WCWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
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The WCWA Light Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship promoted by the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex area-based World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA) promotion from September 13, 1987 until May 1989. The championship was for wrestlers under 230 pounds (100 kg) pounds, the maximum limit of the "Light Heavyweight" division at the time. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is won not by actual competition, but by a scripted ending to a match.[b]
| WCWA World Light Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The championship belt | |||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||
| Promotion | World Class Wrestling Association | ||||||||||||||
| Date established | 1987[1][2] | ||||||||||||||
| Date retired | 1989[1][2] | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
According to WCWA, inaugural champion Eric Embry won the championship by defeating Peter Vander Graling (or "Vandergraling") on a show in South Africa on September 13, 1987,[2] however no sources have confirmed the validity of the claim, leading to the belief that this was simply a storyline by WCWA to explain how Embry became champion.[1] Embry won WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship on April 7, 1989,[8] followed by the WCWA World Light Heavyweight Championship being declared vacant in May, after which it was never promoted again.[1][2] Embry holds the record for most championship reigns, with five in total, the longest individual reign (295 days) and the longest combined reigns (approximately 518 days). Cactus Jack's five day reign, from December 30, 1988 to January 4, 1989, is the shortest reign of any champion.[1][2]
Title history
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||
| 1 | Eric Embry | September 13, 1987 | Live event | South Africa | 1 | 73 | Supposedly defeated Peter Vander Graling, posibibly a fictitious match | [1][2] |
| 2 | Shaun Simpson | November 25, 1987 | WCWA Live event | Dallas, Texas | 1 | 30 | [1][2] | |
| 3 | Eric Embry | December 25, 1987 | Christmas Star Wars | Dallas, Texas | 2 | 295 | [1][2][9] | |
| 4 | Jeff Jarrett | October 15, 1988 | 5th Cotton Bowl Extravaganza | Dallas, Texas | 1 | 27 | Highlights aired on the October 22 episode of WCCW's weekly television show (E356) | [1][2][10][11][12] |
| 5 | Eric Embry | November 11, 1988 | WCWA Live event | Dallas, Texas | 3 | 13 | [1][2] | |
| 6 | Jeff Jarrett | November 24, 1988 | WCWA Live event | Jackson, Tennessee | 2 | 19 | [1][2][13] | |
| 7 | Eric Embry | December 13, 1988 | SuperClash III | Chicago, Illinois | 4 | 17 | [1][2][14][15] | |
| 8 | Cactus Jack | December 30, 1988 | WCWA Live event | Dallas, Texas | 1 | 5 | [1][2][16][17] | |
| 9 | Eric Embry | January 4, 1989 | WCWA Live event | Dallas, Texas | 5 | [c] | [1][2][18] | |
| — | Deactivated | May 1989 | — | — | — | — | Embry won Texas Championship on April 7, 1989,[8] the light heavyweight championship was vacated in May 1989. | [1][2] |
Reigns by combined length
- Key
| Symbol | Meaning |
| ¤ | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest possible length is used. |
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of Reigns | Combined Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Embry | 5 | 518¤ [c] |
| 2 | Jeff Jarrett | 2 | 46 |
| 3 | Shaun Simpson | 1 | 30 |
| 4 | Cactus Jack | 1 | 5 |
Footnotes
- The exact date on which the championship was abandoned is uncertain, which means the title reign lasted between 117 and 147 days.