The IWGP Heavyweight Championship was a heavyweight championship used by the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) promotion. The title shares its name with New Japan Pro Wrestling's (NJPW) IWGP Heavyweight Championship, from which it split due to a decision made by IGF and NJPW founder Antonio Inoki. "IWGP" is the abbreviation of NJPW's fictional governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix.
During the title's history, IGF recognized it as the official IWGP Heavyweight Championship, continuing the history of the title after an error made by NJPW in Inoki's eyes. NJPW recognized the title as the IWGP 3rd Belt Championship, a championship that was merely represented by a previous version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship's title belt. The title was briefly used in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which recognized it as the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Kurt Angle's last defense of the title was against then NJPW recognized IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura in a unification match on February 17, 2008 at NJPW's Circuit 2008 New Japan ISM event where the winner would be the unified IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Angle lost the match, thus ending the existence of the IGF recognized IWGP Heavyweight Championship. IGF later introduced another title five years later with the IGF Championship on December 31, 2013.
Lineage[]
- Brock Lesnar - October 8, 2005 - Brock Lesnar defeated Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono in a Three Way match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. New Japan Pro Wrestling strips Lesnar of the title on July 15, 2006. IGF considers his reign still active and creates the IGF version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
- Kurt Angle - June 29, 2007 - Kurt Angle appeared with and defended the title in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), successfully retaining the championship against Samoa Joe on August 12, 2007 at TNA Hard Justice 2007.
- Shinsuke Nakamura - February 17, 2008 - Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kurt Angle to unify IGF's IWGP Heavyweight Championship and NJPW's IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
UNIFIED - February 17, 2008 - Titles are unified and the IGF version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship is deactivated.