AWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship

Last updated
AWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship
Details
Promotion American Wrestling Association
Date established1967
Date retiredSeptember 2, 1972
Statistics
First champion(s) Dale Lewis
Most reignsStan Pulaski (6 Times)
Longest reignThe Claw (211 days)
Shortest reign Mike DiBiase (7 days)

The AWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship was a title in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the American Wrestling Association. It was primarily defended in the Omaha, Nebraska area and was a title for mid-level wrestlers. [1]

Contents

Title history

Key
No.Overall reign number
ReignReign number for the specific champion
DaysNumber of days held
No.ChampionChampionship changeReign statisticsNotesRef.
DateEventLocationReignDays
 1  Dale Lewis  1967 House show N/A 1  [Note 1] [1]
 2  Bobby Shane  1967 House show N/A 1  [Note 2] [1]
 3  Bob Orton  July 15, 1967 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 105 [1]
 4  Rock Rogowski  October 28, 1967 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 14 [1]
 5  Bob Orton  November 11, 1967 House show Omaha, Nebraska 2 28 [1]
 6  Mighty Igor Vodic  December 9, 1967 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 28 [1]
 7  Mike Dibiase  January 6, 1968 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 161 [1]
 8  Bob Ellis  June 15, 1968 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 63 [1]
 9  Mike Dibiase  August 17, 1968 House show Omaha, Nebraska 2 7 [1]
 10  Bob Ellis  August 24, 1968 House show Omaha, Nebraska 2 94 [1]
 11  Mike Dibiase  November 26, 1968 House show Omaha, Nebraska 3 67 [1]
 12 Stan Pulaski February 1, 1969 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 259 [1]
 13  Tarzan Tyler  October 18, 1969 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 75 [1]
 14 Stan Pulaski January 1, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 2 14 [1]
 15  Lars Anderson  January 15, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 72 [1]
 16 Stan Pulaski March 28, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 3 26 [1]
 17  Beautiful Brutus  April 23, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 9 [1]
 18  Bob Ellis  May 2, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 3  [Note 3] [1]
 19  Lars Anderson  June 1970 House show Lincoln, Nebraska  2  [Note 4] [1]
 20  Bob Ellis  June 20, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 4 35 [1]
 21  Tarzan Tyler  July 25, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 2 77 [1]
 22 Tex Mckenzie October 10, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 28 [1]
 23  Rock Rogowski  November 7, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 2 28 [1]
 24 Stan Pulaski December 5, 1970 House show Omaha, Nebraska 4 34 [1]
 25 The Claw [Note 5]  January 8, 1971 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 211 [1]
 26 Ramón Torres August 7, 1971 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1  [Note 6] [1]
 27  Jimmy Snuka  August 1971 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1  [Note 7] [1]
 28 Great Kusatsu September 11, 1971 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1 196 [1]
 29 Stan Pulaski March 25, 1972 House show Omaha, Nebraska 5 14 [1]
 30  Buddy Wolfe  April 8, 1972 House show Omaha, Nebraska 1  [Note 8] [1]
N/AN/AN/ADue to a "groggy" referee handing out double decisions. [1]
 31  Buddy Wolfe  May 6, 1972 House show Omaha, Nebraska 2 28Defeated Stan Pulaski. [1]
 32 Stan Pulaski June 3, 1972 House show Omaha, Nebraska 6 91 [1]
Deactivated September 2, 1972 [1]

Footnotes

  1. The length of Dale Lewis' title reign is too uncertain to calculate.
  2. The length of Bobby Shane's title reign is too uncertain to calculate.
  3. The exact date Ellis' title reign ended has not been documented, which puts the reign at between 30 and 48 days.
  4. The exact date Anderson's title reign began has not been documented, which puts the reign at between 1 day and 50 days.
  5. Tom Andrews
  6. The exact date Torres lost the championship is undocumented, which means that his reign lasted between 1 day and 24 days.
  7. The exact date Snuka won the championship is undocumented, which means that his reign lasted between 11 and 41 days.
  8. The exact date the championship was declared vacant is unknown, which put this rein at between 1 day and 27 days.

Related Research Articles

The NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and originally promoted in Chicago as the NWA World Three-Man Tag Team Championship. The NWA Mid-America territory based out of Tennessee re-introduced the title as the NWA Six-Man Tag Team Championship, promoting it from 1974 until 1981. In 1984, another NWA territory Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) brought the concept back, this time as the "NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship", which continued to be promoted by JCP's successor World Championship Wrestling until 1989. The championship was briefly revived in February 1998 by Dennis Coralluzzo's NWA New Jersey territory, also known as Championship Wrestling America. The championship was retired in December 1998. As the name indicates the championship was exclusively for three man teams that competed in six-man tag team matches. Because the championship was a professional wrestling championship, it was won or lost by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion.

The AWA United States Championship was a short-lived title in the early days of the American Wrestling Association. It started out as the NWA United States Championship promoted in the Chicago, Illinois from 1953 until 1958. in 1958 then champion Verne Gagne created the American Wrestling Association (AWA) based on Minneapolis, Minnesota and took the championship with him, claiming the lineage of the Chicago version. The Chicago promotion recognized Wilbur Snyder as their next champion, splitting the lineage into their own NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. The Minneapolis version of the championship was renamed the AWA United States Championship in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship</span> Professional wrestling championship

The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a title in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1981 until it closed in 1991. In 1989, the Japan-based Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) promotion began billing Florida Championship Wrestling/Professional Wrestling Federation champion Jim Backlund as the AWA champion, something not acknowledged by the AWA; the title became FMW's lower weight division title. From 1988 through the closure of the AWA in 1991, there were two separate lineages, with the FMW version of the championship being sometimes referred to as the FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship. In 1992, FMW renamed the title to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship before retiring it in 1993.

Between May 1955 and 1969 the professional wrestling promotion ABC Booking promoted their own regional version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, a professional wrestling championship for teams of two wrestlers. When the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was founded in 1948, its board of directors decided to allow any NWA member, referred to as an NWA territory, to use an NWA World Tag Team Championship within their region, essentially making it a regional championship despite the "World" label applied to it. Since the NWA World Tag Team Championships were professional wrestling championships, they were not won or lost in legitimate competitive matches but decided by booker(s) of a wrestling promotion instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NWA Florida Tag Team Championship</span> Professional wrestling tag team championship

The NWA Florida Tag Team Championship is the primary tag team title in NWA Florida Underground Wrestling. It started out in 1968 as the main tag team title in Championship Wrestling from Florida and lasted until 1990 when it was abandoned. It was picked back up in 1997 by NWA Florida, where it was the primary tag team title until June 2005, when the company shut down. In August 2009, the title was picked up by Florida-based Pro Wrestling Fusion until 2011. NWA Florida Underground transformed its FUW Tag Team championship to the NWA Florida Tag Team championship in 2012

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCWA World Tag Team Championship</span> Professional wrestling tag team championship

The WCWA World Tag Team Championship was the primary professional wrestling tag team championship promoted by the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex area–based World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA). The championship was originally introduced as the NWA United States Tag Team Championship in 1967, when the promotion was known as NWA Big Time Wrestling. It was later renamed the NWA American Tag Team Championship in 1969. In 1982 Big Time Wrestling, changed their name to World Class Championship Wrestling and the title became the WCCW American Tag Team Championship. In 1986 WCCW became World Class Wrestling Association and the championship was rebranded as the WCWA World Tag Team Championship. In 1989 the title was won by Cactus Jack and Scott Braddock, where it was transformed into the USWA World Tag Team Championship. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is won not by actual competition, but by a scripted ending to a match. The WCWA Texas Tag Team Championship served as the secondary tag team championship in the promotion from 1950 to 1989.

The NWA Southwest Junior Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship defended in the Amarillo, Texas territory of the National Wrestling Alliance, Western States Sports.

The ICW Southeastern Heavyweight Championship was a secondary singles championship in International Championship Wrestling. Because the championship is a professional wrestling championship, it is not won or lost competitively but instead by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The championship is awarded after the chosen team "wins" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.

The Calgary version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship was established in 1954 as the original top tag team championship in Stampede Wrestling; it held that status until 1959, when the title was abandoned in favor of Stampede's then-newly created International Tag Team Championship.

The CWA/AWA International Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team title defended in the Continental Wrestling Association. It was created in 1985 from the CWA's partnership with the American Wrestling Association. The title was abandoned in 1987 when the CWA was renamed the Championship Wrestling Association, and the original Continental titles were abandoned or unified with others.

This was a regional NWA championship based in Japan. For the version of this title that was promoted in NWA All Star Wrestling in Canada, see NWA International Tag Team Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CWA World Heavyweight Championship (Memphis)</span>

The CWA World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in the American promotion, the Continental Wrestling Association. It existed from 1979 to 1981.

The Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship that was contended for in the Pacific Northwest from the early 1940s until 1957. When the title was retired in 1957, it was the top singles title in the Pacific Northwest area.

The Florida version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship was a top tag team title in the National Wrestling Alliance's Florida territory, Championship Wrestling from Florida. It existed from 1960 until 1971, when the title was abandoned.

The NWF North American Heavyweight Championship was a secondary singles title in the American professional wrestling promotion, the National Wrestling Federation. The title started in 1968 as a National Wrestling Alliance title, named the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Buffalo/Cleveland version) until the NWF was founded in 1970. It was then renamed with the NWF name. The NWF would close in 1974, and the title migrated to New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The title was then retired in 1981, after announcement of the IWGP, a new governing body, which would promote their own-branded championships.

The NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship was a tag team title created in 1962, and contested in the National Wrestling Alliance's Tri-State territory, which was promoted by Leroy McGuirk and Jack Curtis and Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith (Louisiana). For most of its existence, the title was the Tri-State version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship.

The Stampede World Mid-Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling title, one of the lesser known secondary titles created for Stampede Wrestling in 1959, and was the focal point of the 1982-83 feud between the Dynamite Kid and the Great Gama. The title would be defended for roughly four years, although being recognized by the promotion until it was abandoned some time around October 1985, when Dynamite Kid was last recognized as still holding the title. There have been a total of six recognized champions who have had a combined 11 official reigns.

The NWA Texas Women's Championship is the National Wrestling Alliance's women's professional wrestling championship in the state of Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NWA Tri-State Heavyweight Championship</span> Professional wrestling championship

The NWA Tri-State Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling heavyweight championship in Tri-States Wrestling. The original version was created in 1954, however, it was phased out in favor of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

The NWA United States Junior Heavyweight Championship was a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) sanctioned professional wrestling championship promoted by NWA Mid-America in and around their Tennessee and Kentucky territory from 1955 until 1974. The championship was limited to wrestlers in the Junior Heavyweight division, limited to wrestlers weighing less than 220 lb (100 kg). The NWA also sanctioned the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, with the United States version serving as one of several local level Junior Heavyweight Championships. Because the championship was a professional wrestling championship, it was not won or lost competitively but instead by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The championship was awarded after the chosen wrestler "won" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.