NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Detroit) Promotion Fred Kohler Enterprises Big Time Wrestling Date established September 3, 1953 Date retired October, 1980
NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Chicago)
First champion(s) Verne Gagne Final champion(s) The Sheik Most reigns The Sheik (12 reigns )Longest reign The Sheik (538 days) Shortest reign Pampero Firpo & Bobo Brazil (7 days)Oldest champion The Sheik (53 years, 298 days) Youngest champion Gino Hernandez (19 years, 147 days)Heaviest champion Abdullah the Butcher (430 lb (200 kg; 31 st))Lightest champion Verne Gagne (215 lb (98 kg; 15.4 st))
The NWA Detroit United States Heavyweight Championship was a version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship contested in Big Time Wrestling from 1959 until 1980. It was originally known as the Chicago version and contested on shows produced by Fred Kohler Enterprises .[1] While the National Wrestling Alliance recognized only one World Heavyweight Champion , there were multiple "NWA United States Heavyweight Champion"s, as many NWA-affiliated promotions/"territories" across the U.S. each had its own version of an "American" or "United States" championship. For most such territories -- including Detroit -- the U.S. Title was the promotion's primary singles championship. Over its history, the title was held by stars including Bobo Brazil , The Sheik , Wilbur Snyder , Johnny Valentine , and multi-time AWA World Heavyweight Champions Verne Gagne and Dick the Bruiser .
Michigan wrestling promotion XICW (Xtreme Intense Championship Wrestling) has a U.S. Title used on their shows that is based on the NWA U.S. Title Detroit version in look and design.
Title history [ ]
Wrestler:
Times:
Date:
Location:
Notes:
NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Chicago Version)
Verne Gagne
1
September 3, 1953
Chicago, IL
Awarded the title [2]
Wilbur Snyder
1
April 7, 1956
Chicago, IL
Hans Schmidt
1
October 19, 1956
Chicago, IL
Wilbur Snyder
2
February 19, 1957
Chicago, IL
Dick the Bruiser
1
December 14, 1957
Chicago, IL
Verne Gagne
2
April 12, 1958
Chicago, IL
splits his own version into Minneapolis version, later renamed AWA United States Championship
Wilbur Snyder
3
November 15, 1958
Chicago, IL
Angelo Poffo
1
December 27, 1958
Cincinnati, OH
Renamed NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Detroit version)
Wilbur Snyder
4
May 2, 1959
Detroit, MI
Dick the Bruiser
2
May 23, 1959
Detroit, MI
Bob Ellis
1
June 2, 1960
Windsor, Ontario
[3]
Dick the Bruiser
3
June 11, 1960
Detroit, MI
Bobo Brazil
1
January 28, 1961
Detroit, MI
Dick the Bruiser
4
February 28, 1961
Detroit, MI
[4]
Fritz Von Erich
1
December 1, 1961
Detroit, MI
Wilbur Snyder
5
1962
?
Dick the Bruiser
5
June 2, 1962
Detroit, MI
[3]
Lord Athol Layton
1
August 4, 1962
?
Fritz Von Erich
2
June 9, 1963
Detroit, MI
Lord Athol Layton
2
July 20, 1963
Detroit, MI
Fritz Von Erich
3
October 19, 1963
Detroit, MI
Johnny Valentine
1
June 13, 1964
Detroit, MI
The Sheik
1
February 6, 1965
Detroit, MI
Bobo Brazil
2
August 1967
?
The Sheik
2
October 1967
?
Bobo Brazil
3
July 29, 1971
Detroit, MI
Pampero Firpo
1
August 12, 1972
Detroit, MI
Bobo Brazil
4
August 19, 1972
Detroit, MI
Pampero Firpo
2
October 28, 1972
Detroit, MI
Bobo Brazil
5
December 23, 1972
Detroit, MI
The Sheik
3
December 30, 1972
Detroit, MI
Bobo Brazil
6
January 13, 1973
Detroit, MI
[5]
The Sheik
4
January 27, 1973
Detroit, MI
Johnny Valentine
2
July 7, 1973
Detroit, MI
The Sheik
5
July 21, 1973
Detroit, MI
Johnny Valentine
3
1973
?
The Sheik
6
September 1973
?
Tony Marino
1
March 2, 1974
Detroit, MI
The Sheik
7
March 16, 1974
Detroit, MI
Bobo Brazil
7
January 25, 1975
Detroit, MI
Awarded when Sheik no-shows title defenses
Abdullah the Butcher
1
February 8, 1975
Detroit, MI
Bobo Brazil
8
April 19, 1975
Detroit, MI
The Sheik
8
July 5, 1975
Detroit, MI
Mark Lewin
1
September 27, 1975
Detroit, MI
"Bulldog" Don Kent
1
November 1, 1975
Detroit, MI
Mark Lewin
2
December 1975
?
Vacated
February 14, 1976
Title vacant
Bobo Brazil
9
April 21, 1976
Awarded when Brute Bernard was injured before tournament final. At this point, Brazil was still undefeated with the WWWF version of the title which the WWWF had deactivated seven weeks earlier on March 1st, 1976.
The Sheik
9
May 15, 1976
Detroit, MI
Pampero Firpo
3
July 17, 1976
Detroit, MI
[6]
Don Kent
2
October 16, 1976
Detroit, MI
Gino Hernandez
1
January 8, 1977
Detroit, MI
The Sheik
10
April 2, 1977
Detroit, MI
Ox Baker
1
September 1977
Detroit, MI
The Sheik
11
between 1977 & 1980
?
Mighty Igor
1
between 1977 & 1980
?
The Sheik
12
May 3, 1980
Detroit, MI
[7]
Title Retired
October 1980
Promotion closes, Sheik takes title to International Championship Wrestling . He still claims a splinter version in Tri-State Wrestling Alliance in 1991.
See also [ ]
United States portal
References [ ]
^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4 .
^ Hoops, Brian (September 3, 2015). "ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY (SEPT. 3): RIC FLAIR VS. TERRY FUNK TEXAS DEATH MATCH, GREAT MUTA VS. STING, TED DIBIASE AND STAN HANSEN WINS AJPW TAG TITLES" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 10, 2017 .
^ a b Hoops, Brian (June 2, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (June 2): Hogan beats Inoki to win 1st IWGP tourney, HTM's Intercontinental title reign begins" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 11, 2017 .
^ Hoops, Brian (February 28, 2017). "Daily pro wrestling history (02/28): Andersen & Hansen win NWA Tag Titles" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 28, 2017 .
^ Hoops, Brian (January 13, 2019). "Pro wrestling history (01/13): TNA Genesis 2013" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online . Retrieved January 18, 2019 .
^ Hoops, Brian (July 17, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history, Kangaroos, Gagne vs. Kiniski in Hawaii, Gordy wins Triple Crown, Hogan wins WCW title from Flair at Bash at the Beach, famous Punk vs. Cena Chicago bout" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 11, 2017 .
^ F4W Staff (May 3, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history: Low Ki Vs. Dewitt, Punk wins OVW title, Mutoh wins IWGP belt, Bret wins NA title, Dibiase & Dr. Death, Sheik, Watts, Fargos" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 11, 2017 .