Undisputed Championship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Undisputed Championship is a professional wrestling term for a champion who has obtained all of the major individual championships in his field during his era. Needless to say, the undisputed championship is an extremely rare and prestigious accomplishment.
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[edit] The first undisputed champions
The reported first undisputed champion was Georg Hackenschmidt, who won a series of tournaments in Europe, including a world championship tournament to win the title. Amongst the other tournaments he won were the annual major tournaments in Paris, France; Hamburg, Germany, St. Petersburg, Russia, Elberfield, Germany, and Berlin, Germany. Hackenschmidt also defeated European Greco-Roman Champion Tom Cannon on September 4, 1902 in Liverpool, England to become the first undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.
The only other reigning champion with claim to the belt at the time was Tom Jenkins, the American Heavyweight Champion, who unified the American Greco-Roman Championship with the American Catch-As-Catch Can Championship. Jenkins was eventually defeated by Frank Gotch, who took over as the only man with a potentially legitimate claim to being "the true champion".
Hackenschmidt and Gotch finally met in the ring on April 3, 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. Gotch defeated Hackenschmidt to win the World Heavyweight Championship, then abandoned the American Heavyweight Championship in a process similar to today's championship unification. Gotch wrestled for several years before retiring as undisputed champion.
[edit] Lou Thesz and the National Wrestling Alliance
After Gotch's retirement, several other men proceeded to hold the then World Heavyweight Title, including periods of time where the National Wrestling Association formed a second World Heavyweight Title to contend with the formerly undisputed belt. From that point onward, there was no undisputed champion, as multiple men laid claim to the title without ever backing it up by defeating multiple other contenders.
This all changed when the National Wrestling Alliance was formed by multiple promotions. Orville Brown, the then NWA (Association) World Heavyweight Champion, was awarded the NWA World Heavyweight Championship of the Alliance. Brown lost it soon after to Lou Thesz, who began the tradition of the Undisputed Championship once more.
Thesz traveled to many areas, winning the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title from Bill Longson on July 20, 1948. He then went on to defeat Orville Brown for the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Title (on November 27, 1949), as well as defeating Gorgeous George on July 27, 1950 for the American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title. Finally, he defeated Baron Michele Leon on May 21, 1952 for the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium World Heavyweight Title.
In light of having unified 4 of the major World Heavyweight Championships of his time (as well as numerous other lesser-prestige titles), Thesz became the Undisputed Champion for some time. From that point onward, the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Title (the belt that Thesz opted to keep as the designation of all the championships he'd won) became the undisputed world heavyweight title for all contenders to seek.
This changed over the years, however, as the American Wrestling Association split off to form their own title in the 1950's, the World Wide Wrestling Federation split off in 1963, World Championship Wrestling split off in 1991, and Eastern Championship Wrestling split off in 1993. From that point onward, there were many promotions claiming to have a true World Heavyweight Championship, with only those mentioned above having a legitimate claim to the title (in light of promotional scope, international and overseas contention, etc).
[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment
After the AWA folded in 1991 (with Larry Zbyszko as their final champion), one of the major promotions claiming World Title status was gone. ECW declared bankruptcy in 2001 (with Rhino as their last champion), bringing the legitimate claims down to three. WCW was the final promotion to fall, eventually being sold to the WWF in 2001.
WWF took full advantage of their situation, unifying the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and WWF Championship at WWF Vengeance 2001, with Chris Jericho becoming the first undisputed champion in over 50 years. The WWF Undisputed Championship (originally signified by both of its predecessors, and later, a new version of the WWE Championship) became the main championship of the WWF (who by then changed their name to WWE in light of legal issues).
The title lost its undisputed status in 2002. The title came in dispute, in light of maintaining a roster too large to control, WWE created its famous brand split, in which the roster was halfed, with each half being showcased on one of WWE's flagship shows. The Undisputed Title eventually became exclusive to SmackDown, with RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff creating the World Heavyweight Championship as a separate World Championship to contend.
[edit] Titles disputed again
During that same year, two current major players in the wrestling business started business, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor. TNA Wrestling took the quick route to success, signing a deal that gave them a 10-year lease on the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the only North American World Heavyweight Title not owned by WWE. The NWA Title had lost value in light of having been treated as a belt from the independent circuit over the previous decade, but TNA presented the title defenses on an international scale as well as defended the belts overseas, instantly regaining its world title status. Ring of Honor took a much longer route, with then-champion Samoa Joe defending the title overseas in 2003 to unofficially give the belt world title status.
In 2005-2006, two more promotions entered the realm of World Title status. AWA was restored under the name AWA Superstars of Wrestling in 1996 and revived the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, which got world title status in 2005 after becoming part of Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX. In addition, WWE proceeded to revive the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion under their own banner, reviving the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in the process.
At this moment there is no undisputed world heavyweight title. The current promotions with potential claims to such legacy include World Wrestling Entertainment (the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, and ECW World Championship); TNA Wrestling (the NWA World Heavyweight Championship); Ring of Honor (the ROH World Championship); AWA Superstars of Wrestling (the AWA World Heavyweight Championship); and Wrestling Society X (the WSX Championship.)
