# BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship

The BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship (BJW認定世界ストロングヘビー級王座, BJW nintei sekai sutorongu hebī-kyū ōza) is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by the Japanese Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) promotion. It is one of two heavyweight championships promoted by BJW, the other being the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship. The two titles symbolize the two sides of BJW; the Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship the hardcore wrestling side and the World Strong Heavyweight Championship the strong style side. The title has a lower weight limit of 96 kg (212 lb). Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been nineteen reigns shared among eleven different wrestlers. Hideyoshi Kamitani is the current champion in his second reign.

## History

On March 26, 2012, Yoshihito Sasaki defeated Daisuke Sekimoto in the finals to win the 2012 Ikkitosen Strong Climb tournament. Following his win, Sasaki requested that BJW establish a new championship that would symbolize the "strong" side of the promotion. BJW already had one heavyweight championship, the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship, but it was contested exclusively in deathmatches. This led to BJW announcing the creation of the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship on April 14, 2012. A similar championship in concept existed from 2001 known as the BJW Heavyweight Championship but had long been retired, with Men's Teioh last defending the title in 2004. On May 5, Yoshihito Sasaki defeated Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) representative and the reigning wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Big Van Walter in a decision match to become the inaugural champion. The BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship was first defended outside of Japan on May 19 at a wXw event. The championship has also been defended at All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Zero1 events.
With the introduction of the BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship in May 2017, BJW announced that from now on wrestlers need to weigh at least 96 kg (212 lb) to be able to challenge for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship.

## Title history

Key :
| No. | Overall reign number |
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| (NLT) | Championship change took place "no later than" the date listed |
| + | 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 | Yoshihito Sasaki | May 5, 2012 | Endless Survivor | Yokohama, Japan | 1 | 242 | 5 | Defeated Big Van Walter in a decision match to become the inaugural champion. | |
| 2 | Manabu Soya | January 2, 2013 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 58 | 1 | | |
| 3 | Daisuke Sekimoto | March 1, 2013 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 323 | 10 | | |
| — | Vacated | January 18, 2014 | — | — | — | — | — | Vacated due to a knee injury. | |
| 4 | Shinya Ishikawa | February 7, 2014 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 222 | 2 | Defeated Ryuichi Kawakami in a decision match to win the vacant title. | |
| — | Vacated | September 17, 2014 | — | — | — | — | — | Vacated due to Ishikawa retiring from professional wrestling. | |
| 5 | Shuji Ishikawa | December 21, 2014 | Big Japan Death Vegas 2014 | Yokohama, Japan | 1 | 100 | 1 | Defeated Ryuichi Kawakami in a decision match to win the vacant title. | |
| 6 | Daisuke Sekimoto | March 31, 2015 | Ikkitousen Deathmatch Survivor 2015 | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 111 | 1 | | |
| 7 | Yuji Okabayashi | July 20, 2015 | Ryōgokutan 2015 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 370 | 3 | | |
| 8 | Hideyoshi Kamitani | July 24, 2016 | Ryōgokutan 2016 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 147 | 2 | | |
| 9 | Daisuke Sekimoto | December 18, 2016 | Big Japan Death Vegas 2016 | Yokohama, Japan | 3 | 102 | 2 | | |
| 10 | Hideki Suzuki | March 30, 2017 | Ikkitousen Deathmatch Survivor 2017 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 262 | 5 | | |
| 11 | Daichi Hashimoto | December 17, 2017 | Big Japan Death Vegas 2017 | Yokohama, Japan | 1 | 119 | 2 | | |
| 12 | Hideki Suzuki | April 15, 2018 | Sapporo 2 Days | Sapporo, Japan | 2 | 210 | 5 | | |
| 13 | Daisuke Sekimoto | November 11, 2018 | Ryōgokutan 2018 | Tokyo, Japan | 4 | 175 | 3 | | |
| 14 | Yuji Okabayashi | May 5, 2019 | Endless Survivor 2019 | Yokohama, Japan | 2 | 112 | 2 | | |
| 15 | Kohei Sato | August 25, 2019 | Death Mania VII | Nagoya, Japan | 1 | 71 | 1 | | |
| 16 | Daichi Hashimoto | November 4, 2019 | Ryōgokutan 2019 | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 352 | 6 | | |
| 17 | Yuji Okabayashi | October 21, 2020 | BJW Death Match, Strong & Junior 3 Major Title Matches | Tokyo, Japan | 3 | 73 | 2 | | |
| 18 | Yasufumi Nakanoue | January 2, 2021 | BJW 2021 New Year | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 261 | 6 | | |
| 19 | Takuya Nomura | September 20, 2021 | BJW New Standard Big B ~ The Day When Thank You Explodes ~ 113 Times In Sapporo | Sapporo, Japan | 1 | 104 | 3 | | |
| 20 | Yuji Okabayashi | January 2, 2022 | BJW New Year 2022 | Tokyo, Japan | 4 | 487 | 8 | | |
| 21 | Yuya Aoki | May 4, 2023 | BJW Endless Survivor: Infinity Independent | Yokohama, Japan | 1 | 529 | 11 | | |
| 22 | Hideyoshi Kamitani | October 14, 2024 | BJW New Standard Big "B" ~ Keep Rolling' | Yokohama, Japan | 2 | 127+ | 0 | | |

## Combined reigns

As of February 18, 2025
| † | Indicates the current champion |
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined defenses | Combined days |
| 1 | Yuji Okabayashi | 4 | 15 | 1,042 |
| 2 | Daisuke Sekimoto | 4 | 15 | 711 |
| 3 | Yuya Aoki | 1 | 11 | 529 |
| 4 | Hideki Suzuki | 2 | 10 | 472 |
| 5 | Daichi Hashimoto | 2 | 8 | 471 |
| 6 | Hideyoshi Kamitani † | 2 | 2 | 274+ |
| 7 | Yasufumi Nakanoue | 1 | 6 | 261 |
| 8 | Yoshihito Sasaki | 1 | 5 | 242 |
| 9 | Shinya Ishikawa | 1 | 2 | 222 |
| 10 | Takuya Nomura | 1 | 3 | 104 |
| 11 | Shuji Ishikawa | 1 | 1 | 100 |
| 12 | Kohei Sato | 1 | 1 | 71 |
| 13 | Manabu Soya | 1 | 1 | 58 |