NWA currently recognizes 102 individual World's Heavyweight Championship reigns.[1][2] The inaugural champion was Orville Brown. The longest reigning champion is Lou Thesz, who held the title from November 27, 1949 to March 15, 1956, for a total of 2,300 days (6 years, 3 months, and 16 days); Thesz also holds the record for longest combined reigns at 3,749 days. Shane Douglas and Ray González share the record for the shortest reign as champion, with both men holding the title for less than 1 day. Ric Flair holds the record for most reigns with 9. The youngest champion is Chris Candido who won the title at the age of 22, while the oldest champion is Tim Storm, who won it at the age of 51.
On July 14, 1948, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was founded in Waterloo, Iowa and Brown was recognized as the first official NWA World Heavyweight Champion. At the time of the founding of the NWA, Brown already held the Midwest Wrestling Association's World Heavyweight Championship and the Iowa version of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship; during Brown's reign, the two championships were unified into the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Carpentier was awarded the title when Lou Thesz could not continue the match due to a back injury. In some territories, Thesz continued to be recognized as NWA World Heavyweight Champion, while in others Carpentier was billed as the champion.
Thesz won a rematch against Édouard Carpentier by disqualification. The NWA initially continued to recognize Carpentier as the champion, but voided any recognition of Carpentier as champion when he withdrew the claim for the title when Eddie Quinn, Carpentier's promoter in Montreal, quit the NWA in August 1958. Some territories such as Boston's Atlantic Athletic Commission (AAC), Los Angeles' North American Wrestling Alliance (NAWA, later WWA), and the Nebraska promotions continued to recognize Carpentier as NWA World Heavyweight Champion. The AAC recognized Killer Kowalski as world champion when he defeated Carpentier in Boston. Nebraska later recognized Verne Gagne as world champion when he defeated Carpentier in Omaha. Los Angeles recognized Freddie Blassie as world champion when he defeated Carpentier in 1961.
Brazil refused the title because of a groin injury that Buddy Rogers had claimed to have. However, on September 6, 1962, Brazil was declared champion because a doctor had determined that Rogers had not suffered an injury. This title change is not currently recognized by the NWA.
Kowalski defeated Buddy Rogers on November 21 in Montreal after Rogers broke his ankle in the first fall. He was only recognized as champion in some states such as Texas until January 21, 1963 when he lost a rematch to Rogers in New York City. Kowalski disputed that Rogers had won the title during the rematch, arguing that the match had not been for the title. The NWA does not recognize any of Rogers' losses, with only one title reign counted for Rogers.
On February 9, 1982 in Miami, The Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes under a mask due to being under suspension in Florida) defeated Ric Flair for the title, but he returned it when then-NWA President Bob Geigel asked Rider to unmask or return the championship belt as NWA rules at the time forbade masked wrestlers from holding it.
Veneno defeated Ric Flair in Santo Domingo. As Veneno refused to defend the title outside his native country, the title was returned to Flair on the same day.
This was a fictional match; this title change is not recognized by the NWA. On February 8, 1983, Victor Jovica defeated Flair to win the championship during a World Wrestling Council (WWC) event in Trinidad and Tobago, but the decision was reversed three days later because Jovica's feet were on the ropes during the pin. Due to the nature of the pin, neither the NWA nor the WWC recognized Jovica as champion.
This title change was not authorized by the NWA. This title change was recognized by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1998 until 2001, and has been occasionally recognized by the NWA since 2015.
This title change was not authorized by the NWA. This title change was recognized by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1998 until 2001, and has been occasionally recognized by the NWA since 2015.
By early 1985, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) controlled many NWA territories and attempted going national, thus limiting championship matches primarily to performers under contract with JCP.
WCW withdrew from the NWA on September 1, 1993. Dropping any mentions of the NWA name, WCW retained the physical title belt, which continued to be defended as the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. The NWA declared their championship vacant.
Shane Douglas, immediately upon winning it, refused the NWA championship and declared the ECW Championship, of which he was already in possession, to be a world championship. ECW then withdrew from the NWA.
The championship was held up after a Corino vs. Shinya Hashimoto title match ended in a no contest due to Corino being unable to compete after sustaining a head injury.
This was three matches held round robin style; Gary Steele vs. Steve Corino, Gary Steele vs. Shinya Hashimoto, and Steve Corino vs. Shinya Hashimoto. Hashimoto won the round robin matches.
In June 2002, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) worked out a licensing deal with the NWA to control and feature the NWA Championship. Shamrock defeated Malice to win the title.
González pinned Jarrett on April 3 in San Juan, but the decision was reversed after the match due to an unauthorized referee counting the pinfall while the originally sanctioned referee was knocked out. Title change was ignored by TNA but was retroactively recognized by the NWA in 2015.
The title was returned to Jarrett due to the nature of the championship match. The NWA regards this as a continuation of Jarrett's third reign rather than the start of his fourth reign.[32]
Pearce defeated Brent Albright in the finals of the Reclaiming the Glory tournament. Pearce competed as a substitute for Bryan Danielson, who defeated Pearce in the semifinals but withdrew from the tournament due to a detached retina. Danielson was the special referee.
Aired September 23, 2012 via tape delay. This was a two-out-of-three falls match and was match four of a seven-match series between Pearce and Colt Cabana. During this reign, ownership of the NWA World Championship and the NWA itself was transferred from Pro Wrestling Organization LLC to the International Wrestling Corp.
Adam Pearce left the NWA and resigned as champion after the organization refused to allow him to defend the title in the concluding match of his seven-match series against Colt Cabana. The match did take place with Cabana winning, but both wrestlers refused the title in the aftermath.
Kahagas won an elimination match for the vacant title by last eliminating Damien Wayne. Match also featured Chance Prophet, Jason Kincaid, Lance Erikson, Anthony Nese, Papadon, Biggie Biggs, and Lance Anoa'i. Kahagas was the reigning NWA National Heavyweight Champion at the time of his victory.
On October 1, 2017, Billy Corgan's company Lightning One, Inc. purchased the NWA, including the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. During this reign, the NWA's licensing model was abolished and championship matches were limited primarily to performers under contract with Lightning One, Inc.
Duncan, Royal; Will, Gary (2000). "United States: 19th century & widely defended titles – NWA, WWF, AWA, IWA, ECW, NWA: NWA World Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories: Professional Wrestling Champions Around the World from the 19th Century to the Present. Waterloo, ON: Archeus Communications. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Orville Brown 1948/07 Recognized as the first champion when the National Wrestilng Alliance is founded in 48/07 in Waterloo, IA by Pinkie George with five other promoters."
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Unifies following titles to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight champion:
National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight title, having defeated Bill Longson on 48/07/20 in Indianapolis, IN
National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight title, awarded on 49/11/27 when champion Orville Brown is injured in an automobile accident on 49/11/01 before a unification match scheduled on 49/11/25 in St. Louis, MO
Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium version of the world title, defeating Baron Michele Leone on 52/05/21 in Los Angeles, CA."
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Whipper Billy Watson 56/03/15 Toronto, ON"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Lou Thesz [2] 56/11/09 St. Louis, MO"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Edouard Carpentier # 57/06/14 Chicago, IL"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Lou Thesz # 57 Carpentier withdraws his claim to the title when Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn leaves NWA; NWA voids all recognition of Carpentier as champion"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Pat O'Connor 59/01/09 St. Louis, MO"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Lou Thesz [3] 63/01/24 Toronto, ON
Promoters in northeast refuse to recognize Rogers' one-fall loss to Thesz and start World Wide Wrestling Federation with Rogers as the first WWWF World Heavyweight champion"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 15 "Gene Kiniski 66/01/07 St. Louis, MO"
^ abDuncan & Will (2000) p. 17 "Flair allows himself to be pinned by Jack Veneno to avoid the riot from the audience, but the title is returned to Flair"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 17 "Carlos Colon # 1983/01/06 San Juan, PR"
^Duncan & Will (2000) p. 19 "Chris Candido 1994/11/19 Cherry Hill, NJ Defeats Tracy Smothers in tournament final."
^"2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts". Wrestling's Historical Cards: Beach Blast (Biloxi, Mississippi, Mississippi Coast Coliseum). Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 140.
^Cawthon, Graham (2014). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 4: World Championship Wrestling 1989-1994. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN978-1499656343.
^"Smoky Mountain Wrestling: January-March 1995". Pro Wrestling Supercards and Tournaments. Retrieved 2008-01-10. February 24, 1995 in Erlanger, KY; Dan Severn beat Chris Candido (10:00) via submission to win the NWA World Title.