BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1998–2002)

Professional wrestling championship

This article is about the historical championship. For the current championship, see BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship (2017–present).

BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship

Details
Promotion| Big Japan Pro Wrestling
Date established| February 3, 1998
Date retired| 2002
| Statistics

First champion(s)| Yoshihiro Tajiri
Final champion(s)| Homicide
Most reigns| Fantastik/Masayoshi Motegi/Charbinger/The Winger (3 reigns)
Longest reign| Men's Teioh (424 days)
Shortest reign| Johnny Kashmere (10 days)

The BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship was a title defended in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW). It was in use from 1998 through at least November 2002.

On May 7, 2017, BJW announced that it was bringing back the BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship with a tournament set to take place between May 25 and July 17. Although the new title shares its name with the title retired in 2002, the winner of the tournament is considered the first BJW Junior Heavyweight Champion. The title has a weight limit of 95 kg (209 lb). Wrestlers over the weight limit will be eligible to challenge for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship.[1]

## Inaugural tournament

[edit]

An eight-man knockout tournament was held on March 2, 1998 to crown the inaugural Junior Heavyweight Champion.[2]

| Quarterfinals | | | Semifinals | | | Final |

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

|  |  |  | | |  |  |  | | |  |  |  |
| Yoshihiro Tajiri | Pin | | |
| Gran Naniwa |  |
| | Yoshihiro Tajiri | Pin |
|  |
| | | Minoru Tanaka |  |
| Minoru Tanaka | Pin |

| Minoru Fujita |  |
| | Yoshihiro Tajiri | Pin |
|  |
| | | Gedo |  |
| Ryuji Yamakawa | Pin | |

| Masayoshi Motegi |  |
| | Ryuji Yamakawa | Pin |
|  |
| | | Gedo |  |
| Gedo | Pin |

| Tomoaki Honma |  |

## Title history

[edit]

Key  No.  | Overall reign number

|

Reign  | Reign number for the specific champion
Days  | Number of days held
(NLT) | Championship change took place "no later than" the date listed
No. | Champion  | Championship change  | Reign statistics  | Notes  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

Date  | Event  | Location  | Reign  | Days
1  | Yoshihiro Tajiri | February 3, 1998 | First BJW Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament  | Tokyo, Japan | 1  | 75  | Defeated Gedo in a tournament final to become the inaugural champion.  |
—  | Vacated | April 19, 1998 | —  | —  | —  | —  | Tajiri was stripped of the title after he left BJW.  |
2  | Katsumi Usuda | May 1, 1998 | Big Japan Fighter Declaration 1998  | Toda, Japan | 1  | 218  | Defeated Minoru Fujita to win the vacant title.  |
3  | Fantastik  | December 5, 1998 | HWO 4 Year  | Kanagawa, Japan | 1  | 145  |  |
4  | The Winger  | April 29, 1999 | House show | Shizuoka, Japan | 1  | 31  |  |
—  | Vacated | May 30, 1999 | —  | —  | —  | —  | Vacated to be put on the line in a round-robin tournament.  |
5  | Masayoshi Motegi | June 30, 1999 | House show | Numazu, Japan | 1  | 129  | Defeated Abdullah Kobayashi in the finals of a round-robin tournament to win the vacant title.  |
6  | Fantastik  | November 6, 1999 | House show | Hakodate, Japan | 2  | 28  |  |
7  | Chabinger | December 4, 1999 | House show | Yokohama, Japan | 2  | 200  | Previously held the title under the name Masayoshi Motegi.  |
8  | Men's Teioh | June 21, 2000 | BJ Hardcore Series II 2000  | Fukushima, Japan | 1  | 424  |  |
9  | Johnny Kashmere | August 19, 2001 | Universe 2001  | Yokohama, Japan | 1  | 10  | Defeated Men's Teioh in a tag team match between CZW Tag Team Champions Men's Teioh and Jun Kasai and The Backseat Boyz (Kashmere and Trent Acid). As per the stipulation of the match, all titles held by the participants were on the line. The Backseat Boyz won the CZW Tag Team title, and Kashmere, by scoring the fall, won the BJW Junior Heavyweight title as well.  |
—  | Vacated | August 29, 2001 | CZW Enough Is Enough | Sewell, NJ | —  | —  | Vacated when a double title match against CZW Junior Heavyweight Champion Trent Acid ended as a double pinfall.  |
10  | Ruckus | December 2, 2001 | Ante Up 2001 | Yokohama, Japan | 1  | 13  | Defeated Trent Acid and The Winger in a three-way match. This match was also for the CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship.  |
11  | Trent Acid | December 15, 2001 | CZW Cage of Death III | Philadelphia, PA | 1  | 78  | This match was also for the CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship.  |
12  | The Winger  | March 3, 2002 | Harder Than Hardcore Series 2002  | Yokohama, Japan | 2  | 257  |  |
13  | Homicide | November 15, 2002 | House show | Queens, NY | 1  | [a] |  |
—  | Deactivated  | 2002 (NLT) | —  | —  | —  | —  |  |

## Combined reigns

[edit]

¤  | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest possible length is used.

|

Rank  | Wrestler  | No. of
reigns  | Combined
days

|
|
|

1  | Men's Teioh | 1 | 424
2  | Masayoshi Motegi/Chabinger | 2 | 329
3  | The Winger | 2 | 288
4  | Fantastik | 2 | 173
5  | Katsumi Usuda | 1 | 218
6  | Trent Acid | 1 | 78
7  | Yoshihiro Tajiri | 1 | 75
8  | Ruckus | 1 | 13
9  | Johnny Kashmere | 1 | 10
10  | Homicide | 1 | 1¤

## Footnotes

[edit]

1. ^ The exact date the championship was deactivated has not been confirmed, putting their title reign at between 1 day and 46 days.

## See also

[edit]

* Japan portal

* BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship (2017–present)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "※5/25(木)より､初代BJW認定ジュニアヘビー級王座決定リーグ戦開催!". Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). May 7, 2017. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
2. ^ "Big Japan Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament 1998". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved 30 November 2018.

## External links

[edit]

* Title history at Wrestling-Titles.com

* v
* t
* e

BJW Junior Heavyweight Champions (1998–2002)

* Yoshihiro Tajiri
* Katsumi Usuda
* Fantastik
* The W*inger
* Masayoshi Motegi / Chabinger
* Men's Teioh
* Johnny Kashmere
* Ruckus
* Trent Acid
* Homicide

* v
* t
* e

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Championships|

| Current|

| Heavyweight|

* Deathmatch Heavyweight
* World Strong Heavyweight

|

Junior heavyweight|

* Junior Heavyweight

Tag team|

* Tag Team
* UWA World Tag Team
* Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team

Former|

* Heavyweight
* Junior Heavyweight (original version)
* Women's
* WEW Hardcore Tag Team

Events|

* Ante Up
* Indy Summit
* New Year's Eve Pro-Wrestling 2011
* New Year's Eve Pro-Wrestling 2012
* Ōmisoka New Year's Eve Pro-Wrestling 2010 Countdown Special
* Pro-Wrestling Summit 2008
* Pro-Wrestling Summit in Korakuen
* Tenka Sanbun no Kei: Ōmisoka New Year's Eve Special
* Wrestling World 1997

Tournaments|

* Ikkitousen Deathmatch Survivor
* Ikkitousen Strong Climb
* Saikyo Tag League

Miscellaneous|

* Big Japan Pro Wrestling Core
* Fire Pro Wrestling Returns
* United Japan Pro-Wrestling

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