10 Things Fans Need To Know About The IWGP United States Championship

In New Japan Pro-Wrestling, there are myriad titles for competitors to win, from singles belts like the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to tag belts like the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship or the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship. Then there’s the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, a somewhat recent addition to the promotion, having been introduced in 2017.

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In the five years since its inception, the US Belt has been held by not only gaijin champions like Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, and Jon Moxley, but also Japanese stars like Hiroshi Tanahashi. It’s not the top belt in the company, however, so fans might not know much about it.

10 Created For US Expansion

While New Japan had presence in WCW in the 1990s and Impact Wrestling in the 2000s, the 2010s saw the promotion gain a higher profile in the West thanks in part to gaijin performers like AJ Styles and The Young Bucks, who represented the Bullet Club faction. After WWE signed several NJPW stars including Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura, NJPW began a concerted effort to expand into the United States via not only putting on shows in North America, but also by introducing the IWGP United States Championship to cater to the new market.

9 ROH Participation

In 2014, New Japan forged a working relationship with Ring of Honor, easily the highest profile American indie promotion that shared NJPW’s sensibilities. With the creation of the IWGP US Title, the idea was for the belt to be a staple of ROH as well as NJPW, and that certainly showed in the initial tournament to crown an inaugural champion. The bracket featured both NJPW and ROH guys, with Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal, and Adam Page representing the ROH side. Lethal would be the only one to make it to the semifinals, where was defeated by Kenny Omega.

8 Kenny Omega Was The First Champion

The IWGP United States Championship tournament was held during a two-day event in Long Beach, CA called G1 Special in USA, with the main event of Night 2 being the tournament file to determine the first champion. After defeating Michael Elgin and Jay Lethal, NJPW’s top gaijin Kenny Omega made it to the finals, where he took on New Japan workhorse Tomohiro Ishii.

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After putting Ishii away in an acclaimed 31-minute banger, Kenny Omega would hold the IWGP US Title for 210 days, ultimately dropping it to “Switchblade” Jay White..

7 Jon Moxley Was The Most Successful Champion (So Far)

Jon Moxley made his NJPW debut in the final night of the 2019 Best of the Super Junior tournament, where he immediately dethroned Juice Robinson. While his first run would be cut short due to an inability to defend the title (see below), Moxley won the belt back on Night 1 of Wrestle Kingdom 14, kicking off a 564-day reign with the belt. The length was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Mox still managed to become the most successful wrestler to hold the title, racking up an unprecedented five defenses in this second reign. By contrast, the second most successful by defenses was Kenny Omega with four.

6 Hiroshi Tanahashi Was the First Japanese Champion

Moxley’s second reign with the US Title ended at the hands of Lance Archer in July 2021, with Archer losing the belt at NJPW’s Los Angeles event Resurgence to company ace Hiroshi Tanahashi. With this win, Tanahashi became the first Japanese performer to hold the belt, with additional champions like KENTA and SANADA to follow. After beating Tomohiro Ishii for the vacant title in May 2022, Tnanashi’s number of US Championship reigns would reach three, a record for which he’s tied with Juice Robinson.

5 Vacated Three Times (So Far)

The IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship has only been around for about five years, but has already been vacated three times to date. The first time would be in October 2019, where typhoon weather disrupted Jon Moxley’s travel schedule, forcing him to miss the show where he was to defend the title. Then, in February 2022, champion SANADA fractured his orbital bone, cutting his reign short at 49 days and one defense. Two months later, Juice Robinson had to vacate the belt after just 28 days due to a bout with appendicitis.

4 Only Defended In ROH Twice

Despite New Japan’s intentions for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship to be a Ring of Honor staple, the title was only defended twice in the promotion, and during the belt’s early years to boot. The first happened on Day 4 of ROH’s Global Wars tour, with inaugural Champion defeating YOSHI-HASHI in a 25-minute bout loaded with interference on both sides.

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The second of the title matches happened about seven months later, on the NJPW//ROH co-promoted World of the Worlds, with Jay White opening up Day 1 defending the belt against Punishment Martinez (now known as Damian Priest).

3 Dormant For Most of 2020

The year 2020 started auspiciously for the IWGP United States Championship, with Jon Moxley beating Lance Archer for the belt in a Texas Deathmatch on Night 1 of Wrestle Kingdom 14, defending against Juice Robinson on Night 2, and then defending against Minoru Suzuki in a classic at New Beginning in February. The following month, however, COVID-19 turned into a full-on worldwide pandemic, disrupting the wrestling world along with everything else. Because wrestlers couldn’t travel internationally, the IWGP US Title became dormant.

2 Defended in AEW Several Times In 2021

The US Belt’s dormancy came to an end in February 2021. About a year after it was last defended it, Jon Moxley once again stepped into the ring with the IWGP US Heavyweight Championship, coming out victorious over challenger KENTA at a NJPW Strong taping in California. Over the summer, it was defended several times on All Elite Wrestling television, with Mox keeping it out of the hands of veteran legend Yuji Nagata and Karl Anderson before dropping it to Lance Archer. After winning it, Archer also defended it in AEW, taking on Hikuleo.

1 Juice Robinson “Stole” The Belt

As mentioned above, Juice Robinson’s appendicitis prevented him from defending his IWGP US Title at Dominion 6.12 in June 2022, cutting his reign short at less than a month. As a result, Will Ospreay beat SANADA at Dominion to take the vacant title — but that wasn’t the end of Robinson’s story in the US Title scene. Now a heel as part of Bullet Club, Robinson has been holding on to the physical belt, claiming he never actually lost it. As a result, new champion Ospreay has been defending the title but doesn’t actually have the physical representation of his championship status.