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Early wrestling championships started in Ancient Greece, before spreading out to the Celtic culture, North America, and Europe.
The history of wrestling dates back to the Ancient Greece. There were two wrestling championships since the 776 BC Olympic games: a toppling event for the best two of three falls; and the pankration (Latin: pancratium), which combined wrestling and boxing and ended in the submission of one contestant. Upright wrestling was also a part of the pentathlon event in the Olympic Games, a bout being fought to a clear-cut fall of one of the wrestlers. The most famous ancient Greek wrestler was Milon of Croton, who won the wrestling championship of the Olympic Games six times. He won extreme fame in that time. [1] [2]
Early accounts of grappling in single combat can be found in various manuscripts in Old Irish during the 15th century. In the meeting between Cu Chulain and his son Conla they first wrestled before resorting to deadly combat. The style of wrestling they used required the grapplers to grip each other's belts in the opening stance. Various forms of belt wrestling still exist today in Europe. Art MacConn, the father of Cormac, was said to have wrestled a giant, as well as Diarmuid of Fenian fame. Diarmuid is also credited to have wrestled the champion Dubh-Chosach. These two combatant, though fully armed, chose to thrown down their weapons and meet empty handed. Ossian and a foreign champion also chose to discard their weapons in an individual combat and take to grappling. [3]
Wrestling has existed in the North America since the colonial period of the 15th century. During the 18th Century President George Washington was formerly a wrestler. At the age of 18 he won a collar and elbow wrestling championship that was quite popular across Virginia. He was famed for his brute strength and wrestling abilities. At the age of 47, ten years before he became the first President of the United States, George Washington defeat seven consecutive challengers from the Massachusetts Volunteers. Not recorded to have lost the title, Washington's championship regime is indicated to have lasted at least 29 years. It is not known whether a physical form of the title existed as with modern-day championship belt, but it has been historically noted as a championship, one of the earliest in North American history. [4] [5] Abraham Lincoln was a champion of Catch-as-catch-can wrestling during the 19th Century. Lincoln won an Illinois County wrestling championship in 1830. [6] [7] [8]
The World/American Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship and the World/European Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship was a Greco-Roman professional wrestling championship contested for throughout the continent of Australia, Europe and North America.The title existed from 1875 through approximately 1937. [9] [10] [11]
Professional wrestling matches were organized everywhere in Europe with variable programs and competition rules according to the taste of wrestlers, of managers and of the audience. In 1898, the Frenchman Paul Pons, “the Colossus”, also named “the Colossus”, was the first Professional World Champion just before the Polish Ladislaus Pytlasinski. Some other great champions succeeded him, like the Turkish Kara Ahmed (the eastern Monster), the Bulgarian Nikola Petrov (the lion of the Balkans) or the Russian Ivan Poddoubni (the Champion of Champions). [12]
Edwin Bibby won the first American Heavyweight Championship in New York defeating Duncan C. Ross on January 19, 1881. It was the first widely recognized Heavyweight Championship in North America. [13] [14]
The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first recognized professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in the United States created in 1905 to identify the best catch as catch can wrestler in the world. It was also the first wrestling championship known to have a physical representation of the belt. Russian born World Greco-Roman Heavyweight Champion George Hackenschmidt defeated American born American Heavyweight Champion Tom Jenkins in New York City in a Champion vs Champion match to win the inaugural World Heavyweight Championship, the first widely recognized world title. [15] Its lineage was claimed both by the WWF Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, with the two titles being unified by professional wrestler Chris Jericho at WWF Vengeance 2001 becoming the undisputed WWF World Heavyweight Champion which today is simply called the WWE Championship. [16]
Sean Michael Waltman is an American professional wrestler and martial artist. He is currently signed to WWE under a legends contract. He is best known for his appearances for the World Wrestling Federation under the ring names 1–2–3 Kid, Kamikaze Kid, and X-Pac; World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Syxx; and NWA Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA) as Syxx-Pac and under his real name.
Frank Alvin Gotch was an American professional wrestler. Gotch was the first American professional wrestler to win the world heavyweight free-style championship, and he is credited for popularizing professional wrestling in the United States. He competed back when the contests at championship level were largely legit, and his reign as World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion is one of the ten longest in the history of professional wrestling. He became one of the most popular athletes in America from the 1900s to the 1910s. Pro Wrestling Illustrated described Gotch as "arguably the best North American professional wrestler of the 20th century".
Scott Rechsteiner, better known by the ring name Scott Steiner, is an American professional wrestler.
The WWE Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the SmackDown brand division. Since April 2022, the title has been jointly held and defended with the WWE Universal Championship as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, but both titles have maintained their individual lineages. It is one of three world titles in WWE, alongside its companion Universal Championship on SmackDown, and the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw. The current champion is Roman Reigns, who is in his fourth reign. He won the title by defeating Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match at WrestleMania 38 Night 2 on April 3, 2022, subsequently becoming the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom spans over one hundred years but became popular when the then new independent television network ITV began showing it in 1955, firstly on Saturday afternoons and then also in a late-night midweek slot. It was at its peak of popularity when the television show World of Sport was launched in the mid-1960s, making household names out of Adrian Street, Mick McManus, Count Bartelli, Giant Haystacks, Jackie Pallo, Big Daddy, Steve Veidor, Dynamite Kid, and Kendo Nagasaki.
The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a men's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two secondary championships for WWE's main roster, along with the WWE United States Championship on SmackDown. The current champion is Gunther, who is in his first reign, which is the longest reign in the title's history. He won the title while on the SmackDown brand by defeating Ricochet on the June 10, 2022, episode of SmackDown. In his current reign, Gunther has also referred to it as the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.
Jan Stanisław Cyganiewicz, better known by his ring name, Stanislaus Zbyszko, was a Polish strongman and professional wrestler. He was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion at his highest profile in the United States during the 1920s. The surname Zbyszko was only a nickname, given to him by friends due to his bravery when he was a child. The name comes from a fictional medieval Polish knight in the historical novel, The Knights of the Cross by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Stanislaus Zbyszko was the brother of Wladek Zbyszko (1891–1968).
WWF WrestleMania X8 is a professional wrestling video game developed by Yuke's and released on the GameCube by THQ in June 2002.
Richard Vigneault is a Canadian retired professional wrestler, trainer, and television presenter, better known by his ring name, Rick Martel. He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. Championships held by Martel over the course of his career include the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, WCW World Television Championship, and WWF World Tag Team Championship.
Championship unification is the act of combining two or more separate professional wrestling championships into a single title.
Martin Burns, nicknamed Farmer Burns, was an American catch wrestler, wrestling coach, and teacher. Born in Cedar County, Iowa, he started wrestling as a teenager and made money traveling around the Midwest wrestling in carnivals and fairs. As a professional wrestler, he claimed the American Heavyweight Championship by defeating Evan "Strangler" Lewis in 1895 and held the title for two years, during the time when contests were legitimate. At this time, Martin Burns himself claimed to have wrestled in more than 6,000 matches and is said to have lost only seven. After the end of his active wrestling career he started a successful wrestling school in Omaha and later coached Cedar Rapids' Washington high school to the first Iowa high school state wrestling tournament title. He died in Council Bluffs in 1937. In 2001 Martin "Farmer" Burns was inducted into the International Wrestling Institute and Museum Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2002. The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame inducted Martin Burns in 2003 and Burns was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2017. In 2024 he was inducted into the Nebraska Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.
The American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first heavyweight professional wrestling championship in the United States. The title existed from 1881 through approximately 1922.
The World/American Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship and the World/European Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship was a Greco-Roman professional wrestling championship contested for throughout the continent of Australia, Europe and North America.The title existed from 1875 through approximately 1937.
An undisputed championship is a professional wrestling term for a world title that is the unquestioned top championship in a promotion, often formed from two world titles being unified or held by the same individual.
Timothy Alan Smith was an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring names Rex King and Timothy Well. He wrestled in several promotions, including All Japan Pro Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Much of his career was spent wrestling as a tag team with Steve Doll throughout his career. While in WWF, they were known as Well Dunn.
The history of professional wrestling, as a performing art, started in the early 20th century, with predecessors in funfair and variety strongman and wrestling performances in the 19th century.
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 wrestler in the world.
The American professional wrestling promotion WWE has maintained several men's world championships since Capitol Wrestling Corporation seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance in 1963 to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which was later subjected to various name changes, including World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)—in April 2011, the company ceased using its full name and has since just been referred to as WWE. The company's first world championship was the WWE Championship, which was established along with the promotion's creation in 1963 as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship; it is still active today and is WWE's oldest active title. Whenever the WWE brand extension has been implemented, separate world championships have been created or allocated for each brand.
