10 Most Prestigious Wrestling Titles Of All Time

7. GHC Heavyweight Title

WWE title
NOAH

When Mitsuharu Misawa navigated a break away from All Japan Pro Wrestling to form Pro Wrestling NOAH - possibly the best-named promotion ever, given its origin story - he and his fellow defectors had to build up the mystique of its top prize from scratch.

They did just that by intensifying the already incredibly dangerous King's Road style by incorporating a brain-rattling procession of suplexes launched from the ring apron to the floor below. If you can stomach it, the July 10, 2004 ultra-violent war between Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama is brutally representative of the painstaking path which needed to be walked to emerge as GHC Heavyweight Champion.

Kobashi and Akiyama, in a classic example of the fighting spirit, old master vs. young lion psychological model, dropped one another from the apron to the floor with a cringeworthy procession of neck-centric offence in their Wrestling Observer ***** classic, which fused visceral brutality with stunning storytelling. Kobashi's vaunted two-year reign alone, one of the most critically and commercially successful ever, furnished the belt with its cachet.

It is a testament to NOAH's awesome early millennium run that their premier title ranks amongst wrestling's most prestigious. Despite employing notable freelancers - like WCPW's own puroresu legend Minoru Suzuki - to prop it up, the promotion never replaced its decimated full-time roster at the turn of the 2010s.

 
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Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!