List of IWGP Intercontinental Champions

The IWGP Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix.[1] On October 3, 2010, American promotion Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) announced that it had reached an agreement with NJPW for the promotion to run its first shows in the United States.[2] NJPW officially announced the tour, titled NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast, on January 4, 2011, announcing shows for May 13 in Rahway, New Jersey, May 14 in New York City and May 15 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[3][4] It was also announced that during the tour, New Japan would introduce a new "IWGP Intercontinental Championship".[3] There have been twenty-four reigns shared among fourteen wrestlers with one vacancy. Tetsuya Naito is the current champion in his fifth reign, having defeated Jay White on January 4, 2020 at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome.

Record tying five-time and current champion Tetsuya Naito

Title history
Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Defenses Number of successful defenses
N/A Unknown information
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign DaysDefenses
1 MVP May 15, 2011 Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1 1482 Defeated Toru Yano in an eight–man tournament final to become the inaugural champion. [5]
2 Masato Tanaka October 10, 2011 Destruction '11 Tokyo, Japan 1 1253 [6]
3 Hirooki Goto February 12, 2012 The New Beginning Osaka, Japan 1 1612 [7]
4 Shinsuke Nakamura July 22, 2012 Kizuna Road Yamagata, Japan 1 3138 [8]
5 La Sombra May 31, 2013 Super Viernes Mexico City, Mexico 1 501 This was a two out of three falls match. [9][10]
6 Shinsuke Nakamura July 20, 2013 Kizuna Road Akita, Japan 2 1683 [11]
7 Hiroshi Tanahashi January 4, 2014 Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 1 921 [12]
8 Shinsuke Nakamura April 6, 2014 Invasion Attack Tokyo, Japan 3 761 [13]
9 Bad Luck Fale June 21, 2014 Dominion 6.21 Osaka, Japan 1 920 [14]
10 Shinsuke Nakamura September 21, 2014 Destruction in Kobe Kobe, Japan 4 2243 [15]
11 Hirooki Goto May 3, 2015 Wrestling Dontaku Fukuoka, Japan 2 1471 [16]
12 Shinsuke Nakamura September 27, 2015 Destruction in Kobe Kobe, Japan 5 1202 [17]
— Vacated January 25, 2016 N/A Tokyo, Japan — —— Vacated due to Nakamura leaving NJPW for WWE. [18]
13 Kenny Omega February 14, 2016 The New Beginning in Niigata Nagaoka, Japan 1 1261 Defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the vacant title. [19]
14 Michael Elgin June 19, 2016 Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 1 981 This was a ladder match. [20]
15 Tetsuya Naito September 25, 2016 Destruction in Kobe Kobe, Japan 1 2594 [21]
16 Hiroshi Tanahashi June 11, 2017 Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 2 2304 [22]
17 Minoru Suzuki January 27, 2018 The New Beginning in Sapporo Sapporo, Japan 1 921
18 Tetsuya Naito April 29, 2018 Wrestling Hinokuni Kumamoto, Japan 2 410
19 Chris Jericho June 9, 2018 Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 1 2091
20 Tetsuya Naito January 4, 2019 Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 3 921 This was a no disqualification match.
21 Kota Ibushi April 6, 2019 G1 Supercard New York City,
New York		 1 641
22 Tetsuya Naito June 9, 2019 Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall Osaka, Japan 4 1050
23 Jay White September 22, 2019 Destruction in Kobe Kobe, Japan 1 1041 [23]
24 Tetsuya Naito January 4, 2020 Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome Tokyo, Japan 5 177+2

Combined reigns
Record-tying five-time champion Shinsuke Nakamura, who also holds the record for the longest reign at 313 days and longest combined reigning at 901 days with a maximum title defence.

As of June 29, 2020.

† Indicates the current champion
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns		 Combined
defenses		 Combined
days
1 Shinsuke Nakamura 5 17 901
2 Tetsuya Naito † 5 7 674+
3 Hiroshi Tanahashi 2 5 322
4 Hirooki Goto 2 3 308
5 Chris Jericho 1 1 209
6 MVP 2 148
7 Kenny Omega 1 126
8 Masato Tanaka 3 125
9 Jay White 1 104
10 Michael Elgin 98
11 Minoru Suzuki 92
Bad Luck Fale 0
13 Kota Ibushi 1 64
14 La Sombra 1 50

References
  1. Fiorvanti, Tim (January 2, 2017). "What to watch for at New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 11". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  2. Meltzer, Dave (October 3, 2010). "New Japan Pro Wrestling comes to the U.S." Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on October 6, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
  3. Caldwell, James (January 5, 2011). "NJPW News: New Japan to introduce new title on U.S. tour, officially announces dates & venues for "Invasion" tour". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
  4. Johnson, Mike (January 4, 2011). "New Japan announces dates and cities for American tour". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  5. "NY遠征最終日、真壁がライノ撃破! 初代インターコンチ王者はMVP！ ライガーまさかの王座陥落!!（結果速報）". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). May 16, 2011. Archived from the original on July 28, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
  6. "Destruction '11". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 14, 2011. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
  7. "The New Beginning". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 15, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  8. "NJPW 40th anniversary Tour Kizuna Road". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  9. Salazar López, Alexis A. (June 1, 2013). "Resultados Arena México Viernes 31 de Mayo '13". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 1, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  10. ラ・ソンブラが新インターコンチネンタル王者に！ 中邑がメキシコで王座陥落！. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). June 1, 2013. Archived from the original on June 8, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  11. "吉野家Presents Kizuna Road 2013". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 23, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  12. "バディファイトPresents Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 東京ドーム". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 4, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  13. "Invasion Attack 2014". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 6, 2014.
  14. "Dominion 6.21". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 24, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  15. "Destruction in Kobe". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on September 24, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  16. "レスリングどんたく 2015". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 4, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
  17. "Destruction in Kobe". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on September 27, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  18. 中邑真輔が退団会見でインターコンチ王座を返上し、深々と礼。 新日本のレスラー人生を振り返り「こんなレスラー、他にいなかったなと」【1.25会見】. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). January 25, 2016. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
  19. "The New Beginning in Niigata". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 14, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  20. "Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  21. "Destruction in Kobe". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on September 27, 2016. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
  22. 保険見直し本舗 Presents Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  23. tps://411mania.com/wrestling/csonkas-njpw-destruction-in-kobe-2019-review/
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