The World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship sanctioned by a group of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promoters led by the NWA affiliate in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. These promoters chose to recognize Édouard Carpentier as NWA World Heavyweight Champion following his disputed win over NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz on June 14, 1957.[1] The majority of NWA promoters continued to recognize Thesz as their champion.
| World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | National Wrestling Alliance (Nebraska) | ||||||||||
| Date established | June 14, 1957 | ||||||||||
| Date retired | September 7, 1963 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
It was often contested alongside the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, and the two titles were finally unified when AWA champion Verne Gagne defeated Omaha champion Fritz Von Erich on September 7, 1963.
Title history
edit| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||
| 1 | Édouard Carpentier | June 14, 1957 | House show | Chicago, Illinois | 1 | 421 | Recognized as champion after a disputed win over NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz. The majority of the NWA promotions continue to recognize Thesz as their champion. | [1] |
| 2 | Verne Gagne | August 9, 1958 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 1 | 98 | ||
| 3 | Wilbur Snyder | November 15, 1958 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 1 | 189 | ||
| 4 | Dick the Bruiser | May 23, 1959 | House show | Detroit, MI | 1 | 63 | This match was also for the Fred Kohler Chicago version of the NWA United States Championship. | |
| 5 | Wilbur Snyder | July 25, 1959 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 2 | 70 | ||
| 6 | Dr. X | October 3, 1959 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 1 | 96 | ||
| 7 | Don Leo Jonathan | January 7, 1960 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 1 | 394 | ||
| 8 | Dr. X | February 4, 1961 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 2 | 58 | ||
| 9 | Don Leo Jonathan | April 3, 1961 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 2 | 17 | [2] | |
| — | Vacated | April 20, 1961 | — | — | — | — | Vacant after a disqualification loss to Bobo Brazil. | |
| 10 | Don Leo Jonathan | May 20, 1961 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 3 | 119 | Defeated Bobo Brazil in a lumberjack match to win the vacant title. | |
| 11 | Verne Gagne | September 16, 1961 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 2 | 318 | ||
| 12 | Fritz Von Erich | July 31, 1962 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 1 | 25 | ||
| 13 | Verne Gagne | August 25, 1962 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 3 | 174 | ||
| 14 | The Crusher | February 15, 1963 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 1 | 155 | Also won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship from Verne Gagne on July 9, 1963 in Minneapolis, Minnesota | |
| 15 | Verne Gagne | July 20, 1963 | House show | Minneapolis, Minnesota | 4 | 7 | Won both the Omaha title and AWA title. | |
| 16 | Fritz Von Erich | July 27, 1963 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 2 | 42 | Won both the Omaha title and AWA title. | |
| 17 | Verne Gagne | September 7, 1963 | House show | Omaha, Nebraska | 5 | 0 | Won the AWA title from Fritz Von Erich on August 8, 1963 in Amarillo, Texas. | |
| — | Unified | September 7, 1963 | — | — | — | — | The Omaha title was unified with the AWA title. | |
Footnotes
editSee also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b "Canadian Hall of Fame: Edouard Carpentier". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on December 8, 2012. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ F4W Staff (April 3, 2015). "ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING TITLE CHANGE HISTORY: GOTCH VS. HACKENSCHMIDT, INOKI VS. HANSEN, GUERRERO VS. JERICHO". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)