Dramatic Dream Column: What was the White GHC belt to the recently crowned EXTREME Champion Akiyama? (Kagehiro Osano)

Thanks to Jun Akiyama beating Joey Janela for the EXTREME championship at the December 4^th Korakuen Hall show earlier this month, the buzzword has been the ‘White GHC’ belt.
The ‘White GHC’ belt refers to a title belt from Pro Wrestling NOAH when the 9^th Champion Kenta Kobashi relinquished the belt due to a long term injury in June of 2010. The reason for this being a buzzword was that the White GHC had a similar rule to the EXTREME title some 13 years ago. The biggest title in NOAH is the GHC Heavyweight Championship and so the GHC Openweight title (or Global Hardcore Crown) was colloquially known as the White GHC then. The similarities are that the Champion chooses the rules for both titles.

In 2004, Akiyama mentioned that the White GHC was made when “he consulted the Minister of Finance in the Akiyama family (his wife) for a fitting sum” to create a title belt in America with the leather portion made in the image colors of Akiyama’s White. The reasoning for this was that “the Champion can paint this belt in his image if they feel like.” As Mitsuharu Misawa paid for the belt out of his own pocket money, he became the Chief Advisor for the championship. Akiyama self-appointed himself as the Committee Head saying “Since I created this belt, I’ll be the one” and also granted himself the title of 1^st Champion walking down the ramp of Differ Ariake on March 13 the same year to applause.

The reason that Akiyama created this belt was a way to provoke the then-GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi. “Kobashi was a noble man. So, I was looking for something of the opposite.” It might sound like a meme from this angle but the reasoning behind this was to stir up the other members of the rosters as well as the shows outside of the main cities of Japan. This was the idea of the sage Akiyama.

The “GHC title is a faraway existence. And you can’t just easily challenge for the belt. Many of the younger guys don’t have many opportunities to have singles matches so I wanted this to be a way for anyone to be able to challenge. There are no restrictions for this title. It doesn’t matter if you’re Heavy or Junior. However, the only requirement you need to fulfil is to be a profitable wrestler to NOAH. You can be from a different promotion too. But if you want to wrestle for this title, it has to be at a regional show only.”

The person who reads the contract for the title would be a fan who wins the ‘NOAH-NOAH Kuji” lottery on the day of the show and they get the opportunity to seat at the front desk of the shows holding the contract as a form of fan service.

The first title match was on April 18^th against Naoki Sano (then Takuma Sano). Akiyama had to get a 3-count pinfall. Sano could win by KO, Techincal KO or by submission. It had a special ruling but Akiyama won by the Wrist-Clutch Exploder.

His second defense was against then ‘mid-carder’ opponents the NOAH Health Club which he himself named comprising of Jun Izumida, Masao Inoue and Kishin Kawabata whom he chided saying “what are you practising wrestling for? Good health??” He also said “since you guys aren’t even half a man but 1/3 of a man, I’ll treat all three as one title defense” and “if you guys want to be in the top ranks of NOAH, go against me.”

On the same year in October he went against a then Junior Heavy Naomichi Marufuji who surpass the weight limits by winning the match via count-out. Marufuji then defended the title against Haruka Eigen in a 10-minute one-fall match where if it surpasses the time limit or count-out, he will lose the title which he successfully defended.

Mohamed Yone, who won the belt off Marufuji then defended the titles against Takeshi Morishima and (2 Cold) Scorpio in a Chain Deathmatch and No-DQ match in a truly Hardcore title run.

The final Champion was Kobashi himself who said “if the Champion can paint this belt in his image…” and decided to change the leather portion to his signature purple colors. Without thinking Akiyama responded “that’s not what I meant when I said that…”

And this the flow of time passes and now Akiyama is the EXTREME Champion. With the unfortunate history he has with purple belts he immediately requested in the ring to “change the belts to white because I have bad memories of that color” and requested Kobashi to be the Committee Chief of the defenses. At TDC Hall on December 29^th he will be defending the title against Super Sasadango Machine who he calls the “DDT Health Club chief who should do his best” and the belt once again returns to Akiyama’s universe.

For someone with a very flexible wrestling mind, I’m sure Akiyama has many ideas of what to do with this title. How will Akiyama paint the EXTREME title going forward…it could change the direction of DDT going forward.

Text: Kagehiro Osano
Translation: DDTproENG