# GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship

The Global Honored Crown (GHC) Hardcore Championship (Japanese: GHCハードコア王座, Hepburn: GHC Hādokoa Ōza) is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Noah, originally created in 2004 as a singles title known as the Global Hardcore Crown (GHC) Openweight Hardcore Championship (グローバル・ハードコア・クラウン無差別級王座, Gurōbaru Hādokoa Kuraun Musabetsu-kyū Ōza). Colloquially known as the "White GHC" belt due to its white leather strap, the championship was primarily associated with Jun Akiyama during it original run. Most matches contested for the championship were held with a 15-minute time limit and often featured special stipulations chosen by the champion. The championship was first retired in 2009.
The original title had a total of nine reigns shared between eight different champions. The title was brought back in 2023 and given a new name, the GHC Hardcore Championship. The GHC Hardcore Championship has had a total of two reigns shared between two champions. The current titleholder is Shuji Ishikawa who is in his first reign.

## History

The Global Hardcore Crown Openweight Hardcore Championship was created in March 2004 when Jun Akiyama declared himself champion as a way to liven up the Pro Wrestling Noah regional tours. 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. Kentaro Shiga, who was the fifth champion before the reforming into a tag team title, was still recognized as such (along with his tag team partner, Kishin Kawabata), even though it was vacated to be put up for grab in a tournament, which they eventually won. On November 19, 2007, Kawabata defeated Shiga to reunify the title. The title was deactivated after ninth champion Kenta Kobashi suffered an injury in December 2009, forcing him to vacate the title.
In October 2023, it was revealed by Nosawa Rongai that Pro Wrestling Noah would bring the belt as the newly created GHC Hardcore Championship with a separate lineage. Masato Tanaka won the revived title on October 23, 2023, at Monday Magic ep. 2, by defeating Ninja Mack.

## Reigns

Across the two lineages, there have been a total of eleven reigns shared between ten different champions. The current title holder is Shuji Ishikawa who is in his first reign.

### Original version

Key :
| No. | Overall reign number |
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Championship change | Championship change | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. |
| No. | Champion | Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | Notes | Ref. |
| 1 | Jun Akiyama | March 13, 2004 | Navigation | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 217 | 5 | Akiyama declared himself the inaugural champion. | |
| 2 | Naomichi Marufuji | October 16, 2004 | Navigation Against the Current 2004 | Tokushima, Japan | 1 | 140 | 2 | Marufuji won the match via countout. | |
| 3 | Muhammad Yone | March 5, 2005 | Navigate for Evolution 2005 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 231 | 3 | | |
| 4 | Scorpio | October 22, 2005 | Autumn Navigation '05 | Tokushima, Japan | 1 | 316 | 1 | | |
| 5 | Kentaro Shiga | September 3, 2006 | Shiny Navigation '06 | Nagoya, Japan | 1 | 167 | 3 | | |
| 6 | Kishin Kawabata and Kentaro Shiga | February 17, 2007 | Navigation for Evolution 2007 – Day 2 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 275 | 2 | Defeated Go Shiozaki and Shuhei Taniguchi in a tournament final. This is still Kentaro Shiga's original championship reign. During their reign, the title was billed as GHC Openweight Hardcore Tag Team Championship. | |
| 7 | Kishin Kawabata | November 19, 2007 | Winter Navigation '07 – Day 4 | Niigata, Japan | 2 | 322 | 4 | | |
| 8 | Makoto Hashi | October 6, 2008 | Autumn Navigation '08 – Day 2 | Isesaki, Japan | 1 | 245 | 2 | | |
| 9 | Kenta Kobashi | June 8, 2009 | Southern Navigation 2009 – Day 3 | Hachiōji, Japan | 1 | 198 | 4 | | |
| — | Deactivated | December 23, 2009 | — | — | — | — | — | Kenta Kobashi vacated the title after suffering an injury. After that the title became inactive. | |

### Revived version

Key :
| No. | Overall reign number |
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| + | Current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Championship change | Championship change | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. |
| No. | Champion | Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | Notes | Ref. |
| 1 | Masato Tanaka | October 23, 2023 | Monday Magic ep. 2 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 35 | 0 | Defeated Ninja Mack to win the reactivated title. | |
| 2 | Ninja Mack | November 27, 2023 | Monday Magic ep. 4 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 159 | 2 | This was a three-way hardcore match also involving Super Crazy. | |
| 3 | Shuji Ishikawa | May 4, 2024 | Wrestle Magic | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 211+ | 1 | This was a hardcore match. | |

## Combined reigns

As of December 1, 2024.
| † | Indicates the current champion |
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined defences | Combined days |
| 1 | Kishin Kawabata | 2 | 6 | 597 |
| 2 | Kentaro Shiga | 2 | 5 | 441 |
| 3 | Scorpio | 1 | 1 | 316 |
| 4 | Makoto Hashi | 1 | 2 | 245 |
| 5 | Muhammad Yone | 1 | 3 | 231 |
| 6 | Jun Akiyama | 1 | 5 | 217 |
| 7 | Shuji Ishikawa † | 1 | 1 | 211+ |
| 8 | Kenta Kobashi | 1 | 4 | 198 |
| 9 | Ninja Mack | 1 | 2 | 159 |
| 10 | Naomichi Marufuji | 1 | 2 | 140 |
| 11 | Masato Tanaka | 1 | 0 | 35 |