The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first recognized professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created in 1905 to identify the best catch as catch can professional wrestler in the world. The first recognized World Heavyweight Champion was Georg Hackenschmidt, who officially won the championship on May 4, 1905 by defeating Tom Jenkins in New York City, New York,[1] The championship remained active for the next 51 years with the last recognized reign beginning on November 9, 1956.
Several of the championship reigns are also recognized by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) under the NWA World Heavyweight Championship's lineage.[2] World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) current two World Heavyweight Championships (the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship) lineages can also be traced back to the World Heavyweight Championship.
The WWE Championship's origin can be traced back to the NWA Championship after an incident in which the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) at the time left the NWA after refusing to recognize Lou Thesz as NWA Champion after he beat Buddy Rogers in a one fall match — The NWA World Title matches usually followed a best-of-three fall format — Vincent J. McMahon, the WWWF's owner created the WWWF Championship and awarded Rogers the belt proclaiming he won it in a (apocryphal) tournament in Brazil.[3] The WWE's World Heavyweight Championship was subsequently created after then-WWE Champion Brock Lesnar became exclusive to the SmackDown Brand.
WWE's World Heavyweight Championship is a successor to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as well as being spun-off from the WWE Championship.[4][5][6]
The now defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) were also home to World Heavyweight Championships with origins that can also be traced back to the World Heavyweight Championship. In WCW, the WCW World Heavyweight Championships origin is traced back to a match which took place on January 11, 1991 where Ric Flair defeated Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, when WCW pulled out of the NWA in early 1991 Flair was recognized as the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion.[7][8]
The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship can be traced back to an incident in WCW's final split with the NWA in 1993, Flair's NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign was continued to be recognized with the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship.[9]
In ECW, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship's origin is attributed to a tournament which was held to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion in 1994 in NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling although its inaugural champion was Jimmy Snuka who won it two years prior.[10] On August 27, 1994 Shane Douglas participated and won the tournament and discarded the NWA World Heavyweight Championship proclaiming himself the new Extreme Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion despite having won the Championship five months prior, because of this event ECW withdrew from the NWA and renamed itself Extreme Championship Wrestling. The championship was also competed for on the ECW brand of WWE.[10][11]
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's (TNA) World Heavyweight Championship (the TNA World Heavyweight Championship) can also be traced back to the World Heavyweight Championship. TNA formed in May 2002 and formed a partnership with the NWA, allowing TNA control of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Tag Team Championship. On June 19, 2002 TNA crowned the first NWA World Heavyweight Champion under their banner, after Ken Shamrock won a Gauntlet for the Gold match at TNA's first Weekly Pay-per-view.[12] On May 13, 2007 NWA severed ties with TNA after the then-current NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and the then-current NWA World Tag Team Champions Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) after Christian Cage refused to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from the NWA territories.[13] The TNA World Heavyweight Championship was first won by Kurt Angle who won it at TNA Sacrifice by defeating Christian Cage and Sting.[14]
Contents |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed |
| # | Indicates what number the reign is |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the titles were won |
| N/A | The information is not available or is unknown |
| # | Wrestlers | Reign | Date | Location | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
1
|
May 4, 1905
|
Hackenscmidt won a world championship tournament to become the first champion. Hackenschmidt won several other tournaments in Paris, France; Hamburg, Germany; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Elberfeld, Germany; and Berlin, Germany in the same year. He also won the European Greco-Roman Championship title from Tom Cannon on September 4, 1902 in Liverpool, England. He won the recognition of being the World Heavyweight Champion on January 30, 1904 in London, England by defeating Ahmed Madrali. Hackenschmidt defeated American Heavyweight Champion, Tom Jenkins, on May 4, 1905 in New York City, New York to become the recognized World Champion in North America.[15] | |||
|
2
|
1
|
April 3, 1908
|
Gotch held the title for five years until April 1, 1913. He was the fifth longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion in history behind Bruno Sammartino, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne (who all held their World Titles for over seven years) and Bob Backlund (who held his for nearly six years).[1] | |||
|
3
|
1
|
July 5, 1915
|
Stecher defeated Charlie Cutler to become the first widely recognized world heavyweight champion after the retirement of Frank Gotch.[16] | |||
|
4
|
1
|
April 9, 1917
|
[17] | |||
|
5
|
2
|
January 30, 1920
|
[18] | |||
|
6
|
1
|
December 13, 1920
|
[19][20] | |||
|
7
|
1
|
May 6, 1921
|
[21] | |||
|
8
|
2
|
March 3, 1922
|
[22] | |||
|
9
|
1
|
January 8, 1925
|
[23] | |||
|
10
|
2
|
April 15, 1925
|
Though Zbyszko defeated Munn to win the championship, Munn continued to be recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in Michigan and in Illinois.[24] | |||
|
11
|
3
|
May 30, 1925
|
[25] | |||
|
12
|
3
|
February 21, 1928
|
Lewis defeats Wayne Munn on February 2, 1928 in Michigan City, Indiana for the Michigan/Illonois World Heavyweight Championship version. Lewis defeats Stecher on February 21, 1928 to end the dispute.[26] | |||
|
13
|
1
|
January 4, 1929
|
The recognition of being the World Heavyweight Champion was withdrawn from Gus Sonnenberg by the wrestling section of the National Boxing Association in 1929 for failing to meet real title contenders.[27] | |||
|
14
|
1
|
December 10, 1930
|
||||
|
15
|
4
|
April 13, 1931
|
Lewis lost the American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship by disqualification to Henri Deglane on May 4, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but still recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in Illinois. Lewis also defeated the title claimer, Wladek Zbyszko, on November 2, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois for the title. Lewis continued to win the New York State Athletic Commission World Title by defeating Jack Sherry on October 10, 1932.[28] | |||
|
16
|
1
|
June 27, 1935
|
O'Mahoney defeated Jim Londos to win the New York State Athletic Commission World Title. Mahoney continues to win Boston's American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title by defeating Ed Don George (who had beat Deglane on February 9, 1933) on July 30, 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.[29] | |||
|
17
|
Dick Shikat
|
1
|
March 2, 1936
|
[30] | ||
|
18
|
1
|
April 25, 1936
|
On April 29, 1936 it was announced by the New York Times that Ali Baba would not be recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in the New York State by The New York Athletic Commission however it was announced that Ali Baba and Dave Shikat would face each other on May 5, 1936 at Madison Square Garden for the World Heavyweight Championship. Ali Baba went on to win the professional wrestling bout and thus be recognized as the World Heavyweight Champion.[31][32][33] | |||
|
19
|
Dave Levin
|
1
|
June 12, 1936
|
[34] | ||
|
20
|
Dean Detton
|
1
|
September 29, 1936
|
Detton defeated Ed Lewis in a tournament final to win the title.[35] | ||
|
21
|
1
|
June 16, 1937
|
Nagurski was recognized as the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion by "The Ring" magazine.[36] | |||
|
22
|
1
|
November 18, 1938
|
Londos retires as World Heavyweight Champion in 1946.[37] | |||
|
23
|
1
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Thesz unified 3 championships to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion, the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship which he won on July 20, 1948 by defeating Bill Longson,[38] the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship which was awarded to him on November 27, 1949,[12] and the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium World Heavyweight Championship which he won on May 21, 1952 by defeating Baron Michele Leon.[39] | ||
|
24
|
1
|
March 15, 1956
|
Watson defeated Lou Thesz by Count Out to win the world title.[40] | |||
|
25
|
2
|
November 9, 1956
|
Édouard Carpentier defeated Lou Thesz by disqualification on June 14, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois when Thesz cannot continue the match due to a back injury. The NWA rules states that a title cannot change on a Disqualification and Carpentier gives the title back to Thesz. Edouard Carpentier was then recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in Omaha, Nebraska and in Boston, Massachusetts. He was then later recognized as the World Heavyweight Champion by the World Wrestling Association in Los Angeles, California. This was the last time the World Heavyweight Title has been unified and to date has never been fully unified again. The Omaha version of the World Title was later unified with the AWA World Heavyweight Championship of Boston. Lou Thesz defeated Edouard Carpentier in a rematch by disqualification on July 24, 1957 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the title. |