WSL World Heavyweight Championship
In-game article clicks load inline without leaving the challenge.
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. 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. 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
| 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. | |
| 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
| 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. | |
| 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 | ||
| 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 |
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byNWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship | Pro Wrestling Zero1's top heavyweight championship 2004–2007 | Succeeded byWorld Heavyweight Championship |