wrestling comes to the U.S.". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Caldwell, James (January 5, 2011). "NJPW News: New Japan to introduce new title on U.S. tour, officially announces dates & venues for "Invasion" tour". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Destruction in Kobe". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ Caldwell, James (September 21, 2014). "Caldwell's New Japan PPV results 9/21: Complete live coverage of "Destruction in Kobe" - Nakamura regains IC Title, Tanahashi vs. Shibata, A.J. Styles, new Jr. Hvt. champion, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ 中邑がファレ撃破！４度目のＩＣ王座戴冠. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). September 22, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  6. ↑ "NY遠征最終日、真壁がライノ撃破! 初代インターコンチ王者はMVP！ ライガーまさかの王座陥落!!（結果速報）". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). May 16, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
  7. ↑ "Destruction '11". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved October 10, 2011.
  8. ↑ "The New Beginning". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  9. ↑ "NJPW 40th anniversary Tour Kizuna Road". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  10. ↑ Salazar López, Alexis A. (June 1, 2013). "Resultados Arena México Viernes 31 de Mayo '13". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 1, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  11. ↑ ラ・ソンブラが新インターコンチネンタル王者に！ 中邑がメキシコで王座陥落！. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). June 1, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  12. ↑ "吉野家Presents Kizuna Road 2013". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  13. ↑ "バディファイトPresents Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 東京ドーム". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Invasion Attack 2014". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved April 6, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Dominion 6.21". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved June 21, 2014.

External links