The title also does not feature the word "Heavyweight" or any other weight class, indicating an open-weight status de facto.

On July 21, 2014, a full year after the start of the promotion, Wrestle-1 announced the creation of its first own title, the Wrestle-1 Championship.

[9][10] It was announced that the inaugural champion would be determined in a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament taking place between September 21 and October 8.

[7] Pro Wrestling Zero1's reigning World Heavyweight Champion Masakatsu Funaki announced he was looking to defend his title throughout the tournament and unifying it with the Wrestle-1 Championship.

[18][19][20] The first two rounds of the tournament were held over three shows between September 21 and 23 and saw Kai, Masakatsu Funaki, Masayuki Kono and Shuji Kondo advance to set up the two semifinal matches for October 8.