Number of World Heavyweight title reigns in professional wrestling

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This is a List of Number of World Heavyweight Title Reigns for professional wrestling. This list includes all title reigns for titles given "World Title Status" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI). Many promotions claim to have a World Title but PWI is considered a legitimate, unbiased, and independent authority on who really has a World Title and who does not.

1 Declaration of World Title Status
2 World Title Claimants
3 Number of World Title Reigns
4 Footnotes
5 See also

[edit] Declaration of World Title Status

The promotions claiming World Title Status are All Japan Pro Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association (its world title is currently defended exclusively in Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX), Extreme Championship Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance (its world title is currently defended exclusively in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling), New Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor, World Wrestling All-Stars, World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment (and all of its prior names).

Pro Wrestling Illustrated has historically granted world title status to the following promotions: WWWF/WWF/WWE, NWA, ECW (now defunct), AWA (now defunct, and not to be confused with post-1991 versions of the AWA), and WCW (now defunct). PWI currently differentiates between a WWE Raw World Champion and a WWE Smackdown World Champion. It does not recognize the current incarnations of the ECW or AWA titles as world titles.

PWI recognizes championships outside the United States as simply the champion of that organization, e.g., "AJPW Champion," "EMLL Champion," etc.

[edit] World Title Claimants

Championship	Promotion	Time as World Title
AJPW Triple Crown Championship	All Japan Pro Wrestling	April 18, 1989 – Present
AWA World Heavyweight Championship	American Wrestling Association	January 9, 1959 – December 12, 1990
AWA World Heavyweight Championship	Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX	February 15, 2005 – Present
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship^a	New Japan Pro Wrestling	June 12, 1987 – Present
NWA World Heavyweight Championship	National Wrestling Alliance	November 27, 1949 – June 19, 2002
NWA World Heavyweight Championship	Total Nonstop Action Wrestling	June 19, 2002 – Present
ROH World Championship^b	Ring of Honor	May 17, 2003 – Present
WWE Championship	World Wrestling Entertainment	January 25, 1963 – Present
World Heavyweight Championship	World Wrestling Entertainment	September 2, 2002 – Present
ECW World Heavyweight Championship^c	Extreme Championship Wrestling	August 27, 1999 – April 11, 2001
ECW World Heavyweight Championship^c	World Wrestling Entertainment	June 13, 2006 – Present
WCW World Heavyweight Championship	World Championship Wrestling	January 11, 1991 – March 26, 2001
WCW World Heavyweight Championship	World Wrestling Entertainment	March 27, 2001 – November 5, 2001
WCW International World Heavyweight Championship	World Championship Wrestling	September 1, 1993 – June 23, 1994
WWA World Heavyweight Championship^d	World Wrestling All-Stars	October 19, 2001 – May 25, 2003

[edit] Number of World Title Reigns

Wrestler	Total	AJPW	AWA	ECW	IWGP	NWA	ROH	WCW	WCW Int'l	WWA	WWE	(WWE) World
Ric Flair	22^e					10		8	2		2
Hulk Hogan	14		2					6			6
Jeff Jarrett	12					6		4		2
Sting	11					2		6	2	1
Verne Gagne	10		10
Triple H	10										5	5
The Rock	9							2			7
Harley Race	8					8
Big Van Vader	8	2			3			3
Tatsumi Fujinami	7				6	1
Bret Hart	7							2			5
Kurt Angle	6							1			4	1
Steve Austin	6										6
Nick Bockwinkel	6		6
Booker T/King Booker	6							5				1
Keiji Muto/Great Muta	6	2			3	1
Diesel/Kevin Nash	6							5			1
Randy Savage	6							4			2
The Giant/The Big Show	5			1				2			2
Stan Hansen	5	4	1
Shinya Hashimoto	5	1			3	1
Toshiaki Kawada	5	5
Mitsuharu Misawa	5	5
Kensuke Sasaki	5				5
Maurice Vachon	5		5
Shawn Michaels	4										3	1
Genichiro Tenryu	4	3			1
Hiroyoshi Tenzan	4				4
Lou Thesz	4					4
Jumbo Tsuruta	4	3	1
The Undertaker	4										4
Sycho Sid/Sid Vicious	4							2			2
Brock Lesnar	4				1						3
Kazuyuki Fujita	3				3
Rick Rude	3								3
Chris Jericho	3							2			1
Lex Luger	3							2		1
Giant Baba	3					3
John Cena	3										3
Riki Choshu	3				3
Steve Corino	3		1	1		1
The Crusher	3		3
Mankind	3										3
Kenta Kobashi	3	3
Diamond Dallas Page	3							3
Dusty Rhodes	3					3
A.J. Styles	3					3
Mike Awesome	2			2
Bob Backlund	2										2
Batista	2											2
Chris Benoit	2							1				1
Orville Brown	2					2
Masahiro Chono	2				1	1
Edge	2										2
Goldberg	2							1				1
Terry Gordy	2	2
Ron Killings	2					2
Gene Kiniski	2		1			1
Satoshi Kojima	2	1			1
Scott Norton	2				2
Pat O'Connor	2		1			1
Naoya Ogawa	2					2
Takao Omori	2		2
Mike Rapada	2					2
Buddy Rogers	2					1					1
Rhino	2			1		1
Bruno Sammartino	2										2
Dan Severn	2					2
Scott Steiner	2							1		1
Taz	2			2
Rob Van Dam	2			1							1
Yokozuna	2										2
Larry Zbyszko	2		2
Abyss	1					1
André the Giant	1										1
Austin Aries	1						1
David Arquette	1							1
Jack Brisco	1					1
Christian Cage	1					1
Chris Candido	1					1
Ric Converse	1		1
Justin Credible	1			1
Bryan Danielson	1						1
Dick The Bruiser	1		1
Shane Douglas	1					1
Tommy Dreamer	1			1
Dory Funk, Jr.	1					1
Terry Funk	1					1
Ron Garvin	1					1
James Gibson	1						1
Billy Graham	1										1
Eddie Guerrero	1										1
Hiroshi Hase	1								1
Salman Hashimokov	1				1
Curt Hennig	1		1
Dick Hutton	1					1
Antonio Inoki	1				1
The Iron Sheik	1										1
Nathan Jones	1									1
Kane	1										1
Taiyo Kea	1	1
Ivan Koloff	1										1
Bobby Lashley	1			1
Jerry Lawler	1		1
John "Bradshaw" Layfield	1										1
Jerry Lynn	1			1
Rick Martel	1		1
Vince McMahon	1										1
Dr. Bill Miller	1		1
Pedro Morales	1										1
Sonny Myers	1					1
Rey Mysterio	1											1
Yuji Nagata	1				1
Shinsuke Nakamura	1				1
Shinjiro Ohtani	1		1
Randy Orton	1											1
CM Punk	1						1
Raven	1					1
The Road Dogg	1									1
Tommy Rich	1					1
Vince Russo	1							1
Sabu	1					1
Mr. Saito	1		1
Samoa Joe	1						1
The Sandman	1			1
Bob Sapp	1				1
Ken Shamrock	1					1
Ron Simmons	1							1
Sgt. Slaughter	1										1
Stan Stasiak	1										1
Ricky Steamboat	1					1
Gary Steele	1					1
Minoru Suzuki	1	1
Nobuhiko Takada	1				1
Yoshihiro Takayama	1				1
Hiroshi Tanahashi	1				1
Masato Tanaka	1			1
Akira Taue	1	1
Ultimate Warrior	1										1
Mighty Igor Vodic	1		1
Fritz Von Erich	1		1
Kerry Von Erich	1					1
Otto Wanz	1		1
Whipper Billy Watson	1					1
Steve Williams	1	1
Barry Windham	1					1
Dr. X	1		1
Tadao Yasuda	1				1

[edit] Footnotes

^a The IWGP (or International Wrestling Grand Prix) was an annual tournament that ran from 1981 to 1987. Hulk Hogan was the champion of the first IWGP tournament, while Antonio Inoki won each tournament from 82 to 87. Following Inoki's victory in 1987, the tournament was made into an official world title and Inoki was declared the first IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
^b Claimed World Title status on May 17, 2003. Championship reigns before this date aren't considered world championships.
^c Granted World Title status on August 27, 1999. Championship reigns before this date aren't considered world championships.
^d The WWA World Heavyweight Title was the premiere title of the short lived World Wrestling All-Stars promotion, and was accorded World Title status due to the fact that its Heavyweight Title was created in Australia and defended regularly outside of that country, including Japan, USA, Malaysia, Canada, Great Britain, and Brazil. On May 25, 2003, New Zealand at WWA's final show, WWA champion Sting lost to NWA Champion Jeff Jarrett, unifying the two titles, the former ceasing to exist.
^e Only recognized by WWE (and perhaps himself) as a 16-time world champion (8-time NWA Champion, 6-time WCW Champion, and 2-time WWE Champion).