| American Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||
| Date established | January 19, 1881 | ||||||||
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The American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first heavyweight professional wrestling championship in the United States. The title existed from 1881 through approximately 1922.[1]
| Wrestler | Times | Date won | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edwin Bibby | 1 | January 19, 1881 | New York, New York | Defeats Duncan C. Ross in a catch-as-catch-can match for "the championship of America".[2][3] |
| Joe Acton | 1 | August 7, 1882 | New York, New York | Has defeated Tom Cannon on December 9, 1881, in London, England, for the Catch-as-Catch-Can Title; Bibby is billed as champion for a match against World Greco-Roman champion William Muldoon on September 3, 1882, in Elmira, NY. |
| Evan "Strangler" Lewis | 1 | April 11, 1887 | Chicago, IL | Lewis unified the American Catch-as-Catch Can Championship and the American Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship by defeating Ernest Roeber on March 2, 1893, in a 3 out of 5 falls match with alternating Greco-Roman match and Catch-as-Catch can matches. The two titles became known as the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. |
| Martin "Farmer" Burns | 1 | April 20, 1895 | Chicago, IL | |
| Dan McLeod | 1 | October 26, 1897 | Indianapolis, IN | |
| Yusuf İsmail | 1 | 1898 | ||
| Dan McLeod | 2 | December 25, 1902 | Worcester, Mass. | Jenkins forfeited the title to McLeod after having blood poisoning in his leg during their match. |
| Tom Jenkins | 2 | April 3, 1903 | Buffalo, N.Y. | [4] |
| Frank Gotch | 1 | January 27, 1904 | Bellingham, Wash. | |
| Tom Jenkins | 3 | March 15, 1905 | New York, New York | |
| Frank Gotch | 2 | May 23, 1906 | Kansas City, Missouri | [5] |
| Fred Beell | 1 | December 1, 1906 | New Orleans, LA | [6] |
| Frank Gotch | 3 | December 17, 1906 | Kansas City, Missouri | [6] |
| Vacant | 1910 | Gotch vacates the title after two years as a double crown champion to concentrate on the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship he won from Georg Hackenschmidt on April 3, 1908, in Chicago, Illinois.[4] | ||
| Henry Ordemann | 1 | October 25, 1910 | Minneapolis, MN | Defeats Charlie Cutler and awarded the title by special referee Frank Gotch. |
| Charlie Cutler | 1 | February 1, 1911 | Minneapolis, MN | |
| Dr. Benjamin Roller | 1 | March 6, 1911 | Chicago, IL | |
| Charlie Cutler | 2 | March 25, 1911 | Buffalo, N.Y. | |
| Jess Reimer | 1 | November 7, 1911 | Des Moines, Iowa | |
| Henry Ordemann | 2 | December 14, 1911 | Minneapolis, MN | |
| Charlie Cutler | 3 | March 25, 1912 | Chicago, IL | Jess Westergaard (Reimer) defeats Ordemann on January 7, 1913, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to claim a title but loses to Cutler on January 22, 1913, in Dallas, Texas. |
| Dr. Benjamin Roller | 2 | July 4, 1913 | Benton Harbor, Mich. | |
| Ed "Strangler" Lewis | 1 | September 18, 1913 | Lexington, Ky. | |
| William Demetral | 1 | October 21, 1913 | Lexington, Ky. | |
| Dr. Benjamin Roller | 3 | July 10, 1914 | Rock Island, Ill. | Ed "Strangler" Lewis defeats Roller during an international tournament on January 15, 1916, in New York City (title may not be on line). |
| Wladek Zbyszko | 1 | January 8, 1917 | Wilkes-Barre, Penn. | Still/again champion as of September 22, 1922 (or a different reign, possibly by winning a tournament which has started on February 21, 1922). |
