AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Details | |||||||||||
Promotion | American Wrestling Association Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling | ||||||||||
Date established | June 1981 | ||||||||||
Date retired | 1993 | ||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
|
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. [1]
No. | Overall reign number |
---|---|
Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
Days | Number of days held |
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||||
American Wrestling Association (AWA) | ||||||||||
1 | Mike Graham | June 1981 | House show | [Note 1] | 1 | [Note 2] | Graham was awarded the title. | [1] | ||
2 | Buck Zumhofe | June 19, 1983 | House show | Hamburg, Minnesota | 1 | 280 | [1] | |||
3 | Steve Regal | March 25, 1984 | House show | Saint Paul, Minnesota | 1 | 613 | [1] | |||
4 | Buck Zumhofe | November 28, 1985 | House show | Saint Paul, Minnesota | 2 | [Note 3] | [1] | |||
— | Vacated | Earlier than 04/20/1986 | — | — | — | — | Zumhofe was already mentioned as a former champion at Wrestle Rock '86 | |||
5 | Mike Graham | December 13, 1988 | House show | Chicago, Illinois | 2 | [Note 4] | Records are unclear on how Graham won the championship. | [1] | ||
Championship history is unrecorded from December 13, 1988 to August 11, 1990. | ||||||||||
† | Buck Zumhofe | August 11, 1990 | House show | Rochester, Minnesota | 3 | [Note 5] | Defeated Jonnie Stewart to win the title in AWA. AWA goes out of business on January 12, 1991. | [1] [2] | ||
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) | ||||||||||
6 | Jim Backlund | December 10, 1988 | House show | Tampa, Florida | 1 | 477 | Backlund defeated Tyree Pride for the FCW Light Heavyweight Championship; because of this victory Backlund is recognized as the sixth AWA champion by FMW in Japan during 1989 but not by the AWA itself. | [1] | ||
7 | Lee Gak-soo | April 1, 1990 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | [Note 6] | [1] | |||
— | Vacated | September 1990 | — | — | — | — | Title vacated after Lee left FMW. | [1] | ||
8 | Katsuji Ueda | September 25, 1990 | Battle Field | Nagoya, Japan | 1 | 41 | Defeated Jim Backlund in a "Different Style Match" tournament final. | [1] | ||
9 | Jim Backlund | November 5, 1990 | FMW 1st Anniversary Show | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 205 | [1] | |||
10 | Ricky Fuji | May 29, 1991 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 87 | [1] | |||
11 | Mark Starr | August 24, 1991 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 7 | [1] | |||
12 | Katsuji Ueda | August 31, 1991 | House show | Chiba, Japan | 2 | 205 | [1] | |||
13 | Dr. Luther | March 23, 1992 | House show | Saitama, Japan | 1 | 197 | The title is renamed to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship in April 1992. | [1] | ||
14 | Katsuji Ueda | September 7, 1992 | House show | Saitama, Japan | 3 | [Note 7] | [1] | |||
— | Deactivated | 1993 | — | — | — | — | The title is retired and replaced with the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship. | [1] |
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.
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.
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 Texas Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling title that has existed since the 1930s. Though its exact date of creation isn't known, it is among the oldest championships used in professional wrestling today. The title has used a variety of different names over the years, which consists of initial changes to represent the various companies that have controlled the title at different times. Originally, it was simply known as the Texas Heavyweight Championship until its name was changed after the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948. For most of the title's existence, at least until the early 1990s, it was defended almost exclusively within the Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio areas of Texas. From the 1930s to the mid-1960s, these cities and the surrounding towns were within the territory operated by Ed McLemore, which was known simply as Southwest Sports, Inc. at the time. After McLemore's death, the territory came under the control of Fritz Von Erich and was renamed as Big Time Wrestling. However, the promotion would be renamed World Class Championship Wrestling in the early 1980s, which is the name the territory is best remembered under today. The championship remained an NWA affiliated title until February 1986.
The AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship was a major professional wrestling title in the Continental Wrestling Association during the 1970s and 1980s. The title is part of a long lineage that was started when the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship, in use since 1939, was renamed the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Memphis version) in 1974. The title's name changed again in 1978, when it was renamed the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship due to a partnership with the American Wrestling Association. It was also called the Mid-Southern Heavyweight Championship in Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its sister publications, in order for this title to not be confused with Championship Wrestling from Florida's version of the title.
The NWA World Middleweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) between 1939 and 2010. For most of its existence, it was defended in the Mexican lucha libre promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), who called it the Campeonato Mundial Peso Medio de NWA. As it is a professional wrestling championship, its holders were determined by promoters or promotions, not by athletic competition. The official middleweight limits in lucha libre are 82 kg (181 lb) to 87 kg (192 lb), but this rule is broken when convenient.
The Calgary version of the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship was established in 1946, and became the top championship in Stampede Wrestling when that promotion opened in 1948; it held that status until 1972, when the title was vacated and later abandoned after the last champion, Dave Ruhl, was injured.
The National Wrestling Association World Light Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship originally sanctioned by the National Boxing Association (NBA) and subsequently sanctioned by the National Wrestling Association (NWA), an offshoot of the NBA. The championship had an upper limit of 175 lb (79 kg), anyone above that limit was considered a heavyweight. The championship was created in 1930 and abandoned in the early 1960s.
The FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship was world heavyweight championship in the wrestling promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). It was one of the two premier championships in FMW, alongside the FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship.
The Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship that is being defended in various independent promotions in Japan. The title was originally created in 1993 by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
The FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship was a tag team hardcore wrestling championship contested in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
The AJW Championship was a tertiary belt in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion. The first champion, in 1980, was Rimi Yokota. During the title's history, no one held the belt more than two times. The belt was abandoned in 2005 after AJW was closed down.
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.
The USWA Junior Heavyweight Championship was a short-lived title in the United States Wrestling Association that lasted from 1990 to 1991. They used the old NWA Southeastern United States Junior Heavyweight Championship belt to represent the title.
The AWA British Empire Heavyweight Championship was a short-lived mid-card professional wrestling title contested for in the American Wrestling Association promotion between 1969 and 1979. The title was primarily defended in Canada, hence the British Empire name.
The NWF Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship used as part of the National Wrestling Federation and later New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
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 Stampede Pacific Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling title, the first secondary title to be created following the reopening of Stampede Wrestling in 1999. The title was defended over a two-year period before being abandoned in late 2001. Title defenses were held primarily in Alberta as well in the United States and Japan. There have been a total of four recognized champions who have had a combined five official reigns.
The Occidente Heavyweight Championship is a Mexican Lucha Libre championship created by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's (CMLL) Guadalajara branch. The term Occidente refers to the western part of Mexico, specifically the state of Jalisco. sanctioned by Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre Guadalajara. Although the Commission sanctions the title, it does not promote the events in which the title is defended. The current champion is Bestia Negra who won the championship on March 1, 2023 when he defeated Exterminador.
Katsuji Ueda was a Japanese kickboxer, martial artist and professional wrestler, best known for his time with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) between 1990 and 1995. He was usually utilized in martial arts fights during his FMW career and won the promotion's World Light Heavyweight Championship three times. He was also a bodyguard for Atsushi Onita.