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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 2 to August 5, 1996.
Championships
- While not officially part of the J Crown, Ultimo Dragon, who was also the NWA World Middleweight Champion (that championship is also not part of the J Crown), in fact beat WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko at WCW Starrcade '96, holding 10 titles at once.
- Despite the animosity between the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the WWF's Light Heavyweight Championship was defended on WCW shows as part of the J-Crown.
Tournament
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
| Masayoshi Motegi | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Great Sasuke | 11:50 | |||||||||||||
| The Great Sasuke | Pin | |||||||||||||
| El Samurai | 16:25 | |||||||||||||
| Gran Hamada | Pin | |||||||||||||
| El Samurai | 12:38 | |||||||||||||
| The Great Sasuke | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Último Dragón | 13:56 | |||||||||||||
| Jushin Liger | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Último Dragón | 2:38 | |||||||||||||
| Último Dragón | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Shinjiro Otani | 16:04 | |||||||||||||
| Negro Casas | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Shinjiro Otani | 11:34 | |||||||||||||
Title history
| Wrestler: | Date: | Place: | Notes: | Length of reign: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Sasuke | August 5, 1996 | Tokyo | Defeated Último Dragón in a tournament final to become the first champion. | 67 days |
| Último Dragón | October 11, 1996 | Osaka | 85 days | |
| Jushin Liger | January 4, 1997 | Tokyo | Defeated Dragón at Wrestling World 1997. | 183 days |
| El Samurai | July 6, 1997 | Sapporo | 35 days | |
| Shinjiro Otani | August 10, 1997 | Nagoya | 56 days | |
| Title retired on October 5, 1997. | ||||
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 WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yuji Yasuraoka on June 6, 1997 in Tokyo, Japan. However, Liger continued to defend the J-Crown with seven titles instead of eight.
Five months later, as the World Wrestling Federation 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 Champion at the time, 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.