Muhammad Ali, Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather…andGodzilla? Indeed, some of the greatest fighters in history bring different styles to the ring. One fictional fighter, who freely frolics into ferocious fights, may forever be remembered as king, but is the title “King of the Monsters” warranted for Godzilla? After hours of research, an answer may finally be out there for the age-old question: What is Godzilla’s professional record? TheGodzillamovies spanalmost 70 years at this point and contain dozens of other kaiju that have each had a turn or two — sometimes even three — against Godzilla. This is not to mention the human element with which the rampaging reptile frequently butts heads as well.
Here are the rules. With the franchise spanning, as mentioned earlier, almost 70 years, there have been a lot of twists and turns. With this many characters, twists, turns, tag matches, and a run-in or two, there was really only one way to scale the mutated monster’s results: standard WWE rules. Additionally, wins or losses against the human element will not apply here. For example, the beasts' loss to the oxygen destroyer bomb in the original film won’t count as a loss, and likewise the Super X fromGodzilla: 1985won’t count as a win.
To further clarify the rules, Godzilla has had a few team-ups as well as handicap matches in its career. Those will count as one win/loss/draw each as, even in instances where it may have delivered the final blow to both opponents, it still had help. Finally, it is possible for the big lizard to rake up several wins and losses in one film when it may cause a retreat of a foe only for the foe to return later. Without further ado, out of the blue corner weighing potentially 163,772 tons (perCNET), let’s get ready to rumble!
The start of theGodzillafranchise has the beast firmly in the “rubber suit” phase of the giant monster. This is where the kaiju meets the majority — but not all — of its foes that it will fight throughout its cinematic history. From Mothra, Hedorah, Gigan, King Ghidorah, and even King Kong, the Showa Era of films contains 15 movies, one of which was a dream sequence that did not factor into the final results. The Showa Era runs from 1954 to 1975 and is named for the emperor of Japan at the time, Showa or Hirohito. Godzilla doesn’t face its first opponent until the sequel to the originalGojirafilm,Gojira Raids Again. The opponent comes in the form of a later ally to the big liz in Anguirus, who is relatively easily killed. Godzilla racks up wins against Gigan, Ghidorah, Mothra, and a slew of others in this era, but does draw against the first crossover with everyone’s favorite ape: King Kong. All in all, the Showa era has the titan at a record of an impressive 15-1-3, with its only loss here being from the Mothra larvae twins.
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This era follows Godzilla over seven films. The era ran from 1985 to 1995 and, like the Showa Era, is named after the Emperor of Japan at the time: Akihito. Godzilla comes thundering back as a villain inGodzilla 1985and flies the villain flag for the majority, if not all, of the era. The Master of Disaster encounters a couple of new foes in Batra, Biollante and Destroyah. Additionally, it racks up several wins in the span of just seven films. Godzilla is awarded two wins against Biollante alone for two separate fights in the same film, beats both Ghidorah and Mecha Gidorah, tussles with Destroyah for two victories, but does get an L against that pesky Mothra. Overall, the Hesei Era is very successful for the giant monster, as it goes 11-1-1, which is pretty cool considering the King of Monsters, as mentioned above, is flying a bad guy flag for the majority of the era.
Millennium Era
This era introduces a new look for the beast and ran from 1999-2004. This timeframe shows the kaiju as more of an anti-hero over its six films. The series also sees Godzilla get its most victories in a single film with a whopping ten! Megaguiris and a mutated UFO round out the new opponents for the King this time around with a win over each of them.Godzilla: Final Warsshows the monster getting into a plethora of battles, racking up ten victories over several former enemies and friends: King Caesar, Hedorah, Mothra, Ghidorah, and the not quite ‘God’ worthy Zilla, the re-imagned version of Godzilla from the American Matthew Broderick film from 1998. All of those monsters seemingly go down in this epic finale to the era and over its six films, the brutal beast goes an impressive 15-1-1. Its only loss comes with a retreat from Mechagodzilla, also called Kiryu, in this series of films.
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The Legendary Era
Starting off in 2014 and with the recent announcement of both alive-action television seriesand asequel toGodzilla vs Kong, the Legendary era, also called the American Era, is still going strong. Aside from the M.U.T.O.’s in the first film, there really isn’t anyone Godzilla faces in this series that isn’t seen before. Over three films so far, the monster does have a loss with a giant Kong right when Godzilla was about to get wrecked by a new,Ghidorah conscious Mechagodzilla.As glad as fans are for the run-in, standard WWE rules clearly give a win via disqualification to Mechagodzilla, not that it matters as the giant robot is destroyed a few moments later. So far, in this era of film, the beast is 4-1-1, drawing to Ghidorah inGodzilla: King of Monsterswhen the two first square off.
So what is the total? Is Godzilla the King of Monsters? Adding up the numbers and using the rules that were laid out in the first couple paragraphs, everyone’s favorite giant lizard puts up an incredible 45 wins to go a total of 45-4-6, or 81.2%! That record, which may be off by a couple of wins if a monster by monster win scale is used instead of WWE rules, is more than enough to give the crown and title of King of Monsters to Godzilla.
If you want to learn some fun facts about Godzilla, check out our video below:
