The MWA World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestlingworld heavyweight championship in the Kansas City, Kansas-based Midwest Wrestling Association (MWA). It was the direct predecessor of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Championship, and a successor of sorts to the early world heavyweight championships. The title was created in 1940, and first held by Bobby Bruns that January.
At an unknown period, Brown won the and had a match against 4-time World Heavyweight Champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis.
8 November 1933 Brown defeated in St. Louis, Missouri in 7 minutes. 11 April and 16 May 1934 in the same city he fought George Zaharias (of Colorado) then "Ray Steele" (Peter Sauer) to thirty-minute draws.
29 May 1936 in the Houston Post Brown was specified by Jim Londos as the strongest grappler he had ever faced, and that he had wrestled him "a few nights ago" to a two-hour draw in Detroit. 21 September 1936 Brown was named one of the top twenty contenders for the World’s Heavyweight Championship in Houston, Texas by the members of the National Wrestling Association.
1 June 1937 Bruns unsuccessfully challenged World Champion at the Public Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. The match ended in 44:48 when Bruns was laid out and unable to recover.
28 October 1937 Brown lost an important Columbus, Ohio match to , the recognized holder of one of the World Championships. It drew 10,000 people, setting a city record. He lost one other, but then managed to tie Marshall in a third match on 16 December.
1 January 1938 Brown wrestled Pesek to a 90-minute draw. 17 August 1938 Pesek was stripped of the NWA world title and immediately awarded the MWA world title (Marshall's old title) instead.
The title lasted until the MWA joined the newly formed NWA in October 1948, with the MWA champion, Orville Brown, recognized as the first NWA World Heavyweight Champion.[2][3]
Dave Levin defeated Brown in a one-fall match on April 27, 1944 in Kansas City, Kansas, and laid claim to the title. However, Brown claimed that the title could only change hands in a two-out-of-three falls match.
List of early world heavyweight champions in professional wrestling
Footnotes[]
^The date the championship was lost has not been documented which means the championship reign lasted anywhere between 102 days and 72 days
^The date the championship was won has not been documented which means the championship reign lasted anywhere between 17 days and 47 days
^The date the championship was won has not been documented which means the championship reign lasted anywhere between 150 days and 180 days
References[]
General references
Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "(Missouri) World Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 255. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Wrestling-Titles: Orville Brown - biography: "On Nov. 10, 1939 at Bridgeport, Conn., Bobby Bruns defeated Jack Pfefer's world light heavyweight champion Maurice Boyer. From that point forward in New England and the Atlantic Coast, the title changed to a heavyweight title and Pfefer billed Bruns as heavyweight world champion .. On Jan. 18, 1940, Bruns defended this title in a clean win over Brown."
^LegacyOfWrestling Bobby Bruns Wrestling History: "On January 11, 1940, Bruns beat in two-straight falls in Kansas City. A week later, he returned to the Memorial Hall to wrestle Orville Brown for the vacant World Heavyweight Title, recognized by the state of Kansas and by promoter George Simpson. He won the first in 40:30 and then the 3rd in 5:00 to capture the championship."