IWGP United States Championship

On May 12, 2017, during the third night of the War of the Worlds tour, co-produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Ring of Honor (ROH), NJPW United States Ambassador George Carroll announced the creation of the IWGP United States Championship.[1][4] The following day, NJPW revealed the title's official name as the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.[5] The title is part of an American expansion plan which NJPW had made public in the months prior to the announcement. Plans had been made to run extended tours in the United States with California as the base, starting in 2018.[6] The plan was a direct response to WWE taking four wrestlers from NJPW in January 2016.[7] Tetsuya Naito noted how the new title had exactly the same concept as the IWGP Intercontinental Championship,[8] which had been established during NJPW's May 2011 United States tour, promoted in conjunction with Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW).[9] NJPW chairman Naoki Sugabayashi stated that he wanted the title to be defended at future NJPW events in the United States as well as events held by ROH.[10] The title belt was made red to distinguish it from the black IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt and the white IWGP Intercontinental Championship belt.[10]

Inaugural champion Kenny Omega, who also holds the record for the longest reign at 210 days

The first champion would be crowned in a tournament on the weekend of July 1 and 2, 2017, during NJPW's G1 Special in USA shows in Long Beach, California.[1][4] Though it was originally announced that the tournament would be contested in a round-robin format,[1][4] Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter later reported that the tournament would in fact take place in a single-elimination format, stating that there had been a "mistake in the translation".[11] Jay Lethal was the first participant announced for the tournament on May 12.[1][4] On May 18, Hangman Page was officially added to the tournament.[12] The other six participants as well as the bracket of the tournament, confirmed as a single-elimination tournament, were revealed on June 12.[13][14] Kenny Omega went on to defeat Tomohiro Ishii in the finals to become the inaugural champion.[15]

Since its creation, the IWGP United States Championship has been defended in both Japan and the United States with the first Japanese defense taking place on September 24, 2017, at Destruction in Kobe and the first stateside defense taking place on October 15, 2017, at Global Wars: Chicago.[17][18] After it had been announced in November 2017 that former WWE wrestler Chris Jericho would be challenging for the title at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome, Omega stated that the title had already surpassed the IWGP Intercontinental Championship as the number two championship in NJPW.[19] However, the promotion ranks the title in the second tier, behind both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships and alongside the NEVER Openweight Championship.[20]