NWA International Heavyweight Championship

NWA International Heavyweight Championship
Details
Promotion	Japan Wrestling Association, All Japan Pro Wrestling, NWA Hollywood Wrestling & Championship Wrestling from Florida
Date established	November, 1957
Date retired	April 18, 1988
Statistics Most reigns Giant Baba, Dory Funk, Jr., Bruiser Brody & Jumbo Tsuruta (3 reigns) First champion(s) Lou Thesz Longest reign Giant Baba (944 days) Shortest reign Jumbo Tsuruta (Less than 1 day) Oldest champion Bobo Brazil (48 years, 144 days) Youngest champion Giant Baba (27 years, 305 days) Heaviest champion Giant Baba (330 lb (150 kg; 24 st)) Lightest champion Lou Thesz (225 lb (102 kg; 16.1 st))

This was a regional NWA championship based in Japan. For the WCW International World championship, see WCW International World Heavyweight Championship.

The NWA International Heavyweight Championship was a singles title recognized by the National Wrestling Alliance through its partnership with the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, and later by All Japan Pro Wrestling. It is one of the three titles that were unified into the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship in 1989. Prior to the creation of the Triple Crown, All Japan considered the NWA International title to be its top singles championship.

Under Rikidōzan the belt had a design similar to Lou Thesz's original NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt during the 1950s, but after Rikidōzan's death, the belt given to Giant Baba had the design seen today on the belt part of the Triple Crown. The original design was later used on the PWF Heavyweight Championship, the UWFI belt (which was the original Lou Thesz belt), and a belt later given to Kazushi Sakuraba for show.

Title history

#:	Name(s):	Reigns:	Date:	Location:	Notes:
1	Lou Thesz	1	November, 1957	n/a	Thesz was awarded the championship by the NWA. Houston NWA promoter Morris Sigel claimed that Thesz has won the title by defeating Antonino Rocca in 1949.
2	Rikidōzan	1	August 27, 1958	Los Angeles, California, United States
Vacated on December 15, 1963 following Rikidōzan's death from stab wounds suffered one week earlier in Tokyo, Japan.
3	Giant Baba	1	November 24, 1965	Osaka, Japan	Defeated Dick the Bruiser for the vacant title.
4	Bobo Brazil	1	June 25, 1968	Nagoya, Japan
5	Giant Baba	2	June 27, 1968	Tokyo, Japan
6	Gene Kiniski	1	December 3, 1970	Osaka, Japan
7	Giant Baba	3	December 19, 1970	Los Angeles, California, United States
Vacated on September 2, 1972 when Baba left the Japan Wrestling Association to start All Japan Pro Wrestling.
8	Bobo Brazil	2	December 1, 1972	Yokohama, Japan	Defeated Kintaro Ohki for the vacant title.
9	Kintaro Ohki	1	December 4, 1972	Hiroshima, Japan
After the JWA closed in 1973, Ohki took the belt to South Korea from where he defended it. He vacated the title on April 13, 1981 under orders from the NWA.
10	Dory Funk, Jr.	1	April 30, 1981	Matsudo, Japan	Won tournament for the vacant title when Bruiser Brody was injured and unable to wrestle in the finals. Defeated Terry Funk for his first title defense instead.
11	Bruce Reed	1	1981	Florida, United States	Title reign not recognized in Japan.
12	Dory Funk, Jr.	2	1981	Florida, United States
13	Bruiser Brody	1	October 9, 1981	Tokyo, Japan
14	Dory Funk, Jr.	3	November 1, 1981	Tokyo, Japan
15	Bruiser Brody	2	April 21, 1982	Osaka, Japan
16	Jumbo Tsuruta	1	August 31, 1983	Tokyo, Japan
17	Stan Hansen	1	July 31, 1986	Tokyo, Japan
18	Jumbo Tsuruta	2	October 21, 1986	Tokyo, Japan
19	Bruiser Brody	3	March 27, 1988	Tokyo, Japan
20	Jumbo Tsuruta	3	April 18, 1988	Sendai, Japan
Unified with PWF Heavyweight Championship and NWA United National Championship to create the AJPW Triple Crown Championship.

See also

• AJPW Triple Crown Championship
• All Japan Pro Wrestling
• National Wrestling Alliance

External links

• Wrestling-Titles.com