WCW Heavyweight Championship



In the Classic Era, the WCW Heavyweight Championship was the top title in the Heavyweight class of World Championship Wrestling.

History
The WCW Heavyweight Championship is one of several to have been the result of a dispute with the National Wrestling Alliance. In this instance, the dispute is more convoluted. By 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions had basically taken over as the de facto home of the NWA and most of its remaining Championships, having purchased other territories. When Turner Broadcasting in turn purchased JCP, they now ownership of these properties and titles except for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, though they did claim ownership of the Big Gold belt that now represented it, having done so since 1986.

Beginning in 1991, the various NWA Championships in WCW were now being recognized as WCW titles while the World Heavyweight Championship was recognized with the NWA itself. In Japan, Tatstumi Fujinami defeated Ric Flair it a title bout that became so disputed that the NWA recognized the win while WCW did not, still recognizing Flair. This would lead to a match at WCW SuperBrawl in which Flair would win. The peace was short lived however as Flair would exit WCW while still Champion. This exit would lead to the formation of a proper WCW Heavyweight Championship and would be won by Lex Luger in a cage bout against Barry Windham at WCW the Great American Bash.

Despite having their own recognized World Champion, WCW would remain a member of the NWA until 1993 when they would exit. Still claiming ownership of the NWA's Big Gold belt version of the title, they renamed it the WCW International Heavyweight Championship and in 1994, this title would be merged with the WCW Heavyweight title, with Ric Flair defeating Sting in a unification match at WCW Clash of the Champions. Flair would opt for the International title belt as the new representation of WCW's World Heavyweight Championship and it would remain this way until WCW's closure in 1991.

This Championship has the distinction of being won under unusual circumstances by non-competitors, both occurring in 2000. First, David Arquette was coerced into a tag team match in which the title would be awarded to the competitor scoring the deciding fall. Arquette's tag team partner in the match, Diamond Dallas Page helped him achieve this. Later in the year, Vince Russo, one of the creative heads of WCW took part in a multi-competitor cage match in which one of the stipulations for victory was exiting the cage. He was tackled out of the cage by Bill Goldberg. Russo vacated the title the following night.

List of Champions

 * Ric Flair (1991)(1993-94)(1995-96)(1999)(2000)(2000)
 * Lex Luger (1991-92)(1997)
 * Sting (1992)(1993)(1998)(1999)(1999)
 * Big Van Vader (1992)(1992-93)(1993)
 * Ron Simmons (1992)
 * Hulk Hogan/Hollywood Hogan (1994-95)(1996-97)(1997)(1998)(1999)(1999)
 * Randy Savage (1995)(1998)(1999)
 * The Giant (1996)
 * Bill Goldberg (1998)
 * Kevin Nash (1998-99)(1999)(2000)(2000)(2000)
 * Diamond Dallas Page (1999)(1999)(2000)
 * Bret Hart (1999-2000)
 * Sid Vicious (2000)(2000)
 * Jeff Jarrett (2000)(2000)(2000)(2000)
 * David Arquette (2000)
 * Booker T (2000)(2000)(2000)(2001)
 * Vince Russo (2000)
 * Scott Steiner (2000-01)