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AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship

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AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
Details
PromotionAmerican Wrestling Association
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Date establishedJune 1981
Date retired1993
Other name(s)
  • WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship
Statistics
First champion(s)Mike Graham
Most reignsBuck Zumhofe and Katsuji Ueda (3 reigns)
Longest reignSteve Regal (613 days)
Shortest reignMark Starr (7 days)

The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a title in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1981 until it closed in 1991. In 1989, the Japan-based Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) promotion began billing Florida Championship Wrestling/Professional Wrestling Federation champion Jim Backlund as the AWA champion, something not acknowledged by the AWA; the title became FMW's lower weight division title. From 1988 through the closure of the AWA in 1991, there were two separate lineages, with the FMW version of the championship being sometimes referred to as the FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship. In 1992, FMW renamed the title to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship before retiring it in 1993.[1]

Title history

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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
American Wrestling Association (AWA)
 1  Mike Graham  June 1981  House show [Note 1]  1  [Note 2] Graham was awarded the title. [1]
 2  Buck Zumhofe  June 19, 1983  House show Hamburg, Minnesota  1  280 [1]
 3  Steve Regal  March 25, 1984  House show Saint Paul, Minnesota  1  613 [1]
 4  Buck Zumhofe  November 28, 1985  House show Saint Paul, Minnesota  2  [Note 3] [1]
Vacated  July 1986 The title was vacated when Zumhofe was sent to prison. [1]
 5  Mike Graham  December 13, 1988  House show Chicago, Illinois  2  [Note 4] Records are unclear on how Graham won the championship. [1]
Championship history is unrecorded from December 13, 1988 to August 11, 1990.
 Buck Zumhofe  August 11, 1990  House show Rochester, Minnesota  3  [Note 5] Defeated Jonnie Stewart to win the title in AWA.
AWA goes out of business on January 12, 1991.
[1][2]
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW)
 6  Jim Backlund December 10, 1988  House show Tampa, Florida  1  477 Backlund defeated Tyree Pride for the FCW Light Heavyweight Championship; because of this victory Backlund is recognized as the sixth AWA champion by FMW in Japan during 1989 but not by the AWA itself. [1]
 7  Lee Gak-soo  April 1, 1990  House show Tokyo, Japan  1  [Note 6] [1]
Vacated  September 1990 Title vacated after Lee left FMW. [1]
 8  Katsuji Ueda  September 25, 1990  Battle Field Nagoya, Japan  1  41 Defeated Jim Backlund in a "Different Style Match" tournament final. [1]
 9  Jim Backlund  November 5, 1990  FMW 1st Anniversary Show Tokyo, Japan  2  205 [1]
 10  Ricky Fuji  May 29, 1991  House show Tokyo, Japan  1  87 [1]
 11  Mark Starr  August 24, 1991  House show Tokyo, Japan  1  7 [1]
 12  Katsuji Ueda  August 31, 1991 House show Chiba, Japan  2  205 [1]
 13  Dr. Luther  March 23, 1992  House show Saitama, Japan  1  197 The title is renamed to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship in April 1992. [1]
 14  Katsuji Ueda  September 7, 1992  House show Saitama, Japan  3  [Note 7] [1]
Deactivated  1993 The title is retired and replaced with the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship. [1]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ The location of the title change is not documented.
  2. ^ The date the title is changed is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.
  3. ^ The exact date the championship was vacated is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 215 and 244 days.
  4. ^ The length Graham's reign has not been verified by documentation, making the length of the actual reign too uncertain to calculate.
  5. ^ The exact date the AWA stops promoting on a regular basis is unknown making the length of the reign too uncertain to calculate.
  6. ^ The exact date the championship was vacated which means that the reign lasted between 518 and 542 days.
  7. ^ The date the title is abandoned is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.