List of early world heavyweight champions in professional wrestling

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A diagram showing the evolution of various world heavyweight championships

The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first recognized professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created in 1905 to identify the best catch as catch can professional wrestler in the world. The first recognized World Heavyweight Champion was George Hackenschmidt, who officially won the championship on May 4, 1905 by defeating Tom Jenkins in New York, New York,[1] the championship remained active for the next 51 years with the last recognized reign beginning on November 9, 1956.

Title history

Key
Reign The reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed
# Indicates what number the reign is
Event The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the titles were won
N/A The information is not available or is unknown
# Wrestlers Reign Date Days held Location Event Notes
1
George Hackenschmidt
1
May 4, 1905
1,065
New York, New York
Live event
 Hackenscmidt won a world championship tournament to become the first champion. Hackenschmidt won several other tournaments in Paris, France; Hamburg, Germany; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Elberfeld, Germany; and Berlin, Germany in the same year. He also won the European Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship title from Tom Cannon on September 4, 1902 in Liverpool, England. He won the recognition of being the World Heavyweight Champion on January 30, 1904 in London, England by defeating Ahmed Madrali. Hackenschmidt defeated American Heavyweight Champion, Tom Jenkins, on May 4, 1905 in New York, New York to become the recognized World Champion in North America.[2]
2
Frank Gotch
1
April 3, 1908
1,824
Chicago, Illinois
Live event
 Gotch held the title for five years until April 1, 1913. He was the sixth longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion in history behind Bruno Sammartino, Jim Londos, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne (who all held their World Titles for over seven years) and Bob Backlund (who held his for nearly six years).[1]
—
Vacated
—
April 1, 1913
—
Kansas City, Missouri
Live event
 Vacated due to Gotch's retirement
3
Joe Stecher
1
July 5, 1915
644
Omaha, Nebraska
Live event
 Stecher defeated Charlie Cutler to become the first widely recognized world heavyweight champion after the retirement of Frank Gotch.[3]
4
Earl Caddock
1
April 9, 1917
1,026
Omaha, Nebraska
Live event
 [4]
5
Joe Stecher
2
January 30, 1920
318
New York, New York
Live event
 [5]
6
Ed Lewis
1
December 13, 1920
144
New York, New York
Live event
 [6][7]
7
Stanislaus Zbyszko
1
May 6, 1921
301
New York, New York
Live event
 [8]
8
Ed Lewis
2
March 3, 1922
1,042
Wichita, Kansas
Live event
 [9]
9
Wayne Munn
1
January 8, 1925
97
Wichita, Kansas
Live event
 [10]
10
Stanislaus Zbyszko
2
April 15, 1925
45
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Live event
 Though Zbyszko defeated Munn to win the championship, Munn continued to be recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in Michigan and in Illinois.[11]
11
Joe Stecher
3
May 30, 1925
997
St. Louis, Missouri
Live event
 [12]
12
Ed Lewis
3
February 21, 1928
318
St. Louis, Missouri
Live event
 Lewis defeats Wayne Munn on February 2, 1928 in Michigan City, Indiana for the Michigan/Illonois World Heavyweight Championship version. Lewis defeats Stecher on February 21, 1928 to end the dispute.[13]
13
Gus Sonnenberg
1
January 4, 1929
705
Boston, Massachusetts
Live event
 The recognition of being the World Heavyweight Champion was withdrawn from Gus Sonnenberg by the wrestling section of the National Boxing Association in 1929 for failing to meet real title contenders.[14]
14
Ed Don George
1
December 10, 1930
124
Los Angeles, California
Live event
15
Ed Lewis
4
April 13, 1931
1,569
Los Angeles, California
Live event
 Lewis lost the AWA World Heavyweight Championship by disqualification to Henri Deglane on May 4, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but still recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in Illinois. Lewis also defeated the title claimer, Wladek Zbyszko, on November 2, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois for the title. Lewis continued to win the New York State Athletic Commission World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Jack Sherry on October 10, 1932.[15]
16
Danno O'Mahoney
1
July 30, 1935
216
Boston, Massachusetts
Live event
 O'Mahoney defeated Jim Londos to win the New York State Athletic Commission World Title. Mahoney continues to win the AWA World Heavyweight Championship (Boston version) by defeating Ed Don George (who had beat Deglane on February 9, 1933) on July 30, 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.[16]
17
Dick Shikat
1
March 2, 1936
54
New York, New York
Live event
 [17]
18
Ali Baba
1
April 25, 1936
48
Detroit, Michigan
Live event
 On April 29, 1936 it was announced by the New York Times that Ali Baba would not be recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in the New York State by The New York Athletic Commission however it was announced that Ali Baba and Dave Shikat would face each other on May 5, 1936 at Madison Square Garden for the World Heavyweight Championship. Ali Baba went on to win the professional wrestling bout and thus be recognized as the World Heavyweight Champion.[18][19][20]
19
Dave Levin
1
June 12, 1936
109
Newark, New Jersey
Live event
 [21]
20
Dean Detton
1
September 29, 1936
273
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Live event
 [22]
21
Bronko Nagurski
1
June 29, 1937
507
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Live event
 Nagurski was recognized as the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion by "The Ring" magazine.[23]
22
Jim Londos
1
November 18, 1938
2,628
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Live event
 Londos retires as World Heavyweight Champion in 1946.[24]
—
Vacated
—
January 28, 1946
—
Denver, Colorado
Live event
 Londos wrestled his last match on this date, defeating Lord Albert Mills.
23
Lou Thesz
1
May 21, 1952
1,394
Los Angeles, California
Live event
 Thesz unified 3 championships to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion, the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship which he won on July 20, 1948 by defeating Bill Longson,[25] the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship which was awarded to him on November 27, 1949,[26] and the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium World Heavyweight Championship which he won on May 21, 1952 by defeating Baron Michele Leon.[27]
24
Whipper Billy Watson
1
March 15, 1956
239
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Live event
 Watson defeated Lou Thesz by Count Out to win the world title.[28]
25
Lou Thesz
2
November 9, 1956
257
St. Louis, Missouri
Live event
 Édouard Carpentier defeated Lou Thesz by disqualification on June 14, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois when Thesz cannot continue the match due to a back injury. The NWA rules states that a title cannot change on a Disqualification and Carpentier gives the title back to Thesz. Edouard Carpentier was then recognized as World Heavyweight Champion in Omaha, Nebraska and in Boston, Massachusetts. He was then later recognized as the World Heavyweight Champion by the World Wrestling Association in Los Angeles, California. This was the last time the World Heavyweight Title has been unified and to date has never been fully unified again. The Omaha version of the World Title was later unified with the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. Lou Thesz defeated Edouard Carpentier in a rematch by disqualification on July 24, 1957 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the title.
—
Retired
—
July 24, 1957
—
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Live event
 Lineage continued over to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

List of combined reigns

Rank Wrestler No. of reigns Combined days
1 Ed Lewis 4 3,073
2 Jim Londos 1 2,628
3 Joe Stecher 3 1,959
4 Frank Gotch 1 1,824
5 Lou Thesz 2 1,651
6 George Hackenschmidt 1 1,065
7 Earl Caddock 1 1,026
8 Gus Sonnenberg 1 705
9 Bronko Nagurski 1 507
10 Stanislaus Zbyszko 2 346
11 Dean Detton 1 273
12 Whipper Billy Watson 1 239
13 Danno O'Mahoney 1 216
14 Ed Don George 1 124
15 Dave Levin 1 109
16 Wayne Munn 1 97
17 Dick Shikat 1 54
18 Ali Baba 1 48

See also

References

General
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Specific
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External links

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