| NWF Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
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| Promotion | National Wrestling Federation (NWF) New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||
| Date established | 1970 2002 | ||||||||||
| Date retired | 1981 2004 | ||||||||||
| Other names | |||||||||||
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TheNWF Heavyweight Championship was aprofessional wrestlingworld heavyweight championship used as part of theNational Wrestling Federation and laterNew Japan Pro-Wrestling.
The NWF (National Wrestling Federation) Heavyweight Championship was created by wrestling promoter Pedro Martinez for his NWF promotion in New York in 1970. The title was mainly defended in the New York/Eastern Canada area, until then-championJohnny Powers took the belt with him on a tour of Japan withTokyo Pro Wrestling. Powers would eventually lose the title toAntonio Inoki, who would take the belt with him when he foundedNew Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Inoki became the wrestler most associated with the title due to his high-profile defenses of the title, defeating the likes ofStan Hansen,André the Giant,Tiger Jeet Singh, andErnie Ladd while champion. Recognized as a four-time NWF Heavyweight champion, between the years of 1973 and 1983 Inoki was champion for all but six months. Inoki's fourth reign was actually due to the decision to hold up the championship, following a defense against Stan Hansen on April 17, 1981, that ended in a no contest. Inoki later regained the title on April 23, 1981, by defeating Hansen in a rematch. He retired the NWF title immediately after the match due to his desire to enter the 1983IWGP League.[2]
Then as part of a NJPW storyline, the NWF Heavyweight championship was revived in August 2002.Mixed martial arts fighterKazuyuki Fujita held a tournament to crown a new champion to rival theIWGP Heavyweight Championship. The tournament participants were announced to be wrestlers with a background in MMA, including Fujita,Yoshihiro Takayama,Tsuyoshi Kosaka, andTadao Yasuda. Takayama won the tournament on January 4, 2003, beating Kosaka with a knee kick in the finals to become the first revived champion in over two decades. Takayama later lost the NWF Championship toShinsuke Nakamura exactly a year later to unify the NWF and IWGP titles. Nakamura formally announced his vacating of the NWF Heavyweight title on January 5, 2004, retiring the belt for a second time during its history.[3]
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| N/A | Unknown information |
| (NLT) | Championship change took place "no later than" the date listed |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | |||||||
| National Wrestling Federation (NWF) andNew Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) | |||||||||||
| 1 | Johnny Powers | 1970(NLT) | Live event | Los Angeles,CA | 1 | [Note 1] | DefeatedFreddie Blassie to become inaugural champion. | ||||
| 2 | Waldo Von Erich | October 23, 1971 | Live event | Akron, OH | 1 | 15 | The Title held-up on November 7th, 1971, after a match withDominic DeNucci in Akron, OH. | ||||
| 3 | Waldo Von Erich | November 13, 1971 | live event | Akron, OH | 2 | 19 | DefeatedDominic DeNucci in rematch. | ||||
| 4 | Dominic DeNucci | December 2, 1971 | Live event | Cleveland,OH | 1 | 28 | |||||
| 5 | Waldo Von Erich | December 30, 1971 | Live event | Cleveland,OH | 3 | 162 | |||||
| 6 | Ernie Ladd | June 9, 1972 | Live event | Cleveland,OH | 1 | 15 | |||||
| 7 | Abdullah the Butcher | June 24, 1972 | Live event | Akron, OH | 1 | [Note 2] | |||||
| 8 | Victor Rivera | September 1972(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 1 | [Note 3] | |||||
| 9 | Abdullah the Butcher | October 1972(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 2 | [Note 4] | |||||
| 10 | Johnny Valentine | October 19, 1972 | Live event | Cleveland,OH | 1 | 49 | |||||
| — | Vacated | December 7, 1972 | — | — | — | — | After a match againstJohnny Powers,Johnny Valentine left the NWF in January 1973. | ||||
| 11 | Jacques Rougeau | January 24, 1973 | Live event | Buffalo, NY | 1 | [Note 5] | DefeatedWaldo Von Erich in finals of tournament for the vacant championship. | [4] | |||
| 12 | Johnny Valentine | August 1973(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 2 | [Note 6] | |||||
| 13 | Johnny Powers | October 1973(NLT) | Live event | N/A | 2 | [Note 7] | Powers took the title to Japan for a tour withNew Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||||
| 14 | Antonio Inoki | December 10, 1973 | World Title Challenge Series | Tokyo,Japan | 1 | 429 | [5] | ||||
| — | Vacated | February 12, 1975 | — | — | — | — | Antonio Inoki vacated the championship as refusal of an NWF ordered defense againstTiger Jeet Singh. | ||||
| 15 | Tiger Jeet Singh | March 13, 1975 | Big Fight Series | Hiroshima,Japan | 1 | 105 | DefeatedAntonio Inoki for the vacant championship. | [6] | |||
| 16 | Antonio Inoki | June 26, 1975 | Golden Fight Series | Tokyo,Japan | 2 | 1,688 | Ordered by the NWA to stop referring to belt as a world title at annual NWA meeting on August 7, 1976. | [7] | |||
| 17 | Stan Hansen | February 8, 1980 | New Year Golden Series | Tokyo,Japan | 1 | 55 | [8] | ||||
| 18 | Antonio Inoki | April 3, 1980 | Big Fight Series | Tokyo,Japan | 3 | 379 | [9][10] | ||||
| — | Vacated | April 17, 1981 | Big Fight Series II | Kagoshima,Japan | — | — | The championship was vacated after a defense againstStan Hansen ends in a no contest. | [11] | |||
| 19 | Antonio Inoki | April 23, 1981 | Big Fight Series II | Tokyo,Japan | 4 | [Note 8] | DefeatedStan Hansen to win the vacant championship. | [12] | |||
| — | Deactivated | April 23, 1981 | — | — | — | — | Antonio Inoki vacated the championship following the match to enter theNJPW IWGP League. | ||||
| NWF Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Details | |||||||||||||||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||||||
| Date established | August 2002 | ||||||||||||||
| Date retired | January 2004 | ||||||||||||||
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| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | ||||||
| New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) | |||||||||||
| 1 | Yoshihiro Takayama | January 4, 2003 | Wrestling World 2003 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 365 | 7 | DefeatedTsuyoshi Kosaka in a tournament for the revived title. | [13] | ||
| 2 | Shinsuke Nakamura | January 4, 2004 | Wrestling World 2004 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 1 | 0 | Nakamura officially unifies NWF title with theIWGP Heavyweight Championship. | [14] | ||
| — | Unified | January 5, 2004 | — | — | — | — | — | Championship merged with IWGP Heavyweight Championship, no longer promoted as a separate title | |||
Contemporary titles in Japan:
Former belt used for a shoot-style title in Japan:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| Sporting positions | ||
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| Preceded by | New Japan Pro-Wrestling's top heavyweight championship 1973–1981 2003–2004 | Succeeded by IWGP Heavyweight Championship (original version) |
