Fifteen years ago, a tournament was held to unify eight cruiserweight and junior heavyweight championships from different organizations. The titles to be unified included the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship held by Jushin “Thunder” Liger, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship held by The Great Sasuke, the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship held by Ultimo Dragon, the WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship held by Gran Hamada, the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship held by El Samurai, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship held by Masayoshi Motegi, the NWA World Welterweight Championship (from CMLL) held by Negro Casas, and the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship held by Shinjiro Otani.
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In the finals of the tournament, on August 5, 1996, it was the Great Sasuke reigning supreme by last defeating Ultimo Dragon. As a result, Sasuke became the first ever J-Crown Octuple Unified Champion, although the title itself is more commonly known simply as the J-Crown. The J-Crown only remained active and unified for a little over a year, with five different men claiming the title for their own during that span, all of whom had competed in the tournament to crown an inaugural champion. Despite the brevity of its existence, there was significant prestige placed upon the J-Crown due to the title’s nature.
