Huge news from New Japan after yesterday’s event…the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship is no more. At the request of Yota Tsuji and with approval of President Hiroshi Tanahashi, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship is being revived with the popular V4 design and Tsuji will now be recognized as the 87th Champion.
More to come.
UPDATE: This means the IWGP Intercontinental Championship is officially retired. The IWGP Global Championship is unaffected. All prior IWGP World Heavyweight Champions will be recognized as the 75th-86th IWGP Heavyweight Champions, the exception being 74th Champion Kota Ibushi who held the title when the World Heavyweight Championship was created. This was by Tsuji’s count to Tanahashi, meaning by my count they possibly missed someone…(Clarification-the aforementioned count is correct. Title history pages have been updated to reflect this)