American Heavyweight Championship
The American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first heavyweight professional wrestling championship in the United States. The title existed from 1881 through approximately 1922.[1]
| American Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||
| Date established | January 19, 1881 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Title history
| Wrestler | Times | Date won | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edwin Bibby | 1 | January 19, 1881 | New York City | Defeats Duncan C. Ross in a catch-as-catch-can match for "the championship of America".[2][3] |
| Joe Acton | 1 | August 7, 1882 | New York City | Has defeated Tom Cannon on December 9, 1881, in London, England for the Catch-as-Catch-Can Title; Bibby is billed as champion for a match against World Greco-Roman champion William Muldoon on September 3, 1882, in Elmira, NY. |
| Evan "Strangler" Lewis | 1 | April 11, 1887 | Chicago | Lewis unified the American Catch-as-Catch Can Championship and the American Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship by defeating Ernest Roeber on March 2, 1893, in a 3 out of 5 falls match with alternating Greco-Roman match and Catch-as-Catch can matches. The two titles became known as the American Heavyweight Wrestling Championship. |
| Martin "Farmer" Burns | 1 | April 20, 1895 | Chicago | |
| Dan McLeod | 1 | October 26, 1897 | Indianapolis | |
| Yusuf İsmail | 1 | June 20, 1898 | Chicago | Ismail defeated Evan "Strangler" Lewis for the American Heavyweight Championship in Chicago, Illinois. Lewis was neither able to overcome Ismail's massive size and strength nor manage to use his sleeper hold during the match. Ismail had the $5,000 prize money converted to gold and carried it in a money belt along with the title. |
| Tom Jenkins | 1 | November 7, 1901 | ||
| Dan McLeod | 2 | December 25, 1902 | Worcester, Mass. | Jenkins forfeited the title to McLeod after having blood poisoning in his leg during their match. |
| Tom Jenkins | 2 | April 3, 1903 | Buffalo, N.Y. | [4] |
| Frank Gotch | 1 | January 27, 1904 | Bellingham, Wash. | |
| Tom Jenkins | 3 | March 15, 1905 | New York City | |
| Frank Gotch | 2 | May 23, 1906 | Kansas City, Mo. | [5] |
| Fred Beell | 1 | December 1, 1906 | New Orleans | [6] |
| Frank Gotch | 3 | December 17, 1906 | Kansas City, Mo. | [6] |
| Vacant | 1910 | Gotch vacates the title after two years as a double crown champion to concentrate on the World Heavyweight Championship he won from Georg Hackenschmidt on April 3, 1908, in Chicago, Illinois.[4] | ||
| Henry Ordemann | 1 | October 25, 1910 | Minneapolis | Defeats Charlie Cutler and awarded the title by special referee Frank Gotch. |
| Charlie Cutler | 1 | February 1, 1911 | Minneapolis | |
| Dr. Benjamin Roller | 1 | March 6, 1911 | Chicago | |
| Charlie Cutler | 2 | March 25, 1911 | Buffalo, N.Y. | |
| Jess Reimer | 1 | November 7, 1911 | Des Moines, Iowa | |
| Henry Ordemann | 2 | December 14, 1911 | Minneapolis | |
| Charlie Cutler | 3 | March 25, 1912 | Chicago | Jess Westergaard (Reimer) defeats Ordemann on January 7, 1913, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to claim a title but loses to Cutler on January 22, 1913, in Dallas, Texas. |
| Dr. Benjamin Roller | 2 | July 4, 1913 | Benton Harbor, Mich. | |
| Ed "Strangler" Lewis | 1 | September 18, 1913 | Lexington, Ky. | |
| William Demetral | 1 | October 21, 1913 | Lexington, Ky. | |
| Dr. Benjamin Roller | 3 | July 10, 1914 | Rock Island, Ill. | Ed "Strangler" Lewis defeats Roller during an international tournament on January 15, 1916, in New York City (title may not be on line). |
| Wladek Zbyszko | 1 | January 8, 1917 | Wilkes-Barre, Penn. | Still/again champion as of September 22, 1922 (or a different reign, possibly by winning a tournament which has started on February 21, 1922). |
See also
- Professional wrestling in the United States
- World Catch-as-Catch-Can Championship
- World Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship
- Early wrestling championships
References
- https://www.nytimes.com/1881/01/20/archives/bibby-throws-ross-winning-a-match-with-the-giant-three-out-of-five.html
- https://sites.google.com/site/allaboutbibby/prominent-bibbys/edwin-bibby
- https://www.nytimes.com/1881/01/20/archives/bibby-throws-ross-winning-a-match-with-the-giant-three-out-of-five.html
- F4W Staff (April 3, 2015). "ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING TITLE CHANGE HISTORY: GOTCH VS. HACKENSCHMIDT, INOKI VS. HANSEN, GUERRERO VS. JERICHO". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
- Hoops, Brian (May 23, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (May 23): Antonio Inoki Vs. Hulk Hogan, Andre Vs. Sakaguchi, Frank Gotch in a 57-minute match". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
- Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles; "Milwaukee Journal"; "Marshfield", "WI"; "August 8, 1933"; viewed online at https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Newspaper/BA335
External links
- American Heavyweight title history at Wrestling-Titles.com
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