AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
Appearance
AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
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![]() The championship belt | |||||||||||
Details | |||||||||||
Promotion | American Wrestling Association Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling | ||||||||||
Date established | June 14, 1981 | ||||||||||
Date retired | 1993 | ||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||
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The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a title in the American Wrestling Association from 1981 until it closed in 1991. In 1988 Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling claimed that Jim Backlund won the championship, something not officially acknowledged by the AWA. From 1988 through the closure of the AWA in 1991 there were two separate lineages, with the championship recognized by FMW being renamed in 1991 to become the FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship and then later on the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship before being abandoned altogether in 1993.[1]
Title history
- Promotioms
± | Indicates that the title was promoted by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling at this point in time. |
§ | Indicates that the title was promoted as the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship |
No. | Overall reign number |
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Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
Days | Number of days held |
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||||
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Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||||
1 | Mike Graham | June 11, 1981< | AWA House show | N/A | 1 | [Note 1] | Graham was awarded the title. | [1] | ||
2 | Buck Zumhofe | June 19, 1983 | AWA House show | Hamburg, Minnesota | 1 | 280 | Bobby Heenan defeated Zumhofe several times but was over the Light Heavyweight weight limit. | [1] | ||
3 | Steve Regal | March 25, 1984 | AWA House show | Saint Paul, Minnesota | 1 | 613 | [1] | |||
4 | Buck Zumhofe | November 28, 1985 | AWA House show | Saint Paul, Minnesota | 2 | [Note 2] | [1] | |||
— | Vacated | July 1986 | — | — | — | — | The title was vacated when Zumhofe was sent to prison. | [1] | ||
5 | Mike Graham | December 13, 1988 | AWA House show | Chicago, Illinois | 2 | [Note 3] | Records are unclear on how Graham won the championship | [1] | ||
Championship history is unrecorded from to . | ||||||||||
!6 | Buck Zumhofe | August 11, 1990 | AWA House show | Rochester, Minnesota | 3 | [Note 4] | Defeated Jonnie Stewart to win the title in AWA. | [1][2] | ||
Championship history is unrecorded from to . | ||||||||||
† | Jim Backlund § | December 1988 | House show | Tampa, Florida | 1 | [Note 5] | Recognized as the sixth champion by FMW in Japan but not by AWA; may have defeated Graham for the title. | [1] | ||
† | Lee Gak-soo § | April 1, 1990 | FMW House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | [Note 6] | [1] | |||
— | Vacated | September 1990 | — | — | — | — | Lee left FMW | [1] | ||
† | Katsuji Ueda § | September 25, 1990 | FMW House show | Nagoya, Japan | 1 | 41 | Defeated Jim Backlund to win the vacant championship | [1] | ||
† | Jim Backlund § | November 5, 1990 | FMW 1st Anniversary Show | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 205 | AWA officially closes in 1991 after not promoting shows since the fall of 1990. The championship is renamed the FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship at some point during Backlund's reign | [1] | ||
† | Ricky Fuji § | May 29, 1991 | FMW House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 87 | [1] | |||
† | Mark Starr § | August 24, 1991 | FMW House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 7 | [1] | |||
† | Katsuji Ueda § | August 31, 1991 | FMW House show | Chiba, Japan | 2 | 205 | [1] | |||
† | Dr. Luther § / ± | March 23, 1992 | FMW House show | Saitama, Japan | 1 | 197 | Renamed WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship in April 1992. | [1] | ||
† | Katsuji Ueda ± | September 7, 1992 | FMW House show | Saitama, Japan | 3 | [Note 7] | [1] | |||
— | Deactivated | 1993 | — | — | — | — | Replaced with Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship | [1] |
Footnotes
- ^ The date the title is changed is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.
- ^ The exact date the championship was vacated is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 215 and 244 days.
- ^ The length Graham's reign has not been verified by documentation, making the length of the actual reign too uncertain to calculate.
- ^ The exact date the AWA stops promoting on a regular basis is unknown making the length of the reign too uncertain to calculate.
- ^ The exact date the championship was won is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 456 and 486 days.
- ^ The exact date the championship was vacated which means that the reign lasted between 518 and 542 days.
- ^ The date the title is abandoned is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "American Wrestling Association World Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
- ^ Hoops, Brian (August 11, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (August 11): Verne Gagne vs. Lou Thesz for AWA title, first ever G1 final". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 18, 2017.