The Strong Women's Championship (Japanese: STRONG女子王座, Hepburn: STRONG Joshi Ōza) is a women's professional wrestling world championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. The creation of the championship was announced by NJPW on April 27, 2023.[1] The title is exclusively featured on NJPW's American internet television program NJPW Strong Live, which features a distinct roster of American and other foreign wrestlers. The inaugural champion was Willow Nightingale, who defeated Mercedes Moné in a tournament final at Resurgence to win the championship. The current champion is Moné, who defeated Stephanie Vaquer in a Winner Takes All match in which Moné's AEW TBS Championship was also on the line at Forbidden Door.
| Strong Women's Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
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 The Strong Women's Championship belt | |||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling World Wonder Ring Stardom | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | April 27, 2023[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Mercedes Moné | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date won | June 30, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
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History
editIn 2022, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) established a women's division. On July 29 of that year, the promotion created the IWGP Women's Championship, the first women's title in the company's history,[2][3] which was first held by Kairi.[4] The championship was created to be the top title of NJPW's women's division and was intended to be defended on NJPW events in Japan and on events promoted by NJPW's Japanese sister company World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom), a joshi puroresu promotion.
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On April 27, 2023, NJPW announced the creation of the Strong Women's Championship, the top women's championship of the promotion's American subsidiary Strong Live. The promotion additionally announced a four-woman single-elimination tournament to determine the inaugural champion to be held at Resurgence on May 21, in Long Beach, California.[1] The tournament will feature representatives from NJPW's partners All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), and Stardom.[1] The tournament participants are the former IWGP Women's Champion Mercedes Moné (NJPW), Momo Kohgo (Stardom), Stephanie Vaquer (CMLL), and Willow Nightingale (AEW).[1] At Resurgence, Nightingale became the inaugural champion by defeating Moné in the finals.[5]
Inaugural championship tournament (2023)
edit| Semi-finals Resurgence (May 21) | Finals Resurgence (May 21) | ||||||||
| Mercedes Moné | Pin | ||||||||
| Stephanie Vaquer | 11:55 | ||||||||
| Mercedes Moné | 13:34 | ||||||||
| Willow Nightingale | Pin | ||||||||
| Momo Kohgo | 9:37 | ||||||||
| Willow Nightingale | Pin | ||||||||
The first defense of the title was Nightingale's successful defence against Emi Sakura on the 2nd June 2023 edition of AEW Rampage (taped on the May 31, 2023).[6]
Reigns
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As of November 23, 2024, there have been four reigns between four champions. Willow Nightingale was the inaugural champion. Mercedes Moné is the oldest champion at 32 years old, while Nightingale is the youngest at 29 years old. Giulia's reign is the longest at 249 days, while Nightingale's reign is the shortest at 45 days.
Moné is the current champion in her first reign. She won the title by defeating Stephanie Vaquer in a Winner Takes All match also for Moné's AEW TBS Championship at Forbidden Door on June 30, 2024, in Elmont, New York.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| + | Current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | ||||
| 1 | Willow Nightingale | May 21, 2023 | Resurgence | Long Beach, CA | 1 | 45 | 2 | Defeated Mercedes Moné in the finals of a four-woman single-elimination tournament to become the inaugural champion. | [5] |
| 2 | Giulia | July 5, 2023 | Independence Day Night 2 |
Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 249 | 9 | [7] | |
| 3 | Stephanie Vaquer | March 10, 2024 | Cinderella Tournament Night 2 |
Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 112 | 4 | [8] | |
| 4 | Mercedes Moné | June 30, 2024 | Forbidden Door | Elmont, NY | 1 | 146+ | 2 | This was a Winner Takes All match also for Moné's AEW TBS Championship. | [9] |
References
edit- ^ a b c d e "AEW, CMLL, STARDOM, NJPW in one night tournament for STRONG Women's gold! 【NJoA】". New Japan Pro Wrestling. April 28, 2023. Archived from the original on May 5, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ Renner, Ethan (July 29, 2022). "NJPW & STARDOM creating IWGP Women's Championship The title will primarily be defended on NJPW events". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
- ^ Solowrestling (2021-04-03). "NJPW anuncia la creación del Campeonato STRONG Openweight". solowrestling.mundodeportivo.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 22, 2023. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ^ Rose, Bryan (November 20, 2022). "First IWGP Women's Champion crowned at NJPW/Stardom Historic X-Over". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
- ^ a b Fritts, Chris (May 21, 2023). "NJPW Resurgence live results: Strong Women's title tournament Will Ospreay vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi is also set for the show". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
- ^ Powell, Jason (June 2, 2023). "AEW Rampage results (6/2): Powell's review of Championship Friday with El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Komander vs. Dralistico for the AAA Mega Championship, Willow Nightingale vs. Emi Sakura for the NJPW Strong Women's Title, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Action Andretti for the NJPW TV Title, Katsuyori Shibata vs. Lee Moriarty for the ROH Pure Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on June 9, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ Lambert, Jeremy (July 5, 2023). "Giulia Wins NJPW Strong Women's Title At NJPW Strong Independence Day". Fightful. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
- ^ Lambert, Jeremy (March 10, 2024). "Stephanie Vaquer Wins NJPW Strong Women's Championship From Giulia". Fightful. Archived from the original on March 10, 2024. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
- ^ Powell, Jason (June 30, 2024). "AEW Forbidden Door results: Powell's live review of Swerve Strickland vs. Will Ospreay for the AEW World Championship, Jon Moxley vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
External links
edit- Official website (in Japanese)
- Official website (in English)