J-Crown

Infobox championship
championshipname=J-Crown
promotion=New Japan Pro Wrestling
created=August 5 1996
titleretired=October 5 1997
mostreigns=No multiple reigns
firstchamp=The Great Sasuke
longestreign=Jushin Liger (183 days)
shortestreign=El Samurai (35 days)
oldest=Jushin Liger (32 years, 218 days)
youngest=Shinjiro Otani (25 years, 76 days)
heaviest=Shinjiro Otani - convert|236|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on
lightest=The Great Sasuke - convert|180|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on

The J-Crown (also known as J-Crown Championship) was formed originally by New Japan Pro Wrestling as a way of unifying eight non-heavyweight titles from several different organizations. The J-Crown tournament was held over four nights, from August 2nd to August 5th 1996.

Championships

The J-Crown Tournament

8TeamBracket
RD1-seed1=
RD1-team1= Masayoshi Motegi
RD1-score1= Pin
RD1-seed2=
RD1-team2= The Great Sasuke
RD1-score2= 11:50

RD1-seed3=
RD1-team3= Gran Hamada
RD1-score3= Pin
RD1-seed4=
RD1-team4= "'El Samurai
RD1-score4= 12:38

RD1-seed5=
RD1-team5= Jushin Liger
RD1-score5= Pin
RD1-seed6=
RD1-team6= Último Dragón
RD1-score6= 2:38

RD1-seed7=
RD1-team7= Negro Casas
RD1-score7= Pin
RD1-seed8=
RD1-team8= Shinjiro Otani
RD1-score8= 11:34

RD2-seed1=
RD2-team1= The Great Sasuke
RD2-score1= Pin
RD2-seed2=
RD2-team2= El Samurai
RD2-score2= 16:25

RD2-seed3=
RD2-team3= Último Dragón
RD2-score3= Pin
RD2-seed4=
RD2-team4= Shinjiro Otani
RD2-score4= 16:04

RD3-seed1=
RD3-team1= The Great Sasuke
RD3-score1= Pin
RD3-seed2=
RD3-team2= Último Dragón
RD3-score2= 13:56

Title history

End of the J-Crown

The J-Crown was defended for just over a year. When Jushin Liger was champion, he ended up losing the International Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yuuji Yasuraoka. However, Liger continued to defend the J-Crown with seven titles instead of eight.

Five months later, as the WWF was getting ready to introduce a new Light Heavyweight title, they became aware that the original Light Heavyweight Championship belt was no longer in their possession. (The physical belt had long since been used in New Japan Pro Wrestling for one of their titles.) WWF demanded that Shinjiro Otani, the current J-Crown Holder, return the belt to them immediately. He did so on October 5, 1997. On the same day, he also vacated all of the remaining titles, except for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, effectively ending the J-Crown.

Trivia

* The longest J-Crown reign was Jushin Liger, at 6 months, 2 days.
* Every J-Crown title holder was part of the original 8 tournament participants.
* Despite being called the NWA World Welterweight title, it was actually governed by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Along the same line, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight title was, at the time, being governed by Wrestle Dream Factory.
* The British Commonwealth title, WWF World Light Heavyweight and UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight titles were all being used by New Japan Pro Wrestling.

External links

* [http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/newjapan/jcrown.html J-CROWN Octuple Title Unification]