AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship

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AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship.png
The championship belt
Details
PromotionAmerican Wrestling Association
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Date establishedJune 14, 1981
Date retired1993
Other name(s)
  • FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship
  • WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship

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
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
 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[]

  1. ^ The date the title is changed is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.
  2. ^ The exact date the championship was vacated is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 215 and 244 days.
  3. ^ The length Graham's reign has not been verified by documentation, making the length of the actual reign too uncertain to calculate.
  4. ^ The exact date the AWA stops promoting on a regular basis is unknown making the length of the reign too uncertain to calculate.
  5. ^ The exact date the championship was won is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 456 and 486 days.
  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[]

References[]

  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.
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