IWGP Intercontinental Championship
The IWGP Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was announced on January 5, 2011, the inaugural champion was crowned during NJPW's first tour of the United States the following May; the title is unofficially considered part of the "New Japan Triple Crown" along with the IWGP Heavyweight and NEVER Openweight Championships. Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome. Overall, there have been twenty reigns shared among twelve wrestlers. Kota Ibushi is the current champion in his first reign, after defeating Tetsuya Naito on April 6, 2019 at G1 Supercard. On October 3, 2010, American promotion Jersey All Pro Wrestling announced that it had reached an agreement with NJPW for the promotion to run its first shows in the United States. NJPW announced the NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast tour on January 4, 2011, with shows taking place on May 13 in Rahway, New Jersey, May 14 in New York City and May 15 in Philadelphia and the following day added that during the tour, the promotion would introduce the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, with the inaugural champion to be crowned in a tournament taking place over the three shows.
Participants for the tournament were announced on April 8, 2011. The list of participants included former World Wrestling Entertainment performer MVP, who had signed a contract with New Japan in January 2011, Kazuchika Okada, on a learning excursion to American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling since February 2010, Hideo Saito, on a similar tour of Puerto Rican World Wrestling Council since September 2010, former IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi of No Limit, NJPW regulars Tama Tonga and Toru Yano and American independent worker Dan Maff, who made his first appearance for NJPW during the tour. On May 6 it was announced that Tonga had suffered an injury, which would force him out of the tournament, he would be replaced by former Ring of Honor performer Josh Daniels. On May 15, MVP defeated Yano in the finals of the tournament to become the inaugural champion. Tournament bracket Through MVP's inaugural reign and the subsequent reigns of Masato Tanaka and Hirooki Goto, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship was a midcard title, remaining behind the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Tag Team Championship in importance.
However, after Shinsuke Nakamura captured the title from Goto on July 22, 2012, Nakamura was a former three-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and, with his first reign of 313 days, the title began gaining importance. Nakamura made the title international again, defending it in both the United States and Mexico. On May 31, 2013, while on tour with Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, with whom NJPW has a working relationship, Nakamura lost the title to La Sombra; this marked the first time the title had changed hands outside of NJPW. Nakamura regained the title back in NJPW two months on July 20, in the process became the first two-time holder of the title. Nakamura continued elevating the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, culminating with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship match receiving top billing over the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at NJPW's biggest annual event, Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2014, where former multi-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi became the new champion.
Afterwards, Tokyo Sports wrote that the Intercontinental and Heavyweight Championships were now equals, while Dave Meltzer wrote that Nakamura and Tanahashi made the Intercontinental Championship feel like "the real world title belt". Nakamura regained the title from Tanahashi in another main event match on April 6 at Invasion Attack 2014. Nakamura's association with the championship continued to 2016, when he defended it against former IWGP Heavyweight Champion A. J. Styles at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome. On January 25, 2016, Nakamura was stripped of the title due to his departure from the promotion at the end of the month. From 2012 to 2016, Nakamura held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for a record five times and defended it at four consecutive Wrestle Kingdom events; the title was associated with Nakamura as it was he who introduced the current title belt design shortly into his first reign in August 2012. He was outspokenly disapproving of the first belt design with bronze plates on a black strap for its resemblance to a 10 yen coin and saw it as a mockery of the IWGP.
The new design featured gold plates on a white strap. The white strap was unprecedented for the IWGP, symbolized a clean slate for its holder to add to and define. Over the years, the title belt's physical condition got progressively worse, most notably during the first reign of Tetsuya Naito, who began systematically destroying the belt, forcing NJPW to have it repaired in June 2017. There have been twenty reigns shared among twelve wrestlers. MVP was the first champion in the title's history. Shinsuke Nakamura holds the record for most reigns at five, his first reign of 313 days is the longest reign in the title's history. Tetsuya Naito’s second reign of 41 days is the shortest in the title's history. Kota Ibsuhi is the current champion in his first reign beating Tetsuya Naito at G1 Supercard. Official title history at New Japan Pro-Wrestling.co.jp Title history at Wrestling-Titles.com
NEVER Openweight Championship
The NEVER Openweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling promotion. NEVER is an acronym of the terms "New Blood", "Evolution", "Valiantly", "Eternal", "Radical" and was a NJPW-promoted series of events, which featured younger up-and-coming talent and outside wrestlers not signed to the promotion; the project was announced on July 12, 2010, held its first event on August 24, 2010. On October 5, 2012, NJPW announced that NEVER was going to get its own championship, the NEVER Openweight Championship, the promotion's sixth active title; the title was scheduled to be defended at NEVER events, but this plan was changed and since its foundation, the title has been defended on the undercards of NJPW events. The original concept of having younger workers wrestle for the title has not been realized with the first seven holders of the title having been in their thirties or forties. Instead, through the likes of Katsuyori Shibata, Togi Makabe, Tomohiro Ishii, the NEVER Openweight Championship became known for its "gritty" title matches.
Though named an "openweight" championship, NJPW has categorized the title as a heavyweight title. Together, the NEVER Openweight, IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental Championships form what has unofficially been called the "New Japan Triple Crown"; the title's openweight nature means that both heavyweight and junior heavyweight wrestlers are eligible to challenge for it. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a match with a predetermined outcome. There have been twenty reigns shared among thirteen wrestlers. Jeff Cobb is the current champion in his first reign. On October 5, 2012, over two years after the founding of NEVER, New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced the creation of the project's first championship, the NEVER Openweight Championship; the title was created with the idea of using it to "elevate younger wrestlers". The first champion was to be determined in a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament, set to take place November 15 and 19, 2012; the title and the tournament were announced by New Japan president Naoki Sugabayashi and NEVER regular Tetsuya Naito, scheduled to enter the tournament, but was forced to pull out after suffering a knee injury.
Much like regular NEVER events, the tournament featured wrestlers not signed to New Japan. The entire first round of the tournament took place on November 15 and saw Shiori Asahi, Yoshi-Hashi, Taishi Takizawa, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii, Kengo Mashimo, Karl Anderson and Masato Tanaka advance; the rest of the tournament took place four days later. During the second round, Kengo Mashimo defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Karl Anderson defeated Shiori Asahi, Masato Tanaka defeated Taishi Takizawa, Tomohiro Ishii defeated Yoshi-Hashi; the semifinals saw Tanaka defeat Ishii. In the finals of the tournament, the 39-year-old, despite being affiliated with Pro Wrestling Zero1, had worked for NJPW since August 2009, defeated Anderson to become the inaugural NEVER Openweight Champion. Though the title was designed to be defended at NEVER events, NJPW has not held a single NEVER event since the championship tournament. There have been eighteen reigns shared among eleven wrestlers with one vacancy. Masato Tanaka was the first champion in the title's history.
He holds the record for the longest reign in the title's history, at 314 days. Michael Elgin's only reign of 8 days is the shortest in the title's history. Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto both hold the record for the most reigns, with each being a four-time champion. Jeff Cobb is the current champion in his first reign, having defeated Will Ospreay for the title on April 6, 2019, at G1 Supercard. NEVER IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Official title history at New Japan Pro Wrestling.co.jp Title history at Wrestling-Titles.com
Bob Sapp
Robert Malcolm Sapp is an American professional wrestler and former American football player best known for his career as a kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He is under contract with Rizin Fighting Federation. Sapp has a combined fight record of 24–39–1 fighting in Japan, he is well known in Japan, where he has appeared in numerous commercials, television programs, various other media, has released a music CD, Sapp Time. He appeared in an episode of the HBO program Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, he is working sporadically for various MMA promotions in the U. S. Japan, Europe. Sapp began his athletic career in high school playing football at Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, he received a football scholarship to the University of Washington. Sapp was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 1997 NFL Draft, he signed with the Minnesota Vikings after being released by the Bears. His career took a hit, he only played in one game. Afterwards, Sapp was in poverty, worked at a funeral home moving coffins.
Bob Sapp's professional wrestling career started in NWA Wildside in 2001, before he was contracted by World Championship Wrestling as a developmental wrestler. There he started honing his "The Beast" persona, which at this stage was a villainous, feral tarzan-like gimmick, but his development was cut short when the company was bought out by the World Wrestling Federation. In 2002, riding his success in K-1, Sapp made his professional wrestling debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Introduced as a member of chairman Antonio Inoki's army of fighters, Sapp replaced an injured Yoshihiro Takayama in his October 14 match against Manabu Nakanishi; the two exchanged taunts and attacks on the weeks leading to the match, with Sapp winning after executing his finishing move, the Beast Bomb, on the ringside, where he left Nakanishi to be counted out. This victory led to many other wrestlers to suggest to take their chance against Sapp, among them Yuji Nagata and Takayama himself, but the American refrained from participating.
Sapp balanced his NJPW appearances with similar ventures in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he intruded to challenge Bill Goldberg and Keiji Mutoh. He first appeared in Wrestle-1, a copromotion between K-1 and AJPW, where he faced Mutoh's alter ego The Great Muta in November 2002. Sapp defeated him after pinning him with a diving headbutt, he returned to the event in January 2003, where he wrestled his kickboxing rival Ernesto Hoost, yet this time Sapp lost after Hoost's cornerman Johann Vos intervened in the bout. In October 2003, Sapp returned to NJPW, taking part again of Inoki's MMA army along with Takayama, Kazuyuki Fujita, Shinsuke Nakamura and Minoru Suzuki to face Nakanishi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Seiji Sakaguchi, he followed by some team matches along with Nakamura and AJPW's Keiji Mutoh, but his main push would come in his singles career. On March 28, 2004, Sapp defeated Kensuke Sasaki to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, becoming the first African-American to hold the title.
After defending the title against Shinsuke Nakamura on May 3 at Nexess, Sapp forfeited the title due to having lost to Kazuyuki Fujita in a mixed martial arts fight. In 2005, Sapp returned to Wrestle-1, taking part on its inaugural Grand Prix tournament and beating Giant Bernard and Jun Akiyama in road to the finals. However, Wrestle-1 was discontinued. On October 16, 2007, Sapp made a surprise appearance at Hustle's Korakuen Hall event, attacking Razor Ramon HG and his partner Wataru Sakata. Sapp aligned himself with Generalissimo Takada's villainous Monster Army. After defeating Razor Ramon RG in his debut match for the company, it was announced that he would wrestle at the Hustlemania Yokohama Arena event, his opponent was confirmed to be Razor Ramon HG, whom Sapp went on to defeat. Sapp was put into a tag team with fellow superheavyweight Monster Bono, but a falling out between the two, happened due to miscommunications in the ring, led Sapp to attack him with a chair. Sapp and Bono entered a short feud, which culminated with the American's victory and Bono's expulsion from the Monster Army.
Sapp started teaming up with Commander An Jo entering another feud with Hustle Army member Wataru Sakata. Sapp was defeated by him, he would try to bounce back by participating in the Hustle Grand Prix 2008, but he was shockingly eliminated by Osaka Pro Wrestling representative Zeus after having beaten Tiger Jeet Singh. After another short rivalry with Genichiro Tenryu, Sapp was defeated in a rematch against Bono as his last appearance for Hustle. In 2008, Sapp began to participate in a pro wrestling organization in South Korea. On October 26, 2009, Sapp captured the WWA Heavyweight title by defeating Lee Wang-pyo. On July 24, 2011, Sapp made his debut for Dramatic Dream Team at the "2011: A Ryogoku Peter Pan" event, using a "Beast will fight for money" gimmick. In a comedy match, he was defeated by Danshoku Dino, a wrestler with a homosexual character, being pinned after a kiss and a roll-up. At a NJPW event on December 20, 2012, Toru Yano announced that Sapp would represent the villainous Chaos stable on January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome.
At the event, Sapp teamed with Yano, Takashi Iizuka and Yujiro Takahashi in an eight-man tag team match, where they were defeated by Akebono, Manabu Nakanishi, MVP and Strong Man. Sapp made another appearance for New Japan on April 7, 2013, at Invasion Attack, wh
Kurt Angle
Kurt Steven Angle is an American actor, retired professional wrestler and amateur wrestler signed to WWE. While at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Angle won numerous accolades, including being a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Heavyweight Wrestling Champion. After graduating from college, Angle won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1995 World Wrestling Championships, he won the freestyle wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He is one of four people to complete an amateur wrestling Grand Slam. In 2006, he was named by USA Wrestling as the greatest shoot wrestler and one of the top 15 college wrestlers of all time, he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 for his amateur accomplishments. Angle made his first appearance at a pro-wrestling event in 1996, signed with the World Wrestling Federation in 1998. Noted for his rapid comprehension of the business, he had his debut match that August within the company's developmental system after mere days of training, participated in his first televised WWF storyline in March 1999.
After months of unaired matches, Angle made his televised in-ring debut in November and received his first major push in the company in February 2000, when he held the European and Intercontinental Championships simultaneously. Four months he won the King of the Ring tournament and soon thereafter began pursuing the WWF Championship, which he won in October; this capped off a WWF rookie year, considered by many to be the greatest in history. Among other accomplishments in the WWF/E, Angle has held the WWF/WWE Championship four times, the WCW Championship once, the World Heavyweight Championship once, he is the fifth Grand Slam Champion in WWE history. On March 31, 2017, Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. After leaving WWE in 2006, Angle joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where he became the inaugural and record six-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion, the second Triple Crown winner in TNA history. Angle is a two-time King of the Mountain; as part of TNA, he made appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and the Inoki Genome Federation, holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship once.
In 2013, Angle was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame: he is the second wrestler, after Sting, to be inducted into both the WWE and TNA Halls of Fame. Between WWF/WWE, Japan and TNA, Angle has won 21 total championships, he is the only pro-wrestler in history to have won the WWE Championship, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship, the WCW Championship, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and the IGF's IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Angle is the only person to have been King of the Ring and King of the Mountain, as well as to have held both the WWE and TNA Triple Crowns, he has headlined numerous pay-per-view events for WWF/WWE and TNA, including both WrestleMania and Bound for Glory. In 2004, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter inducted Angle into its Hall of Fame and named him "Wrestler of the Decade" for the 2000s, he is considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Former opponent and industry veteran John Cena said of Angle's legacy within WWE: "He is, without question, the most gifted all-around performer we have had step into a ring.
There will never be another like him." Angle was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon Township, the son of Jackie and David Angle, he attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in education in 1993. Angle has four older brothers and a sister, Le'Anne, who died in 2003, his father, a crane operator, was killed in a construction accident when Angle was 16, Angle dedicated both his career and his autobiography to his father. Angle stated in an interview that, following the death of his father, he regarded his wrestling coach, David Schultz, as a paternal figure. While training Angle, Schultz was murdered in January 1996 by John Eleuthère du Pont, the sponsor of Schultz's team of Olympic prospectives. Angle's mother died in 2015 after a long battle with cancer. Angle started amateur wrestling at the age of seven, he attended Mt. Lebanon High School, where he won varsity letters in football and wrestling and was an All-State linebacker, he went undefeated on the freshman wrestling team at Canon-McMillan High and qualified for the state wrestling tournament his sophomore year.
Angle placed third in the state wrestling tournament as a junior and was the 1987 Pennsylvania State Wrestling Champion as a senior. Upon graduating from high school, Angle attended the Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he continued to wrestle at an amateur level, he was a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I champion, national runner-up in 1991, a three-time NCAA Division I All-American. In addition, Angle was the 1987 USA Junior Freestyle champion, a two-time USA Senior Freestyle champion, the 1988 USA International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles Junior World Freestyle champion. After graduating from college, Angle continued to wrestle. In 1995, he won a gold medal at the FILA Wrestling World Championships in Georgia. Following this victory, Angle began preparing for the 1996 Summer Olympics under Dave Schultz at the Pennsylvanian Foxcatcher Club, training between eight and ten hours a day. In January 1996, not long after Angle began training at the club, Schultz was murdered by John Eleuthère du Pont, the sponsor of Schultz's team of Olympic prospec
Brock Lesnar
Brock Edward Lesnar is an American professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, former professional football player. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. After his successful amateur wrestling career at Bismarck State College and the University of Minnesota, Lesnar signed with WWE in 2000, he was assigned to its developmental promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he was a three-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champion with Shelton Benjamin. After debuting on WWE's main roster in 2002, Lesnar won the WWE Championship five months after his debut at the age of 25, becoming the youngest champion in the title's history, he was the 2002 King of the Ring and the 2003 Royal Rumble winner. Following his match with Goldberg at WrestleMania XX, Lesnar left WWE and pursued a career in the National Football League, he was named a defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings, but was cut prior to the start of the 2004 season. In 2005, Lesnar returned to professional wrestling and signed with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in his first match.
After a contractual dispute with NJPW, he wrestled as IWGP Heavyweight Champion in the Inoki Genome Federation. In 2006, Lesnar pursued a career in mixed martial arts, as he signed with Hero's and won his first fight, against Min-Soo Kim, in June 2007, he signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship the following October. Lesnar lost in his UFC debut against Frank Mir and won his second fight against Heath Herring. In November 2008, Lesnar defeated Randy Couture to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Shortly after a successful title defense in a rematch with Mir, Lesnar was sidelined due to diverticulitis, he would return at UFC 116 to defeat Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Shane Carwin and unify the heavyweight championships, becoming the undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion in the process. Lesnar lost the championship to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121. In 2011, he underwent surgery. Lesnar returned at UFC 141 in December, losing to Alistair Overeem and promptly retiring from MMA. Lesnar was a box office sensation in UFC, as he took part in some of the best-selling pay-per-view events in UFC history, including UFC 100 and UFC 116.
In April 2012, Lesnar returned to professional wrestling. Two years at WrestleMania XXX, Lesnar defeated The Undertaker to end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, he achieved world champion status three times after this, having won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in 2014 and the WWE Universal Championship in 2017 and 2018. His first reign as Universal Champion was the longest world title reign in WWE since 1988 at 504 days. In June 2016, at UFC 199, the UFC announced that Lesnar would return to fight at UFC 200 though he was still contracted with WWE. Lesnar defeated his opponent Mark Hunt via unanimous decision. However, after Lesnar tested positive for clomiphene, a banned substance on the UFC's anti-doping policy, he was suspended from the UFC by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for one year and fined $250,000, his victory over Hunt was overturned to a no-contest. Lesnar retired from MMA for a second time in 2017. Lesnar is a six-time world champion in WWE, a one-time world champion in NJPW and IGF, a one-time heavyweight champion in the UFC, a one-time heavyweight wrestling champion in the NCAA, the only person in history to win a championship in each of those organizations.
He has headlined numerous pay-per-view events for both WWE and the UFC, including WrestleMania XIX, WrestleMania 31, WrestleMania 34, UFC 100 and UFC 116. Lesnar has been managed by Paul Heyman throughout the majority of his professional wrestling career. A 2015 ESPN.com article referred to Lesnar as "the most accomplished athlete in professional wrestling history". Brock Edward Lesnar was born on July 12, 1977, in Webster, South Dakota, the son of Stephanie and Richard Lesnar, he grew up on his parents' dairy farm in Webster. He is of German descent, he has two older brothers and Chad, a younger sister, Brandi. At age 17, Lesnar joined the Army National Guard, where he was assigned to an office job after his red-green colorblindness was deemed hazardous to his desire to work with explosives, he lost this job after failing a computer typing test and worked for a construction company. Lesnar attended Webster High School, where he played football and competed in amateur wrestling, placing third in the state championships his senior year.
He attended Bismarck State College, where he won the National Junior College Athletic Association heavyweight wrestling championship in his sophomore year. He transferred to the University of Minnesota on a wrestling scholarship for his junior and senior college years, where he was roommates with future WWE colleague Shelton Benjamin, his assistant coach. Lesnar won the 2000 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I heavyweight wrestling championship his senior year after being the runner-up to Stephen Neal the year prior, he finished his amateur career as a two-time NJCAA All-American, the 1998 NJCAA Heavyweight Champion, two-time NCAA All-American, two-time Big Ten Conference Champion and the 2000 NCAA Heavyweight Champion, with a record of 106–5 overall in four years of college. In 2000, Lesnar signed with the World Wrestling Federation and was sent to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he first met future friend and manager Paul Heyman, he formed a tag team known as The Minnesota Stretching Crew with his former college roommate Shelton Benjamin and together they won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on three separate
Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Hiroyoshi Yamamoto is a Japanese professional wrestler who works for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, is better known by his ring name Hiroyoshi Tenzan. With Satoshi Kojima, in 2008, they won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the G1 Tag League in NJPW, becoming the only tag team which has done both, he is a record 12-time IWGP Tag Team Champion. He is a former National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Champion. Hiroyoshi Yamamoto first worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he debuted in January 1991. In 1993, after winning the Young Lions Cup, NJPW sent Yamamoto on a European excursion. A few weeks he lost the title to Storm. Three months he would regain and lose the title back to Storm. After spending nearly two years in Europe, Yamamoto would make his return to NJPW on January 4, 1995, at the Tokyo Dome, this time under a new name, Hiroyoshi Tenzan; the name was given to him by Tokyo Joe. A month he received his first shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort against Shinya Hashimoto.
Tenzan began teaming with Masahiro Chono as Team Wolf. In June 1995, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a tournament, which they held for a month until the title was vacated due to Chono missing a match when his father died. Tenzan had a brief tenure in World Championship Wrestling, most notably being defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage at Starrcade'95: World Cup of Wrestling. In July 1996, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Title again, this time beating Kazuo Yamazaki and Takashi Iizuka, they held the titles for over 5 months before losing to Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura in January 1997. A few weeks Tenzan became a founding member of NWO Japan, as Chono joined the nWo in December 1996. For the rest of 1997, Tenzan and the rest of nWo Japan continued the nWo tradition of attacking their various enemies. Tenzan got his third chance for the IWGP Tag Team Titles in July 1998, after Chono's former tag-team partner Keiji Mutoh was injured. Tenzan and Chono went on to win the belts.
A month they were defeated by Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka. Tenzan continued to feud with Tenryu and Koshinaka getting a new partner in Satoshi Kojima, thanks to Mutoh's leadership in nWo Japan; the two teams fought at the Tokyo Dome in January 1999, with Tenzan and Kojima coming through, defeating Koshinaka and Tenryu to get the IWGP Tag-Team belts. A few months Koshinaka retook the titles from Tenzan and Kojima, with his partner Kensuke Sasaki. For the next year, Tenzan continued to wrestle in NJPW, feuding with Koshinaka, Masahiro Chono, Manabu Nakanishi, others, he defeated Wild Pegasus at the Tokyo Dome in January 2000. In July 2000, still teamed with Kojima, got the IWGP Tag Team Titles for the 5th time, winning over Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata. Tenzan and Kojima feuded with Nakanishi and Nagata for the next few months, with Tenzan and Kojima coming out on top. On February 24, 2002, Tenzan made a brief appearance at WWA The Revolution pay-per-view from Las Vegas, Nevada where he choked Disco Inferno.
Scott Steiner attacked Disco in the ring. Tenzan could be seen sitting right behind the announcer's table, he can be seen leaving the arena following Steiner's attack on Disco. Tenzan won the IWGP Tag Team Titles in March 2002 with Masahiro Chono, again in December 2003 with Osamu Nishimura. After he and Chono lost the IWGP Tag Team titles to Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yutaka Yoshie, Tenzan went on a brief excursion to Canada in the summer of 2003, training with Tokyo Joe Daigo; when he returned for the G1 Climax, he transformed his wrestling style from a buffalo to an anaconda. The excursion worked. In November 2003, Tenzan won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Yoshihiro Takayama, he would go on to drop the title less than a month to unlikely victor Shinsuke Nakamura, who, at the young age of 23, became the youngest world champion in company history. Tenzan proceeded to win it three other times, he lost the championship to AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Kojima in a cross-promotional champion vs. champion match.
The match had a unique finish designed to fool fans in attendance. The idea was to make it look. However, with just seconds before the match would be declared a time limit draw, known to have a legitimate back injury, could not continue, resulting in Kojima being declared the winner and becoming the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. NJPW officials had come up with the finish, designed to look like a "mistake", having agreed with AJPW that it would be better if Kojima won the match, but not wanting the match to end in a standard pinfall or submission. Tenzan defeated Kojima in a rematch three months bringing the championship back to NJPW, he lost the championship to Kazuyuki Fujita on July 18, 2005. Tenzan competed in the 2005 G1 Tournament, and
Antonio Inoki
Muhammad Hussain Inoki is a Japanese professional wrestling and mixed martial arts promoter and retired professional wrestler and martial artist, best known by his ring name Antonio Inoki. Inoki's ring name is a homage to fellow professional wrestler Antonino Rocca. Inoki began his professional wrestling career in the Japanese Wrestling Association under the tutelage of Rikidōzan. Inoki became one of the most popular stars in the history of Japanese professional wrestling. Inoki parlayed his wrestling career into becoming one of Japan's most recognizable athletes, a reputation bolstered by his 1976 fight against world champion boxer Muhammad Ali; the fight against Ali served as a predecessor to modern day mixed martial arts. With Ric Flair, Inoki headlined two shows in North Korea in 1995 that drew 150,000 and 190,000 spectators, the highest attendances in professional wrestling history. Inoki was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010. Inoki began his promoting career in 1972, he remained the owner of NJPW until 2005 when he sold his controlling share in the promotion to the Yuke's video game company.
In 2007, he founded the Inoki Genome Federation. In 2017, Inoki founded ISM and the following year left IGF. In 1989, while still an active wrestler, Inoki entered politics as he was elected to the Japanese House of Councillors. During his first term with the House of Councillors, Inoki negotiated with Saddam Hussein for the release of Japanese hostages before the outbreak of the Gulf War, his first tenure in the House of Councillors ended in 1995, but he was reelected in 2013. Inoki was born in an affluent family in Yokohama in 1943, he was the second youngest of the seven boys and four girls. His father, Sajiro Inoki, a businessman and politician, died. Inoki entered the Higashidai Grade School. Inoki was taught karate by an older brother while in 6th grade. By the time he was in 7th grade at Terao Junior High School, he was 180 centimeters tall and joined the basketball team, he quit and joined a track and field club as a shot putter. He won the championship at the Yokohama Junior High School track and field competition.
The family fell on hard times in the post-war years, in 1957, the 14-year-old Inoki emigrated to Brazil with his grandfather and brothers. His grandfather died during the journey to Brazil. Inoki won regional championships in Brazil in the shot put, discus throw, javelin throw, the All Brazilian championships in the shot put and discus. Inoki met Rikidōzan at the age of 17, he went back to Japan for the Japanese Wrestling Association as Rikidōzan's disciple. One of his dojo classmates was Giant Baba. After Rikidozan's death, Inoki worked in Baba's shadow until he joined the original Tokyo Pro Wrestling in 1966. After a long excursion of wrestling in the United States, Inoki found a new home in Tokyo Pro Wrestling. While there, Inoki became their biggest star; the company folded in 1967, due to turmoil behind the scenes. Returning to JWA in late 1967, Inoki was made Baba's partner and the two dominated the tag team ranks as the "B-I Cannon", winning the NWA International tag team belts four times.
Wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino tells a story about Inoki trying to "shoot" him during a tag match in Osaka to build his reputation against the then-world champ. Bruno pounded Inoki mercilessly and threw him out of the ring. Inoki refused to re-enter the ring with Sammartino and tagged in Baba to finish the match. Fired from JWA in late 1971 for planning a takeover of the promotion, Inoki founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1972, his first match as a New Japan wrestler was against Karl Gotch. In June 1979, he fought with Pakistani wrestler Zubair Jhara Pahalwan and lost the fight in the fifth round. In 2014, twenty two years after Zubair Jhara's death, he announced to take Jhara's nephew Haroon Abid under his guardianship. On November 30, 1979, Inoki defeated WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund in Tokushima, Japan to win the title. Backlund won a rematch on December 6. However, WWF president Hisashi Shinma declared the re-match a no contest due to interference from Tiger Jeet Singh, Inoki remained Champion.
Inoki refused the title on the same day, it was declared vacant. Backlund defeated Bobby Duncum in a Texas Death match to regain the title on December 12; as Inoki refused the title, his reign is not included nor is it recognized by WWE in its official history, Backlund is recognized as having one reign from 1978 to 1983. In 1995 the Japanese and the North Korean governments came together to hold a two-day wrestling festival for peace in Pyongyang, North Korea; the event drew 150,000 and 190,000 fans to Rungnado May Day Stadium. The main event saw the only match between Ric Flair, with Inoki coming out on top. Days before this event and the Korean press went to the grave and birthplace of Rikidōzan and paid tribute to him. Inoki's retirement from professional wrestling matches came with the staging of the "Final Countdown" series between 1994 and 1998; this was a special series in which Inoki re-lived some of his mixed martial arts matches under professional wrestling rules, as well as rematches of some of his most well known wrestling matches.
As part of the Final Countdown tour, Inoki made a rare World Championship Wrestling appearance. Inoki faced Don Frye in the final match of his professional wrestling career. In 2005, Yuke's, a Japanese video company, purchased Inoki's co
