The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Created in 1943, the title is competed for by junior heavyweight wrestlers.[1]
The first NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion was Ken Fenelon, who was awarded the title in May 1943 by Paul "Pinkie" George, the promoter of the local National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promotion. For the first few years of its existence, the title was contested largely in Iowa, where George's NWA promotion was based.[2] On July 14, 1948, the NWA was established by George and his partners as a governing body for various regional wrestling promotions in the United States, after which the World Junior Heavyweight Championship became the property of the alliance. At the founding meeting of the NWA governing body in Waterloo, Iowa, Billy Goelz was recognized as the governing body's World Junior Heavyweight Champion; the governing body additionally retroactively recognized all previous holders of the Iowa championship as former NWA World Junior Heavyweight champions.
Between 1948 and 1952, the title was unified with other junior heavyweight titles. After becoming NWA champion in November 1949, Leroy McGuirk, who also held the National Wrestling Association's World Junior Heavyweight Championship, defeated Iowa Champion Billy Goelz to unify the two titles. McGuirk vacated the title in February 1950 after being blinded in a car accident, forcing him to retire. Verne Gagne won the vacant title in November 1950, defeating Sonny Myers in the finals of a tournament, after which he was presented with the title belt by McGuirk.[3] Gagne lost the title to Danny McShain one year later in November 1951. In May 1952, McShain unified the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship with the Los Angeles version of the World Junior Heavyweight Championship by defeating Rito Romero.
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In 1960, Danny Hodge had a heated feud with Angelo Savoldi over the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. During a bout between the two men on May 27, 1960 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Hodge's father Bill Hodge Sr. entered the ring and legitimately stabbed Savoldi.[4]
In 1973, Wrestling Pro of the Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling (GCCW) promotion faced Ken Mantell for the championship. During the match, the referee was knocked out and Wrestling Pro won the match, but a second referee appeared and awarded the victory to Mantell. The promoter Bob Kelly declared Wrestling Pro as the new champion and awarded him a title belt. However, Wrestling Pro was recognized as champion only in the GCCW territory and did not receive universal recognition from the NWA.[5] 49 days after his initial loss, Mantell defeated Wrestling Pro to claim both versions of the title.
In March 1976, Hodge vacated the title after being injured in a car accident, marking the end of his record seventh reign as champion.[6]
In December 1979, after the title was vacated, Steve Keirn defeated Chavo Guerrero in the finals of a tournament to win the title. However, Keirn was recognized as champion by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as well as the Los Angeles and Florida NWA territories, but not by the NWA as a whole. The title Keirn held was later renamed the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship.[7][8]
In 1983, the title had splintered into two different lineages. The NWA recognized champion was The Cobra, who worked for NJPW. The Cobra held the title from November 3, 1983 until July 28, 1985, when he lost it against Hiro Saito. However, he regained the title that same day. The Cobra's second reign as champion continued until August 1, 1985, when NJPW separated from the NWA. During the course of The Cobra's reigns, Les Thornton was recognized as champion by Georgia Championship Wrestling. The Georgia title was vacated when Thornton joined the NWA's rival the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Following Thornton's move to the WWF, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) awarded the title to Hector Guerrero on July 13, 1984, with JCP claiming that Guerrero had won a tournament for the championship in Los Angeles, California. Guerrero later lost the championship in a match against Mike Davis and, at Starrcade '84, Davis lost the title to Denny Brown. When NJPW separated from the NWA in August 1985, NWA vice president Shohei Baba recognized Brown as the official champion. In May 1988, champion Nelson Royal left JCP while holding the title, after which the championship began being defended in independent promotions until it was abandoned in December 1989.
In 1995, the championship was re-established by Japan's Wrestle Yume Factory (WYF) promotion, with Masayoshi Motegi being the first champion under the WYF banner. In 1996, the J-Crown tournament was held to unify eight different championship belts from five different organizations, including the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.[9] The tournament to determine the first J-Crown Champion was held over four nights, from August 2 to August 5, 1996, the same dates that NJPW's annual G1 Climax event took place, promoting two major tournaments on one tour.[9] Jushin Thunder Liger is credited with coming up with the idea for the J-Crown.[9] The inaugural champion was The Great Sasuke.[9] While Último Dragón was J-Crown Champion, the titles appeared on World Championship Wrestling (WCW) programming, as Dragon also held the WCW Cruiserweight Championship and the NWA World Middleweight Championship at the time.[9] When Liger was champion, he lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yuji Yasuraoka on June 6, 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Liger, however, continued to defend the J-Crown with seven titles instead of eight. As part of their introduction of a new WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, the WWF demanded that the then current J-Crown Champion Shinjiro Otani return the WWF Light Heavyweight belt. Otani dissolved the J-Crown on November 5, 1997, by vacating all of the component titles except for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, with the other belts being restored to their home promotions. After the dissolution of the J-Crown, the Junior Heavyweight title was returned to the NWA, who kept it vacant until March 1999, when Logan Caine won a tournament to become champion.
In 2011, The Sheik was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion but was stripped of the championship for refusing to defend against Adam Pearce.[10] The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion Craig Classic vacated the title in protest. Pro Wrestling Zero1 did not recognize the vacancy and declared Classic as the real champion.
In 2014, NWA re-established its working relationship with NJPW. The champion at that time, Chase Owens, defended the title on several NJPW events. During the working relationship, Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask IV held the title. On May 1, 2017, Billy Corgan's company, Lightning One, Inc., purchased the NWA, including its name, rights, trademarks, and championships. As a result, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship was vacated.[11] Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.[12] The title remained vacant until March 2022 when Homicide won the title on night two of the 2022 Crockett Cup.[13]
As of September 21, 2024, there have been 130 reigns between 80 champions, 15 vacancies and one deactivation. Ken Fenelon was the inaugural champion. Danny Hodgeholds the record for most reigns at seven. Hodge's fourth reign is the longest at 1,361 days while Fred Blassie's and Hiro Saito's were the shortest, lasting less than a day.
Alex Taylor is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating previous champion Joe Alonzo on June 28, 2023, as NWA: Chicago's Endless Summer in Highland Park, Illinois.