The CWA World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship and the top title of the German professional wrestling promotion Internationalen Berufsringer Verbandes (IBV), later renamed the Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) in the title's honour. The title was created on August 2, 1977 and deactivated on December 4, 1999. The championship was contested under 15 three-minute rounds. It was replaced by the European Wrestling Promotion (EWP) World Heavyweight Championship when that organisation was founded in 2000 to replace the CWA.
| CWA World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | Catch Wrestling Association | ||||||||||
| Date established | August 2, 1977 | ||||||||||
| Date retired | December 4, 1999 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
It was originally claimed that the championship was sanctioned by a fictitious Canadian Wrestling Association and that it had previous lineage in North America. The title changed hands in four countries South Africa, Austria, the United States, and Germany and three continents - Africa, Europe, and North America.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||
| 1 | Otto Wanz | August 2, 1977 | House show | Cape Town, South Africa | 1 | 30 | Defeated Jan Wilkens to become the first champion. | [1] |
| 2 | Don Leo Jonathan | September 1, 1977 | House show | Johannesburg, South Africa | 1 | 317 | ||
| 3 | Otto Wanz | July 15, 1978 | House show | Graz, Austria | 2 | 3,172 | ||
| 4 | Bull Power | March 22, 1987 | House show | Denver, Colorado, United States | 1 | 111 | [1] | |
| 5 | Otto Wanz | July 11, 1987 | House show | Graz, Austria | 3 | 772 | [1] | |
| 6 | Bull Power | August 21, 1989 | House show | Vienna, Austria | 2 | 123 | ||
| 7 | Otto Wanz | December 22, 1989 | Catch Cup | Bremen, Germany | 4 | 190 | ||
| — | Vacated | June 30, 1990 | — | Graz, Austria | — | — | Championship vacated when Wanz retired. | |
| 8 | Bull Power | December 22, 1990 | House show | Bremen, Germany | 3 | 196 | Defeated Rambo to win the vacant title. Bull Power (Big Ban Vader) also held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in Japan and the UWA World Heavyweight Championship in Mexico in the same time. | |
| 9 | Rambo | July 6, 1991 | Catch Cup | Graz, Austria | 1 | 532 | ||
| 10 | Road Warrior Hawk | December 19, 1992 | Euro Catch Festival | Bremen, Germany | 1 | 196 | ||
| 11 | Rambo | July 3, 1993 | Clash of the Champions | Graz, Austria | 2 | 896 | ||
| 12 | Ludvig Borga | December 16, 1995 | Euro Catch Festival | Bremen, Germany | 1 | 371 | ||
| 13 | Rambo | December 21, 1996 | Euro Catch Festival | Bremen, Germany | 3 | 196 | ||
| — | Vacated | July 5, 1997 | — | N/A | — | — | Vacated when Rambo left CWA for the World Wrestling Federation | |
| 14 | Marshall Duke | August 16, 1997 | Catch Cup | Vienna, Austria | 1 | 442 | Defeated Ulf Herman to win the vacant title. | |
| — | Vacated | November 1, 1998 | — | N/A | — | — | Championship vacated for undocumented reasons | |
| 15 | Rambo | December 19, 1998 | Euro Catch Festival | Bremen, Germany | 4 | 350 | Defeated Big Titan to win the vacant title. | |
| — | Deactivated | December 4, 1999 | Euro Catch Festival | Bremen, Germany | — | — | The event marked the last time that the title was defended. CWA closed after the event. | |
Combined reigns
edit| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Otto Wanz | 4 | 4,184 |
| 2 | Rambo | 4 | 1,981 |
| 3 | Marshall Duke | 1 | 442 |
| 4 | Leon White / Bull Power | 3 | 420 |
| 5 | Ludvig Borga | 1 | 371 |
| 6 | Don Leo Jonathan | 1 | 317 |
| 7 | Road Warrior Hawk | 1 | 196 |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Oliver, Greg (September 14, 2017). "Former AWA World champion Otto Wanz dies". SLAM Wrestling. Archived from the original on September 15, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.