GHC Hardcore Championship

The **GHC Harcore Championship** (GHCハードコア王座, *GHC Hādokoa ōza*) is a professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH) promotion. GHC is the acronym of NOAH's governing body, the Global Honored Crown.

The title was originally introduced in 2004 by Jun Akiyama, who came up with the idea of an "Hardcore" title, also known as the **Global Hardcore Crown**, also colloquially referred to as the "White GHC" belt due to its white leather strap, the color most associated with Akiyama. Most matches contested for the championship were held with a 15-minute time limit and often featured special stipulations chosen by the champion. In storyline, the title was an unsanctioned championship and 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, before being abandoned in 2010.

The title was revived by Nosawa Rongai in October 2023, with a different set of rules, with Masato Tanaka becoming the new champion.

## History

### Introduction

On March 13, 2004, Jun Akiyama came up with the idea of an "Hardcore" title, also known as the **Global Hardcore Crown**. The "Hardcore" term, meant that anyone could challenge for it regardless of division as it was openweight, the title could be won by a count-out, and if the challenger was smaller than the champion and lasted 15 minutes, the title could change hands. A win could only be gained by a pinfall, no submission was allowed. The title could only be challenged for by Pro Wrestling NOAH's wrestlers and not from anyone by an outside promotion.

Pro Wrestling NOAH's President Mitsuharu Misawa agreed to the idea, funded it, and the belt was created, as such he also became the chairman of the belt, similar to the other GHC titles, which had its own committe, and the title belt was created on Akiyama's style, and differed from the other GHC belts as the main belt was white with the crest being silver, being dubbed as "The White GHC".

### Brief transition to a tag team title and decline

In September 2006, Kentaro Shiga, who was the 5th champion rechristening the title into a tag team championship, was still recognized as such (along with his tag team partner, Kishin Kawabata), even though it was vacated to be decided in a tournament, which they won. On November 19, 2007, Kawabata defeated Shiga to reunify the title. By late 2007, the championship belt was becoming sporadic as Noah booking and Noah fans were losing interest in it, compared to the turn around of roughly six months when the belt was first inaugurated. With the promotion losing interest with title, the title's inital concept had failed, and with Noah facing various financial difficulties in the 2010s, the promotion decided to abandon the title.

### Revival

On October 9, 2023, Nosawa Rongai announced that he was bringing back the GHC Hardcore Championship, but he was changing a rule, the title could be challenged by anyone outside of Noah and a separate lineage. Shortly after, it was announced that Ninja Mack would face a mysterious opponent on October 23 at Monday Magic episode 2. At the event, the mysterious opponent was revealed to be Masato Tanaka, who defeated Ninja Mack to become the new champion.

## Gallery

* Champions

Jun AkiyamaNaomichi MaufujiMuhammad YoneScorpioKentaro ShigaKishin Kawabata and Kentaro ShigaKishin KawabataKenta KobashiMasato TanakaNinja Mack

## References

1. ↑ Global Hardcore Champion . Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
2. ↑ Green Destiny ~ Supporting Pro Wrestling NOAH . Retrieved on 2007-11-26.