J-Crown

The J-Crown, also known as the J-Crown Octuple Unified Championship, was a professional wrestling championship promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), formed via the unification of eight junior heavyweight and other lower-weight class titles from several different organizations. The J-Crown Tournament that crowned the inaugural champion was held in August 1996.

The J-Crown was the unification of eight different championship belts from multiple different countries, including ones from Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.^[1] The tournament to crown the first champion was held over four nights, from August 2 to August 5, 1996, the same dates that New Japan Pro-Wrestling's annual G1 Climax event took place, promoting two major tournaments on one tour.^[1] Jushin Thunder Liger is credited with coming up with the idea for the J-Crown.^[1] The inaugural champion was The Great Sasuke.^[1] The J-Crown was defended for just over a year.

While Último Dragón was champion, the titles appeared on World Championship Wrestling programming, as Dragón also held the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.^[1] Dragón additionally held the NWA World Middleweight Championship concurrently with the J-Crown.^[1] When Liger was champion, he lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yuji Yasuraoka on June 6, 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Liger, however, continued to defend the J-Crown with seven titles instead of eight.

As part of their introduction of a new WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) demanded that the then-current champion Shinjiro Otani return the belt. Otani returned the championship to the WWF and subsequently dissolved the J-Crown on November 5, 1997, by vacating all of the remaining component titles except for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, with the other belts being restored to their home promotions.