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.

History

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. 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.

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.

thumb|left|In 1996, [[The Great Sasuke won the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship as part of the eight-man "J-Crown" tournament.]]

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. The inaugural champion was The Great Sasuke. 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. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017. The title remained vacant until March 2022 when Homicide won the title on night two of the 2022 Crockett Cup.

|location = N/A

|event =

|notes = Fenelon was awarded the title by Paul "Pinkie" George, founder of the Iowa-based local National Wrestling Alliance promotion.

|ref =

Combined reigns

As of , .

thumb|right|200px|Most combined days at a record-setting 4,134 days and record 7-time champion [[Danny Hodge]]

{|class="wikitable"

!style="background-color:#ffe6bd"|†

|Indicates the current champion

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center"

!Rank

!Wrestler

!No. of<br />reigns

!Combined days

|-

!1

| || 7 || 4,141

|-

!2

| || 1 || 1,275

|-

!3

| || 5 || 902

|-

!4

| || 6 || 846

|-

!5

| || 3 || 768

|-

!6

| || 3<sup>(4)</sup> || 756

|-

!rowspan="2"|7

| || 2 || 637

|-

| || 1 || 637

|-

!9

| || 3 || 626

|-

!10

| || 2 || 624

|-

!11

| || 1 || 602

|-

!12

| || 2 || 548

|-

!13

| || 1<sup>(2)</sup> || 493

|-

!14

| || 1 || 476

|-

!15

| || 3 || 473

|-

!16

| || 6 || 429

|-

!17

| || 1 || 406

|-

!18

| || 1 || 398

|-

!19

| || 2 || 384

|-

!20

| || 1 || 373

|-

!21

| || 1 || 371

|-

!22

| || 3 || 370

|-

!23

| || 1 || 364

|-

!24

| || 2 || 339

|-

!25

| || 1 || 338

|-

!26

| || 2 || 301

|-

!27

| || 1 || 287

|-

!28

| || 1 || 281

|-

!rowspan="2"|29

| || 1 || 275

|-

| || 2 || 275

|-

!31

| || 2 || 253

|-

!32

| || 1 || 247

|-

!rowspan="2"|33

| || 1 || 237

|-

| || 1 || 237

|-

!35

| || 2 || 229

|-

!36

|style="background-color:#ffe6bd;"| † || 1 || +

|-

!37

| || 2 || 196

|-

!38

| || 1 || 189

|-

!39

| || 4 || 181

|-

!40

| Black Tiger IV || 1 || 178

|-

!41

| || 1 || 161

|-

!42

| || 2 || 159

|-

!43

| Brother Love || 1 || 140

|-

!44

| || 1 || 118

|-

!45

| Roger Kirby || 1 || 113

|-style="background-color:#e3e3e3"

|—

| Mike Davis || &mdash; || 112

|-

!46

| || 1 || 109

|-

!47

| Dr. X || 1 || 108

|-

!48

| || 1 || 87

|-

!rowspan=2|49

| Mr. USA || 1 || 85

|-

| Último Dragón || 1 || 85

|-

!rowspan=2|51

| Mike DiBiase || 1 || 84

|-

| Ramón Torres || 1 || 84

|-

!53

| Hector Guerrero/Lazor Tron || 1<sup>(2)</sup> || 81

|-

!54

| Joe McCarthy || 1 || 80

|-

!55

| Chavo Guerrero Sr. || 2 || 79

|-

!56

| Lorenzo Parente || 2 || 71

|-

!57

| The Great Sasuke || 1 || 70

|-

!rowspan=3|58

| Pat Barrett || 1 || 69

|-

| Larry Tillman || 1 || 69

|-

| Jason Kincaid || 1 || 69

|-

!61

| Ricky Morton || 1 || 62

|-

!62

| Lex Lovett || 1 || 53

|-style="background-color:#e3e3e3"

|—

| Wrestling Pro || &mdash; || 49

|-

!63

| Barrett Brown || 1 || 49

|-

!64

|Arrick Andrews || 1 || 41

|-

!65

| Dory Funk || 1 || 36

|-

!rowspan=2|66

| Ray Steele || 1 || 35

|-

| El Samurai || 1 || 35

|-

!68

| Gary Royal || 1 || 31

|-

!69

| Steve Regal || 1 || 30

|-

!70

| Sputnik Monroe || 1 || 28

|-

!rowspan=2|71

| Al Williams || 1 || 14

|-

| Ivan The Terrible || 1 || 14

|-

!rowspan=2|73

| Joe Lightfoot ||rowspan =2|1 ||rowspan=2|7

|-

| Star

|-

!75

| Jerry Stubbs || 1 || 5

|-

!76

| Ron Starr || 2 || 4

|-

!rowspan=2|77

| Scott Armstrong || 2 || 1

|-

| Les Anderson || 2 || 1

|-

!rowspan=2|79

| Hiro Saito || 1 || <1

|-

| Fred Blassie || 1 || <1

|-

!81

| Rock the Hunter || 1 || N/A

|}

Notes

See also

  • WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship

References

</references>

  • National Wrestling Alliance World Junior Heavyweight Title History
  • National Wrestling Association Junior Heavyweight Title History
  • NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship at Cagematch.net