"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).

[6] The title was officially announced on January 5, 2011, and the Inaugural Champion MVP was crowned on May 15, 2011, during NJPW's first tour of the United States.

[11] The following day, NJPW added that, during the tour, the promotion would introduce the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, with the inaugural champion to be crowned in a tournament taking place over the three shows.

The list of participants included: former World Wrestling Entertainment performer MVP, who had signed a contract with New Japan in January 2011; Kazuchika Okada, who had been on a learning excursion to American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) since February 2010; Hideo Saito, who had been on a similar tour of Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council since September 2010; former IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi of No Limit; NJPW regulars Tama Tonga and Toru Yano, and; American independent worker Dan Maff, who made his first appearance for NJPW during the tour.

[24][25] On May 31, 2013, while on tour with Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), with whom NJPW has a working relationship, Nakamura lost the title to La Sombra.

[40][41][42] From 2012 to 2016, Nakamura held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship five times and defended it at four consecutive Wrestle Kingdom events.

He was outspokenly disapproving of the first belt design—which had bronze plates on a black strap—for its resemblance to a 10 yen coin and saw it as a mockery of the IWGP.

The white strap was unprecedented for the IWGP,[24] and symbolized a clean slate for its holder to add to and define.

[52][53] On March 4, 2021, one year after Naito's victory, the titles were unified to form the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.