10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger

1. The Longest Ever IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Reign

Great Sasuke Jushin Liger Botch
NJPW

The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship recently won by Hiromu Takahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 14 is one of the most prestigious belts in all of wrestling.

When looking through the history of former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champions, the list reads like of who's who of wrestling royalty - from Shiro Koshinaka, to Kuniaki Kobayashi, to Owen Hart, to El Samurai, to Ultimo Dragon, to The Great Sasuke, to Prince Devitt, to Kota Ibushi, to Kushida, to Kenny Omega, to Will Ospreay, to several incarnations of Tiger Mask.

To many, though, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship will forever conjure up the memory of Jushin Liger.

Not only does Liger hold the record for the single longest reign as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion at an impressive 628 days, but he also has the most reigns in the title's history (11) and has held the championship over twice as many combined days as anybody else (2,245 days - with Prince Devitt in second place with a total of 1,010 days).

Added to this, Jushin Liger has by far the most title defences of any IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion - his 31 defences dwarfing the 20 defences of his closest contender, Minoru Tanaka.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.