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WSL World Heavyweight Championship

WSL World Heavyweight Championship
Details
PromotionWrestling Superstars Live
Date establishedJune 6, 1996
Date retiredFebruary 21, 2009
Other name(s)
AWA World Heavyweight Championship
AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship
Statistics
First champion(s)Jonnie Stewart
Final champion(s)Keith Walker
Most reignsTakao Omori (3)
Longest reignJonnie Stewart (1,028 days)
Shortest reignDanny Dominion (<1 day)

The WSL World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world championship in the Wrestling Superstars Live promotion. It was originally known as the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship.

History

In 1996, Dale Gagner and his associate Jonnie Stewart, former American Wrestling Association (AWA) employees, filed corporate papers to license the AWA name in the state of Minnesota and formed an organization known as AWA Superstars of Wrestling. On June 6 of that year, Gagner and Stewart created their version of the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, recognizing all previous AWA world champions.

In April 2007 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) filed a lawsuit against Dale Gagner and Jonnie Stewart, citing trademark infringement, as WWE owned all "American Wrestling Association" properties due to their purchase of the company after the original AWA's closure.[1][2][3] In October 2008, a court ruled against Gagner and Stewart and ruled in favor of WWE. The court ruling prohibited Gagner and his associates from exploiting or trading on the AWA name or any other derivatives.[4] As a result, the organization was renamed to Wrestling Superstars Live (WSL). Due to there no longer being connections to the original AWA, WSL began only recognizing championship reigns from 1996 and forward.

Title history

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days
AWA Superstars of Wrestling (AWA)
1 Jonnie Stewart June 6, 1996 House show Rochester, Minnesota 1 1,028 Defeated Larry Gligorovich to win the inaugural AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship. [5]
2 King Kong Bundy March 31, 1999 House show Oshkosh, Wisconsin 1 486
— Vacated July 29, 2000 House show — — —
3 Dale Gagne July 29, 2000 House show Pine Bluff, Arkansas 1 0 Gagne, owner of AWA Superstars of Wrestling, stripped Bundy of the title and declared himself the new champion.
4 The Patriot July 29, 2000 House show Pine Bluff, Arkansas 1 0
5 Larry Gligorovich July 29, 2000 House show Pine Bluff, Arkansas 1 309
6 Eric Priest June 3, 2001 House show Hillside, Illinois 1 292
7 Evan Karagias March 22, 2002 House show Casa Grande, Arizona 1 41
8 Danny Dominion May 2, 2002 House show Cottonwood, Arizona 2 2 Previously won the championship as The Patriot.
9 Evan Karagias May 4, 2002 House show Casa Grande, Arizona 2 161
10 Horshu October 12, 2002 House show Mercedes, Texas 1 267 Stripped of the title due to missing mandatory title defenses.
— Vacated July 6, 2003 — — — —
11 Evan Karagias July 6, 2003 House show Lemoore, California 3 567 Defeated Eric Priest to win the vacant title. Karagias was fired in January 2005 by Dale Gagne for misconduct and refusing to defend the title as scheduled.
— Vacated January 23, 2005 — — — —
AWA Superstars of Wrestling (AWA) / Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max (Zero1-Max)
12 Takao Omori January 23, 2005 Zero1-Max Ground Max Tokyo, Japan 1 139 Defeated Steve Corino in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant championship.
13 Steve Corino June 11, 2005 House show Bay City, Michigan 1 225
14 Shinjiro Otani January 22, 2006 Zero1-Max Faithfully Tokyo, Japan 1 69
15 Takao Omori April 1, 2006 Zero1-Max Yasukuni Shrine Festival Tokyo, Japan 2 64
16 Ric Converse June 4, 2006 House show Indianapolis, Indiana 1 217
17 Steve Corino January 7, 2007 House show Pottstown, Pennsylvania 2 83 On March 23, 2007, Corino lost the title to TNT at an AWF event in Sydney, Australia; however, on March 28, the AWA Superstars of Wrestling Board of Directors returned the title to Corino when the proper paperwork authorizing the title match could not be found.
18 Takao Omori March 31, 2007 Zero1-Max Max Satisfaction Yokohama, Japan 3 209
19 Masato Tanaka October 26, 2007 Zero1-Max Innovation Tokyo, Japan 1 50
— Vacated December 15, 2007 — — — — The championship is vacated after Zero1-Max ended its business relationship with AWA Superstars of Wrestling on December 15, 2007. Zero1-Max, however, continued to recognize Tanaka's reign as the first reign of the Zero1-Max World Heavyweight Championship.
AWA Superstars of Wrestling (AWA)
20 Larry Zbyszko February 5, 2008 — Minneapolis, Minnesota 1 249 Awarded the title for being the final holder of the original AWA World Heavyweight Championship.
† Brian Logan April 20, 2008 House show Fayetteville, West Virginia 1 0 Logan defeated Zbyszko and Ricky Landell in a triple threat match. Shortly thereafter, Mountaineer Wrestling Association of West Virginia, the promotion for which Logan primarily performed, pulled out of AWA Superstars of Wrestling to form the American Wrestling Affiliates with several other promotions. The title was returned to Zbyszko, and Logan's reign was never officially recognized by AWA Superstars of Wrestling. Logan is recognized as the inaugural American Wrestling Affiliates World Heavyweight champion due to this victory.
Wrestling Superstars Live (WSL)
† Larry Zbyszko April 20, 2008 — — 2 174 Title returned to Zbyszko; AWA Superstars of Wrestling considered this a continuation of Zbyszko's previous reign.
21 Ricky Landell October 11, 2008 House show Indianapolis, Indiana 1 133 Title becomes known as the WSL World Heavyweight Championship when the promotion is forced to rename to Wrestling Superstars Live (WSL).
22 Keith Walker February 21, 2009 House show Michigan City, Indiana 1 0
— Deactivated February 21, 2009 — — — — The championship is retired when WSL goes out of business.

Combined reigns

Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns 		Combined days
1 Jonnie Stewart 1 1,028
2 Evan Karagias 3 775
3 King Kong Bundy 1 486
4 Takao Omori 3 412
5 Larry Gligorovich 1 309
6 Steve Corino 2 308
7 Eric Priest 1 292
8 Horshu 1 267
9 Larry Zbyszko 1(2) 249
10 Ric Converse 1 217
11 Ricky Landell 1 133
12 Shinjiro Otani 1 69
13 Masato Tanaka 1 50
14 The Patriot/Danny Dominion 2 2
15 Dale Gagne 1 0
Keith Walker 1 0
— Brian Logan 1 0

American Wrestling Affiliates version

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days
American Wrestling Affiliates (AWA)
1 Brian Logan April 20, 2008 House show Fayetteville, West Virginia 1 195 Logan defeated Zbyszko and Ricky Landell in a triple threat match to win the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World title. Shortly thereafter, Mountaineer Wrestling Association of West Virginia, the promotion for which Logan primarily performs, pulled out of AWA Superstars of Wrestling to form American Wrestling Affiliates with several other promotions. Logan is recognized as the inaugural world champion of the American Wrestling Affiliates. [6]
2 Tony Givens November 1, 2008 House show Kingsport, Tennessee 1 20
3 Brian Logan November 21, 2008 House show Buckhannon, West Virginia 2 70
— Vacated January 30, 2009 — Kingsport, Tennessee — — The championship is vacated after moving to the Championship Wrestling Alliance.
Championship Wrestling Alliance (CWA)
4 Brian Logan January 30, 2009 House show Kingsport, Tennessee 3 120 Logan, the reigning AWA World Heavyweight Champion, was awarded the CWA World Heavyweight title.
5 Robbie Cassidy May 30, 2009 House show Kingsport, Tennessee 1 385 [7]
6 Chris Richards June 19, 2010 House show Kingsport, Tennessee 1 230
— Deactivated February 4, 2011 — Kingsport, Tennessee — — The CWA World Heavyweight Championship was retired and replaced with the NWA Smoky Mountain Heavyweight Championship on February 4, 2011 when the CWA joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and became NWA Smoky Mountain.

Combined reigns

Rank Wrestler No. of
reigns 		Combined days
1 Robbie Cassidy 1 385
Brian Logan 3 385
3 Chris Richards 1 230
4 Tony Givens 1 20

References

  1. ^ Browning, Dan (2007-04-28). "World Wrestling sues promoter". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on 2007-04-28.
  2. ^ "News and Notes, May 4, 2007". GeorgiaWrestlingHistory.com. 2007-05-04.
  3. ^ Ryder, Bob (2007-04-26). "WWE Files Lawsuit Against "Gagne" For Trademark Violations Associated With AWA". 1wrestling.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2009-10-22.
  4. ^ "WWE wins trademark infringement lawsuit over AWA". wrestleview.com. 2008-10-28.
  5. ^ "AWA World Heavyweight Championship". cagematch.net. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  6. ^ "AWA World Heavyweight Championship". cagematch.net. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  7. ^ "American Wrestling Affiliates (2008/04-2009/01)Championship Wrestling Alliance (2009/01-2011/02) World Heavyweight Title". wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
Sporting positions
Preceded by Pro Wrestling Zero1's top heavyweight championship
2004–2007 		Succeeded by
Quelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSL_World_Heavyweight_Championship