NWA International Heavyweight Championship

NWA International Heavyweight Championship
Details
Date established	November, 1957
Date retired	April 18, 1989
Promotion	Japan Wrestling Association, All Japan Pro Wrestling, NWA Hollywood Wrestling & Championship Wrestling from Florida
Statistics First champion(s) Lou Thesz Most reigns Giant Baba, Dory Funk, Jr., Bruiser Brody & Jumbo Tsuruta (3 reigns) Longest reign Giant Baba (944 days) Shortest reign Jumbo Tsuruta (Less than 1 day) Oldest winner Bobo Brazil (48 years, 144 days) Youngest winner Giant Baba (27 years, 305 days) Heaviest champion Giant Baba (330 lb (150 kg; 24 st)) Lightest champion Lou Thesz (225 lb (102 kg; 16.1 st))

This was a regional NWA championship based in Japan. For the WCW International World championship, see WCW International World Heavyweight Championship.

The NWA International Heavyweight Championship was a singles title recognized by the National Wrestling Alliance through its partnership with the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, and later by All Japan Pro Wrestling. It is one of the three titles that were unified into the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship in 1989. From 1981 to the creation of the Triple Crown, All Japan considered the NWA International title to be its top singles championship.

Under Rikidōzan the belt had a design similar to Lou Thesz's original NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt during the 1950s, but after Rikidōzan's death, the belt given to Giant Baba had the design seen on the belt part of the Triple Crown until 2013. The original design was later used on the PWF Heavyweight Championship, the UWFI belt (which was the original Lou Thesz belt), and a belt later given to Kazushi Sakuraba for show.

Title history

Symbol	Meaning
No.	The overall championship reign
Reign	The reign number for the specific wrestler listed.
Event	The event in which the championship changed hands
N/A	The specific information is not known
—	Used for vacated reigns in order to not count it as an official reign
[Note #]	Indicates that the exact length of the title reign is unknown, with a note providing more details.

#	Wrestler	Reign	Date	Days held	Location	Event	Notes	Ref.
1	Lou Thesz	1	November 1, 1957		N/A	N/A	Thesz was awarded the championship by the NWA. Houston NWA promoter Morris Sigel claimed that Thesz has won the title by defeating Antonino Rocca in 1949.
2	Rikidōzan	1	August 27, 1958		Los Angeles, California, United States	House show
-	Vacated	-	December 15, 1964	N/A	N/A	N/A	Vacated following Rikidōzan's death from stab wounds suffered one week earlier in Tokyo, Japan.
3	Giant Baba	1	November 24, 1965		Osaka, Japan	House show	Defeated Dick the Bruiser for the vacant title.
4	Bobo Brazil	1	June 25, 1968		Nagoya, Japan	House show
5	Giant Baba	2	June 27, 1968		Tokyo, Japan	House show
6	Gene Kiniski	1	December 3, 1970		Osaka, Japan	House show
7	Giant Baba	3	December 19, 1970		Los Angeles, California, United States	House show
-	Vacated	-	September 2, 1972	N/A	N/A	N/A	Vacated when Baba left the Japan Wrestling Association to start All Japan Pro Wrestling.
8	Bobo Brazil	2	December 1, 1972		Yokohama, Japan	House show	Defeated Kintaro Ohki for the vacant title.
9	Kintaro Ohki	1	December 4, 1972		Hiroshima, Japan	House show
-	Vacated	April 13, 1981	-	N/A	N/A	N/A	After the JWA closed in 1973, Ohki took the belt to South Korea from where he defended it. He vacated the title on April 13, 1981 under orders from the NWA.
10	Dory Funk, Jr.	1	April 30, 1981		Matsudo, Japan	House show	Won tournament for the vacant title when Bruiser Brody was injured and unable to wrestle in the finals. Defeated Terry Funk for his first title defense instead.
11	Bruce Reed	1	1981		Florida, United States	House show	Title reign not recognized in Japan.
12	Dory Funk, Jr.	2	1981		Florida, United States	House show
13	Bruiser Brody	1	October 9, 1981		Tokyo, Japan	House show
14	Dory Funk, Jr.	3	November 1, 1981		Tokyo, Japan	House show
15	Bruiser Brody	2	April 21, 1982		Osaka, Japan	House show
16	Jumbo Tsuruta	1	April 30, 1983		Tokyo, Japan	House show
17	Stan Hansen	1	July 31, 1986		Tokyo, Japan	House show
18	Jumbo Tsuruta	2	October 21, 1986		Tokyo, Japan	House show
19	Bruiser Brody	3	March 27, 1988		Tokyo, Japan	House show
20	Jumbo Tsuruta	3	April 18, 1988		Sendai, Japan	House show
-	Unified	1988	-	N/A	N/A	N/A	Unified with PWF Heavyweight Championship and NWA United National Championship to create the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.

See also

• Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship
• All Japan Pro Wrestling
• National Wrestling Alliance

External links

• Wrestling-Titles.com