With the IWGP intercontinental belt being briefly reactivated and the World title history being folded in, some historical stats regarding both belts now change and a few fun tidbits are unveiled:
- Will Osprey, Shingo Takagi, Kazuchika Okada, Sanada, Jon Moxley, ZSJ, Konosuke Takeshita and Yota Tsuji are all now former IC champs.
- Tetsuya Naito, Jay White and Hirooki Goto all gain additional reigns as IC champions.
- Okada and ZSJ are retroactively 2x IC champs with the IC title being Okada's only non-Heavyweight singles title in NJPW.
- Tetsuya Naito breaks his own record by becoming an 8x IWGP Intercontinental champion.
- Jon Moxley now joins Chris Jericho and Shinsuke Nakamura as the only wrestlers to be both WWE and IWGP Intercontinental champions.
- With the titles brief revival, there are only two vacancies in its entire history. Nakamura's departure for WWE and Will Osprey vacating due to injury.
- Despite the Intercontinental moniker and being initiated in the U.S, the IC title has only changed hands outside Japan on four occasions. Once in Mexico, three times in the US.
- Hirooki Goto sets the record for the most aggressive defense schedule. One title defense every 19.71 days. Just a hair ahead of Moxley's record of one defense every 19.74 days. Goto is also one defense shy of tying Shinsuke's record of eight defenses.
- Goto also has the 3rd most reigns as IC champion at three reigns. Shinsuke and Naito are numbers two and one respectively.
- Evil, Will Osprey, ZSJ, Sanada, Yota Tsuji and David Finlay all join Shinsuke as having technically used their New Japan Cup wins to challenge for the Intercontinental championship.
- Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, ZSJ and Konosuke Takeshita are also the only wrestlers to have used their G1 Climax wins to challenge for the Intercontinental title.
- There has been only one multi-man match in the history of the Intercontinental championship. The fatal four way hosted at Forbidden Door between champion Jay white, Adam Cole, Kazuchika Okada and Hangman Page.
- El Desperado is no longer the final wrestler to have challenged for the Intercontinental title. That honor now belongs to Yota Tsuji.
- Before unification, La Sombra AKA Andrade El Idolo, was the shortest reigning IC champion at 50 days. That record has now been broken by Evil at 48 days, Will Osprey at 46 days and the final record, Yota Tsuji at two days.
- There have been only three title reigns that ended at V0. Tsuji is the third, having retired the title after technically winning it. Tetsuya Naito owns both reigns when the title was active, losing both his 2nd and 4th reigns on the first defense.
Let me know any statistics and tidbits you know thanks to the last five years of IWGP Intercontinental title history being adjusted.
by ArchDukeNemesis