| NWF Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
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| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | National Wrestling Federation (NWF) New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||
| Date established | 1970 2002 | ||||||||||
| Date retired | 1981 2004 | ||||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||||
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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 NWF (National Wrestling Federation) Heavyweight Championship was created by wrestling promoter Pedro Martinez for his NWF promotion in New York in 1970. The title was mainly defended in the New York/Eastern Canada area, until then-champion Johnny Powers took the belt with him on a tour of Japan with Tokyo Pro Wrestling. Powers would eventually lose the title to Antonio Inoki, who would take the belt with him when he founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Inoki became the wrestler most associated with the title due to his high-profile defenses of the title, defeating the likes of Stan Hansen, André the Giant, Tiger Jeet Singh, and Ernie Ladd while champion. Recognized as a four-time NWF Heavyweight champion, between the years of 1973 and 1983 Inoki was champion for all but six months. Inoki's fourth reign was actually due to the decision to hold up the championship, following a defense against Stan Hansen on April 17, 1981, that ended in a no contest. Inoki later regained the title on April 23, 1981, by defeating Hansen in a rematch. He retired the NWF title immediately after the match due to his desire to enter the 1983 IWGP League. [2]
Then as part of a NJPW storyline, the NWF Heavyweight championship was revived in August 2002. Mixed martial arts fighter Kazuyuki Fujita held a tournament to crown a new champion to rival the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The tournament participants were announced to be wrestlers with a background in MMA, including Fujita, Yoshihiro Takayama, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, and Tadao Yasuda. Takayama won the tournament on January 4, 2003, beating Kosaka with a knee kick in the finals to become the first revived champion in over two decades. Takayama later lost the NWF Championship to Shinsuke Nakamura exactly a year later to unify the NWF and IWGP titles. Nakamura formally announced his vacating of the NWF Heavyweight title on January 5, 2004, retiring the belt for a second time during its history. [3]
The title history was previously viewable on the NJPW website until removed for unknown reasons.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| N/A | Unknown information |
| (NLT) | Championship change took place "no later than" the date listed |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||
| 1 | Johnny Powers | 1970(NLT) | Live event | Los Angeles, CA | 1 | [Note 1] | Defeated Freddie Blassie to become inaugural champion. | |
| 2 | Waldo Von Erich | October 23, 1971 | Live event | Akron, OH | 1 | 15 | The Title held-up on November 7th, 1971, after a match with Dominic DeNucci in Akron, OH. | |
| 3 | Waldo Von Erich | November 13, 1971 | live event | Akron, OH | 2 | 19 | Defeated Dominic DeNucci in rematch. | |
| 4 | Dominic DeNucci | December 2, 1971 | Live event | Cleveland, OH | 1 | 28 | ||
| 5 | Waldo Von Erich | December 30, 1971 | Live event | Cleveland, OH | 3 | 162 | ||
| 6 | Ernie Ladd | June 9, 1972 | Live event | Cleveland, OH | 1 | 15 | ||
| 7 | Abdullah the Butcher | June 24, 1972 | Live event | Akron, OH | 1 | [Note 2] | ||
| 8 | Victor Rivera | September 1972(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 1 | [Note 3] | ||
| 9 | Abdullah the Butcher | October 1972(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 2 | [Note 4] | ||
| 10 | Johnny Valentine | October 19, 1972 | Live event | Cleveland, OH | 1 | 49 | ||
| — | Vacated | December 7, 1972 | — | — | — | — | After a match against Johnny Powers, Johnny Valentine left the NWF in January 1973. | |
| 11 | Jacques Rougeau | January 24, 1973 | Live event | Buffalo, NY | 1 | [Note 5] | Defeated Waldo Von Erich in finals of tournament for the vacant championship. | [4] |
| 12 | Johnny Valentine | August 1973(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 2 | [Note 6] | ||
| 13 | Johnny Powers | October 1973(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 2 | [Note 7] | Powers took the title to Japan for a tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling | |
| 14 | Antonio Inoki | December 10, 1973 | World Title Challenge Series | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 429 | [5] | |
| — | Vacated | February 12, 1975 | — | — | — | — | Antonio Inoki vacated the championship as refusal of an NWF ordered defense against Tiger Jeet Singh. | |
| 15 | Tiger Jeet Singh | March 13, 1975 | Big Fight Series | Hiroshima, Japan | 1 | 105 | Defeated Antonio Inoki for the vacant championship. | [6] |
| 16 | Antonio Inoki | June 26, 1975 | Golden Fight Series | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 1,688 | Ordered by the NWA to stop referring to belt as a world title at annual NWA meeting on August 7, 1976. | [7] |
| 17 | Stan Hansen | February 8, 1980 | New Year Golden Series | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 55 | [8] | |
| 18 | Antonio Inoki | April 3, 1980 | Big Fight Series | Tokyo, Japan | 3 | 434 | [9] [10] | |
| — | Vacated | April 17, 1981 | Big Fight Series II | Kagoshima, Japan | — | — | The championship was vacated after a defense against Stan Hansen ends in a no contest. | [11] |
| 19 | Antonio Inoki | April 23, 1981 | Big Fight Series II | Tokyo, Japan | 4 | [Note 8] | Defeated Stan Hansen to win the vacant championship. | [12] |
| — | Deactivated | 1981 | — | — | — | — | Antonio Inoki vacated the championship following the match to enter the NJPW IWGP League. | |
| NWF Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||||||
| Date established | August 2002 | ||||||||||||||
| Date retired | January 2004 | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | ||||
| 1 | Yoshihiro Takayama | January 4, 2003 | Wrestling World 2003 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 365 | 7 | Defeated Tsuyoshi Kosaka in a tournament for the revived title. | [13] |
| 2 | Shinsuke Nakamura | January 4, 2004 | Wrestling World 2004 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 1 | 0 | Nakamura officially unifies NWF title with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. | [14] |
| — | Unified | January 5, 2004 | — | — | — | — | — | Championship merged with IWGP Heavyweight Championship, no longer promoted as a separate title | |
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