The G1 Climax tournament has often been used as a platform for NJPW to push their rising stars. In 2016, Kenny Omega became the first non-Japanese wrestler to win the tournament. This increased the tournament's length to four weeks. In 2015, the tournament format was changed with NJPW reducing the number of G1 Climax matches per show, giving the participating wrestlers more time to rest between matches. In 2021, the now retired IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt was given to G1 winner Kazuchika Okada instead of a briefcase. Since its inception, the contract has only changed hands one time, on Novemat Power Struggle when Jay White defeated Kota Ibushi. Much like WWE's Money in the Bank contract, the certificate is kept in a briefcase that the wrestler then has to defend until the end of the year. Since 2012, the winner has earned the ' Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate', a contract for a title shot at NJPW's largest event, Wrestle Kingdom in Tokyo Dome, held annually on January 4. The winner of the tournament, assuming they are not already the champion, has traditionally earned a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The first G1 was held from August 7 to August 11, 1991, at Tokyo's Ryōgoku Kokugikan. Though considered a continuation of the previous tournaments, officially NJPW does not recognize the earlier tournaments as part of the G1 Climax lineage. NJPW's then president Seiji Sakaguchi named the tournament after the G1 horse race. With Inoki's dominance over NJPW gone, the promotion established the G1 Climax tournament in 1991 as a platform to showcase the company's top heavyweights and have them compete in round-robin matches where the winners of the two divisions would then square off in the tournament final. In 1989, there was a World Cup Tournament ( ワールドカップ争奪リーグ戦, Wārudokappu sōdatsu rīgu-sen), which included wrestlers from the then- Soviet Union.

The current IWGP Heavyweight Championship arrived only in 1987, replacing the old version.

Most of these tournaments were dominated by NJPW's founding top star Antonio Inoki.Īlthough the 1983 winner, Hulk Hogan, was awarded a championship belt, this is not the beginning of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but its early version that was defended annually against the winner of the IWGP League of the year. NJPW had an annual tournament since 1974 under various names: the World League ( ワールドリーグ戦, Wārudorīgu-sen) (1974–1977, based on the World (Big) League tournament from the old Japanese Wrestling Association held between 19) the MSG League ( MSGシリーズ, MSG shirīzu) (1978–1982) the IWGP League ( IWGPリーグ戦, IWGP rīgu-sen) (1983–1988), 'IWGP' is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix (インターナショナル・レスリング・グラン・プリ, intānashonaru resuringu guran puri). Hiroshi Tanahashi holding his prize for winning the 2015 G1 Climax, a contract for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome

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