World Heavyweight Championship (Original)
| World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship | |||||||||||||||||
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One of the belts used to represent the original World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in the early 20th century
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| Details | |||||||||||||||||
| Date established | May 4, 1905 | ||||||||||||||||
| Date retired | July 24, 1957 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Statistics | |
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| First champion(s) | George Hackenschmidt |
| Final champion(s) | Lou Thesz |
| Most reigns | Ed Lewis (4 reigns) |
| Longest reign | Jim Londos (2,628 days) |
| Shortest reign | Stanislaus Zbyszko (45 days) |
| Oldest winner | Stanislaus Zbyszko (46 years, 15 days) |
| Youngest winner | Joe Stecher (22 years, 103 days) |
The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first recognized professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created in 1905 to identify the best catch as catch can professional wrestler in the world. The subsequent legacy of the championship is not linear, with the champion being disputed among various promotions until the formation of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1948.
The last several reigns are recognized by the NWA under the NWA World Heavyweight Championship's lineage. As such, the lineage of WWE's World Championship can also be traced back to it.
The first recognized World Heavyweight Champion was George Hackenschmidt who officially won the championship on May 4, 1905 by defeating Tom Jenkins in New York City. The championship remained active for the next 51 years with the last recognized reign being disputed between Lou Thesz and Édouard Carpentier after a match between the two ended in a disqualification. Their rematch on July 24, 1957 had the same result and that is therefore considered when the championship was, unofficially, retired.
George Hackenschmidt won a world championship tournament to become the first champion. Hackenschmidt won several other tournaments in Paris, France; Hamburg, Germany; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Elberfeld, Germany; and Berlin, Germany in the same year. He also won the European Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship title from Tom Cannon on September 4, 1902 in Liverpool, England. He won the recognition of being the World Heavyweight Champion on January 30, 1904 in London, England by defeating Ahmed Madrali. Hackenschmidt defeated American Heavyweight Champion, Tom Jenkins, on May 4, 1905 in New York City, New York to become the recognized World Champion in North America.
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