[IWGP] When should the IC Championship have been sealed?

There was a saying that 'ten years is a lifetime.' While it felt like the leisurely rhythm of the Showa era, and since the Heisei era it has felt like a single year has replaced that with a sense of haste, I actually still feel that this unit of time brings something to the surface. Do you remember what happened ten years ago? It was around this time that the 'SMAP apology press conference' took place. For the generation that knew the heyday of Hikaru Genji, it was the beginning of the end of an era that was unreasonable yet had lasted a bit too long. It has been ten years since then. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I even feel a sense of fate in the fact that the Super Sentai series is closing its 50-year curtain.

Around the same time, the incident occurred where Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows left New Japan Pro-Wrestling to join WWE. I called these four the [NJPW4], following the 'Oceanic 6' (survivor defectors) from the popular American drama 'LOST,' but they also looked like a parallel world of the four who left their agency following the breakup of SMAP. The fact that [the one who remained], Hiroshi Tanahashi, retired at this year's 1.4 event also makes me feel, however forced, that it signifies the end of this event.

The belt that Shinsuke Nakamura wore until he relinquished it just before leaving New Japan was the IWGP Intercontinental Championship... yes, that white belt that saw the light of day for the first time in six years during this recent IWGP revival commotion. Shinsuke-san, who had become a [Belt Sealing Demon] as if inheriting the mantle from Muto-san (Greatest 18 Club, revived NWA World) (revived NWF, U-30), did not seal it when he left New Japan on good terms. Because of that, the unruly championship that everyone struggled to handle has continued to exude its eerie presence even after ten years. So, what was the IC Championship? First, I would like to trace it back to its roots.

Even now, sub-championships that are not bound by weight classes or numbers, like the IWGP xx Championship, appear and disappear, but the pioneer of that was the IC Championship. However, it is surprisingly little known that there was a clear concept at the time of its establishment. In the first place, this championship was intended to be defended only overseas (in the name of the United States), with a focus on global expansion. If I say that, it sounds cool, but the reality was that it was essentially a cabinet post to add prestige to MVP, who had left WWE and was a free agent at the time; it is no exaggeration to say that.

However, the concept collapsed in no time, and after the title moved from Masato Tanaka to Goto-senshu, it settled into the position of the number two heavyweight championship. That title was passed to Shinsuke Nakamura, but although it happened at a local event, web news outlets, including Tokyo Sports, ignored this result at the time. It's a funny story now, but I had absolutely no interest in the result of this match at the time, and I only found out when Goto-senshu, who was guest-starring for some reason on the popular Monday segment 'Matsuko's Quick Dinner' on Tokyo MX's 'Go-ji ni Muchu!', mentioned offhandedly, 'I had the belt taken by Nakamura-senshu yesterday.' That is how little appeal the IC Championship and Shinsuke Nakamura had at the time.

While positioned as a rival of the same generation, his senior, Hiroshi Tanahashi, who had always been in the lead, turned his scandal to his advantage by adopting the name 'Chara-o' (playboy), and furthermore, by switching his finishing hold—which he originally preferred to use as a subtle pinning technique like Fujinami—to the Diving Press, or High Fly Flow, which anyone could recognize, he reversed their positions. It was like Makoto Shinkai, who took on the mainstream after 'Your Name,' and it was a turning point in the era that even absorbed the expectations for NOAH (Marufuji/KENTA).
That change also transformed the style of Shinsuke Nakamura, who had been at a standstill in a good way.

As soon as he renewed the worthless '10-yen belt' to white, Shinsuke Nakamura himself transformed into the 'King of Strong Style,' modeled after Michael Jackson's 'King of Pop,' and a major turnaround began. While Hiroshi Tanahashi developed the [Sun's Royal Road] by moderately adjusting the excesses of the Triple Crown and GHC championship matches in his title defenses with the 4th generation IWGP belt and achieved 11 consecutive defenses, Shinsuke Nakamura captivated fans with his own unique new values by taking on challengers who had spilled over from Tanahashi's title defenses, serving as an updated version of the Nagata-senshu V10 era.

The 2026.1.4 Dome event, which was Tanahashi's retirement show, recorded a full house for the first time since Antonio Inoki's retirement show. Thinking back on it now, I think it was a gift for the 'Tanahashi vs. Okada' brand, the greatest brand produced by the Japanese mat scene in the late Heisei era.
The fact that all of those were main events for the [IWGP] championship proves it, but we must not forget that the semi-final of every one of those title matches was actually Shinsuke Nakamura's otherworldly IC matches (Sakuraba/Ibushi/AJ). It was because the [Royal Road] and the [Otherworldly] coexisted that New Japan Pro-Wrestling made a V-shaped recovery to its golden age.

The AJ Styles match at the 1.4 event ten years ago, which was Shinsuke Nakamura's final IC title match, was recreated like an Othello game two years later at WWE [WrestleMania] on 4.1, where Shinsuke Nakamura challenged champion AJ Styles for the then-black WWE World Championship. Come to think of it, that was the time when the WWE Network was unblocked in Japan and New Japan Pro-Wrestling World was newly established, marking the beginning of the global distribution war. It is a nostalgic memory now that I watched the WWE Royal Rumble where AJ Styles made a surprise appearance at number 3 on one window, while Shinsuke Nakamura's New Japan departure press conference was being streamed on the other at 12:00 PM.

Now, as an aside, there is a history that was revived by Shinsuke Nakamura's entry into WWE. After going through the NXT era and being promoted to SmackDown, Shinsuke Nakamura got off to a smooth start, including his debut match against Dolph Ziggler and defeating his contemporary (both hold the record for the youngest champion in the organization), Randy Orton, but an unexpected pitfall awaited him. When he attempted a reverse powerslam in a match against John Cena, Vince, the big boss at the time, was enraged by a scene that nearly injured Cena's neck, and from then on, Shinsuke-san was made to repeat fruitless losses against the lower-ranked champion Jinder Mahal.

This was a modern version of the [Neck-Breaking Legend] of Stan Hansen, who was called the 'runaway dump truck with broken brakes' at the time, which no fan who loved reading 'Pro-Wrestling Superstar Retsuden' in the 80s would be unaware of. The Showa-era fantasy that Hansen was expelled from the WWWF for a dangerous move that broke the neck of champion Bruno Sammartino made the Western Lariat an instant legendary finishing move. However, that fact was revealed in a 90s contribution to Bessatsu Takarajima by Tomomi Ryu, who explained that it was actually an accident caused by an immature body slam and a failure to take the bump that required consideration.

In fact, I also had the opportunity to see that scene in footage from the Sammartino documentary during my time as a WWE Network subscriber. I apologize to the retired Cena, but even though they were both carrying the era as [Last Aces], there is no doubt that Tanahashi was overwhelming in terms of ring skills. Conversely, it proves that Cena was the third generation in the lineage of NY Aces that followed Sammartino and Hogan. And it was proof that the act of breaking an [Ace] ≒ popular product is always shunned in any era. It is truly regrettable to think that if this incident had not occurred, Shinsuke Nakamura would undoubtedly have held the WWE World Championship much earlier...

Now, I have digressed quite a bit again and am about to commit title fraud. So, I would like to finally reach a conclusion. When should the IWGP Intercontinental Championship have been sealed? Of course, it should have been sealed when Shinsuke Nakamura left New Japan, just like the NWF Championship.
However, it seems to me that there was an opportunity half a year later that was even more exciting and more fitting for the curtain call of the unruly white IC Championship. It was a job that only Kenny Omega, who became the new champion in the title decision match, could have done.

On 1.5 Korakuen, when the departure of the NJPW4 was rumored in overseas media, Kenny Omega completely pin-falled the then-IC champion Shinsuke Nakamura with the One-Winged Angel. It was a surprise in his first match after moving to heavyweight, having handed over the IWGP Junior Championship to KUSHIDA with a pinning move the day before. Furthermore, he also hit the One-Winged Angel on AJ Styles, who was the leader of the Bullet Club at the time and his tag team partner that day, expelling him and taking over as the 3rd leader. After that, with Gallo & Anderson also leaving, Kenny promoted his new allies, the Young Bucks. Thinking about it now, it was also the fuse for the birth of AEW...

You have probably already realized it! Kenny & the Young Bucks won the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, which was newly established that year, but at the same time, Kenny was the IC champion and the Young Bucks were the Junior Tag Team champions. I know it's vulgar. However, I think that these three were the only ones who could have staged the exciting development of throwing the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship into the trash at this point and establishing the IWGP Six-Man Tag Team Championship with the three belts of the IC Championship and the Junior Tag Team Championship, both then and now.

I think there are pros and cons to sealing the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship. However, I also feel that the era up until just before this, with KUSHIDA and reDRagon, was the highlight of this division. In the first place, this belt was the fourth championship in IWGP history, created as an update to the values of All Japan's Asia Tag Team Championship, so I wonder if it would have been better to establish the NEVER Tag Team Championship instead, as it would have led to more revitalization by allowing junior wrestlers to interact with heavyweights. What do you think?

I think the 2025 Tokyo Sports Pro-Wrestling Awards had some subtle favoritism, but it was a sharper selection than in recent years. The fact that the only award from the regular (monopoly?) New Japan was effectively the tag team division's Uto-Ice is actually the answer to the series of commotions sparked by Tsuji-senshu. In short, it means that the only thing shining in the IWGP championship scene right now is the tag team championship, and I am very convinced by the award for Sareee, who breathed life into the IWGP Women's Championship, which was on the verge of becoming junk. Takeshita-senshu's Fighting Spirit Award could be taken as a 'bad gold' in the 'Sound! Euphonium' sense. However, Takeshita-senshu can hold his head high and call it a gold medal for his match against Boltin as the NEVER champion.

I would like to apologize and thank you for sticking with such a long text because you cannot watch 'World Pro-Wrestling.' Next time, I would like to share my impressions of Wolf Aaron after watching the footage. I have given some rather harsh opinions on Tsuji-senshu, but it is also a fact that these are words of advice because I have expectations for him, just as I do for Takeshita-senshu. If Tsuji-senshu had not raised this discussion this time, in a sense, this period might have been calm. Regardless of the pros and cons, wrestlers should always assert themselves! With that said, I hope that Tsuji-senshu will show us new values.