Strong Women's Championship

The **Strong Women's Championship** (STRONG女子王座, *STRONG Joshi Ōza*) is the top women's world championship in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion's American brand division New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America (NJoA) in the United States.

Named after the NJoA's flagship program *NJPW Strong*, the title was announced on April 2023, with the inaugural champion being crowned on May 21, at the finals of a tournament at Resurgence. The title is meant to be defended exclusively in the *NJPW Strong* television series and is the second women's championship in the promotion, along with the IWGP Women's Championship.

The title's nature means that female wrestlers are eligible to challenge for it. The championship is contested by the wrestlers of NJPW's sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) and NJPW's partner promotions and is the second title of its kind in the history of NJPW.

## Overview

### Background

On April 28, 2023, NJPW's sub-brand New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America announced the creation of the Strong Women's Championship. The first champion would be crowned in a tournament on May 21 at Resurgence. The title is part of an American expansion plan, which NJPW had made public in the years before the announcement. Plans had been made to run extended tours in the United States with California as the base, starting in 2018, as well the creation of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.

The title is also part of a global expansion plan in the women's professional wrestling market, which NJPW's parent company made, following the acquisition of World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) in October 2019. In the year prior to the announcement, the IWGP Women's Championship became the first female title in a male professional wrestling promotion in Japan, established in July 2022. The international debut of female wrestlers in NJPW saw at the Rumble on the 44th Street event featuring Mina Shirakawa and Waka Tsukiyama, then part of the Cosmic Angels, taking on Tiara James and Kylie Rae, as well as Mayu Iwatani defending SWA World Championship against KiLynn King.

The championship is named after the NJoA's flagship program *NJPW Strong*, created after the creation of the Strong Openweight and Strong Openweight Tag Team Championships, with the title being set to become the brand's exclusive and primary women's championship. The title's nature means that female wrestlers are eligible to challenge for it. Unlike Japan, in the United States promotions are genderless specific, meaning that promotions focus on promoting male and female talent.

### Inaugural tournament

On April 28, NJPW announced the creation of the championship, with it being contested in a singles-elimination tournament and with the bracket being revealed on the same day. The tournament matches were contested at Resurgence through NJPW's weekly television show, *NJPW Strong* series. The tournament also featured wrestlers from NJPW's partner promotions and its sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom), featuring Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) wrestler Stephanie Vaquer, Mercedes Mone, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) wrestler Willow Nightingale and World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) wrestler Momo Kohgo. Willow Nightingale went on to defeat Mercedes Mone in the finals to become the inaugural Strong Women's Champion.

### Establishment

Since its creation, the Strong Women's Championship had been briefly defended in the United States with its first title defense taking place on May 12, 2023, when Willow Nightingale defended the title against Emi Sakura on All Elite Wrestling's television show *AEW Rampage*, marking the first time that title was defended outside of NJPW. On July 5, at NJPW Strong Independence Day, Giulia defeated Willow Nightingale to win the title, thus marking the first time the title changed hands outside the United States. On August 13, Giulia defended the title against Yuu at the 2023 Stardom X Stardom pay-per-view, thus marking the first time that the title was defended in Japan. Since then, the title had been defended mostly in Japan, with Giulia defending the title mostly in her home promotion, World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom), with the only few times title defenses taking place outside Japan being at NJoA promoted events such as Multiverse United 2, that saw Giulia defending the title against Impact Wrestling's Deonna Purazzo, Gisele Shaw and fellow Stardom wrestler Momo Kohgo.

## Gallery

* Champions

Willow NightingaleGiulia