CWA World Middleweight Championship

Last updated
CWA World Middleweight Championship
Details
Promotion Catch Wrestling Association
Date establishedDecember 22, 1984
Date retiredDecember 4, 1999
Statistics
First champion(s) Tony St. Clair
Final champion(s) Franz Schumann
Most reigns David Finlay and Franz Schumann
(4 reigns)
Longest reignFranz Schumann (1,246 days)
Shortest reign Barry Horowitz (13 days)

The CWA World Middleweight Championship was a professional wrestling middleweight championship in Catch Wrestling Association (CWA). The title was one of the two weight-based titles in CWA, along with the CWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, which was introduced in 1993. The title was created in December 1984 and a tournament was set up to determine the inaugural champion. The last previous holder of the European version of the World Middlweight Championship, Adrian Street, had moved to the United States in 1981. Tony St. Clair won the tournament to become the inaugural holder of the new CWA version on December 22, 1984. [1] The title was deactivated when the company closed on December 4, 1999. [2] The championship was contested under 12 three-minute rounds. A rival European version of the World Middleweight championship was promoted in the UK by All Star Wrestling and Rumble Promotions 1991-1996. [3]

Contents

Title history

SymbolMeaning
No.The overall championship reign
ReignThe reign number for the specific wrestler listed.
EventThe event in which the championship changed hands
N/AThe specific information is not known
Used for vacated reigns in order to not count it as an official reign
[Note #]Indicates that the exact length of the title reign is unknown, with a note providing more details.
#WrestlerReignDateDays heldLocationEventNotes
1 Tony St. Clair 1December 22, 1984344 Bremen, Germany House show Clair won a tournament to become the inaugural champion. [1] [4]
Vacated December 1, 1985The title was vacated for unknown reasons. [1]
2Steve Wright1December 20, 1985574 Bremen, Germany House show Wright won a tournament. [1] [5]
3 Mile Zrno 1July 17, 1987137 Vienna, Austria House show [6] [7]
4Steve Wright2December 1, 19871,005 Bremen, Germany House show [8]
5 Dave Finlay 1September 1, 199027 Vienna, Austria House show [9] [10]
6Steve Wright3September 28, 1990449 Hanover, Germany House show [11] [12]
7 Fit Finlay 2December 21, 1991203 Bremen, Germany Euro Catch Festival [13] [14]
8 Franz Schumann 1July 11, 1992161 Graz, Austria Euro Catch Festival [15] [16]
Vacated December 19, 1992 Bremen, Germany Euro Catch Festival The title was vacated due to unknown reasons. [1]
9 Fit Finlay 3December 19, 1992194 Bremen, Germany Euro Catch Festival Defeated Eddie Gilbert to win the vacant title. [17] [18]
Vacated July 1, 1993Title was held up after a match against Eddie Gilbert ended in a double disqualification.
10 Franz Schumann 2July 3, 1993358 Graz, Austria Clash of the ChampionsDefeated Eddie Gilbert to win the vacant title. [19] [20]
11 Barry Horowitz 1June 26, 199413 Graz, Austria International Catch Cup [21] [22]
12 Franz Schumann 3July 9, 1994455 Graz, Austria Euro Catch Festival [23] [24]
13 Paul Roma 1October 7, 199549 Hanover, Germany Catch World Cup [25] [26]
14 Fit Finlay 4November 25, 1995224 Bremen, Germany International Catch CupThis was a title vs. title match, in which Finlay's Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship was also defended. [27] [28]
15 Franz Schumann 4July 6, 19961,246 Graz, Austria Euro Catch Festival [29] [30]
RetiredDecember 4, 1999 Bremen, Germany Euro Catch Festival The title was defended for the last time at the event as it was CWA's final event and the promotion closed after the event.

Combined reigns

RankWrestlerNo. of
reigns
Combined days
1 Franz Schumann 42,220
2Steve Wright32,028
3 Fit Finlay 4648
4 Tony St. Clair 1344
5 Mile Zrno 1137
6 Paul Roma 149
7 Barry Horowitz 113

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Durante</span> American professional wrestler

Anthony Durante was an American professional wrestler best known under the ring name "Pitbull #2" as one half of the tag team The Pitbulls, with "Pitbull #1" Gary Wolfe. The team is best known for their time in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where the team was the promotion's World Tag Team Championship once. Apart from tag team competition, Durante also achieved success briefly as a singles competitor, challenging for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on a few occasions while holding the ECW World Television Championship once.

David Taylor is a retired English professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the United States with World Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2000 and with World Wrestling Entertainment from 2006 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fit Finlay</span> Northern Irish professional wrestler

David John Finlay Jr. is a Northern Irish retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed with WWE as a trainer/assistant coach. He best known for his tenures with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Fit Finlay from 1996 to 2000, and Finlay in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2005 to 2010.

Robert Edward Brooks, better known by his ring name Robbie Brookside, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a trainer/producer for the NXT brand. He has toured all over the world during his career, wrestling in the United States, Japan, Germany, and Mexico. He was a regular tag partner of Steve Regal in the United Kingdom and has competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's annual tournament, the Super J Cup, in 1997, where he picked up a victory over Chris Jericho.

Otto Wanz was an Austrian professional wrestler and boxer. He made his professional wrestling debut in 1968. He is a one time American Wrestling Association champion and former operator of the Catch Wrestling Association, where he was the promotion's inaugural World Heavyweight Champion, winning the title four times. He is overall a five-time world champion and the longest reigning world champion in Europe.

Paul Neu is an American professional wrestler. He is perhaps best known for his stints in World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling under the ring name P. N. News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catch Wrestling Association</span> Professional wrestling organisation

The Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) was a professional wrestling organization based in Austria and Germany that was founded in 1973. It was run by Otto Wanz. The CWA featured a traditional brand of mat wrestling mixed with various “Strong Man” competitions. During the late 1970s it overtook the old Verband der Berufsringer to become the dominant promotion in the German/Austrian wrestling territory, maintaining a high profile even after the invasion of WWF circa 1990. After its closure it was replaced in 2000 by the European Wrestling Promotion (EWP), which was renamed the Catch Wrestling Promotion (CWP) in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luc Poirier</span> Canadian professional wrestler

Luc Poirier is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) under the ring name Rambo and with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Sniper. Rambo was pushed as the top star of CWA after the departure of the promotion's owner Otto Wanz and became a major main event star. He headlined the company's flagship event Euro Catch Festival twelve times between 1991 and 1999, with his each match for the CWA World Heavyweight Championship. He is overall a four-time world champion.

Marty Jones is an English retired professional wrestler best known for his work in Joint Promotions and All Star Wrestling throughout the 1980s and 1990s. During this period, he was the predominant holder of the Mountevans World Mid Heavyweight title. Jones was also responsible for training William Regal.

Daniel "Boy" Collins is an English professional wrestler. Noted for his agile, gymnastic style in the ring, he has toured successfully across Europe and Japan and held British, European and World titles in five different weight divisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rocco</span> English professional wrestler (1951–2020)

Mark Hussey was an English professional wrestler who competed for Joint Promotions, All Star Wrestling and the second BWF as Mark "Rollerball" Rocco and as the original masked Black Tiger in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) during the 1970s and 1980s. A fourth-generation wrestler, he was the son of British wrestler "Jumping" Jim Hussey and the father of boxer Jono "Rocco" Hussey.

Franz Schumann is a retired Austrian professional wrestler, who was well known for his stint in Catch Wrestling Association.

Tony St. Clair is an English retired professional wrestler. He is well known for his stints in Joint Promotions and All Star Wrestling in the United Kingdom, Catch Wrestling Association in Austria and Germany, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He is also known as a trainer, with his trainees including "Gentleman" Chris Adams and Osamu Nishimura.

Ulf Nadrowski is a German professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ulf Herman. He is best known in the United States for his appearances in Extreme Championship Wrestling where he was part of The Full Blooded Italians faction from 1998 to 1999. Herman is also known around the world for his time in the European independent circuit, most notably in the United Kingdom for All Star Wrestling, the BWF, Frontier Wrestling Alliance, and more recently 1 Pro Wrestling and Real Quality Wrestling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Bones</span> German professional wrestler

John Klinger is a German professional wrestler better known by his ring name Bad Bones. Klinger has worked internationally across various independent promotions ranging from Europe, England, Japan, Israel and the United States.

The CWA Submission Shootfighting Championship was a professional wrestling singles championship in the German professional wrestling promotion Catch Wrestling Association (CWA). The championship was contested under 10 three-minute rounds.

CWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling junior heavyweight world championship in Catch Wrestling Association (CWA). The title was established in 1993 as a weight-class title along with the CWA World Middleweight Championship. Bonecrusher Sileo was crowned the inaugural champion by defeating Lance Storm at Clash of the Champions event on July 3, 1993. The title was defended in CWA until the promotion closed after holding its final event Euro Catch Festival on December 4, 1999. The champion Karsten Kretschmer then began defending the title in the German independent promotion Athletik Championship Wrestling (ACW), where he would lose the title to Eric Schwarz, who would retire the title in September 2000. The championship was contested under 12 three-minute rounds.

The German Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship defended exclusively in Germany. The title has been claimed by various German independent promotions throughout the years. The first version was established in 1937 and since then many promotions have created their own versions of the German Heavyweight Championship.

Euro Catch Festival was an annual professional wrestling event produced by Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) between 1991 and 1999. The event was hailed as the company's flagship event and the biggest event of the year. Two editions of the event were held once a year; the July event was held in Graz, Austria and the December event was held in Bremen, Germany. The 1999 edition of the event was the final CWA show as the promotion closed after that event.

Mile Zrno is a retired Bosnian professional wrestler, who was well known for his stint in Catch Wrestling Association, various German and Japanese promotions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "CWA World Middleweight Title (Austria / Germany)". Wrestling-titles. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  2. https://www.wrestling-titles.com/europe/germany/cwa/eu-cwa-m.html
  3. https://www.wrestling-titles.com/europe/uk/uk-world-m.html
  4. "Tony St. Clair's first reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  5. "Steve Wright's first reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  6. "CWA". Cagematch. July 17, 1987. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  7. "Mile Zrno's first reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  8. "Steve Wright's second reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  9. "CWA". Cagematch. September 1, 1990. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  10. "Dave Finlay's first reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  11. "CWA". Cagematch. September 28, 1990. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  12. "Steve Wright's third reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  13. "CWA Euro Catch Festival". Cagematch. December 21, 1991. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  14. "Fit Finlay's second reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  15. "CWA Euro Catch Festival". Cagematch. July 11, 1992. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  16. "Franz Schumann's first reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  17. "CWA Euro Catch Festival". Cagematch. December 19, 1992. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  18. "Fit Finlay's third reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  19. "CWA Clash Of The Champions 1993". Cagematch. July 3, 1993. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  20. "Franz Schumann's second reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  21. "CWA Internationaler Catch Cup 1994 - Tag 11". Cagematch. June 26, 1994. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  22. "Barry Horowitz's first reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  23. "CWA Euro Catch Festival". Cagematch. July 9, 1994. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  24. "Franz Schumann's second reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  25. "CWA Catch World Cup 1995 - Tag 27". Cagematch. October 7, 1995. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  26. "Paul Roma's first reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  27. "CWA Internationaler Catch Cup 1995 - Day 17". Wrestlingdata. November 25, 1995. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  28. "Fit Finlay's fourth reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  29. "CWA Euro Catch Festival". Cagematch. July 6, 1996. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  30. "Franz Schumann's fourth reign". Cagematch. Retrieved 2018-01-06.