British Light Heavyweight Championship | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Details | |||||
Promotion | World of Sport All Star Wrestling | ||||
Date established | 1920s | ||||
Current champion(s) | Dean Allmark | ||||
Date won | 19 August 2014 | ||||
|
The British Light Heavyweight Championship was a top British wrestling championship found throughout the country's circuit. The title's broken history dates back to the 1920s. After going inactive in 2004, the title was re-activated in 2014.
The championship was recognised and defended on matches screened by UK national television network ITV as part of the professional wrestling slot on World of Sport as well as standalone broadcasts. [1] [2] Pre-publicity for these championship match broadcasts was given in ITV's nationally published listings magazine TVTimes. [3] [4]
This is the combined list of different versions of the British Heavyweight Titles, each of which was probably the most significant version at the time. Each version may or may not be connected to another. However, all title changes are either actual or "official" unless indicated otherwise.
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 | ||||
1 | Sam Clapham | 1920s | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | First recorded champion. | [5] |
2 | Atholl Oakeley | 1930 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | Legacy from Clapham uncertain | [5] |
3 | Dick Wills | 1932 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
4 | Robert H Cook | 1936-1938 | House show | Manchester | 1 | N/A | Won title from Wills 08/05/1936. Won European Light Heavyweight title from Milo Popocopolis 22/05/1936. | [5] |
5 | Bill McDonald | 1947 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | Legacy from Cook uncertain | [5] |
6 | Charley Fisher | June 1950 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
7 | Sonny Wallis | July 1950 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | Vacated title | [5] |
8 | Norman Walsh | February 1951 | House show | Edinburgh | 1 | N/A | Defeated Tony Baer to win the title. | [5] |
9 | Les Kellett | N/A | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | [5] |
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 | ||||
1 | Dennis Mitchell | 1952 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
2 | Ernie Riley | 1952 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | Defeated "Iron Man" Steve Logan to win the title. | [5] |
3 | Charley Fisher | N/A | House show | N/A | 2 | N/A | Legacy from Riley uncertain. Vacated the title in 1955 after leaving the Light Heavyweight division. | [5] |
4 | Ernie Riley | 1955 | House show | N/A | 2 | N/A | Defeated "Iron Man" Steve Logan to win the title. | [5] |
5 | Billy Joyce | 1957 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
6 | Ernie Riley | N/A | House show | N/A | 3 | N/A | [5] | |
7 | Roy St. Clair | 1960 | House show | Nottingham | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
8 | Ernie Riley | May 1961 | House show | N/A | 4 | N/A | Riley retired as champion in December 1969. | [5] |
9 | Billy Joyce | 27 March 1971 | House show | Blackburn | 2 | 2,057 | Defeated Tony Charles for the vacant title. Retired as champion in 1976. | [5] |
10 | Marty Jones | 12 November 1976 | House show | Wolverhampton | 1 | N/A | Defeated Mark Rocco for the vacant title. Jones vacates the title in 1982 after winning the World Mid-Heavyweight Championship. | [5] |
11 | Dave Finlay | 24 February 1983 | House show | Oldham | 1 | 275 | Defeated Ringo Rigby in a tournament final | [5] |
12 | Marty Jones | 26 November 1983 | House show | Manchester | 2 | N/A | [5] | |
13 | Dave Finlay | February 1984{NLT) | House show | N/A | 2 | N/A | [5] | |
14 | Marty Jones | 8 February 1984 | House show | Leamington | 3 | 343 | Jones vacated the title in 1984 after regaining the World Mid-Heavyweight Championship. | [5] |
15 | Alan Kilby | 16 January 1985 | House show | Walsall | 1 | N/A | Defeated Steve Logan [Note 1] to win the vacant title. | [5] |
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 | ||||
1 | King Ben | 25 March 1988 | House show | Keighley | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
2 | Alan Kilby | 1988 | House show | N/A | 2 | N/A | [5] | |
3 | Skull Murphy (Peter Northey) | N/A | House show | Norwich | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
4 | Alan Kilby | September 1995(NLT) | House show | N/A | 3 | N/A | [5] | |
5 | Danny Boy Collins | 2 April 1996 | House show | Croydon | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
6 | Alan Kilby | January 1998(NLT) | House show | N/A | 4 | N/A | [5] | |
7 | Ian Wilson | 10 October 1998 | House show | Norwich | 1 | N/A | [5] | |
8 | Alan Kilby | November 1998 | House show | Norwich | 5 | N/A | Last claimed the title on 1 November 2004. | [5] |
9 | Dean Allmark | 2014 | House show | N/A | 1 | N/A | ||
10 | Seiki Yoshioka | 6 July 2014 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 44 | [6] [7] | |
11 | Dean Allmark | 19 August 2014 | House show | Rhyl | 2 | 2,149+ | [8] |
David "Dave/Fit" Finlay Jr. is a Northern Irish professional wrestling trainer, producer and retired professional wrestler who works as a producer for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), however has been furloughed due to cost cuts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He is best known for his in-ring work in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Fit Finlay from 1995–2000 and simply Finlay in WWE from 2005–10.
All Star Wrestling is a British Professional wrestling promotion also known as All Star Promotions, Superslam Wrestling and Big Time Wrestling and originally known as Wrestling Enterprises , run by Brian Dixon and based in Liverpool, England. Dixon's promotion tours theatres, leisure centres, town halls and similar venues, many of them old venues for televised wrestling in the UK in the 1950s-1980s, as well as holiday camps. It is the oldest active wrestling promotion in the UK, and furthermore the longest-running UK wrestling promotion ever - a record it has held since September 2013, when it eclipsed the 42 years and 11 months lifespan of Joint Promotions/Ring Wrestling Stars. It is also the third oldest professional wrestling promotion still in existence in the world, after Mexico's CMLL and America's WWE.
Dean Allmark, is an English professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in All Star Wrestling and his appearance in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Allmark, who often goes by the nicknames "Xtreme", or "2-Xtreme", is one half of the UK Dream Team with Kid Cool.
The WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship was a tag team title previously contested for in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Wrestle Association R (WAR).
Yutaka Yoshie, is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working as a freelancer in Japan, performing most notably for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a former World Tag Team Champion. He has previously worked for promotions such as New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former IWGP Tag Team Champion, Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero1, where he is currently in his second reign as one half of the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champions.
The British Heavy Middleweight Championship was a top British wrestling championship found throughout the country's circuit. The title's history dates back to its foundation by Joint Promotions in 1953. Officially heavy middleweights were required to weight between 12 st 8 lb(176 lbs) and 13 st 5 lb(187 lb).
The IWGP Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was officially announced on January 5, 2011, and the inaugural champion was crowned on May 15, 2011, during NJPW's first tour of the United States. The current champion is Tetsuya Naito, who is in his record-tying fifth reign.
Atsushi Sakai is a Japanese professional wrestler better known under the ring name Kai. Best known for his work in the All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, Kai is an accomplished junior heavyweight wrestler, having won the World Junior Heavyweight Championship twice and the Junior League also twice, while he and Kaz Hayashi also won the 2011 Junior Tag League. In August 2012, Kai announced that he was ending his junior heavyweight days and becoming a heavyweight wrestler. After taking a seven-month break from in-ring action, Kai returned to All Japan in March 2013, now working as a heavyweight wrestler. However, the following July, Kai quit All Japan following a change in the promotion's management and joined the new Wrestle-1 promotion. In March 2015, Kai won the promotion's top title, the Wrestle-1 Championship. He went on to win the title two more times, before quitting Wrestle-1 in December 2016 to become a freelancer.
Hiroshi Mihara is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Hiroshi Yamato who currently works as a freelancer. Trained by the All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, he started his career in February 2007 working in Mexico for the International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) promotion, where he won the 2007 Rey del Ring tournament. Yamato returned to Japan and his home promotion in February 2008 and during the next five years went on to become a one-time World Junior Heavyweight and All Asia Tag Team Champion and the winner of the 2012 Junior Hyper League. In June 2013, Yamato left All Japan in a mass exodus to join the new Wrestle-1 promotion. In January 2016, Yamato won the Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship. Yamato also worked as a trainer and sales manager for Wrestle-1 until his departure from the promotion in 2018.
Wrestle-1 was a Japanese puroresu or professional wrestling promotion, founded in July 2013 by Keiji Mutoh following his resignation from All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). The core of the promotion's roster was formed by wrestlers loyal to Mutoh, who left AJPW in a mass exodus during June 2013. Mutoh served as the promotion's first president and the head of its parent company, kabushiki gaisha named GEN Sports Entertainment. In March 2017, Kaz Hayashi took over as the new president of Wrestle-1. The promotion held its first event on September 8, 2013, at Tokyo Dome City Hall.
The BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by the Japanese Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) promotion. It is one of two heavyweight championships promoted by BJW, the other being the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship. The two titles symbolize the two sides of BJW; the Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship the hardcore wrestling side and the World Strong Heavyweight Championship the strong style side. The title has a lower weight limit of 96 kg (212 lb).
The Wrestle-1 Championship was a professional wrestling world championship owned by the Wrestle-1 (W-1) promotion. In Japanese the title's name includes the katakana term for "championship", Chanpionshippu (チャンピオンシップ), derived from the English language instead of the more common kanji term Ōza (王座). The title also does not feature the word "Heavyweight" or any other weight class, indicating an open-weight status de facto.
Evolution is a professional wrestling stable in the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) promotion. Originally started as a tag team named Last Revolution by Joe Doering and Suwama in October 2012, it was later turned into a stable when Kaz Hayashi, Shuji Kondo and Yasufumi Nakanoue joined the two. The stable was disbanded in June 2013, when Hayashi, Kondo and Nakanoue left AJPW, but Doering and Suwama came back together under the new name Evolution the following September and recruited Hikaru Sato as the stable's third member in February 2014. Suwama has held the Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion twice and Doering once as representatives of the stable. The two are also former one-time World Tag Team Champions and won the 2013 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. In July 2014, Atsushi Aoki joined Evolution, bringing the World Junior Heavyweight Championship to the stable with him. As part of Evolution, Aoki and Sato formed a tag team named Hentai Jieitai, becoming two-time All Asia Tag Team Champions and three-time winners of the Jr. Tag Battle of Glory tournament.
The Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the Wrestle-1 (W-1) promotion. The title was announced on September 22, 2014, in conjunction with the start of a tournament to crown the first Wrestle-1 Champion. In Japanese the title's name includes the katakana term for "championship", Chanpionshippu (チャンピオンシップ), derived from the English language instead of the more common kanji term Ōza (王座).
The Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the Wrestle-1 (W-1) promotion. The title is meant for cruiserweight wrestlers and holds a weight limit of 200 lb (91 kg).
Hideki Suzuki is a Japanese professional wrestler. Trained by Billy Robinson, Suzuki started his career with the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) promotion in 2008. In 2014, he left IGF to become a freelancer, starting to work for promotions such as Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), Pro Wrestling Zero1 and Wrestle-1. He is a former BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion, Zero1 World Heavyweight, NWA United National Heavyweight, Wrestle-1 Champion and NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champion. In 2017, Samurai TV named Suzuki the MVP in Japanese independent wrestling.
Yuji Okabayashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He has been working in BJW since his debut in June 2008. He is best known as part of a tag team with Daisuke Sekimoto, with whom he has held the BJW Tag Team Championship, All Japan Pro Wrestling's (AJPW) World Tag Team and All Asia Tag Team Championships and DDT Pro-Wrestling's KO-D Tag Team Championship. As a singles wrestler, he is a former BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion.
The New Beginning in Niigata was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on February 14, 2016, in Nagaoka, Niigata, at the Aore Nagaoka. The event featured nine matches, four of which were contested for championships. In the main event, Hiroshi Tanahashi took on Kenny Omega to determine the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion, following previous champion Shinsuke Nakamura's departure from NJPW. The New Beginning in Niigata was the tenth event under the New Beginning name and the first to take place in Niigata.
The New Beginning in Osaka (2017) was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on February 11, 2017, in Osaka, Osaka, at Edion Arena Osaka and featured nine matches, five of which were contested for championships. In the main event, Tetsuya Naito defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Michael Elgin. This was the twelfth event under the New Beginning name and the fourth under the New Beginning in Osaka name.
The KO-D10-Man Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion. Meant for teams of five wrestlers, the title is believed to be the first of its kind in professional wrestling. The title was first announced on April 30, 2017, with the inaugural champions crowned on August 20, 2017.