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Professional wrestling championship
The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a title in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1981 until it closed in 1991. In 1989, the Japan-based Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) promotion began billing Florida Championship Wrestling/Professional Wrestling Federation champion Jim Backlund as the AWA champion, something not acknowledged by the AWA; the title became FMW's lower weight division title. From 1988 through the closure of the AWA in 1991, there were two separate lineages, with the FMW version of the championship being sometimes referred to as the FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship. In 1992, FMW renamed the title to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship before retiring it in 1993.[1]
Title history [ edit ]
Key
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
American Wrestling Association (AWA)
1
Mike Graham
June 1981
N/A
[Note 1]
1
[Note 2]
2
Buck Zumhofe
June 19, 1983
House show
Hamburg, Minnesota
1
280
[1]
3
Steve Regal
March 25, 1984
House show
Saint Paul, Minnesota
1
613
[1]
4
Buck Zumhofe
November 28, 1985
House show
Saint Paul, Minnesota
2
[Note 3]
[1]
—
Vacated
July 1986
—
—
—
—
The title was vacated when Zumhofe was sent to prison.
[1]
5
Mike Graham
December 13, 1988
House show
Chicago, Illinois
2
[Note 4]
Records are unclear on how Graham won the championship.
[1]
Championship history is unrecorded from December 13, 1988 to August 11, 1990 .
†
Buck Zumhofe
August 11, 1990
House show
Rochester, Minnesota
3
[Note 5]
Defeated Jonnie Stewart to win the title in AWA. AWA goes out of business on January 12, 1991.
[1] [2]
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW)
6
Jim Backlund
December 10, 1988
House show
Tampa, Florida
1
477
Backlund defeated Tyree Pride for the FCW Light Heavyweight Championship; because of this victory Backlund is recognized as the sixth AWA champion by FMW in Japan during 1989 but not by the AWA itself.
[1]
7
Lee Gak-soo
April 1, 1990
House show
Tokyo, Japan
1
[Note 6]
[1]
—
Vacated
September 1990
—
—
—
—
Title vacated after Lee left FMW.
[1]
8
Katsuji Ueda
September 25, 1990
Battle Field
Nagoya, Japan
1
41
Defeated Jim Backlund in a "Different Style Match" tournament final.
[1]
9
Jim Backlund
November 5, 1990
FMW 1st Anniversary Show
Tokyo, Japan
2
205
[1]
10
Ricky Fuji
May 29, 1991
House show
Tokyo, Japan
1
87
[1]
11
Mark Starr
August 24, 1991
House show
Tokyo, Japan
1
7
[1]
12
Katsuji Ueda
August 31, 1991
House show
Chiba, Japan
2
205
[1]
13
Dr. Luther
March 23, 1992
House show
Saitama, Japan
1
197
The title is renamed to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship in April 1992.
[1]
14
Katsuji Ueda
September 7, 1992
House show
Saitama, Japan
3
[Note 7]
[1]
—
Deactivated
1993
—
—
—
—
The title is retired and replaced with the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship .
[1]
^ The location of the title change is not documented.
^ The date the title is changed is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.
^ The exact date the championship was vacated is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 215 and 244 days.
^ The length Graham's reign has not been verified by documentation, making the length of the actual reign too uncertain to calculate.
^ The exact date the AWA stops promoting on a regular basis is unknown making the length of the reign too uncertain to calculate.
^ The exact date the championship was vacated which means that the reign lasted between 518 and 542 days.
^ The date the title is abandoned is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Championships
Major shows Television shows Key people Partnerships Other
Championships
World heavyweight Junior heavyweight Tag team Other
Related articles Key people Partnerships