IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship

IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship
Details
Promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Date established April 23, 2003
Date retired June 7, 2006
Other name(s)
  • U-30 Openweight Championship

The IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship was a professional wrestling openweight championship in New Japan Pro-Wrestling for younger wrestlers who were under the age of 30. It was proposed as part of a tournament called the G2 U-30 Climax by Hiroshi Tanahashi, who ended up winning the tournament in April 2003. The U-30 Openweight Championship became officially recognized as an IWGP title in November 2004.

Only two champions between three reigns were ever crowned over its three year existence, the inaugural and two time champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Shinsuke Nakamura.

As his 30th birthday began to approach (which would then make him ineligible to be the champion), Tanahashi vacated the title on June 7, 2006, to focus on the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and soon afterwards the U-30 Openweight Championship was de-emphasized and soon deactivated.

Title history

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Defenses Number of successful defenses
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign DaysDefenses
1 Hiroshi Tanahashi April 23, 2003 Strong Energy 2003 Hiroshima, Japan 1 62212 Defeated Shinya Makabe in the finals of the G2 U-30 Climax tournament to become inaugural champion at the age of 26.
2 Shinsuke Nakamura January 4, 2005 Toukon Festival: Wrestling World 2005 Tokyo, Japan 1 1170 Defeated the champion Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of the Tokyo Dome Show to win the championship at the age of 24.
— Vacated May 1, 2005 — — — —— Nakamura vacated the championship by company request due to not defending it.
3 Hiroshi Tanahashi June 18, 2005 Best of the Super Jr. XII Kyoto, Japan 2 3542 Defeated Toru Yano in the finals of a six-man round-robin tournament for the vacated title at the age of 28.
— Deactivated June 7, 2006 — — — —— Vacated by Tanahashi at the age of 29 to focus on the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Combined reigns

Hiroshi Tanahashi posing with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt in front of a crowd.
Hiroshi Tanahashi held the IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship twice
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns		 Combined
defenses		 Combined
days
1 Hiroshi Tanahashi 2 14 976
2 Shinsuke Nakamura 1 0 117

See also

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