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IWGP Women's Championship
Wrestling world championship From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The IWGP Women's Championship (Japanese: IWGP女子王座, Hepburn: IWGP Joshi Ōza) is a women's professional wrestling world championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling promotion. The title is defended on shows promoted by NJPW in Japan, with talent from NJPW's sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom featuring as its primary contenders.[4] The inaugural champion was Kairi. The reigning champion is Sareee, who is in her first reign.
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History
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Ever since New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) was founded in 1972, the company had never had a women's championship. On July 29, 2022, it was announced by Takaaki Kidani, owner of World Wonder Ring Stardom and former chairman of NJPW through parent company Bushiroad, that Stardom's roster would compete for NJPW's first-ever women's championship, the IWGP Women's Championship, at the co-promoted event Historic X-Over, set to take place on November 20.[1][2] The title is promoted as being managed by the IWGP Championship Committee, NJPW's kayfabe governing body.
On August 23 at the press conference for Historic X-Over, the dates and venues for the inaugural tournament were announced. The tournament featured seven wrestlers, with four Stardom wrestlers and three foreign wrestlers participating in the tournament with the finals taking place on November 20.[5] On August 27, four representatives from certain stables of Stardom (referred to by the promotion as "units") were decided to compete in the four available slots. The representatives were Giulia (Donna Del Mondo), Mayu Iwatani (Stars), Starlight Kid (Oedo Tai), and Utami Hayashishita (Queen's Quest).[6] The representatives either picked themselves or appointed another unit member to furtherly compete for the title. On November 20, at Historic X-Over, Kairi became the inaugural champion after defeating Iwatani in the finals.[3] The title was defended for the first time on January 4, 2023, where Kairi retained the title over Tam Nakano during the first night of Wrestle Kingdom 17.[7]
Inaugural championship tournament (2022)
| Round 1 Royal Quest II (October 2) IWGP Women's Championship Tournament First Round (October 22)[8] | Semifinals Goddesses of Stardom Tag League 2022 Night 1 (October 23) | Finals Historic X-Over (November 20) | ||||||||||||
| Mayu Iwatani | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Momo Watanabe | 12:32[9] | |||||||||||||
| Mayu Iwatani | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Utami Hayashishita | 14:51[10] | |||||||||||||
| Utami Hayashishita | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Himeka | 11:41[9] | |||||||||||||
| Mayu Iwatani | 25:28[11] | |||||||||||||
| Kairi | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Jazzy Gabert | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Ava White | 10:34[12] | |||||||||||||
| Jazzy Gabert | 12:24[10] | |||||||||||||
| Kairi | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Kairi | Bye | |||||||||||||
| – | ||||||||||||||
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Belt design
The design of the IWGP Women's Championship belt was inspired by the design of the second-generation IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which was presented to the former champion Shinya Hashimoto during his 489 days reign in 1996.[13]
Reigns
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As of August 17, 2025, there have been five reigns between five champions. Kairi was the inaugural champion. Syuri is the oldest champion at 36 years old, while Sareee is the youngest at 29. Iwatani's reign is the longest at 735 days, while Syuri's reign is the shortest at 55 days.
Sareee is the reigning champion in her first reign. She won the title by defeating Syuri at The Conversion on June 21, 2025.
See also
References
External links
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