The World League Wrestling (WLW) Heavyweight Championship, is a professional wrestling championship in independent professional wrestling promotion World League Wrestling. It is the promotion's primary championship.
| WLW Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | World League Wrestling | ||||||||||
| Date established | February 1999 | ||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | “Superstar” Steve Fender | ||||||||||
| Date won | October 15th, 2022 | ||||||||||
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The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. Some reigns were held by champions using a ring name while others use their real name. Moses is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title in a six-man tag team match featuring himself, Leland Race, and Kyle Roberts against then-champion Derek Stone, Jon Webb, and Camaro Jackson in Troy, Missouri.
As of April 19, 2024, there have been 64 recognized reigns between 35 recognized champions and 9 recognized vacancies. The first champion was Steve Sharp, who won the championship on February 12, 1999. The champion with the single longest reign is Trevor Murdoch, who held the title for 448 days. The champion with the most reigns is Homer Jones, who has held the title six times.
Title history edit
| No. | Champion | Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Sharp | February 12, 1999 | Springfield, Missouri | 1 | 64 | Defeated Greg Valentine in a tournament final. | [1] | |
| 2 | Derek Stone | April 17, 1999 | Quincy, Illinois | 1 | 210 | |||
—
|
Vacated
|
November 13, 1999
|
—
|
—
|
The title was held up after a match against Luminous Warrior. | |||
| 3 | Derek Stone | November 14, 1999 | Kansas City, Missouri | 2 | 69 | Stone was awarded the title due to an injury to Luminous Warrior. | ||
| 4 | Luminous Warrior | January 22, 2000 | WLW | California, Missouri | 1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | Derek Stone | January 23, 2000 | WLW | Lexington, Missouri | 3 | 34 | ||
| 6 | Luminous Warrior | February 26, 2000 | WLW | Iberia, Missouri | 2 | 21 | ||
| 7 | Mr. Destiny | March 18, 2000 | WLW | Mexico, Missouri | 1 | 13 | ||
| 8 | Luminous Warrior | March 31, 2000 | WLW | Kahoka, Missouri | 3 | 20 | Warrior won by reverse decision after Mr. Destiny won the match by hitting Warrior with the title belt. | |
| 9 | Meng | April 20, 2000 | WLW | Grain Valley, Missouri | 1 | 2 | ||
| 10 | Trevor Rhodes | April 22, 2000 | WLW | Eldon, Missouri | 1 | 181 | ||
| 11 | Griz | June 17, 2000 | WLW | Osage Beach, Missouri | 1 | 125 | ||
| 12 | Meng | October 20, 2000 | WLW | Springfield, Missouri | 2 | 14 | ||
| 13 | The Barbarian | November 3, 2000 | Belle, Missouri | 1 | 7 | |||
| 14 | Griz | November 10, 2000 | WLW | Joplin, Missouri | 2 | 71 | ||
| 15 | Luminous Warrior | January 20, 2001 | WLW | 4 | 70 | |||
| 16 | Butch Reed | March 31, 2001 | WLW | Crocker, Missouri | 1 | 300 | ||
| 17 | Dennis McHawes | January 25, 2002 | WLW | Imperial, Missouri | 1 | 155 | ||
| — | Vacated | June 29, 2002 | East St. Louis, Illinois | — | — | |||
| 18 | Wade Chism | June 29, 2002 | WLW | 1 | 4
|
|||
| 19 | Takao Omori | July 13, 2002 | WLW | Omaha, Nebraska | 1 | 175 | ||
| 20 | Superstar Steve | January 4, 2003 | WLW | Neosho, Missouri | 1 | 35 | ||
| 21 | Haku | February 8, 2003 | WLW | El Dorado Springs, Missouri | 3 | 42 | Haku was previously known as Meng. | |
| — | Vacated | March 22, 2003 | — | — | — | The title was vacated after match against Trevor Rhodes. | ||
| 22 | Ron Powers | May 2, 2003 | WLW | Kansas City, Missouri | 1 | 78 | Defeated Superstar Steve in a tournament final. | |
| 23 | Ron Harris | July 19, 2003 | WLW | Eldon, Missouri | 1 | 55 | ||
| 24 | Takeshi Morishima | September 12, 2003 | Navigation Over the Date Line | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 196 | Match hosted by Pro Wrestling NOAH. | |
| 25 | Rick Steiner | March 26, 2004 | Chariton, Iowa | 1 | 1 | |||
| 26 | Takeshi Morishima | March 27, 2004 | Bolivar, Missouri | 2 | 66 | |||
| 27 | Daisuke Ikeda | June 1, 2004 | Navigation with Breeze | Sapporo, Japan | 1 | 61 | Match hosted by Pro Wrestling NOAH. | |
| 28 | Rick Steiner | August 1, 2004 | Exceeding Our Dreams tour | Nagoya, Japan | 2 | 110 | Match hosted by Pro Wrestling NOAH. | |
| 29 | Trevor Rhodes | November 19, 2004 | WLW | Columbus, Nebraska | 2 | 197 | ||
| 30 | Ty Dalton | June 4, 2005 | WLW | Eldon, Missouri | 1 | 49 | Dalton won the WLW Heavyweight Championship in his debut match with WLW | |
| 31 | Wade Chism | July 23, 2005 | WLW | Eldon, Missouri | 2 | 189 | ||
| — | Vacated | January 28, 2006 | Eldon, Missouri | — | — | The title was held up after a match against Keith Walker. | ||
| 32 | Wade Chism | February 24, 2006 | WLW | St. Joseph, Missouri | 3 | 1 | Defeated Jason Bates and Keith Walker in a Three Way match. | |
| 33 | Jason Bates | February 25, 2006 | WLW | El Dorado Springs, Missouri | 1 | 49 | ||
| 34 | Wade Chism | April 15, 2006 | WLW | El Dorado Springs, Missouri | 4 | 28 | ||
| 35 | Keith Walker | May 13, 2006 | WLW | St. Joseph, Missouri | 1 | 56 | ||
| 36 | Wade Chism | July 8, 2006 | WLW | Eldon, Missouri | 5 | 49 | This was a lumberjack match. Chism became the first 5 time WLW Heavyweight Champion | |
| 37 | Daniel Cross | August 26, 2006 | WLW | West Plains, Missouri | 1 | 105 | Daniel Cross became the youngest WLW heavyweight Champion at 20 years old. | |
| 38 | Trevor Murdoch | December 9, 2006 | WLW | Maryland Heights, Missouri | 3 | 216 | Murdoch defeated Cross and Ted Dibiase Jr in a 3 way match with Dave Hebner as special referee. Trevor Murdoch was previously known as Trevor Rhodes. | |
| 39 | Derek McQuinn | July 13, 2007 | Night of Legends | Waterloo, Iowa | 1 | 106 | ||
| 40 | Keith Walker | October 27, 2007 | WLW | Maryland Heights, Missouri | 2 | 105 | Walker won the Championship on his first match back from his WWE release. | |
| 41 | Chris Masters | February 9, 2008 | WLW | Fordland, Missouri | 1 | 76 | ||
| 42 | Derek McQuinn | April 25, 2008 | WLW | Lebanon, Missouri | 2 | 141 | ||
| — | Vacated | September 13, 2008 | — | — | — | Derek McQuinn vacated the title due to his having to retire due to injury. | ||
| 43 | Go Shiozaki | October 4, 2008 | WLW | West Plains, Missouri | 1 | 119 | Won a nine-man battle royal. | |
| — | Vacated | January 30, 2009 | Richmond, Missouri | — | — | |||
| 44 | Steve Anthony | January 30, 2009 | WLW | Richmond, Missouri | 1 | 50 | Defeated Eugene and Superstar Steve in a three-way match. | |
| 45 | Superstar Steve | March 21, 2009 | WLW | Eldon, Missouri | 2 | 196 | ||
| 46 | Brian Breaker | October 3, 2009 | WLW | Eldon, Missouri | 1 | 153 | ||
| 47 | Trent Stone | March 5, 2010 | WLW | Leavenworth, Kansas | 1 | 49 | ||
| 48 | Trevor Murdoch | April 23, 2010 | WLW | Richmond, Missouri | 4 | [Note 1] | The title was vacated in July 2011. | |
| — | Vacated | July, 2011 | — | — | — | |||
| 49 | Brian Breaker | September 18, 2011 | WLW | Burlington, Iowa | 2 | 55 | Defeated Jason Jones to win the vacated title. | |
| 50 | Jason Jones | November 12, 2011 | WLW | Richmond, Missouri | 1 | 364 | ||
| 51 | Britton Tucker | November 10, 2012 | WLW | Springfield, Missouri | 1 | 28 | ||
| 52 | Jason Jones | December 8, 2012 | WLW | Richmond, Missouri | 2 | 170 | ||
| – | Vacated | May 27, 2013 | Jones begins wrestling under his real name, Leland Race, and vacates the title. | |||||
| 53 | Elvis Aliaga | September 14, 2013 | WLW | Richmond, Missouri | 1 | 217 | Defeated Leland Race in tournament final. | |
| 54 | Leland Race | April 19, 2014 | WLW | Richmond, Missouri | 3 | 98 | Previously known as Jason Jones. | |
| 55 | Ace Steel | July 26, 2014 | WLW | Troy, Missouri | 1 | 112 | ||
| 56 | Leland Race | November 15, 2014 | WLW | Troy, Missouri | 4 | 364 | ||
| 57 | Trevor Murdoch | November 14, 2015 | WLW | Troy, Missouri | 5 | 448 | ||
–
|
Vacated | 2016 | ||||||
| 58 | Karim Brigante | February 4, 2017 | WLW | Troy, Missouri | 1 | 77 | Defeated Leland Race and Steve Fender (formerly Superstar Steve) in tournament final. | [2] |
| 59 | Leland Race | April 22, 2017 | WLW | Richmond, Missouri | 5 | 322 | ||
| 60 | Jon Webb | March 10, 2018 | WLW | Moscow Mills, Missouri | 1 | 420 | ||
| 61 | Derek Stone | May 4, 2019 | WLW | 4 | 168 | |||
| 62 | Leland Race | October 19, 2019 | The Harley Race Memorial Show | Burlington Junction, Missouri | 6 | 14 | Special guest Trevor Murdoch counted the pinfall while the referee was unconscious. | [3] |
| 63 | Derek Stone | November 2, 2019 | Fight Night 4 | Troy, Missouri | 5 | 371 | The championship was returned to Stone when it was determined that Stone's foot was under the rope during the pinfall on October 19. | |
| 64 | Moses Powell | November 7, 2020 | WLW | Troy, Missouri | 1 | 707 | This was a six-man tag team match between Moses Powell, Leland Race, and Kyle Roberts versus Derek Stone, Jon Webb, and Camaro Jackson. | |
| 65 | Steve Fender | October 15, 2022 | WLW | Troy, Missouri | 3 | 552+
|
Previously held the belt as Superstar Steve. |
Combined reigns edit
As of April 19, 2024.
| † | Indicates the current champion |
|---|
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leland Race | 6 | 1334 |
| 2 | Derek Stone | 5 | 852 |
| 3 | Trevor Murdoch | 5 | 469- |
| 4 | Dangerous Derek | 2 | 428 |
| 5 | Jon Webb | 1 | 420 |
| 6 | Butch Reed | 1 | 300 |
| 7 | Wade Chism | 5 | 281 |
| 8 | Takeshi Morishima | 2 | 262 |
| 9 | Moses Powell † | 1 | 1,259+ |
| 10 | Superstar Steve | 2 | 231 |
| 11 | Elvis Aliaga | 1 | 217 |
| 12 | Brian Breaker | 2 | 208 |
| 13 | Griz | 2 | 196 |
| 14 | Takao Omori | 1 | 175 |
| 15 | Keith Walker | 2 | 161 |
| 16 | Dennis McHawes | 1 | 155 |
| 17 | Go Shiozaki | 1 | 118 |
| 18 | Luminous Warrior | 4 | 112 |
| Ace Steel | 1 | 112 | |
| 20 | Rick Steiner | 2 | 111 |
| 21 | Daniel Cross | 1 | 105 |
| 22 | Ron Powers | 1 | 78 |
| 23 | Karim Brigante | 1 | 77 |
| 24 | Chris Masters | 1 | 76 |
| 25 | Steve Sharp | 1 | 64 |
| 26 | Daisuke Ikeda | 1 | 61 |
| 27 | King Haku | 3 | 58 |
| 28 | Ron Harris | 1 | 55 |
| 29 | Steve Anthony | 1 | 50 |
| 30 | Trent Stone | 1 | 49 |
| Jason Bates | 1 | 49 | |
| Ty Dalton | 1 | 49 | |
| 33 | Britton Tucker | 1 | 28 |
| 34 | Mr. Destiny | 1 | 13 |
| 35 | The Barbarian | 1 | 7 |
Footnotes edit
- ^ The title was vacated on an unspecified day in July 2011, putting his reign between 434 and 464 days.
References edit
- ^ Hoops, Brian (February 12, 2017). "On this day in pro wrestling history (Feb 12): Christian Cage wins gold in TNA". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
- ^ "TOURNAMENT TO CROWN NEW CHAMP: 2/4 WORLD LEAGUE WRESTLING IN TROY, MO RESULTS". Retrieved 2023-10-01.
- ^ "WLW Heavyweight Championship". Saint Louis Wrestling. 2015-01-20. Retrieved 2021-04-11.