IWGP Champion

Kensuke Sasaki 

5  time IWGP Champion

1997 - 216 days defeated Shinya Hashimoto

2000 - 279 days defeated Genichiro Tenryu

2001 - 72   days defeated Kawada (tournament final)

2004 - 16   days defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan

2004 - 64   days defeated Kazuyuki Fujita

Today in Wrestling History (August 19th)

August 19th 1990

The Pegasus Kid defeats Jushin "Thunder" Liger for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title in Tokyo, Japan

This ended Liger's 2nd Jr. Heavyweight title reign after 200 days.  Pegasus Kid was Chris Benoit under a mask and was his only reign as Jr. Heavweight champion.  Liger would regain the belt November 1st 1990 also in Tokyo, and would go on to hold the Jr. Heavyweight belt a record 11 times.

New WWE NXT Champion - Finn Balor

July 4th 2015

Tokyo, Japan

Finn Balor defeats Kevin Owens for the NXT Heavyweight Title

WWF/All Japan Show 1990

WWF/All Japan Supershow

April 13th 1990

Tokyo Dome

Andre the Giant(WWF)/Giant Baba(AJPW)

vs

Demolition (WWF)

Today in Wrestling History - Big Van Vader Debuts in Japan

December 27th 1987

Big Van Vader debuts in New Japan 

One of the most memorable debuts in the history of wrestling takes place at New Japan's "Inoki Toukon Live III" event at Sumo Hall in Tokyo. Riki Choshu & Masa Saito defeated Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura in one of the feature matches of the evening. Following the bout, Antonio Inoki defeated Choshu in an anti-climactic main event, winning via disqualification in six minutes. Big Van Vader then entered Sumo Hall and obliterated Inoki, knocking him out and pinning the Japanese legend with a powerslam in a match that didn't even last three minutes. The crowd rioted, resulting in New Japan being banned from running events at Sumo Hall for over a year. Vader immediately skyrocketed to the top of New Japan, as it had been years since Inoki had lost a match via clean pinfall.

The man behind the Vader mask, Leon White, had previously wrestled as "Baby Bull" Leon White in the AWA, and as Bull Power in Germany. He was actually scheduled to debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling, but New Japan worked out a deal with their promotional rival to sign him away for the Big Van Vader gimmick. Interesting to note, the first two choices New Japan had for the Vader gimmick were Sid Vicious and The Ultimate Warrior. Vader's debut in Sumo Hall is one of the most memorable, and controversial, events in New Japan history. 

Match of the Night (Terry Funk vs Jumbo Tsuruta)

NWA World Heavyweight Title

June 17th 1976

Tokyo Japan

(2 out of 3 falls)

Terry Funk

NWA World Heavyweight Champion

vs

Jumbo Tsuruta

This Week in Wrestling History

I missed it yesterday but on March 4th 1995 Stan Hansen defeated Toshiaki Kawada for the All Japan Triple Crown.