With the IWGP heavyweight belt being reactivated and the World title history being folded in, some historical stats regarding both belts now change and a few fun tidbits are unveiled:
- Every champion since has had a successful defense. Even Ibushi's V0 of the WHC is now at V3 with his defenses of the heavyweight title. Jay White's first reign in 2019 was the last to end at V0.
- Will Osprey's vacating of the title due to neck problems was the first in nearly 12 years, last done by Tanahashi after a broken eye socket.
- Speaking of Will Ospreay, he is now the 2nd wrestler to hold the IWGP Heavyweight title and the Rev Pro British heavyweight title together. The first being AJ Styles. The last wrestler to hold the IWGP heavyweight title alongside another company's prize was Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta over 12 years prior.
- Jay White is now a 2x IWGP Heavyweight champion, joining Vader, Scott Norton, AJ Styles and now ZSJ as the only foreigners to hold NJPW's top prize more than once.
- Speaking of ZSJ, he is the only IWGP heavyweight champ to have defended their title twice in 24 hours. Okada now has a similar feat, becoming the first champion to defend the gold 24 hours after winning it.
- Unfortunately, Goto's record breaking V7 is no longer significant. He is now tied in 6th place with Fujinami's 2nd, Hashimoto's 3rd and Tanahashi's 6th reigns, all being behind Okada's second reign at V8.
- Goto does set a new record for most aggressive defense schedule with an average of one defense every 19.71 days, beating Mox's rate of one every 19.75 days by a hair.
- Speaking of Mox, he is now only the 2nd wrestler to win the IWGP heavyweight title outside of Japan, with the 3rd being the man who beat him, Tetsuya Naito. The first being Okada in 2019 at MSG.
- Okada is now a 7x IWGP heavyweight champ. One reign behind the ace, but breaking Tana's record of most combined days and defenses as champion. Naito is also now a 5x IWGP heavyweight champion.
- Jay White's fatal four way match at Forbidden Door 2022 is the only time the IWGP Heavyweight title has been defended in a four way match.
Let me know any statistics and tidbits you know thanks to the last five years of IWGP heavyweight title history being adjusted.
by ArchDukeNemesis