WCPW Midget Championship

Last updated
WCPW Heavyweight Championship
Details
Promotion Windy City Pro Wrestling
Date establishedApril 13, 1988
Date retired2001
Other name(s)
WCW Midget Championship

The WCPW Midget Championship was a professional wrestling midget title in Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW). Originally, WCPW was known as Windy City Wrestling (WCW), however, a lawsuit brought by World Championship Wrestling forced the smaller promotion to change its name to "Windy City Pro Wrestling" in 1997. The championship remained active until 2001 when it was discontinued.

Professional wrestling entertainment form that mimics contact sports

Professional wrestling is a form of performance art and entertainment that combines athletics with theatrical performance. It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, that mimic a title-match combat sport. The unique form of sport portrayed is fundamentally based on – and evolved from – classical and "catch" wrestling, with modern additions of striking attacks, strength-based holds and throws and acrobatic maneuvers. Much of these derive from the influence of various international martial arts. An additional aspect of combat with improvised weaponry is sometimes included.

Midget wrestling Professional wrestling genre

Midget wrestling is professional wrestling involving dwarves or people of short stature. Its heyday was in the 1950s and 1960s, when wrestlers such as Little Beaver, Lord Littlebrook, and Fuzzy Cupid toured North America, and Sky Low Low was the first holder of the National Wrestling Alliance's World Midget Championship. In the following couple of decades, more wrestlers became prominent in North America, including foreign wrestlers like Japan's Little Tokyo.

Windy City Pro Wrestling was an American regional professional wrestling promotion based in Chicago, Illinois. Established by retired wrestler Sam DeCero in 1988, the promotion was one of several major regional territories in the Midwest during the late 1980s, along with Dick the Bruiser's World Wrestling Association, and among the oldest independent organizations in the United States until its closure in 2011.

Contents

The inaugural champion was Little Tokyo, who defeated Cowboy Cottrell at a live event in Chicago, Illinois on January 1, 1988 to become the first WCW Midget Champion. Little Tokyo and Lone Eagle both hold the record for most reigns, with two each. At 1,758 days, Little Tokyo's first reign was the longest in the title's history. Chris Cruz's only reign was the shortest in the history of the title lasting only 85 days. Overall, there have been 8 reigns shared between 6 wrestlers, with two vacancies, and 1 deactivation.

Chicago city and county seat of Cook County, Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the US, with portions of the northwest side of the city extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the nation.

Title history

Key
#Order in reign history
ReignThe reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed
EventThe event in which the title was won
Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign
N/AThe information is not available or is unknown
+Indicates the current reign is changing daily

Names

NameYears
WCW Midget Championship1992 1996
WCPW Midget Championship1997 2001

Reigns

#WrestlersReignDateDays
held
LocationEventNotesRef.
1 Little Tokyo 1January 1, 19881,758 St. Joseph, Missouri Live event Little Tokyo defeated Cowboy Cottrell to become the first WCW Midget Champion. [1] [2]
2Chris Cruz1October 24, 199285 Mt. Vernon, Illinois Live event [1] [2]
3Karate Kid1January 17, 19931,119 Springfield, Illinois Live event [1] [2]
4Little Tokyo2February 10, 1996189 St. Joseph, Missouri Live event [1] [2]
5Bobby Dean1August 17, 1996394 Springfield, Illinois Live event [1] [2]
6Lone Eagle2September 15, 1997687 Nashville, Tennessee Live event [1] [2]
Vacated August 3, 1999N/A Live event [1] [2]
7Puppet the Psycho Dwarf1August 17, 1999N/A Sedalia, Missouri Live event [1] [2]
Vacated August 1999N/AN/AThe title is vacated when Puppet the Psycho Dwarf is stripped of the title. [2]
8Lone Eagle2August 1999N/AN/AN/ALone Eagle is awarded the vacant championship. [2]
Deactivated 2001N/AN/AThe title becomes inactive after 2001 and is subsequently discontinued.

List of combined reigns

Rank [N 1] Wrestler# of reignsCombined days
1 Little Tokyo 21,947
2Karate Kid11,119
3Lone Eagle2687+
4Bobby Dean1394
5Chris Cruz185

See also

The NWA World Midget's Championship was the National Wrestling Alliance's midget wrestling singles championship. Large parts of the championship history is undocumented due to lack of documentation of Midget wrestling for large periods of time from the 1950s to the 1980s. In that period of time there were two touring groups of midget wrestlers in the United States, both had a "World Champion", leading to some uncertainty as to who was the NWA World Midget's Champion, often based on if the champion was booked as defending the championship in an NWA territory. The first wrestler to lay claim to the Midget's World Championship was Sky Low Low after he won a 30-man tournament in Paris, France. The tournament was either fictitious or not an NWA sanctioned event as it took place in Europe. But at some point after 1949 the NWA recognized Sky Low Low as their champion.

The NWL Midget Championship was the midget professional wrestling title in the National Wrestling League promotion. It was first won by Hollywood Miles "Vader" Glencoe who defeated Little Salami in 1995. The title was defended primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast, most often in Hagerstown, Maryland, but also in Pennsylvania and West Virginia until its retirement in 1999. There were 4 recognized known champions with a total of 4 title reigns.

Notes

  1. Each reign is ranked highest to lowest; reigns with the same number mean that they are tied for that certain rank.

Related Research Articles

Lex Luger American professional wrestler

Lawrence Wendell Pfohl better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired professional wrestler, television producer and football player currently working with WWE on their wellness policy. He is best known for his work with Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation.

Shane Douglas American professional wrestler

Troy Allan Martin is an American professional wrestler and promoter, better known by his ring name Shane Douglas. He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he worked as a wrestler and manager.

<i>Pro Wrestling Illustrated</i> magazine

Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) is an American produced, internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979. PWI is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group. The magazine is the longest currently published English language wrestling magazine. The PWI publishes monthly issues and annual special issues such as their "Almanac and Book of Facts".

NWA World Tag Team Championship National Wrestling Alliance professional wrestling tag team championship

The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA World Tag Team Championship" without oversight from the board of directors. The first of these NWA World Tag Team Championships was created in 1950 in the San Francisco territory, which while billed as a "World" title was essentially restricted to the specific NWA territory. In 1957 as many as 13 versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship were confirmed to be in existence. In 1982 Big Time Wrestling, based in Los Angeles, closed and abandoned their version of the championship. This meant that only the Jim Crockett Promotions' NWA World Tag Team Championship was active, but still being controlled by JCP, not the NWA board of directors. In 1991 that championship was renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship.

Tom Beninghaus is a retired American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Tough Tom teaming with "Mean" Mike to form a tag team known as "Disorderly Conduct". Prior to that he was best known from various independent promotions as one half of a masked tag team with Frank Vizi known as the Texas Hangmen, where he portrayed Killer alongside Vizi's Psycho.

Steven Stewart, known by his ring name Bart Sawyer, is an American retired professional wrestler, color commentator, and occasional actor. He is best known for his time in Championship Wrestling USA and the United States Wrestling Association during the 1990s. In his career, Sawyer also wrestled for Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, House of Pain Wrestling Federation, Memphis Wrestling, NWA Georgia, NWA Main Event, NWA Worldwide, World Xtreme Wrestling and W*ING. Additionally, he competed as a preliminary wrestler in World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation.

Little Tokyo (wrestler) Japanese professional wrestler

Shigeru Akabane, best known under his ring name Little Tokyo, was a Japanese professional midget wrestler who competed in North American promotions from the 1970s into the 1990s including appearances for American Wrestling Association (AWA), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the World Wrestling Federation, (WWF) most notably appearing at WrestleMania III in a mixed tag team match with Lord Littlebrook and King Kong Bundy against Hillbilly Jim, the Haiti Kid and Little Beaver in 1987. He held the NWA World Midget's Championship on three different occasions

Samuel DeCero is a retired American professional wrestler, manager, trainer and promoter, better known by his ring name, Super Maxx. He was one-half of the Maxx Brothers, also known as the Wild or World Warriors, with Mad Maxx who together competed in the American Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Association, winning the WWA World Tag Team Championship in 1984. He and Mad Maxx also toured Japan several times during the mid-1980s and unsuccessfully challenged IWGP Tag Team Champions Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura in 1986.

The WCPW Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling heavyweight championship in Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW). It was the original top singles championship for the promotion before the creation of the WCPW League Championship in 1993 and its incorporation into the then newly created weight-class division as a legitimate heavyweight title. It was eventually unified with the Bare Knuckles and League Championships to create the "WCPW World Heavyweight Championship".

The WCPW Middleweight Championship was a professional wrestling middleweight championship in Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW). It was the original secondary title for the promotion before the creation of the WCPW League Championship in 1993 and its incorporation into the then newly created weight-class division as a legitimate middleweight title.

The WCPW Lightweight Championship was a professional wrestling lightweight title in Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW). It was a secondary title for the promotion before the creation of the WCPW League Championship in 1993 and its incorporation into the then newly created weight-class division as a legitimate lightweight title.

The WCPW League Championship was a professional wrestling heavyweight championship in Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW). It replaced the WCPW Heavyweight Championship as the promotion's main singles title in 1993, following the creation of its weight-class division, and continued to be defended until 2008 when it was unified with the Heavyweight and Bare Knuckles Championships to create the "WCPW World Heavyweight Championship". The League Championship was brought back during the promotion's final year with the intention of it being defended against by wrestlers from other promotions. It remained active until December 16, 2010 when WCPW merged with Chicago Pro Wrestling Academy to form Dynasty Sports Entertainment.

The WCPW Bare Knuckles Championship was a professional wrestling Hardcore Championship contested for in Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW). It was defended in the promotion from 1999 until 2008 when it was merged with the WCPW Heavyweight and League Championships to create a unified "WCPW World Heavyweight Championship".

The WCPW Ladies Championship was a women's professional wrestling championship in Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW). Originally, WCPW was known as Windy City Wrestling (WCW), however, a lawsuit brought by World Championship Wrestling forced the smaller promotion to change its name to "Windy City Pro Wrestling" in 1997. The championship remained active until December 2010, when WCPW merged with the Chicago Pro Wrestling Academy to form Dynasty Sports Entertainment. The women's title has the distinction for being the "most controversial" championship in the promotion with three former champions being stripped of the title while a fourth, Dymond, abandoned the title to join a rival promotion.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Windy City Pro Wrestling (2000). "Midget..." Title Histories. WindyCityProWrestling.com. Archived from the original on December 17, 2000. Retrieved November 12, 2011.