The NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

sanctioned by the

National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion and governing body owned by Billy Corgan and operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA be ...

(NWA) and defended in its

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

Pacific Northwest Wrestling Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) (also known as Big Time Wrestling and Portland Wrestling) is the common name used to refer to several different professional wrestling companies, both past and present, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. ...

(PNW), which promoted shows in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

s of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, and occasionally other areas in the

northwestern United States The Northwestern United States, also known as the American Northwest or simply the Northwest, is an informal geographic region of the United States. The region consistently includes the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming ...

. The title was created in 1955 by Don Owen for the NWA's

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

territory, and became the top singles title for that area. The first champion was

Luther Lindsay Luther Jacob Goodall (December 30, 1924 – February 21, 1972) was an American professional wrestler, known by his ringname Luther Lindsay or Lindsey, who competed throughout the United States with the National Wrestling Alliance as well as ...

. Early in the championship's history, the title would be won by

Ed Francis Edmund Charles Francis (June 11, 1926 – November 18, 2016) was an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter in Hawaii in the 1960s. Many wrestlers who came through Hawaii in the 1960s and 1970s were bound to come across the name ...

, who was already the territory's top non-heavyweight singles champion, holding the

Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship The Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship that was contended for in the Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal ...

. Upon Francis winning the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship, his Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship was retired. In addition to the northwestern United States, the title was also briefly defended in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

in the Japanese promotion Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING), but the title changes in W*ING were not officially recognized by PNW. The title remained active until July 1992, when Don Owen retired and sold PNW to

Sandy Barr Ferrin Charles Barr (January 21, 1938 – June 2, 2007) was an American professional wrestler, referee, promoter and trainer who spent his career mostly in the Western United States and Canada. Under the name as Sandy Barr, he was best known for ...

. Barr retired all of Owen's NWA championships after renaming the company to Championship Wrestling USA (CWUSA), creating new CWUSA championships in their places. The physical Owen-era NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship belt was owned by "The Grappler" Len Denton, who later auctioned off the belt to Bruce Owens. Wrestling belt maker Dave Millican purchased it from Owens and later sold it to an unknown collector.

Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) (formerly known as NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling and Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling) was a Canada-based professional wrestling promotion and a former member of the National Wre ...

(ECCW), also known as NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, became NWA's Pacific Northwest territory in 1998. The promotion's top championship, the

ECCW Championship The ECCW Championship (formerly known as the NWA/ECCW Heavyweight Championship) is the top singles championship in Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling. It was first established in 1996 in the then-independent ECCW, and its name was changed wh ...

, was briefly referred to as the NWA/ECCW Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship. ECCW left the NWA in 2011, leaving the NWA without a Pacific Northwest-based member promotion. In January 2015, the Portland-based Blue Collar Wrestling (BCW) promotion joined the NWA, reintroducing the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship – tracing the lineage back to the original version of the title. The championship was retired after

Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, singer, and only constant member of alter ...

purchased the NWA and ended its relationships with existing member promotions.

Title history

References

External links

Championship history from Pro-Wrestling Title Histories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nwa Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship Pacific Northwest Wrestling championships National Wrestling Alliance championships Heavyweight wrestling championships National Wrestling Alliance state wrestling championships Regional professional wrestling championships

Title history

See also

References

External links