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The GHC Harcore Championship (GHCハードコア王座, GHC Hādokoa ōza) is a professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH) promotion. GHC is the acronym of NOAH's governing body, the Global Honored Crown.

The title was originally introduced in 2004 by Jun Akiyama, who came up with the idea of an "Hardcore" title, also known as the Global Hardcore Crown, also colloquially referred to as the "White GHC" belt due to its white leather strap, the color most associated with Akiyama. Most matches contested for the championship were held with a 15-minute time limit and often featured special stipulations chosen by the champion. In storyline, the title was an unsanctioned championship and in 2007 it was announced that it would be reformed into a tag team title, continuing with the same lineage as the original belt. Later in 2007, it reverted to being a singles championship, before being abandoned in 2010.

The title was revived by Nosawa Rongai in October 2023, with a different set of rules, with Masato Tanaka becoming the new champion.

History[]

Introduction[]

On March 13, 2004, Jun Akiyama came up with the idea of an "Hardcore" title, also known as the Global Hardcore Crown. The "Hardcore" term, meant that anyone could challenge for it regardless of division as it was openweight, the title could be won by a count-out, and if the challenger was smaller than the champion and lasted 15 minutes, the title could change hands. A win could only be gained by a pinfall, no submission was allowed. The title could only be challenged for by Pro Wrestling NOAH's wrestlers and not from anyone by an outside promotion.

Pro Wrestling NOAH's President Mitsuharu Misawa agreed to the idea, funded it, and the belt was created, as such he also became the chairman of the belt, similar to the other GHC titles, which had its own committe, and the title belt was created on Akiyama's style, and differed from the other GHC belts as the main belt was white with the crest being silver, being dubbed as "The White GHC".

Brief transition to a tag team title and decline[]

In September 2006, Kentaro Shiga, who was the 5th champion rechristening the title into a tag team championship, was still recognized as such (along with his tag team partner, Kishin Kawabata), even though it was vacated to be decided in a tournament, which they won.[1] On November 19, 2007, Kawabata defeated Shiga to reunify the title.[2] By late 2007, the championship belt was becoming sporadic as Noah booking and Noah fans were losing interest in it, compared to the turn around of roughly six months when the belt was first inaugurated. With the promotion losing interest with title, the title's inital concept had failed, and with Noah facing various financial difficulties in the 2010s, the promotion decided to abandon the title.

Revival[]

On October 9, 2023, Nosawa Rongai announced that he was bringing back the GHC Hardcore Championship, but he was changing a rule, the title could be challenged by anyone outside of Noah and a separate lineage. Shortly after, it was announced that Ninja Mack would face a mysterious opponent on October 23 at Monday Magic episode 2. At the event, the mysterious opponent was revealed to be Masato Tanaka, who defeated Ninja Mack to become the new champion.

Title history[]

# Wrestler(s) Reigns Date Location Length Defenses Notes
1 Jun Akiyama 1 April 18, 2004 Hakata 180 days 6 Akiyama declared himself the inaugural champion.
2 Naomichi Marufuji 1 October 16, 2004 Tokushima 140 days 2 Won the match via countout.
3 Muhammad Yone 1 March 5, 2005 Tokyo 231 days 3
4 Scorpio 1 October 22, 2005 Tokushima 316 days 1
5 Kentaro Shiga 1 September 3, 2006 Nagoya 167 days 3 The title was reformed to a tag team title.
GHC Hardcore Tag Team Championship
5 Kishin Kawabata and Kentaro Shiga 1 February 17, 2007 Tokyo 275 days 1 Defeated Go Shiozaki and Shuhei Taniguchi in a tournament final. This was still Kentaro Shiga's original championship reign.
GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship
6 Kishin Kawabata 2 November 19, 2007 Niigata 322 days 4
7 Makoto Hashi 1 October 6, 2008 Isesaki 245 days 2
8 Kenta Kobashi 1 June 8, 2009 Hachiōji 198 days 4
Deactivated December 23, 2009 Kobashi vacated the title after suffering an injury. After that the title became inactive.
GHC Hardcore Championship
9 Masato Tanaka 1 October 23, 2023 Tokyo 36 0 Defeated Ninja Mack to win the reactivated title.
10 Ninja Mack 1 November 28, 2023 Tokyo 112+ 0 This was a three-way match also involving Super Crazy.

Combined reigns[]

Indicates the current champion
Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns
Combined
defences
Combined days
1 Kawabata, KishinKishin Kawabata 2 6 597
2 Shiga, KentaroKentaro Shiga 5 441
3 Scorpio 1 1 316
4 Hashi, MakotoMakoto Hashi 2 245
5 Yone, MuhammadMuhammad Yone 3 231
6 Akiyama, JunJun Akiyama 5 217
7 Kobashi, KentaKenta Kobashi 4 198
8 Marufuji, NaomichiNaomichi Marufuji 2 140
9 Tanaka, MasatoMasato Tanaka 0 36
10 Mack, NinjaNinja Mack 112+

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Global Hardcore Champion . Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
  2. Green Destiny ~ Supporting Pro Wrestling NOAH . Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
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