When we last left off in part one of this series, we took a look at the history of the NWA World Title, from its creation in 1948 through to current titleholder Jeff Jarrett. At the end, I mentioned that the history of the NWA Title is often artificially extended back to the turn of the 20th century. Although the NWA Title itself does not date back that far, there were legitimate claims to other World Titles that can be traced all the way back to the 19th century. Let’s go way, way back and look at the very infancy of professional wrestling’s first World Championships.
The American Championship (1880-1901)
The origins of the professional wrestling World Title can actually be traced back to two separate titles, the World Greco-Roman Title and the World Catch-As-Catch-Can Title. Greco-Roman, considered the “classic” style of amateur wrestling, was widely popular in Europe. It soon caught on in America, especially during the Civil War when the soldiers on both sides would often engage in wrestling contests to pass the otherwise unoccupied time. After the end of the war, wrestling remained a popular pastime, and the American Greco-Roman Title was soon created for the new professional wrestling circuit. The first man to hold that title was William Muldoon. Muldoon was born in 1845 in New York, and became a well known wrestler while serving in the Union Army during the war. Muldoon won the World Greco-Roman Title in January of 1880, defeating European Greco-Roman Champion Thiebaud Bauer to unify the European Title with his own American Greco-Roman Title, and he held the title for almost 12 years until he retired and vacated the title at the end of 1891. Shortly after Muldoon’s retirement, a new champion was crowned when Ernest Roeber won it in Brooklyn, NY.
The next year, it was decided that a unification match would be contested between Roeber and World Catch-As-Catch-Can Champion Evan “Strangler” Lewis. This second title had originated in 1881, and Lewis, the original Strangler, defeated inaugural champion Joe Acton six years later. Lewis himself was champion for six years when he faced Roeber in a mixed-style match. In a 2 out of 3 falls match where they would alternate styles each fall, Lewis defeated Roeber in March of 1893, unifying the two titles in the American Mixed-Style Title, usually referred to simply as the American Heavyweight Title.
Lewis held the title for two years, eventually being defeated by Martin “Farmer” Burns, a man who is often said to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Burns held the title for two years himself before losing to Dan McLeod, and McLeod would in turn lose the title to Tom Jenkins. By winning the American Title, Jenkins had established himself as the top American wrestler, but he would soon be faced with a monster of a man whose goal was to become the first ever World Heavyweight Champion.
The Original World Heavyweight Title (1901-1929)
At the turn of the century, European strongman and wrestling champion George Hackenschmidt first came to America. Hackenschmidt was born in 1878 in what would become modern Estonia, and had one of the most impressive bodies ever seen at that point. He won the Russian weightlifting title, and his strength soon became legendary. In addition to his famous strength, Hackenschmidt also had an impressive record as a wrestler, having won championship tournaments in France, Germany, Russia and England. He came to America for one purpose: to face Jenkins to determine who would be recognized as the greatest wrestler in the world. In 1905, the widely anticipated match took place in New York City, and Hackenschmidt defeated Jenkins in two straight falls to become the first ever World Heavyweight Champion.
Hackenschmidt held the title for three years, and it seemed that nobody would ever be able to overcome his power. However, although his victory over Jenkins had gained him the title of World Champion, the American Title did not cease to exist. Shortly after his loss to Hackenschmidt, Jenkins also lost the American Title to longtime rival Frank Gotch, who had trained under Farmer Burns. Gotch, now the top champion in America, was viewed by American promoters as the top contender to Hackenschmidt, and were eagerto sign a match between the two. Gotch got his title shot in April 1908 and after over two hours, Gotch gained a shocking submission victory to become the first American to win the title.
Although he was faced with a rematch against Hackenschmidt in 1911, Gotch defeated the former champion easily amidst allegations that he had paid a dangerous wrestler named Ad Santel to injure Hackenschmidt in a training session and leave him easy prey for Gotch. Now with his only serious competition out of the way, Gotch reigned almost untested as champion until his retirement in 1913. With both Gotch and Hackenschmidt out of the title picture by this point, the field was wide open for a new claimant to the title of World Champion.
The first man to make that claim was Charlie Cutler. Cutler was billing himself as the American Champion, although it has never been verified that he had ever actually legitimately won the title. Similar to his questionable status as the American Champion, Cutler claimed that as the American Champion he was the top contender to the World Title and should be named the new World Champion. He would get his chance, but would not go unchallenged, however, and a few months after first stating his claim to the World Title, he was defeated in a legitimate match for the World Title by Joe Stecher.
After Stecher won the title, he lost the title to Earl Caddock, won it back, and then a three way rivalry for the World Title formed between Stecher, Stanislaus Zbyszko, and Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Through the 1920s, the title would be held almost exclusively by these three men. The title went from Stecher to Lewis to Zbyszko to Lewis to Wayne Munn to Zbyszko to Stecher, and back to Lewis when he defeated Stecher in 1928 to end the rivalry. This reign would last almost a full year before Lewis was defeated by Gus Sonnenberg. Sonnenberg’s reign would close out the decade, but he would soon wind up ex-champion thanks to wrestling’s new governing body.
Disputed (1930-1949)
In 1929, the National Wrestling Association was formed as a part of the National Boxing Association, and one of their first acts as governing body of wrestling was to strip Gus Sonnenberg of the World Heavyweight Title, claiming that he wasn’t competing against top competition and thus did not deserve the title. This decision did not sit well with many regional promoters, and for the first time since its unification under George Hackenschmidt, the title was disputed, with several different promoters recognizing their own champion.
The three main branches of the title were those recognized by the National Wrestling Association, the New York State Athletic Commission, and the American Wrestling Association (in Boston, not to be confused with the promotion later created by Verne Gagne). Each governing body recognized their own champion independently of one another. This went on for about six years before Danno O’Mahoney won all three titles, but the peace and harmony would be short lived. O’Mahoney would lose the World Title to Dick Shikat in 1936, but the AWA still recognized O’Mahoney as champion. What’s worse, now other promotions in Los Angeles, Maryland, and the Midwest Wrestling Association all claimed their own World Champion, regardless of who was recognized by the National Wrestling Association.
And that was pretty much the story for the better part of the next fifteen years. Each of the different promoters continued promoting their own champion as the “true” World Champion, despite the title rarely, if ever, being defended outside of their territory. It became clear that there could truly be only one World Champion, but any kind of unification seemed so far off as to be a fantasy, that is until 1948 rolled around and the National Wrestling Alliance was formed.
Unification (1949-1952)
To quickly recap part of the story from part one, the National Wrestling Alliance was formed in 1948 by the various regional promoters who wanted a single World Champion who would be recognized by wrestling’s own national governing body. Current Midwest Wrestling Association titleholder Orville Brown was recognized as the Alliance’s first World Champion. The Alliance petitioned the National Wrestling Association for a unification match with its own World Champion. The National Boxing Association, glad to be rid of dealings with wrestling promoters, quickly agreed. A unification match between Alliance Champion Orville Brown and Association Champion Lou Thesz was scheduled for November of 1949, but never happened. Brown suffered injuries in a car accident shortly before the match, and both titles were awarded to Thesz.
Over the next three years Thesz would go on to unify all the splintered versions of the World Title into one. In 1950, he defeated Boston’s AWA Champion Gorgeous George. In 1952, he would be awarded recognition as World Champion in Maryland and Washington, DC after previous champion Frank Sexton had the title stripped of him. Finally, on May 21, 1952, Thesz defeated the champion in Los Angeles, Baron Michele Leone, to unify the last disputed branch into the NWA World Title.
Finally, after more than 20 years of regional promoters claiming their own champion as the top man in the business, Lou Thesz stood atop the mountain as the one true, undisputed World Champion. The party would not last long, however. On November 9, 1956, Edouard Carpentier defeated Lou Thesz by disqualification. Although NWA rules stated that the World Title cannot change hands via DQ, several promoters in the Midwest and elsewhere recognize Carpentier as World Champion, leading to the creation of the AWA and the first true World Championship separate from the NWA Title.
Conclusion: Full Circle
And so we end where we began. Although the NWA Title was still considered the “real” World Championship by most observers, with the creation of the AWA Title, the claim of the NWA Title as the top title was again disputed. The pattern would repeat itself over the coming decades, as similar incidents regarding the claim to the NWA Title would lead to the creation of the WWF, WCW, ECW, and TNA as top national promotions. Even though the lineage of the NWA Title only stretches back to 1948, this progression of World Titles going back to George Hackenschmidt and beyond provide the basis for the frequent false claim of a hundred year legacy of the NWA World Title.
However, some people still insist that the continuous unification of all these titles into the current NWA Title validate that claim. But regardless of what I have to say about it, next time you turn on TNA Impact and start to question Jeff Jarrett, Ron Killings, AJ Styles, or Raven as true World Championship material, maybe you should stop and consider showing them a little more respect than you otherwise would.
After all, according to some, that title has quite a bit of history behind it.
