The NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship is the top professional wrestling title in the NWA Midwest promotion. The title has been in use since 2001. [1] On November 1, 2011, the title was renamed Zero1 Pro Wrestling USA Midwest Heavyweight Championship, when NWA Midwest left the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). [2]
Wrestler: | Times: | Date: | Location: | Notes: |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mike Samson | 1 | March 17, 2001 | Hillside, Illinois | Defeated Turbo to become the first champion. The two had been the final men remaining in a 20-man battle royal. |
Samson was stripped of the title on September 5, 2002. | ||||
Danny Dominion | 1 | October 28, 2002 | Grayslake, IL | Defeated Donovan Morgan. |
Dominion was stripped of the title on January 17, 2004 in Green Bay, Wisconsin due to no-showing a title defense. | ||||
Adam Evans | 1 | January 17, 2004 | Green Bay, WI | Defeated Chris Jordan and Eric Priest in a three-way match. |
Silas Young | 1 | February 22, 2004 | Wheaton, IL | |
Ken Anderson | 1 | July 16, 2004 | Milwaukee, WI | Defeated Silas Young and Colt Cabana in a three-way match. |
Chris Candido | 1 | November 12, 2004 | Milwaukee, WI | |
Title vacated after Chris Candido died on April 28, 2005. | ||||
Johnny Candido | 1 | September 17, 2005 | Streamwood, IL | Defeated Danny Daniels to win the vacant championship. |
Title vacated in January 2007. | ||||
Jay Ryan | 1 | May 5, 2007 | Streamwood, IL | Defeated Marek Brave. |
Silas Young | 2 | August 15, 2008 | Milwaukee, WI | On February 13, 2009 the NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship was unified with the ICW Midwest Championship. |
The Sheik | 1 | October 23, 2009 | Ashton, Illinois | Defeated Silas Young |
Silas Young | 3 | December 4, 2009 | Green Bay, WI | |
The Sheik | 2 | December 5, 2009 | Pulaski, WI | |
Sadist | 1 | January 14, 2011 | West Allis, WI | |
Steve Corino | 1 | August 20, 2011 | West Allis, WI | |
Sebastian Rose | 1 | June 23, 2013 | Toledo, OH | |
Nitro | 1 | March 23, 2014 | Oregon, OH | Sebastian gave Nitro to win due to his retirement |
Pro Wrestling Zero1, often referred to simply as Zero1 and sometimes referred to as Pro Wrestling Zero1 Catch as Catch Can, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 2001.
Steven Eugene Corino is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a trainer and producer for their developmental territory NXT. He is best known for his tenure with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1998 to 2001 and Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2002 to 2006 and 2009–2016.
Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the United States where he was a one-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion. He is currently splitting his time wrestling for both Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). He is overall a ten-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions.
Minoru Tanaka, also known by the ring names Heat and the mononymous Minoru, is a Japanese professional wrestler, shoot wrestler and mixed martial artist. He is currently signed to Gleat, predominantly performing in its G Prowrestling and Lidet UWF divisions; he also serves as Gleat's UWF Rules Technical Officer.
Shinya Hashimoto was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter and actor. Along with Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh, Hashimoto was dubbed one of the "Three Musketeers" that began competing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in the mid-1980s and dominated the promotion in the 1990s.
Takao Omori is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a one-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and seven-time World Tag Team Champion. He is also part of the All Japan Board of Directors. He has worked in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1).
The Zero1 USA World Junior Heavyweight Championship is a title defended in Pro Wrestling Zero1's American affiliate Zero1 USA. The title was previously defended in the Midwest territory of the National Wrestling Alliance as the NWA Midwest X Division Championship until 2011 when NWA Midwest disbanded following the stripping of Almighty Sheik of the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship by NWA president Robert Trobich.
Rachel Frobel is an American professional wrestler who is better known by her ring name MsChif. She has been wrestling since 2001 and in that time has worked for several independent promotions across the United States, with guest matches in England and Japan. She is known for her banshee gimmick, howling at her opponents and referees who stand in her way, as well as her unusually flexible body that allows her to perform, and be subjected to, modified submission holds.
The International Lightweight Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team championship in Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Zero1, contested exclusively among junior heavyweight wrestlers. It was created as the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship on December 26, 2003 when Ikuto Hidaka and Dick Togo defeated Naohiro Hoshikawa and Tatsuhito Takaiwa in a tournament final. This was during a time when Zero1 was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA); since Zero1 departed the NWA in late 2004, NWA did not recognize or sanction it, though it retained the NWA initials. The NWA began sanctioning the title again when Zero1 rejoined the NWA in 2011. Following Zero1's departure fron the NWA that same year, NWA ceased sanctioning the title and the NWA initials were dropped. The championship was retired on December 25, 2020. During its existence it was one of two tag team titles in Zero1, along with the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship, a championship typically contested among heavyweights. There were a total of 39 recognized individual champions and 28 recognized teams, who had a combined 31 official reigns.
The United National Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling title in the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Zero1. It was one of Zero1's top two singles titles, along with the World Heavyweight Championship. The title was created on January 31, 2004 as the NWA United National Heavyweight Championship. Masato Tanaka, then known as Masa Tanaka, defeated Steve Corino in an Indian strap match to become the first champion. It was created at a time when Zero1 was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA); when Zero1 departed the NWA in late 2004, NWA ceased recognizing or sanctioning it, though it retained the NWA initials. The title was revived by NWA Pro Wrestling in 2011, with NWA beginning to sanction title matches in Zero1 that same year after Zero1 was reinstated as a member of the NWA. NWA stopped sanctioning the title and the NWA initials were dropped after Zero1 left the NWA again later in 2011. In 2020, the championship was retired. There were a total of 26 recognized champions who had a combined 32 official reigns.
The International Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship in Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Zero1, contested exclusively among junior heavyweight wrestlers. It was originally created on June 29, 2002, as the NWA/UPW/Zero-One International Junior Heavyweight Championship, symbolizing Pro Wrestling Zero-One (Zero-One)'s relationship with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW); Leonardo Spanky defeated Smelly to become the first champion. When Zero-One left the NWA on October 31, 2004, the title was renamed to incorporate Steve Corino's Pro Wrestling World-1 (Word-1), becoming the Zero-One/UPW/World-1 International Junior Heavyweight Championship. The name was again altered when the newly renamed Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max (Zero1-Max) joined the AWA Superstars of Wrestling (AWA) alliance on February 28, 2005, with the title becoming known as the AWA/Zero1-Max/UPW/World-1 International Junior Heavyweight Championship. On August 26, 2006, after Minoru Fujita won the annual Tenkaichi Jr. tournament, Fujita renamed the championship to the AWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. When Zero1-Max left the AWA on December 15, 2007, it was renamed again to the Zero1-Max International Junior Heavyweight Championship. Finally, when the company changed its name to Pro Wrestling Zero1 in 2008, the championship followed and became known as the Zero1 International Junior Heavyweight Championship.
The Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling title in Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Zero1. It was created on January 6, 2003, with Steve Corino defeating Masato Tanaka. In addition to Japan, it has recently been frequently defended in various independent companies in the United States.
The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship started in 1979. It was formed by a split in lineage from the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship caused by the retirement of champion Nelson Royal the same year. The first champion, Steve Keirn, was recognized as world champion only by Florida, Los Angeles, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. This version was eventually taken to the latter promotion by Tatsumi Fujinami, who already held the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship.
Daisuke Sekimoto is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He is also known for his appearances in Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max. He is a three-time BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion, while also being a former one-time NWA Pan-Pacific Premium Heavyweight Champion, one-time wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion and a two-time Zero1 World Heavyweight Champion. Other major singles championships include the BJW Heavyweight Championship, the KO-D Openweight Championship and the Strongest-K Championship. Also a successful tag team wrestler, he has held the AJPW World Tag Team Championship three times, the All Asia Tag Team Championship two times, the BJW Tag Team Championship twelve times and the KO-D Tag Team Championship two times with his most successful tag team combination being with Yuji Okabayashi.
Ryoji Sai is a Korean professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and promoter who currently owns and operates Pro Wrestling Land's End, where he is a former All Asia Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for working for Pro Wrestling Zero1, where he is a former two-time World Heavyweight Champion.
Joseph Cabibbo is an American professional wrestler currently wrestling under the ring names Josef and Josef Samael on the independent circuit and in Major League Wrestling (MLW) as a member of Contra Unit with Jacob Fatu, Simon Gotch, and Ikuro Kwon. He is a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion and (Zero1) World Heavyweight Champion.
Munenori Sawa is a Japanese professional wrestler. Sawa was trained by and spent his entire career in the Battlarts promotion, adopting the promotion's "Bati Bati" wrestling style, known for its stiff strikes and submission-based shoot wrestling, but would often also incorporate comedy into his matches, especially when performing as Lingerie Mutoh, his comedic take on Keiji Mutoh. Besides Battlarts, Sawa also worked for various other promotions in Japan, Germany and the United States, most notably Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1), where he became an NWA Intercontinental Tag Team and NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Champion and the winner of the 2011 Tenkaichi Jr. tournament, and where he wrestled his initial retirement match on November 9, 2011, four days after the folding of Battlarts. Since his retirement from professional wrestling, Sawa has wrestled grappling matches for ZST and has wrestled as Ippanji Munenori Sawa.
Craig Cohn is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Craig Classic. Cohn was initially trained at the Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) dojo by Daisuke Sekimoto and has spent most of his career working in Japan, signing a contract with Pro Wrestling Zero1 in January 2012. He quit Zero1 in October 2013, after which he renamed himself Classic Kid. He has also achieved some success in the United States, most notably winning the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship in November 2010.
The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the Japanese Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1) promotion. The title is meant for wrestlers under the weight limit of 100 kg (220 lb), referred to as "junior heavyweights" in Japan.
Jonathan Gresham is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He also makes appearances on the independent circuit. He has previously wrestled for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former ROH World Champion, ROH Pure Champion, and ROH World Tag Team Champion with Jay Lethal.