WCW World Heavyweight Championship
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The World Championship Wrestling [WCW] World Heavyweight Championship (sometimes simply WCW Championship or WCW Title) was the primary championship in the World Championship Wrestling professional wrestling organization. It was created in January 1991, and the physical belt continues to be used as the World Wrestling Entertainment World Heavyweight Championship. It has been held by many successful professional wrestlers, including Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and Sting.
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History
Origin
In December 1988 Ted Turner bought Jim Crockett Promotions and renamed it World Championship Wrestling. While the promotion remained a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Turner introduced his own championship two years later, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The new championship continued to use the NWA World Heavyweight Championship title belt. When Ric Flair won the title from Sting (Steve Borden) he was declared the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Because of this WCW regularly claimed the NWA Championship lineage for its own championship.
After a disagreement with WCW Executive Vice-President Jim Herd, Flair left WCW for Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment). When Herd refused to return his $25,000 deposit (that was left with the NWA), Flair kept the NWA "Big Gold Belt" (which was his belt). WCW was forced to create its own belt, which it awarded to Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) after he defeated Barry Windham.
In late 1991, WCW bought the "Big Gold Belt" from Flair for $35,000 (the cost of the NWA deposit, plus interest). Still retaining membership in the NWA, WCW allowed the NWA to defend its title on WCW television. By September 1993, WCW pulled out of the NWA and kept the "Big Gold Belt", because WCW had purchased it from Flair. The belt was named the WCW International Championship and Rick Rude became champion by defeating Flair.
Unification
At Starrcade 93, Flair won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, by defeating Vader (Leon White). WCW decided to unify the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (represented by the new belt) and International Championship (represented by the "Big Gold Belt"), by having Flair wrestle Sting in June 1994. Flair won and the International Title belt replaced the old World Heavyweight belt while the International Championship itself was dropped. Hulk Hogan entered WCW and won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (now represented by the "Big Gold Belt") from Flair. Holding the title off and on until 2000, Hogan helped WCW become the top wrestling company in the United States. However by 2000 it had suffered a succession of failures and was sold by Turner.
World Wrestling Entertainment
In March 2001, Vince McMahon bought World Championship Wrestling for $5,000,000 and tried to revive the company. After the company's failure, McMahon decided to unify the WCW and WWE World Titles. The WCW Championship was then renamed the "World Championship" after the WWF storyline which eliminated WCW as an active entity.
Chris Jericho unified the titles by pinning The Rock (World Champion) and Stone Cold Steve Austin (WWF Champion) in 2001. The belts stayed unified as the WWE Undisputed Championship until won by Brock Lesnar. When Lesnar decided to wrestle only for WWE Smackdown!, WWE RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff created a new World Championship. Bischoff brought back the WCW belt, but renamed it the World Heavyweight Championship which is officially a new title and now has a new WWE trademark logo on top. He gave the belt to Triple H and named him the first World Heavyweight Champion. This championship does not derive its lineage beyond its debut on WWE RAW.
See Also
- NWA World Heavyweight Championship
- (WWE) World Heavyweight Championship
- List of World Heavyweight Champions
- List of WCW World Heavyweight Champions
External Links
- WWE.com - WCW Championship history (http://www.wwe.com/inside/title_history/wcw_world/index.jsp)