Wrestle-1 Championship

The **Wrestle-1 Championship** was the top singles championship in Wrestle-1. In Japanese the title's name includes the katakana term for "championship", *Chanpionshippu* (チャンピオンシップ), derived from the English language instead of the more common kanji term *Ōza* (王座). The title also does not feature the word "Heavyweight" or any other weight class, indicating an open-weight status.

## Overview

### Championship tournament

On July 21, 2014, a full year after the start of the promotion, Wrestle-1 announced the creation of its first own title, the Wrestle-1 Championship. Previous Wrestle-1 events had featured matches for championships owned by other promotions like All Star Wrestling (ASW), European Wrestling Promotion (EWP), Pro Wrestling Zero1 and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It was announced that the inaugural champion would be determined in a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament taking place between September 21 and October 8. Wrestle-1's founder Keiji Mutoh quickly announced that he would not be taking part in the tournament. The tournament brackets were revealed on August 8, with the exception of two participants, who would be determined in qualifying matches on August 31. In the qualifying matches, Jiro Kuroshio defeated Andy Wu and Daiki Inaba defeated Koji Doi. The tournament featured only wrestlers officially signed to Wrestle-1 and none of the freelancers or outside wrestlers working regularly for the promotion. Pro Wrestling Zero1's reigning World Heavyweight Champion Masakatsu Funaki announced he was looking to defend his title throughout the tournament and unifying it with the Wrestle-1 Championship. However, just before the start of the tournament on September 19, Funaki lost the World Heavyweight Championship. The Wrestle-1 Championship belt was unveiled at a press conference on September 17. The first two rounds of the tournament were held over three shows between September 21 and 23 and saw KAI, Masakatsu Funaki, Masayuki Kono and Shuji Kondo advance to set up the two semifinal matches for October 8. In the semifinals, Kai and Kono were victorious over Kondo and Funaki, respectively, setting up a final match later that same day, where Kono defeated Kai to win the tournament and become the inaugural Wrestle-1 Champion.

## Gallery

* Champions

Masayuki KonoKeiji MutohKAIHideki SuzukiManabu SoyaYuji HinoDaiki InabaShotaro AshinoT-HawkKatsuhiko NakajimaKaz Hayashi

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wrestle-1王座新設のお知らせ  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-07-21). Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Kono1`
3. ↑ ja:武藤 敬司 (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1*. Archived from the original on 2014-11-01. Retrieved on 2014-11-01.
4. ↑ ja:芦野 祥太郎 (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1*. Archived from the original on 2017-03-20. Retrieved on 2017-03-20.
5. ↑ ja:河野 真幸 (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1*. Archived from the original on 2014-10-08. Retrieved on 2014-10-08.
6. ↑ ja:稲葉 大樹 (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1*. Archived from the original on 2016-08-11. Retrieved on 2016-08-11.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 トーナメント出場選手、トーナメント組合せ決定！～「Wrestle-1 Tour 2014 初代王者決定トーナメント」開催概要のお知らせ  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-08-08). Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Caldwell, James 2014-07-22. TNA news: Tag Champs returning to Japan for potential title defense, W-1 to determine first Champ before BFG PPV . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
9. ↑ Fighting Entertainment Wrestle-1 「衝撃～Impact～」  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-07-06). Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
10. ↑ Takagi, Hiromi 2014-07-06. ムタが本家ムーンサルトで真田を撃破 自称エース・Kaiが屈辱の髪切り＝W-1  (in Japanese). *Sports Navi*. Yahoo!. Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
11. ↑ *ja:武藤Ｗ－１王座決定トーナメント不参加* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2014-07-23). Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
12. ↑ フリーとして参戦していた征矢がW-1に入団！初代王者決定トーナメントの組み合わせ＆8.31後楽園の全カードが決定！  (in Japanese). *Battle News* (2014-08-08). Retrieved on 2014-08-10.
13. ↑ Wrestle-1 Tour 2014 Flashing Summer  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-08-31). Retrieved on 2014-08-31.
14. ↑ *ja:船木Ｗ１王者へゼロワンと統一王座だ* (in Japanese). *Nikkan Sports* (2014-08-13). Retrieved on 2014-08-13.
15. ↑ *ja:Ｗ－１初代王者決定Ｔ 船木「１回戦からベルトかける」* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2014-08-13). Retrieved on 2014-08-13.
16. ↑ *ja:9/19後楽園大会　試合結果* (in Japanese). *Pro Wrestling Zero1* (2014-09-19). Retrieved on 2014-09-19.
17. ↑ *ja:耕平が船木から王座奪還* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2014-09-20). Retrieved on 2014-09-20.
18. ↑ 【Wrestle-1 Championship】ベルトお披露目＆「初代王者決定トーナメント」出場選手 記者会見 vol.1  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-09-17). Retrieved on 2014-09-17.
19. ↑ 武藤W－１「初代王者決定T」ベルト披露  (in Japanese). *Nikkan Sports* (2014-09-17). Retrieved on 2014-09-17.
20. ↑ *ja:「Ｗ―１」新チャンピオンベルトお披露目　武藤「世界のレスラーの目標に」* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2014-09-17). Retrieved on 2014-09-17.
21. ↑ それぞれの想いを胸に、10.8後楽園で準決勝＆決勝開催！～船木誠勝選手、Kai選手、近藤修司選手会見  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-09-24). Retrieved on 2014-09-25.
22. ↑ Kaiが誰よりも初代王者になりたい理由  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2014-09-25). Retrieved on 2014-09-25.
23. ↑ 10.8後楽園で行われるW-1初代王者決定トーナメント準決勝の組み合わせがKaivs近藤、船木vs河野に決定！  (in Japanese). *Battle News* (2014-09-23). Retrieved on 2014-09-25.
24. ↑ *ja:初代Ｗ－１王者河野、挑戦者に武藤指名* (in Japanese). *Nikkan Sports* (2014-10-09). Retrieved on 2014-10-08.
25. ↑ Lions, Phil 2014-10-08. Alberto Del Rio heading to Japan and more Wrestle-1 news . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2014-10-08.
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 Wrestle-1 Tour 2014 初代王者決定トーナメント  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-09-22). Retrieved on 2014-09-22.
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 Wrestle-1 Tour 2014 初代王者決定トーナメント  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-09-23). Retrieved on 2014-09-23.
28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Wrestle-1 Tour 2014 初代王者決定トーナメント  (in Japanese). *Wrestle-1* (2014-09-21). Retrieved on 2014-09-21.

## External links

* Official title history at W-1.co.jp (Japanese)
* Title history at Wrestling-Titles.com