Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship

The **Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship** is tertiary singles championship DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion. It is viewed as a comedy championship, having had two wrestlers, Yuko Miyamoto and Shinobu, exchange the belt 62 times with each other in one night (some of those title changes via Rock, Paper, Scissors), being won from a wrestling fan winning an auction for the belt, and a title change that occurred in a dream. Champions also include children, animals, and inanimate objects.

It is also available to "unconventional" champions such as animals or inanimate objects, with title changes regularly occurring outside of regular shows, often with videos posted on the promotion's social media accounts.

The title is defended anywhere against anyone, even during non-title matches or tag team matches, under 24/7 rules (if there is an official DDT referee present, the title can be won and lost), and unlike other Ironman championships does not need to be defended under 'Ironman' rules. The 24/7 rule is similar to the same rules that applied to the WWE Hardcore and 24/7 Championships.

A regular match in DDT for the title is a 10-minute battle royal where the title can change hands any number of times, and the person who has the belt when the time limit expires can leave as champion. This is ironic in itself, as due to the 24/7 rules, the champion could be defeated for the belt right after the match finishes or sometimes during other matches.

The 1,000th Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion was crowned on April 29, 2014, when the title belt itself became the champion, after pinning Sanshiro Takagi.

Unlike its name and similarly titled championships, it is not specific to Ironman matches.

## History

On November 2, 1998, Vince McMahon awarded Mankind the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Hardcore Championship. As Mankind and hardcore wrestling became more popular within the audiences, the Hardcore Championship became a more serious title. Its popularity led the then-rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to create its own Hardcore Championship, a move followed by numerous independent promotions. When Crash Holly won the belt on February 22, 2000, he introduced the "24/7 rule" that the belt could be defended anytime, anywhere, as long as a referee was present.

On June 29, 2000, Poison Julie Sawada introduced the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship in DDT as a parody of the WWF Hardcore Championship and recognized himself as the first champion. Minutes after the unveiling, Mitsunobu Kikuzawa demanded he had a look at the title belt. He then used it to attack Sawada and pinned him to become the second champion.

The 1,000th Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion was crowned on April 29, 2014, when the title belt itself became the champion by pinning Sanshiro Takagi after Takagi attempted to retire the title.

### Belt design

The championship belt design features three glittery silver plates on a black leather strap which has a snake skin pattern on the back. The central plate features brass knuckles surrounded by chains in the center. The word "IRONMAN" is written along the edge of the top half and the word "CHAMPION", though partially erased by years of wear and tear, is written along the bottom edge. The two side plates, on either side of the central plate, are rectangular and identically state "24 HOURS" ("24" in silver bordered with black; "HOURS" in red).

## Title history

As of August 8, 2023, there have been 1,571 officially recognized reigns between 392 different human individuals, 7 teams and 44 inanimate objects and animals. The record for most reigns is held by Shinobu, who won it 216 times, including by trading the title back-and-forth with 215-time champion Yuko Miyamoto a total of 303 times on the same night. Danshoku Dino holds the record for longest combined reign with at least 448 days and counting (the exact date of when he won his tenth title is uncertain). Masahiro Takanashi's sixth reign is the longest singular reign at 333 days. Only 142 individuals have held the title for longer than a day. The title has occasionally been won by unusual means, such as an auction for the belt, rock–paper–scissors, and even a title change that occurred in a dream.

Non-wrestlers to have held the title include AV idol Nao Saejima, TV personality LiLiCo, J-pop idols Akari Suda, Kaori Matsumura, Yuki Arai, Rise Shiokawa, Aika Sawaguchi, Misaki Natsumi, Momomi Wagatsuma and Lingling, Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblyman Shinichiro Kawamatsu, a cat named Bunny, a monkey, a three-time champion ladder, Vince McMahon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star, a copy of The Young Bucks' autobiography *Killing the Business*, Konosuke Takeshita's mother, Keiko Takeshita and the title belt itself.

## Former Champions

As of November 2022, there have been over 1,500 title changes for the belt, which has been won by numerous male and female wrestlers and non-wrestlers, including children, animals, entire audiences and inanimate objects.

### Animals

* Yatchan - A monkey
* Cocolo - A miniature Dachshund dog.
* Bunny - A cat

### Inanimate objects

* An apple
* A beer can
* Kitty-Chan - a stuffed 'Hello Kitty' doll
* Mah-Kun - another stuffed doll, who defeated 'Kitty-Chan' for the belt
* A baseball bat - lost the belt after being broken in half as a 'KO' decision
* Three different ladders - each fell on the champion and a pinfall was counted, with some successfully defending the title by not being pinned during the time limit battle royal matches.
* Chiririn - a chicken doll
* Mr. Kasai - a stuffed Jun Kasai doll. Mr. Kasai has won the belt twice.
* A Pro Wrestling Wave poster.
* Big Japan Pro Wrestling ring truck.
* Ice Ribbon ringside mat.
* A pint of beer.
* A stick of yakitori.
* A steel chair.
* "Kōmyō", a painting by Akihiro Miwa.
* The title belt itself.
* Yoshihiko - An inflatable 'love doll'. Wrestlers treat it as if it actually was an active wrestler, and actually sell moves "done" by him/her, mostly high flying moves. For some moves, like outside dives, Yoshihiko is helped by one or more assistants, who throw him out of the ring, pull his foot on the ropes, etc. Opposing wrestlers make like those assistants are not there and are part of Yoshihiko. The original Yoshihiko was "killed" by an Antonio Honda knee drop, which caused its head to burst open, and was replaced by a second Yoshihiko, who was also a 'love doll', only modified to resemble the Great Muta. The second Yoshihiko was killed by Kenny Omega by a giant swing that sent Yoshihiko out of the ring, thus splitting his head open and revealing cotton stuffing. Later on in that match however, a third Yoshihiko came out resembling The Undertaker's old American Bad Ass gimmick, even using the same theme music. Following that match, the third Yoshihiko was shot to death by Antonio Honda. A fourth Yoshihiko, resembling Hulk Hogan, debuted shortly afterwards.
* Akihiro, another inflatable love doll and the supposed sister of Yoshihiko. Made its debut on August 18, 2013.
* Vince McMahon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star
* A bus
* TV Tokyo camera crane
* Pork bun
* A kotatsu table
* A trash can
* Pair of chopsticks
* RN: Konyamoanokodenuitarou - A printed E-mail
* Beer Can - Champion Yukio Sakaguchi drank from the can and fell backwards with the can on top of him. The referee counted the pin. The can lost the belt after Yuki Ueno drank its remaining contents.
* A copy of *Killing the Business*, The Young Bucks autobiography – Britt Baker fell asleep while reading it, and it fell onto her; a referee counted the pin and awarded the title to the book.
* Saki Akai Photobook: Lip Hip Shake
* Akupunktur Fussmatte - Foot message mat

### Non-existent

* Arnold Skeskejanaker - An "invisible wrestler" i.e. non-existent. Opponents sell moves of a wrestler who isn't there, and the title is held by nothing and no-one but the wrestlers and referees act as if they can see and pin the "invisible wrestler". Muscle Sakai "won" the title from this "invisible wrestler" by using a "ray gun" and "infrared visor" to shoot the "invisible wrestler", winning the belt on a KO decision.
* The Invisible Man - Another "invisible wrestler"

### Collective champions

* Three elementary school girls (Airi Ueda, Shiori Takahashi and Minami Tanabe)
* The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian).
* The entire audience of Beyond Wrestling's Americanrana '16.
* The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson).
* Disaster Box (Toru Owashi and Kazuki Hirata).
* Toru Owashi and Hiroshi Yamato.
* Mizuki Watase, Antonio Honda, Danshoku Dino and Yukio Naya.
* The 100.000 Subscribers of the DDT Youtube Channel.

## Combined reigns

### Individual wrestlers

The following list contains the combined reigns of all wrestlers who have held the title for a known duration. Some names may appear more than once in the teams list underneath completed by the combined days held and times won in this one.

 ¤

### Teams

 2

## Notes

1. ↑ Misae Genki, a female wrestler.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 The length of the reign is too uncertain to calculate.
3. ↑ The "Hello! Kitty" stuffed doll
4. ↑ Also a stuffed doll.
5. ↑ Previously won the title as Masahiro Mekanashi

## Gallery

* Champions

Exciting YoshidaRojo del SolToru OwashiYuki SatoHARASHIMASanshiro TakagiJun AkiyamaDick TogoLilicoYoshihikoKanaYukio SakaguchiYatchanJoey RyanMike KingstonChris HeroMVPColt CabanaThe Young BucksMia Yim"Spider-Man"Veda ScottRhinoKikutaroMatt StrikerJoey JanelaNixon NewellCheerleader MelissaX-PacScott HallRobbie EAkihiroJack The JobberJoe HendryYuuMiyu YamashitaKazuki/Ichiko HirataDiegoMuscle Sakai/Super Sasadango MachineSaki AkaiAkari SudaMaki ItoMike BaileyLinglingShinichiro KawamatsuKeiko TakeshitaPenelope FordKip Sabian