NWF North American Heavyweight Championship
Details
PromotionNational Wrestling Federation (NWF)
International Wrestling Association (IWA)
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW)
Date established1968
Date retired1977 and 1981
Other name(s)
  • NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Buffalo/Cleveland version)
  • IWA North American Heavyweight Championship
Statistics
Most reignsJohnny Powers
(12 reigns)
Longest reignTiger Jeet Singh
(608 days)
Shortest reignErnie Ladd
(24 hours)

The NWF North American Heavyweight Championship was a secondary singles title in the American professional wrestling promotion, the National Wrestling Federation. The title started in 1968 as a National Wrestling Alliance title, named the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Buffalo/Cleveland version) until the NWF was founded in 1970. It was then renamed with the NWF name. The NWF would close in 1974, and the title migrated to New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The title was then retired in 1981, after announcement of the IWGP, a new governing body, which would promote their own-branded championships.[1][2]

Title history

Key
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
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Buffalo/Cleveland version)
1 Moose Cholak October 1968 (NLT) NWF show N/A 1 [Note 1] Still champion as of December 11, 1968.
2 Johnny Powers 1968 (NLT) NWF show N/A 1 [Note 2]
3 Bulldog Brower 1969 (NLT) NWF show N/A 1 [Note 3]
4 Johnny Powers May 1969 (NLT) NWF show N/A 2 [Note 4]
5 Bulldog Brower January 1, 1970 NWF show Cleveland, OH 2 [Note 5]
6 Johnny Powers July 1, 1970 (NLT) NWF show N/A 3 [Note 6]
7 Bulldog Brower July 2, 1970 NWF show Cleveland, OH 3 [Note 7]
NWF North American Heavyweight Championship
8 Ernie Ladd December 5, 1970 NWF show Akron, OH 1 117
— Vacated April 1, 1971 — Cleveland, OH — — Championship vacated after a match between Ladd and Tex McKenzie
9 Johnny Powers April 3, 1971 NWF show Cleveland, OH 4 5
10 Ernie Ladd April 8, 1971 NWF show Cleveland, OH 2 49
11 Waldo Von Erich May 27, 1971 NWF show Cleveland, OH 1 174
12 Johnny Powers November 17, 1971 NWF show Buffalo, NY 5 289
13 Johnny Valentine September 1, 1972 NWF show Cleveland, OH 1 21
14 Johnny Powers September 22, 1972 NWF show Cleveland, OH 6 0
— Vacated September 22, 1972 — — — — Championship vacated pending a review of the match.
15 Johnny Valentine October 1972 (NLT) NWF show N/A 2 [Note 8] Won the rematch.
16 Ernie Ladd November 22, 1972 NWF show Buffalo, NY 3 1
17 Johnny Powers November 23, 1972 NWF show Cleveland, OH 7 72
18 Karl Von Krupp February 3, 1973 NWF show Akron, OH 1 14
19 Johnny Powers February 17, 1973 NWF show Akron, OH 8 77
20 Eric the Animal May 5, 1973 NWF show Cleveland, OH 1 11
21 Johnny Powers May 16, 1973 NWF show Buffalo, NY 9 31
22 J.B. Psycho June 16, 1973 NWF show Buffalo, NY 1 8
23 Johnny Powers June 24, 1973 NWF show Akron, OH 10 221
24 Ernie Ladd January 31, 1974 NWF show Cleveland, OH 4 [Note 9]
25 Ox Baker March 1974 (NLT) NWF show N/A 1 [Note 10]
26 Ernie Ladd March 14, 1974 NWF show Cleveland, OH 5 4
27 Johnny Powers March 18, 1974 NWF show Akron, OH 11 [Note 11]
Super Pro-Wrestling North American Heavyweight Title
28 Dominic DeNucci April 1974 (NLT) NWF show N/A 1 [Note 12]
29 George Steele May 31, 1974 NWF show Pittsburgh, PA 1 [Note 13]
30 Dominic Denucci June 21, 1974 (NLT) NWF show N/A 2 [Note 14]
31 Stan Stasiak July 27, 1974 (NLT) NWF show N/A 1 [Note 15] Sometime between July 5, 1974 and July 27, 1974.
32 Ox Baker August 20, 1974 NWF show N/A 2 7
33 Ernie Ladd August 27, 1974 NWF show N/A 6 62
IWA North American Heavyweight Championship
34 Tarzan Tyler October 28, 1974 NWF show N/A 1 70 On January 1975 billed as champion upon promotion startup.
35 Ox Baker January 6, 1975 NWF show Savannah, GA 3 [Note 16]
— Vacated May 1975 — — — — Championship vacated when Baker left the promotion.
36 Bulldog Brower July 1975 NWF show N/A 4 [Note 17] Awarded, or possibly by defeating Mighty Igor or Johnny Powers after Baker leaves the promotion; still champion as of August 1977.
NWF North American Heavyweight Championship
37 Johnny Powers January 1979 (NLT) NWF show N/A 12 [Note 18] Billed as champion for a tour of Japan.
38 Seiji Sakaguchi January 26, 1979 NWF show Okayama, Japan 1 238
39 Tiger Jeet Singh September 21, 1979 NWF show Sendai, Japan 1 608
— Deactivated April 23, 1981 — — — — The championship retired after announcement of the IWGP.

See also

Explanatory footnotes

  1. ^ The exact length of this reign is too uncertain to calculate but it lasted at least 101 days.
  2. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 171 days
  3. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 30 days
  4. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 149 days
  5. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 150 days
  6. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 181 days
  7. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 156 days
  8. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 22 and 52 days
  9. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 41 days
  10. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 13 days
  11. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 43 days
  12. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 31 and 74 days
  13. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 21 days
  14. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 56 days
  15. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 24 and 59 days
  16. ^ The exact date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means that the reign lasted between 115 and 145 days.
  17. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 208 days
  18. ^ The date the championship was won and/or lost is uncertain, which means the reign lasted between 1 and 208 days

References

  1. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  2. ^ Tanabe, Hisaharu. "N.W.F. North American Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved June 26, 2007.

External links

National Wrestling Federation
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Categories