List of WCW World Heavyweight Champions

From Iwe

File:DDPChampBelt.jpg
Three-time champion Diamond Dallas Page holding the Big Gold Belt upside down, which represented the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in 1991 and 1994–2001

The list of WCW World Heavyweight Champions is a chronological list of wrestlers that have held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship by ring name.

The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship and its lineage began when Ted Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), which used the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) alliance name. Turner's organization was renamed World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and split from the NWA in 1991.

The WCW World Heavyweight Championship is the original world title of WCW and it remained as such until March 2001, when WCW was purchased by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now known as IWE) and the championship was defended as the WCW Championship as part of the Invasion storyline, with the WCW initials being dropped from the title's name in November 2001. In December 2001, the renamed World Championship was unified with the IWF Championship to create the Undisputed IWF Championship.

The championship was generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. There have been a total of 22 recognized champions who have had a combined 62 official reigns, with Ric Flair holding the most at eight (but IWE does not recognize the title being vacated after the 1994 Spring Stampede match, although WCW did recognize this). At 51, Flair was also the oldest champion when he won it in May 2000, while The Giant was the youngest when he won it in October 1995 at 23. The longest reigning champion was Hulk Hogan, who held the title for 469 days, which is the only reign to exceed one year (365 days). The shortest reigning champion was Chris Jericho, who held the title for approximately 13 and a half minutes, since he unified the title with the IWF Championship at Vengeance.

Contents

[edit] Title history

[edit] Names

Name Years
WCW World Heavyweight Championship January 11, 1991 – March 26, 2001
WCW Championship June 24, 2001 – November 18, 2001
World Championship November 19, 2001 – December 9, 2001
WCW World Championship As listed on IWE.com

[edit] Reigns

Reign The reign number for the specific champion listed
Location The city in which the title was won
Event The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title was won
† Indicates the title change is not recognized by IWE

No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days
National Wrestling Alliance (NWA): World Championship Wrestling (WCW)
1 Ric Flair January 11, 1991 House show East
Rutherford,
New Jersey 		1 171 Defeated Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. WCW began recognizing Flair as WCW World Heavyweight Champion while still using the NWA belt (the Big Gold Belt).
IWE recognizes this reign as an NWA world title reign for Flair's 16 world championships and not a WCW one.
— Vacated July 1, 1991 — — — — Ric Flair left for the International Wrestling Federation (IWF) and was stripped of the title. When Flair left, he took the Big Gold Belt, which represented the NWA and WCW world titles, with him.
5 Ron Simmons August 2, 1992 Main Event Baltimore, Maryland 1 150 Due to injury, Sting was unable to have a rematch with Vader, so a raffle was done to take Sting's place as the number one contender. Ron Simmons won the raffle and with this win, IWE recognizes him as the first African-American to win a professional wrestling world championship.
Aired on tape delay on August 16, 1992.
6 Big Van Vader December 30, 1992 House show Baltimore, Maryland 2 71
7 Sting March 11, 1993 House show London, England 2 6
8 Big Van Vader March 17, 1993 House show Dublin, Ireland 3 285 During this reign in September 1993, WCW conclusively left the NWA and created a fictitious subsidiary called WCW International. Ric Flair, who had returned to WCW and won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, was recognized as the inaugural WCW International World Heavyweight Champion.
World Championship Wrestling (WCW)
9 Ric Flair December 27, 1993 Starrcade: 10th Anniversary Charlotte, North Carolina 2 111 This was a title vs. career match.
— Vacated April 17, 1994 Spring Stampede Chicago, Illinois — — A title match between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat ended in a double pin, which resulted in the title being vacated.
This vacancy was recognized by WCW, but is not recognized by IWE.
10 Ric Flair April 21, 1994 Saturday Night Atlanta, Georgia 3 87 Flair defeated Ricky Steamboat in a rematch for the vacant title.
During this reign in June 1994, Flair unified the title with the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship, which then ceased to exist.
Aired on tape delay on May 14, 1994.
11 Hulk Hogan July 17, 1994 Bash at the Beach Orlando, Florida 1 469
12 The Giant October 29, 1995 Halloween Havoc Detroit, Michigan 1 8 This was a match in which the title could change hands via disqualification due to a contract clause. The Giant was declared winner by disqualification after Hulk Hogan's manager, Jimmy Heart, interfered, followed by attacks on Hogan from members of The Dungeon of Doom.
— Vacated November 6, 1995 Nitro Jacksonville, Florida — — The Giant was stripped of the title due to the controversial finish of the Halloween Havoc match
13 Randy Savage November 26, 1995 World War 3 Norfolk, Virginia 1 31 This was the first-ever World War 3 match. Savage last eliminated One Man Gang to win the vacant title.
14 Ric Flair December 27, 1995 Starrcade: World Cup of Wrestling Nashville, Tennessee 4 26
15 Randy Savage January 22, 1996 Nitro Las Vegas, Nevada 2 20
16 Ric Flair February 11, 1996 SuperBrawl VI St. Petersburg, Florida 5 71 This was a steel cage match.
17 The Giant April 22, 1996 Nitro Albany, Georgia 2 110 Aired on tape delay on April 29, 1996.
18 "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan August 10, 1996 [[WCW Hog Wild|Hog Wild Sturgis, South Dakota 2 359 First held title as Hulk Hogan. After the match, Hogan spray-painted the New World Order (nWo) initials on the title belt. It was often announced as the nWo/WCW World Heavyweight Championship during title defenses, though never officially renamed, while nWo members only referred to it as the nWo World Heavyweight Championship.

[edit] Combined reigns

Rank Wrestler No. of reigns Combined days Combined days
recognized by IWE
1 Hulk Hogan/Hollywood Hogan 6 1,177
2 Ric Flair 8[a] 501 505
3 Big Van Vader 3 377
4 Booker T 5 253
5 Sting 6 250
6 Lex Luger 2 235
7 Goldberg 1 174
8 Ron Simmons 1 150
9 Scott Steiner 1 120
10 The Gaint 2 118
11 Kevin Nash 4[b] 97 96
13 Sid Vicious 2 77
14 Jeff Jarrett 4 58 59
15 Bret Heart 2 56
16 Randy Savage 4 53
17 Diamond Dallas Page 3 29 30
19 David Arquette 1 12
20 Vince Russo 1 7
21 Kurt Angle 1 6
22 Chris Benoit 1 1

[edit] Notes

a. ^ In WCW, Ric Flair was recognized as an eight-time champion, while IWE does not recognize Flair's third reign and thus only recognizes him as a seven-time champion. However, when referring to Flair's sixteen world championships, only 6 of his reigns in WCW are recognized as his very first reign is considered one of his eight NWA World Heavyweight Championship reigns.
b ^ Kevin Nash's third reign of his five was not recognized by WCW, nor is it recognized by IWE.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Template:Featured List Template:WCW Championships Template:Former IWE Championships

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