J-Crown
The J-Crown, also known as the , was a unified, multi-promotional professional wrestling championship initially created by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It was formed via the unification of eight (later seven) junior heavyweight and other lower-weight class titles from several different organizations. The J-Crown Tournament that crowned the inaugural champion was held in August 1996. History The J-Crown was the unification of eight different championship belts from multiple different countries, including ones from Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The tournament to crown the first champion was held over four nights, from August 2 to August 5, 1996, the same dates that New Japan Pro-Wrestling's annual G1 Climax event took place, promoting two major tournaments on one tour. Jushin Thunder Liger is credited with coming up with the idea for the J-Crown. The inaugural champion was The Great Sasuke. The J-Crown was defended for just over a year. While Úl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jushin Thunder Liger
, better known as and later , is a Japanese retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as a trainer. He is the longest-tenured member of the NJPW roster, having worked for the company since his professional wrestling debut in 1984. Throughout his career, which spanned three-and-a-half decades, he wrestled over 4,000 matches and performed in major events for various promotions across the globe. Debuting under his real name for NJPW in 1984, he was given the gimmick of Jushin Liger in 1989, based on the Jushin Liger (TV series), anime series of the same name. Becoming Jushin "Thunder" Liger the following year, he saw unprecedented success in the Cruiserweight (professional wrestling), junior heavyweight division when he won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship a record 11 times and set the record for its longest reign during his second reign, which lasted for 628 days. Liger was the first three-time ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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NWA World Welterweight Championship
The NWA World Welterweight Championship () is an inactive professional wrestling championship governed by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and most recently promoted by NWA Mexico. The championship was originally created in 1946 by the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). As with all professional wrestling championships, matches for the NWA World Welterweight Championship were not won or lost competitively but by a pre-planned ending to a match, with the outcome determined by the CMLL bookers and match makers. CMLL controlled the championship from 1946 until 1996 and again from 2007 until 2010. From 1996 until 2007 the championship was promoted mainly in Japan, initially as one of eight championships that made up the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) J-Crown Championship. After the J-Crown was discontinued the title remained in Japan promoted by the Toryumon federation until 2007 when it returned to Mexico and CMLL. CMLL was a member of the National Wrestlin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship
The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Created in 1943, the title is competed for by junior heavyweight wrestlers. History The first NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion was Ken Fenelon, who was awarded the title in May 1943 by Paul "Pinkie" George, the promoter of the local National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promotion. For the first few years of its existence, the title was contested largely in Iowa, where George's NWA promotion was based. On July 14, 1948, the NWA was established by George and his partners as a governing body for various regional wrestling promotions in the United States, after which the World Junior Heavyweight Championship became the property of the alliance. At the founding meeting of the NWA governing body in Waterloo, Iowa, Billy Goelz was recognized as the governing body's World Junior Heavyweight Champion; the governing body additionally retroactively re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship
The UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship (''Campeonato Mundia de Peso Semicompleto Junior UWA'' in Spanish) is a professional wrestling championship that was originally promoted by the Mexican lucha libre professional wrestling) promotion Universal Wrestling Association (UWA). the UWA operated from 1975 to 1995 but the title is still defended on the Mexican independent circuit after the UWA closed. The weight range for this championship is to but is not strictly enforced to these days. The UWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship has also been promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ... and was at one time one of the eight championships that made up the J-Crown Championship. Following the breakup of the J-Crown, the champio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship
The British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship that although being created in England, was most notorious in Japan. History Not long after its creation in 1995, the title made its way to Michinoku Pro Wrestling where it stayed until Jushin Thunder Liger took it to New Japan Pro-Wrestling and combined it with seven other junior heavyweight titles to create the J-Crown. After the J-Crown was disbanded, the title resurfaced in England for a short time. After a tour of England, Tiger Mask took the title back to Japan, where it returned to Michinoku Pro then made its way to Toryumon, where it was last defended before being deactivated. Reigns Combined reigns See also *Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom The history of professional wrestling in the United Kingdom spans over one hundred years. After a brief spell of popularity for Greco Roman professional wrestling during the Edwardian era, the first catch-as- ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
The is a professional wrestling world junior heavyweight championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the . 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 title is . The reigning champion is El Desperado, who is in his fifth reign. He won the title by defeating Douki at Wrestle Kingdom 19 on January 4, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. History The title was introduced on February 6, 1986, at a NJPW show. 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 a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shinjiro Otani
is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler and the current acting president of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). He is currently inactive from pro-wrestling competition due to a cervical spine injury sustained in April 2022. A product of the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) dojo, Otani is best known for his longtime association with Zero1, a promotion he founded in 2001 along with Shinya Hashimoto. Starting his career in NJPW as a junior heavyweight, Otani gained a reputation as a gutsy underdog and would go on to hold several championships during his nine-year run with the promotion, including the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and the J-Crown, as well as forming a successful tag team with dojo classmate Tatsuhito Takaiwa, twice holding the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. After jumping to the heavyweight division in 2001, Otani would leave New Japan the same year, joining Shinya Hashimoto as one of the founders of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). Following the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Último Dragón
, better known by his ring name , is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler signed to Dragon Gate (wrestling), Dragon Gate, where he acts as an in-ring talent, trainer and senior advisor. In addition to having trained in Japan, Asai learned to wrestle in the ''lucha libre'' style while working in Mexico. He is credited with popularizing the "Moonsault#Springboard moonsault, Asai Moonsault". On October 11, 1996, Asai won the J-Crown, a unification of eight lower weight division titles from various international promotions. At the time, he already held the NWA World Middleweight Championship; during this reign he also became the WWE Cruiserweight Championship (1991–2007), WCW Cruiserweight Champion, making him the most decorated wrestler in history.Asai also became a co-holder of the WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship in October 1996, but it was retired that same day and was thus never defended by him From December 29, 1996, through January 4, 1997, he concu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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El Samurai
(born April 19, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and is better known by his stage name El Samurai. Professional wrestling career Early years (1986–1992) Osamu Matsuda graduated from high school in 1985, and joined the NJPW Dojo. He debuted on July 24, 1986 in a losing effort against Masaharu Funaki, and spent a few years working at the bottom of the card, wrestling with the likes of Kensuke Sasaki, Kenichi Oya, and Takayuki Iizuka. In March 1991 he went on a learning excursion to Mexico, and while working for the UWA promotion, adopted a mask and the El Samurai stage name. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1992–2008) El Samurai returned to NJPW in March 1992. A month later, he made it to the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, in which he lost to Jushin Thunder Liger. Two months later, he defeated Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would lose the title to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Great Sasuke
, best known under his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter and politician. He is the founder of Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW). Aside from professional wrestling, he is also a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly legislator. He has wrestled in Japan and in the United States in various professional wrestling promotions. He is said to have an incredible tolerance for pain, mainly in reference to the injuries he has had including a cracked skull on two occasions. Professional wrestling career Universal Lucha Libre (1990–1993) After failing the entrance exams to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Murakawa joined Universal Lucha Libre and had his debut on March 1, 1990, against Monkey Magic Wakita. He later adopted the name "Masa Michinoku", derived from his own given name and the alternate name for his Japanese home region of Tōhoku, Michinoku. He portrayed a Japanese folkloric gimmick who wore a cloak and a sandogasa hat in his ring ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship
The is a professional wrestling championship contested for in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Tenryu Project. The title was established in 1995 in Wrestle Association R (WAR). In the revived Tenryu Project, the title is also referred to as the . Title history Inaugural championship tournament On March 26, 1995, an eight-man single elimination tournament was held on the second day of the Wrestle Association R (WAR) event Battle Angel. The tournament saw Gedo defeat Lionheart in the finals to become the inaugural champion. The title was part of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's short-lived J-Crown Championship in 1996 and 1997. In late 2006, the title briefly moved to Dragon Gate where Masaaki Mochizuki beat Gedo in a decision match on January 26, 2007 to determine the final champion, and then retired the title. Revivals The title was revived in April 2010, for Genichiro Tenryu , better known as is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestlin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Japan Pro-Wrestling
(NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV Asahi and Amuse Inc. owning minority shares of the promotion. Naoki Sugabayashi has served as the promotion's Chairman since September 2013, while Hiroshi Tanahashi has served as the president of the promotion since December 2023. Owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, NJPW is the largest and longest-running professional wrestling promotion in Japan. Their biggest event is the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show (currently promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom banner) held each year since 1992. In addition to promoting professional wrestling matches, NJPW has also showcased mixed martial arts fights on some of its live events. The promotion was owned by Yuke's from 2005 until 2012. It was then sold to Bushiroad in 2012, which parlayed its entry to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |