World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship
| World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship | |
|---|---|
| Data | |
| Introduced | May 4, 1905 |
| Discontinued | July 24, 1957 |
The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship is the first world heavyweight wrestling title in history. Introduced on May 4, 1905, the title was only awarded to male individual wrestlers and until the end of the 1920s it was openly fought out in free tournaments , since the corresponding participants came almost exclusively from classical wrestling . On July 24, 1957, the title was combined with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . The successor, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship , is awarded today by the National Wrestling Alliance . But the adjusted world heavyweight championship of WWE brought back on this item.
history
Essentially all known titles are derived from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship , which is awarded by the National Wrestling Alliance.
Creation of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship
The original World Heavyweight Title was created in the early 20th century. In 1901 the wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt won the title of Winner of the World Greco-Roman Championship tournaments in a free tournament in Vienna (German: winner of the tournament for the Greco-Roman World Championship ). Hackenschmidt subsequently defended this title in France and Russia as well .
On September 4, 1902 Hackenschmidt won the European Greco-Roman Wrestling Title (German: European title in Greco-Roman wrestling ) from Tom Cannon in Liverpool . At a tournament in London Hackenschmidt struck on January 30, 1904 as World Champion designated Americans Ahmed Madrali .
A year later, on May 4, 1905, Hackenschmidt traveled to New York and defeated Tom Jenkins there for the American Heavyweight Wrestling Title (German American heavyweight wrestling title ). With this victory, the wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt united three important titles and was recognized by the USA as the first world champion in modern wrestling . All three titles have now been combined in a new world championship , the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship , and Hackenschmidt was able to hold this title for 1,065 days. On April 3, 1908, Hackenschmidt lost it to Frank Gotch . It was now designed its own extravagant belt buckle, which should represent the new championship to the outside world. But ultimately a title belt was introduced and all wrestling organizations in the USA recognized the new championship as the highest wrestling title.
Derivation of other titles
Between 1905 and 1928, the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was fought independently in all wrestling associations in the United States. For the participating wrestlers, this meant that there was no elaborated storyline . A fraction of this tradition Ringer only made the fifth title of Ed Lewis : on February 28, 1928 Lewis resigned as representatives of the American Wrestling Association and defeated Joe Stecher for the title. After winning the title, Lewis was declared the AWA World Wrestling Champion within the AWA . The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was awarded the regional AWA Heavyweight Title (dt. AWA Heavyweight title combined). This association of titles was expressed with the award of a new AWA title belt. The original title belt was only fought out when defending titles in other leagues.
On January 4, 1929 Gus Sonnenberg Lewis was able to defeat for the title and transferred it to the National Wrestling Association . In return for a special payment, Sonnenberg waived his title claims. On the basis of the AWA title and the presentation of both title belts, the National Wrestling Association created the NBA / NWA World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship , the heavyweight world championship in the NBA / NWA version. After the National Wrestling Association had become the most influential wrestling organization in 1930 , Sonnenberg lost the title on December 10, 1930 in Los Angeles .
Gradation of the original championship to a secondary title
When Ed Lewis was able to win the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship for the sixth time on April 14, 1931, the title had lost its former glory and importance. The various wrestling organizations in the USA fought the world championship titles from one another and derived their world titles from other league titles and no longer from the original championship. After 1,535 days, Lewis ceded the title to Danno O'Mahoney .
The NWA title as the successor title
By 1935, the NBA / NWA World Heavyweight Title was established as the most important North American wrestling title . It was the first title to be fought globally . Responsible for this was the promoter Tom Packs, who headed the National Wrestling Association since 1930. More and more organizations joined the promotion, which now functioned as an umbrella organization . At the same time, the regional titles went into the NBA / NWA title. Since the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was now continued in the form of the NBA / NWA title, the original was hardly fought out. The last title holder before World War II was Jim Landos . This won the title on November 18, 1938 and after the USA entered the war the title was no longer held.
Adjustment of the original championship
In 1946, Landos gave up the original World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship after 2,904 days and this was declared vacant . One was again only on 21 May 1952 title match scheduled, the Lou Thesz for choosing could. But in the mid-1950s it became more than clear that the championship was no longer needed. On November 9, 1956, Thesz won the title for the second time and in 1957 combined the original championship with the NWA version he had held since 1949 .
Successor title
The NWA World Heavyweight Championship has been the oldest wrestling title since 1949 . It was merged with the original championship and all major world heavyweight titles in wrestling are derived from it. So come by her World Heavyweight Championship of the WWE and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from.
Records
| record | Record holder | unit |
|---|---|---|
| Most title wins | Ed Lewis | 4 times |
| Longest reign in total | Ed Lewis | 3,073 days |
| Longest reign | Jim Londos | 2,628 days |
| Shortest reign | Stanislaus Zbyszko | 45 days |
| Oldest title holder | Stanislaus Zbyszko | 46 years and 15 days |
| Youngest title holder | Joe Stecher | 22 years and 103 days |
List of title holders
| # | Title holder | No. | Days | date | place | event | annotation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Hackenschmidt | 1 | 1064 | May 4, 1905 | New York City, New York, USA | Houseshow | Hackenschmidt won an open tournament. Hackenschmidt defeated the American heavyweight champion Tom Jenkins on May 4, 1905 in New York City, New York, USA and thereby became a recognized world champion whose scope was limited to North America. |
| 2 | Frank Gotch | 1 | 1854 | March 4, 1908 | Chicago, Illinois, USA | Houseshow | Gotch held the title for 5 years until April 1, 1913. He was one of the longest reigning champions and was placed behind Bruno Sammartino, Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne. |
| 3 | Joe Stecher | 1 | 644 | July 5, 1915 | Omaha, Nebraska, USA | Houseshow | Stecher defeated Charlie Cutler after Frank Gotch resigned as champion. |
| 4th | Earl Caddock | 1 | 1026 | April 9, 1917 | Omaha, Nebraska, USA | Houseshow | |
| 5 | Joe Stecher | 2 | 318 | January 30, 1920 | New York City, New York, USA | Houseshow | |
| 6th | Ed Lewis | 1 | 144 | December 13, 1920 | New York City, New York, USA | Houseshow | |
| 7th | Stanislaus Zbyszko | 1 | 301 | May 6, 1921 | New York City, New York, USA | Houseshow | |
| 8th | Ed Lewis | 2 | 1042 | March 3, 1922 | Wichita, Kansas, USA | Houseshow | |
| 9 | Wayne Munn | 1 | 97 | January 8, 1925 | Wichita, Kansas, USA | Houseshow | |
| 10 | Stanislaus Zbyszko | 2 | 45 | April 15, 1925 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | Houseshow | Zbyszko's victory was not without controversy. The Michigan and Illinois territories saw Munn as the reigning champion. |
| 11 | Joe Stecher | 3 | 997 | May 30, 1925 | St. Louis, Missouri, USA | Houseshow | |
| 12 | Ed Lewis | 3 | 318 | February 21, 1928 | St. Louis, Missouri, USA | Houseshow | Lewis defeated Munn on February 2, 1928 in Michigan City, Indiana, and won the Michigan / Illinois version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship . Lewis defeated Stecher on February 21, 1928 and reunited the titles. |
| 13 | Gus Sonnenberg | 1 | 705 | January 4, 1929 | Boston, Massachusetts, USA | Houseshow | The World Heavyweight Championship was withdrawn from Sonnenberg in 1929 by the NWA because he did not defend the championship. |
| 14th | Ed Don George | 1 | 124 | December 10, 1930 | Los Angeles, California, USA | Houseshow | |
| 15th | Ed Lewis | 4th | 1536 | April 13, 1931 | Los Angeles, California, USA | Houseshow | Lewis lost the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in the AWA World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship / Boston version to Henri Deglane on May 4, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada . Lewis continued to be recognized as the reigning champion in the Illinois Territory. He also defeated the No. 1 challenger Wladek Zbyszko on November 2, 1931 in Chicago. In addition, Lewis won the New York State Athletic Commission World Title in New York City on October 10, 1932 by defeating Jack Sherry. |
| 16 | Danno O'Mahoney | 1 | 249 | June 27, 1935 | Boston, Massachusetts, USA | Houseshow | O'Mahoney defeated Jim Londos to take the New York State Athletic Commission World Title . On July 30, 1935, he won the AWA World Championship in Boston in the Boston version of Ed Don George and became the first recognized Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion in modern wrestling . |
| 17th | Dick Shikat | 1 | 54 | March 2, 1936 | New York City, New York, USA | Houseshow | |
| 18th | Ali Baba | 1 | 48 | April 25, 1936 | Detroit, Michigan, USA | Houseshow | On April 29, 1936, the New York Times published that Ali Baba would not be recognized by the New York Athletic Commission for the New York Territory. It was determined by the regional States Athletic Sport Commission that Ali Baba would have to defend his title on May 5, 1936 in Madison Square Garden against Dave Shikat. |
| 19th | Dave Levin | 1 | 109 | June 12, 1936 | Newark, New Jersey, USA | Houseshow | |
| 20th | Dean Detton | 1 | 260 | September 29, 1936 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | Houseshow | Detton defeated Ed Lewis in the final of a tournament. |
| 21st | Bronko Nagurski | 1 | 520 | June 16, 1937 | Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA | Houseshow | |
| 22nd | Jim Londos | 1 | 2601 | November 18, 1938 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | Houseshow | Londos resigned as World Champion in 1946. |
| 23 | Lou Thesz | 1 | 2637 | January 1, 1948 | United States | Houseshow | Thesz combined three individual titles and was considered the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion . In the National Wrestling Association , Thesz won their version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship on July 20, 1949 by defeating Bill Langson. On November 27, 1949, the version of the National Wrestling Alliance was granted to him without a fight, and on May 21, 1952, Thesz won the Los Angeles Regional Olympic Auditorium World Heavyweight Championship in Los Angeles by defeating Baron Michele Leon. |
| 24 | Whipper Billy Watson | 1 | 239 | March 15, 1956 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Houseshow | |
| 25th | Lou Thesz | 2 | 217 | November 9, 1956 | St. Louis, Missouri, USA | Houseshow | |
| - | Title united | - | - | July 24, 1957 | Montreal, Quebec | - | The title was associated with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . |
statistics
| space | Surname | number | Days in total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ed Lewis | 4th | 3073 |
| 2 | Jim Londos | 1 | 2628 |
| 3 | Joe Stecher | 3 | 1959 |
| 4th | Frank Gotch | 1 | 1824 |
| 5 | Lou Thesz | 2 | 1651 |
| 6th | George Hackenschmidt | 1 | 1065 |
| 7th | Earl Caddock | 1 | 1026 |
| 8th | Gus Sonnenberg | 1 | 705 |
| 9 | Bronko Nagurski | 1 | 507 |
| 10 | Stanislaus Zbyszko | 2 | 346 |
| 11 | Dean Detton | 1 | 273 |
| 12 | Billy Watson | 1 | 239 |
| 13 | Danno O'Mahoney | 1 | 216 |
| 14th | Ed Don George | 1 | 124 |
| 15th | Dave Levin | 1 | 109 |
| 16 | Wayne Munn | 1 | 97 |
| 17th | Dick Shikat | 1 | 54 |
| 18th | Ali Baba | 1 | 48 |