| WCW World Television Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 The last WCW World Television Championship belt | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | National Wrestling Alliance Jim Crockett Promotions World Championship Wrestling | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | February 27, 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date retired | April 10, 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TheWCW World Television Championship was aprofessional wrestlingtelevision championship owned by the now-defunctWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW)promotion.
The title was introduced on February 27, 1974 inMid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling/Jim Crockett Promotions, a territory of theNational Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Jim Crockett Promotions was purchased byTurner Broadcasting System in 1988, and subsequently renamed WCW. In March 2001, certain assets of WCW were sold byAOL Time Warner to theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). As such these assets, including the rights to the WCW World Television Championship, inactive since April 10, 2000, were now WWF property.[2] Before it was known as the WCW World Television Championship (from 1991 until the title's deactivation), it was known as the NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Championship (1974 to 1977), the NWA Television Championship (1977 to 1985), and the NWA World Television Championship (1985 to 1991).
The title was often defended in matches with a time limit of ten or fifteen minutes. More often than with other championships, title matches resulted intime limit draws and the champion retaining the title. This was often used as aheat-building device to allow avillain champion to retain his title. The NWA version of the belt had the logos of the major television networks in the U.S. (NBC,CBS, andABC) on either side of the belt, though they were never featured on any of the three networks. Rival promotion WWF was featured on NBC as Saturday Night’s Main Event, but never established a TV Champion or title. The 1992–1995 WCW version of the belt had the logo ofTBS, the only station on which it was ever defended, on both sides of the belt.
The inauguralchampion was Danny Miller who won a tournament final on February 27, 1974.[3] There have been 104 different championship reigns, withBooker T having the most reigns at six. The longest-reigning champion isPaul Jones on his fifth reign, Jones held the championship for 368 days from June 7, 1978 to June 10, 1979.Lex Luger,Chris Benoit and Booker T hold the record for the shortest reign each having a reign of one day.Arn Anderson holds the record for most days as champion, with 870 days over four title reigns. The last champion wasJim Duggan, who claimed the title while working as the WCW janitor afterScott Hall threw it in the garbage and he found it in adumpster. The title was retired on April 10, 2000, after theVince Russo-Eric Bischoff WCWreboot.