| World Middleweight Championship | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||
| Promotion | National Wrestling Association | ||||||||
| Date established | August 7, 1928 | ||||||||
| Date retired | 1940 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The National Wrestling Association (NWA) World Middleweight Championship was a professional wrestling title sanctioned by the National Wrestling Association, an offshoot of the National Boxing Association (NBA). The title pre-dated the NWA by several decades, its earliest champion being recorded as Edwin Bibby in 1886, [1] but was nonetheless recognized by the Association from 1928 through 1940, after which its lineage was adopted by EMLL in Mexico and retroactively connected to the National Wrestling Alliance's World Middleweight Championship. The title had a weight range of 155 lb (70 kg) to 160 lb (73 kg).
| 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 | Gus Kallio | August 7, 1928 | Live event | Chicago, Illinois | 1 | 185 | Defeated Charlie Fischer by decision after a 2.5 hour match; recognized by the National Wrestling Association on 28-08-11. | [2] |
| 2 | Hugh Nichols | February 8, 1929 | Live event | Cincinnati, Ohio | 1 | 105 | ||
| 3 | Gus Kallio | May 24, 1929 | Live event | Cincinnati, Ohio | 2 | 392 | ||
| 4 | George Sauer | June 20, 1930 | Live event | San Antonio, Texas | 1 | 105 | won as "the Masked Marvel". | |
| 5 | Gus Kallio | October 3, 1930 | Live event | San Antonio, Texas | 3 | 1,677 | ||
| 6 | Joe Gunther | May 7, 1935 | Live event | Nashville, Tennessee | 1 | 38 | ||
| 7 | Gus Kallio | May 14, 1935 | Live event | Mobile, Alabama | 4 | 1,315 | ||
| 8 | Octavio Gaona | January 19, 1939 | Live event | Mexico City | 1 | 381 | Octavio Gaona won the championship to permanently establish it as an EMLL title. Often misreported as happening on 1939-02-19. | |
| 9 | Tarzán López | February 4, 1940 | Live event | Mexico City | 1 | 681 | After this title change only the Mexican version remained active. | |