World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
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Details | |||||||||||
Promotion | American Wrestling Association | ||||||||||
Date established | June 14, 1957 | ||||||||||
Date retired | September 7, 1963 | ||||||||||
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Statistics | |
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First champion(s) | Édouard Carpentier |
Most reigns | Verne Gagne (5 times) |
Longest reign | Verne Gagne (465 days) |
Shortest reign | Verne Gagne (1 second) |
The World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship sanctioned by a group of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promoters led by the NWA affiliate in Omaha, Nebraska. These promoters chose to recognize Édouard Carpentier as NWA World Heavyweight Champion following his disputed win over NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz on June 14, 1957. The majority of NWA promoters continued to recognize Thesz as their champion.
It was often contested alongside the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, and the two titles were finally unified when AWA champion Verne Gagne defeated Omaha champion Fritz Von Erich on September 7, 1963.