The IWGP Intercontinental Championship is considered to be one of the most prestigious prizes in all of professional wrestling. Introduced on January 5, 2011, this championship was brought in as a secondary title just below the IWGP Heavyweight Championship which is still considered to be the top belt in New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
The IWGP Intercentonatal Championship Is Born
In May of the same year, New Japan decided that it was time to give the belt its first owner and therefore an eight-man tournament was held. The participants in the tournament were all very well-known performers: MVP, Kazuchika Okada, Josh Daniels, Tetsuya Naito, Dan Maff, Toru Yano, Hideo Saito, and Yujiro Takahashi. MVP and Toru Yano were the two who headed into the finals of this tournament where on May 15, the former WWE United States Champion, MVP defeated Yano to become the inaugural IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
The title was won by MVP in Philadelphia, U.S.A but he was set to defend it over in Japan in his upcoming matches. At that point in time MVP had already made his name in WWE and was a well-known figure in the world of professional wrestling. His time in New Japan saw him truly expand his horizons and show fans what he was truly capable of. Three days after MVP defeated Yano, a rematch was scheduled for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. MVP defeated Yano in what marked his first successful title defense but he was made to pay by Yano after the match as Yano took on the role of a barber and gave MVP a nice little trim setting up another match down the line.
At this point, MVP had disbanded from Suzuki-Gun and had a touch of a lone warrior in his character. He was also already in a full-blown rivalry with CHAOS often having trios matches against them with different partners leading into his third encounter with Yano. On July 18, MVP defeated Yano for the third and final time bringing up his successful defense counter to two. Even though his rivalry with Yano was wrapped, he got involved in a feud with yet another CHAOS member, Masato Tanaka. Things were put on pause as the G1 approached where MVP had a very strong showing almost making it into the finals. After the G1 was done with Tanaka got his title shot on October 10 where Masato Tanaka defeated MVP to become the Intercontinental Champion.
After his stablemate Toru Yano had failed multiple times, Tanaka was successful in bringing over the mid-card title to CHAOS. From the start of his run, fans had a feeling that Tanaka would be holding onto the belt for a while and he was soon feuding with different wrestlers. He first clashed with Hirooki Goto at Power Struggle 2011 which Tanaka won in strong fashion. After this victory, Tanaka found MVP on his tail who was coming back for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship that he had dropped a month earlier. MVP challenged Tanaka to a match on December 12, 2011, but Tanaka had no intentions of dropping the title. Given that Tanaka wanted to hold on to the title so badly, he relied on his ally Yujiro Takahashi to help him win the match and make his second successful title defense.
Tanaka didn’t get time to breathe as his obligations to ZERO1 occupied him for most of December but he was nonetheless able to sneak in yet another defense against Tomoaki Honma in late December bringing the counter up to three. Tanaka soon found himself in yet another feud with Hirooki Goto over the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at the dawn of a new year. This time, however, the result was different. On February 12, 2012, at the New Beginning in Osaka Hirooki Goto brought an end to Tanaka’s 125-day long run as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
After winning the belt, Goto found himself being chased by Chaos as they wanted the Intercontinental Championship back with them. Therefore, Goto first faced the Tokyo Pimp Yujiro Takahashi for the Intercontinental Championship. After a hard-fought battle, Goto defended the title successfully. Soon, Goto was occupied with the New Japan Super Cup tearing through the tournament and earning a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Goto faced Kazuchika Okada in May of 2012 but came up short in his efforts to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
By this point, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship had taken the backseat and was slowly losing its spotlight. Nonetheless, after discontinuing his pursuit of the Heavyweight Championship, Goto defended the Intercontinental Championship successfully yet again against Tomohiro Ishii. Goto continued to feud with CHAOS but his next challenge would be one that wouldn’t be able to overcome. He faced the star of CHAOS, Shinsuke Nakamura on July 22 who won the IWGP Intercontinental Championship that night.
The Golden Age Of Nakamura
Nakamura was set to usher in a golden age for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and put the spotlight on it with full intensity. At the time Nakamura won the Intercontinental Championship, he had already been a three-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion which was a big deal for the IC belt. Fans started paying more attention to the Intercontinental Championship because it was around the waist of the King of Strong Style.
Nakamura’s run as the Intercontinental Championship spanned across a variety of feuds but it seemed like Nakamura was never going to drop the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. He had almost become synonymous with the belt and this was only his first reign. He had more title defenses than any other wrestler in history who has held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at a total of eight. Nakamura defeated the likes of Lance Archer, Oliver John, Shelton Benjamin, and former IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto during this run. Seeing such big names feuding over the Intercontinental Championship made it something bigger than a mid-card title. Unlike with other promotions, this secondary title had almost came neck and neck with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The title was truly elevated in status. Nakamura even took the title over to different promotions and thus his 313-day reign came to an end after someone from outside the promotion defeated him. That ‘someone’ was La Sombra.
Nakamura was battling it out with the best of CMLL when he came across the rising star known as La Sombra. Nakamura had defeated him earlier in 2013 but later they faced each other mostly in tag team matches where La Sombra always seemed to get the upper hand and therefore a match was set: Shinsuke Nakamura vs La Sombra in a two-out-of-three falls match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in Mexico.
The final score was 2-1, with La Sombra walking out as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. La Sombra is now more commonly known as Andrade in AEW but during his early days, he was ‘The Shadow’. Beating Nakamura was huge and that too for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. La Sombra’s future sure would have looked bright then. He held onto the title for a while in CMLL defending once against long-time rival Volador Jr. However, the King of Strong Style wasn’t done with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and challenged La Sombra this time on Nakamura’s own turf in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Both of the wrestlers were tied at one win each over the other and on July 20, 2013, Shinsuke Nakamura regained the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Shinsuke Nakamura became the first wrestler ever to hold the IWGP Intercontinental Championship more than once. Soon after his second run started, Nakamura found himself wrestling in the G1 Climax and had a quite dominant run until his hopes of winning the G1 were put to a stop by Shelton Benjamin. Given that Benjamin defeated Nakamura in the G1, he was given an IWGP Intercontinental Championship opportunity. The two faced each other at Destruction on September 29, 2013, where Nakamura emerged as the victor marking his first successful title defense in his second run.
Nakamura’s next challenger came from NOAH in the form of Naomichi Marufuji at the King of Pro Wrestling event but he was no match to the King of Strong Style. Things only got difficult for Nakamura from thereon. It was soon announced that Nakamura would be facing Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. This was the toughest challenge Nakamura had faced up until that point. Even though it was believed that Nakamura would be heading into Wrestle Kingdom as champion, Minoru Suzuki standing in the way put a huge shadow of doubt over that speculation.
Nakamura clashed with Suzuki at Power Struggle 2013 where Nakamura proved to be the better wrestler making his second successful title defense. After the match was over, it was time for Nakamura to pick an opponent for Wrestle Kingdom and he picked his longtime rival and the Ace of New Japan Hiroshi Tanahashi who brought Nakamura’s second run to an end at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in the Tokyo Dome.
Hiroshi Tanahashi was an already established star and passing on the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Nakamura to Tanahashi was a smart move as it upheld the importance of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Tanahashi’s run with the Intercontinental Belt was mostly involved in a feud with Nakamura. It didn’t sit well with Nakamura that Tanahashi had not only taken the title from him but also had proven that he was the better wrestler.
Nakamura came after the Intercontinental Championship by challenging Tanahashi to a match the next month at the New Beginning in Hiroshima. Unfortunately for Nakamura, Tanahashi was successful in defending the Intercontinental Championship. The New Japan Cup arrived and Nakamura was announced as a participant. The King of Strong Style absolutely ripped through the tournament winning the New Japan Cup 2014. The winner of the New Japan Cup has the option of challenging either the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, IWGP Intercontinental Championship, or the NEVER Openweight Championship. Every winner in New Japan Cup history has challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight except for one.
In 2014, after winning the New Japan Cup, Shinsuke Nakamura chose to challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. It is argued that at that moment, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship truly rose and became a World Title. On April 6, 2014, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to start his third run as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
Out of all of Nakamura’s reigns as Intercontinental Champion, this one stands out the least. It was hard to follow an amazing rivalry with Hiroshi Tanahashi. However, Nakamura and his fellow CHAOS stablemates were launched into a rivalry with the Bullet Club. Nakamura was able to sneak in one defense before going head to head with the powerhouse that is Bad Luck Fale. The two locked horns at Dominion 6.21 in Osaka, Japan, and Bad Luck Fale came out strong establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with.
Fale brought the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to the Bullet Club. The Bullet Club was a faction that was growing faster than any other group in the world of professional wrestling. Giving them the Intercontinental Championship was a smart decision. However, as proved in the last few months, Nakamura will do anything to get his hands back on the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and that’s exactly what happened. G1 Climax approached and Nakamura and Fale both crossed paths in the tournament as Nakamura defeated Fale in a non-title match. Not long after both of them were done with the G1 Climax, a match was booked for Destruction where, on September 21, 2014, in Kobe, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Bad Luck Fale for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Shinsuke Nakamura had begun his fourth reign as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion after defeating Bad Luck Fale. By this point, it was a well-known fact that Nakamura is always going to be remembered in the same breath as the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. His fourth run only solidified his legacy with the title. During this run, Nakamura had some notable matches including one which is considered to be one of his best matches ever. Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom 9. The next prominent wrestler who challenged for the Intercontinental Championship happened to be the one Nakamura wasn’t able to defeat. On May 3, 2015, Shinsuke Nakamura lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Hirooki Goto.
By winning the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, Goto became the only wrestler apart from Shinsuke Nakamura to hold the IWGP Intercontinental Championship more than once. Nakamura continued his rivalry with Goto and even got a match against him at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka Jo Hall. However, Nakamura was unable to beat Goto and failed to get back the belt. Nakamura did not stop there. Bullet Club continued to feud with CHAOS after the G1 Climax was over in which Nakamura reached the finals only to be defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi. Not losing hope, Nakamura clashed with Goto one last time at Destruction where Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Goto to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Shinsuke Nakamura had become a five-time Intercontinental Champion. This happened to be Nakamura’s last run with the title. Nakamura’s days in New Japan were numbered. He spent his last months feuding with Bullet Club defeating Karl Anderson on his way to Wrestle Kingdom. At Wrestle Kingdom 10, Nakamura defeated AJ Styles, the leader of the Bullet Club in his last title match for NJPW. Nakamura was off to WWE and therefore the IWGP Intercontinental Championship was stripped off him and was thus vacated.
The Omega Man Starts His Rise To The Top
At the New Beginning in Niigata on February 14, 2016, a match was held between Kenny Omega and Hiroshi Tanahashi, two of the top stars of the promotion where Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the vacant IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Days after winning the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, Kenny Omega also won the NEVER Six-Man Openweight Tag Team Titles alongside his Bullet Club stablemates. Omega was challenged by Michael Elgin for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and Omega defeated Elgin as his first and only title defense. Elgin often found himself losing to Omega in following multi-man tag team matches and he was determined to defeat Omega for the prestigious title. However, soon Elgin and his teammates started picking victories over the Bullet Club.
Kenny Omega was set to defend his IWGP Intercontinental Championship against former champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. However, Tanahashi got injured and his replacement was none other than Michael Elgin who defeated Kenny Omega in a ladder match at Dominion 6.19 to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Elgin took the title over to different promotions albeit not defending it but he was an inter-promotional talent with the belt much suiting the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Soon G1 Climax arrived and Elgin had picked up a lot of momentum. During the G1, Elgin had a very strong showing even though he didn’t make it to the finals. After the G1 he got involved in a feud with Los Ingobernables de Japon who was one of the more dominant factions in the world of wrestling. At this point, the cross-promotion deal between ROH and NJPW had picked up full speed. Elgin even defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Donovan Dijak at ROH Field of Honor. Not long after, Tetsuya Naito finally challenged and defeated Michael Elgin to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Naito Brings Ingobernables To The IC Scene
Naito was set to usher in a new era of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Before Naito defeated Elgin, he already had some unfinished business with Jay Lethal. Lethal was betrayed by Los Ingobernables de Japon after they left him on his own in a multi-man tag team match. Five days after Naito won the title, Lethal defeated him in a non-title match as ROH All-Star Extravaganza. Therefore a title match was set up between Jay Lethal and Tetsuya Naito for Power Struggle where Naito successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Naito was headed for bigger matches and so he was met with Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 11. The same person who had replaced Naito as the top guy of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Naito got a chance to redeem himself and so he did by defeating Tanahashi on the biggest stage possible. Naito didn’t get much of a chance to relax as Elgin came back demanding his shot and Naito defeated him for the second time to retain the title. Tanahashi returned back into the title picture soon and Naito and Tanahashi both faced each other at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka Jo Hall but this time the result was different. Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Naito would stay away from the title picture for just a little while as Tanahashi began his second run as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. Tanahashi’s first defense came against Billy Gun at the G1 Special in the USA. Tanahashi went on to have a great second run defeating established stars like Kota Ibushi, Jay White, and Zack Sabre Jr. However, Tanahashi was met with a wall in the form of Murder Grandpa Minoru Suzuki who brought an end to Tanahashi’s amazing second run as IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
At the start of his run, Suzuki seemed almost impossible to stop or move from his position as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. However, it wasn’t as dominant as fans had expected. Suzuki had only one successful defense during this reign and that came against Togi Makabe whom he defeated at New Japan’s 46th Anniversary Show. After this encounter, a familiar figure came back into the title picture and that was none other than Tetsuya Naito who defeated Minoru Suzuki to take back the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Tetsuya Naito’s second run as the Intercontinental Championship was the shortest reign in the history of the Championship. Prior to winning the title, Naito challenged for Okada’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom. After losing the match, Naito was promptly attacked by Chris Jericho. Jericho claimed his right to challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship given his status as arguably the best WWE Intercontinental Champion. Therefore, at Dominion 6.9 the match was set and that is where Chris Jericho defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
No matter the prestige of the belts he wore, they were elevated even higher once around his waist. Having Jericho hold the IWGP Intercontinental Championship was a big deal and he then went on to pick on EVIL. Jericho started a feud with EVIL and got a match against him with the title on the line at Power Struggle. At the end of the match, Jericho locked in the Liontamer and refused to let go even after EVIL had tapped out. It was only until Naito came running to EVIL’s defense did Jericho release the hold. Naito demanded a rematch and thus a match was set at Wrestle Kingdom 13, where Tetsuya Naito defeated Chris Jericho to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Naito was in his third run with the title at this point and was slowly replacing Nakamura as the face of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Los Ingobernables de Japon was set into a feud with Suzuki-Gun soon after and they started gunning for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Taichi stepped up to challenge Naito to challenge for the title but his efforts were in vain after he lost to Naito at The New Beginning. At the same time, Ibushi had gained a lot of popularity yet he still hadn’t won a major title. Nonetheless, Ibushi was rising through the ranks of the roster quickly and challenged Naito at the G1 Supercard where Kota Ibushi defeated Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Ibushi had won his first major title in the heavyweight division and was destined for greatness from thereon. However, his first run with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship didn’t go as planned. Naito got a rematch against Ibushi at Dominion 6.9 where Tetsuya Naito won back the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Breath With The Switchblade
A new member was added to the title picture after Naito had regained the belt: Jay White. White was the leader of the Bullet Club who hadn’t seen any prominent gold in a hot minute. In the G1 Climax, Jay White defeated Naito in the B Block to move onto the finals where he was defeated by the winner of the G1 Climax 2019, Kota Ibushi. Naito had to then face White in a title match and at Destruction in Kobe, Jay White defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
The Switchblade Era had picked up momentum once again as White held the title high over his head whenever he made an entrance. For his first title defense, White defeated Hirooki Goto at Power Struggle. From here on, things got complicated. Naito came out after the match and expressed his wishes to be a double champion holding both IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championships.
At the time, White was the IWGP Intercontinental Champion, Okada was the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Ibushi was the G1 Climax winner and Naito was the number one contender for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Ibushi, Naito, and White all wanted to be double champions and so the Double Gold Dash. Okada was very against the idea however, a fan vote decided that one of these four wrestlers will emerge from Wrestle Kingdom 14 as a double champion. At Wrestle Kingdom Night 1, Tetsuya Naito defeated Jay White to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
The Double Gold & The End Of The Intercontinental Championship
And on Night 2, Naito defeated Kazuchika Okada to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and become the first-ever Dual Champion in the history of NJPW. Right after Naito became double champion, he was attacked by KENTA who challenged for the title at The New Beginning in Osaka but was unsuccessful in winning the belts. Later, Naito was betrayed by EVIL after EVIL won the New Japan Cup 2020 and turned on Naito joining Bullet Club in the process. EVIL defeated Tetsuya Naito to become the second double champion.
EVIL received some backlash from the fans on his reign as champion. EVIL also became a triple champion and the first one in history after winning the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship. Los Ingobernables de Japon was still after him and Hiromu Takahashi challenged for the titles but was unsuccessful. It was Naito’s Destino to take the titles back and that’s what he did. At Summer Struggle, Tetsuya Naito defeated EVIL to win the IWGP Intercontinental and the IWGP Heavyweight Championships.
Naito soon got occupied with EVIL where EVIL defeated Naito in B Block. This prompted a match between the two and soon at Power Struggle 2020, Tetsuya Naito successfully defended both IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championships against EVIL. WrestleKingdom soon arrived and a situation similar, but less complicated, to last year’s Wrestle Kingdom arose.
Kota Ibushi won the 2020 G1 Climax and earned the right to challenge for the belts at WrestleKingdom 15. However, Jay White had defeated Ibushi to take the briefcase off him and got the right to challenge for the belts. Now, at Wrestle Kingdom, Naito was going to defend both his IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championship’s on both nights. On the first night, he would be facing Kota Ibushi and on the second night the winner of the match would go on to face Jay White. At Wrestle Kingdom 15 Night 1, Kota Ibushi defeated Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championships.
On night 2, Kota Ibushi successfully defended both belts against Jay White. Ibushi soon expressed his wishes to unify the titles. On March 4, 2021, El Desperado faced Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the winner would walk out with the new unified IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
Kota Ibushi won the match, and that night, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship was retired and unified with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.