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35-481: The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship started in 1979. It was formed by a split in lineage from the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship caused by the retirement of champion Nelson Royal the same year. The first champion, Steve Keirn , was recognized as world champion only by Florida , Los Angeles , and New Japan Pro-Wrestling . This version was eventually taken to

70-753: A 1956 Olympic silver medalist , had been champion for almost two years when he was defeated by Mantell, who went on to reign as World Junior Heavyweight Champion for the next year and a half. Mantell was a popular title holder and - as a world champion - defended the title throughout the National Wrestling Alliance . He feuded with wrestlers including Skandar Akbar in Kansas , Don Fargo in Utah , Bob Orton Jr in Fort Worth and Jack Lanza in Dallas . Mantell eventually lost

105-614: A heated feud with Angelo Savoldi over the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. During a bout between the two men on May 27, 1960 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma , Hodge's father Bill Hodge Sr. entered the ring and legitimately stabbed Savoldi. In 1973, Wrestling Pro of the Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling (GCCW) promotion faced Ken Mantell for the championship. During the match,

140-657: A heavyweight for the later part of the 1970s. He won the NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship on October 15, 1976 in the Los Angeles territory, when he defeated Chavo Guerrero . The pair had a memorable rivalry for the Americas Championship for the following year, with Guerrero eventually recapturing the gold. Following this, Mantell travelled to the NWA Gulf Coast territory , where he became

175-637: A new WWF Light Heavyweight Championship , the WWF demanded that the then current J-Crown Champion Shinjiro Otani return the WWF Light Heavyweight belt. Otani dissolved the J-Crown on November 5, 1997, by vacating all of the component titles except for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship , with the other belts being restored to their home promotions. After the dissolution of the J-Crown,

210-623: A promoter, formed the Wild West Wrestling promotion, which merged with World Class when he became part-owner in early 1988. Both Ken and his brother Johnny (who was also a professional wrestler) started amateur wrestling while in high school in California, before moving to Texas. Mantell began his career in Florida in 1970, wrestling under his real name. He established himself working for Championship Wrestling From Florida and soon began working

245-409: A result, the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship was vacated. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017. The title remained vacant until March 2022 when Homicide won the title on night two of the 2022 Crockett Cup . As of November 28, 2024, there have been 130 reigns between 80 champions, 15 vacancies and one deactivation. Ken Fenelon was the inaugural champion. Danny Hodge holds

280-499: A tournament for the championship in Los Angeles, California . Guerrero later lost the championship in a match against Mike Davis and, at Starrcade '84 , Davis lost the title to Denny Brown . When NJPW separated from the NWA in August 1985, NWA vice president Shohei Baba recognized Brown as the official champion. In May 1988, champion Nelson Royal left JCP while holding the title, after which

315-492: A wrestler in Wild West, having notable feuds with wrestlers including Cocoa Samoa . The promotion was a direct rival to World Class, which still ran events in the area, albeit on a small scale than it had in its heyday. Wild West Wrestling merged with World Class in 1988 when Mantell became part-owner of World Class after Fritz Von Erich sold his once highly prosperous promotion to his sons Kevin and Kerry and to Mantell. Wild West

350-563: A year and a half, which effectively lead to World Class's major decline, only a few months out from still being a highly successful territory It wasn't long before the oil recession hit Bill Watts in Oklahoma and he eventually sold the UWF to Jim Crockett in 1987. Mantell went on to form his own promotion based in the Dallas/Fort Worth territory called "Wild West Wrestling". Mantell continued on as

385-537: Is an American retired professional wrestler , promoter and booker who competed throughout the National Wrestling Alliance in the 1970s and 80s. He is a former NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion , having defeated Danny Hodge , and won the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Ron Bass in November 1975. He worked as the booker of World Class Championship Wrestling during its peak years and, as

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420-582: The NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Champion on March 22, 1977, defeating Wrestling Pro in Mobile, Alabama . Mantell and Pro would headline several events for the territory, feuding over the title in 1976-77, when Wrestling Pro eventually recapturing the championship in Dothan . Mantell captured his final title in wrestling on July 25, 1980 when he defeated Wahoo McDaniel in a tournament final to become

455-550: The NWA Mid-South Louisiana Heavyweight Champion in Shreveport , Louisiana . Towards the end of his in-ring career, Mantell began to transition to a backstage role, working as a booker and valued "brainstormer" in the territory he was perhaps most famous for wrestling with; World Class out of Dallas and Fort Worth . Mantell was highly respected by the locker room and promoter Fritz Von Erich and

490-894: The NWA Tri-State territory, where he won the NWA United States Tag Team Championship with Tom Jones on August 21, 1972, defeating Bobby Hart and Lorenzo Parente . The following year, Mantell wrestled for Big Time Wrestling in Portland under the ring name "Clay Spencer", where he captured the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship with Bull Ramos in July 1973. On December 19, 1973, Mantell faced six time and then-current NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion Danny Hodge in Jackson, Mississippi. Hodge,

525-657: The NWA World Tag Team Championship in November 1975. They defended the titles in the Central States Wrestling territory before dropping the belts in February the following year. Mantell then travelled to NWA: Georgia and again found tag team success, winning the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship with former WWWF World Tag Team Champion Dean Ho on July 2, 1976. Having been a junior heavyweight competitor for most of his career, Mantell competed as

560-553: The Junior Heavyweight title was returned to the NWA, who kept it vacant until March 1999, when Logan Caine won a tournament to become champion. In 2011, The Sheik was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion but was stripped of the championship for refusing to defend against Adam Pearce . The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion Craig Classic vacated the title in protest. Pro Wrestling Zero1 did not recognize

595-479: The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. The tournament to determine the first J-Crown Champion was held over four nights, from August 2 to August 5, 1996, the same dates that NJPW's annual G1 Climax event took place, promoting two major tournaments on one tour. Jushin Thunder Liger is credited with coming up with the idea for the J-Crown. The inaugural champion was The Great Sasuke . While Último Dragón

630-585: The NWA as a whole. The title Keirn held was later renamed the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship . In 1983, the title had splintered into two different lineages. The NWA recognized champion was The Cobra , who worked for NJPW. The Cobra held the title from November 3, 1983 until July 28, 1985, when he lost it against Hiro Saito . However, he regained the title that same day. The Cobra's second reign as champion continued until August 1, 1985, when NJPW separated from

665-470: The NWA. During the course of The Cobra's reigns, Les Thornton was recognized as champion by Georgia Championship Wrestling . The Georgia title was vacated when Thornton joined the NWA's rival the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Following Thornton's move to the WWF, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) awarded the title to Hector Guerrero on July 13, 1984, with JCP claiming that Guerrero had won

700-680: The United States, after which the World Junior Heavyweight Championship became the property of the alliance. At the founding meeting of the NWA governing body in Waterloo, Iowa , Billy Goelz was recognized as the governing body's World Junior Heavyweight Champion; the governing body additionally retroactively recognized all previous holders of the Iowa championship as former NWA World Junior Heavyweight champions. Between 1948 and 1952,

735-552: The championship began being defended in independent promotions until it was abandoned in December 1989. In 1995, the championship was re-established by Japan's Wrestle Yume Factory (WYF) promotion, with Masayoshi Motegi being the first champion under the WYF banner. In 1996, the J-Crown tournament was held to unify eight different championship belts from five different organizations, including

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770-510: The cornerstone of AJPW's junior heavyweight division until its eventual replacement by the World Junior Heavyweight Championship , which kept the belt design until 2017. In March 2007, after over two decades of inactivity, Toryumon Mexico reactivated the championship, using the belt that was used prior to November 1982. NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship The first NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion

805-637: The latter promotion by Tatsumi Fujinami , who already held the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship . In 1981, champion Chavo Guerrero left NJPW to go back to the United States, only to come back to Japan under the banner of All Japan Pro Wrestling , where a year later, it was renamed the International Junior Heavyweight Championship to avoid confusion and (along with being given a new belt design) in general line with AJPW's NWA titles. The championship became

840-514: The record for most reigns at seven. Hodge's fourth reign is the longest at 1,361 days while Fred Blassie 's and Hiro Saito 's were the shortest, lasting less than a day. Alex Taylor is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating previous champion Joe Alonzo on June 28, 2023, at NWA: Chicago's Endless Summer event in Highland Park, Illinois . Ken Mantell Ken Lusk , better known by his ring name Ken Mantell ,

875-493: The referee was knocked out and Wrestling Pro won the match, but a second referee appeared and awarded the victory to Mantell. The promoter Bob Kelly declared Wrestling Pro as the new champion and awarded him a title belt. However, Wrestling Pro was recognized as champion only in the GCCW territory and did not receive universal recognition from the NWA. 49 days after his initial loss, Mantell defeated Wrestling Pro to claim both versions of

910-757: The renamed Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). Mantell was successful and many former WCCW wrestlers would soon join the UWF, including the Fabulous Freebirds , Chris Adams , Missy Hyatt , Skandor Akbar , the Missing Link , Kamala and the One Man Gang . By the later half of 1986, the 1980s oil glut had hit Texas hard with many job losses in the WCCW markets of Dallas and Fort Worth, resulting in declining attendance at World Class events. A serious accident to WCCW's top star Kerry Von Erich kept him out of action for

945-557: The title to Hiro Matsuda in St. Petersburg, Florida on June 14, 1975. Danny Hodge would go on to defeat Matsuda for the title, becoming a seven-time champion. He retired as champion on March 15, 1976 after a car accident thus making Mantell the last person to ever defeat Hodge for the championship. Five months after losing the World Junior Heavyweight Championship Mantell won gold again, when he and Ron Bass won

980-475: The title was unified with other junior heavyweight titles. After becoming NWA champion in November 1949, Leroy McGuirk , who also held the National Wrestling Association 's World Junior Heavyweight Championship , defeated Iowa Champion Billy Goelz to unify the two titles. McGuirk vacated the title in February 1950 after being blinded in a car accident , forcing him to retire. Verne Gagne won

1015-435: The title. In March 1976, Hodge vacated the title after being injured in a car accident, marking the end of his record seventh reign as champion. In December 1979, after the title was vacated, Steve Keirn defeated Chavo Guerrero in the finals of a tournament to win the title. However, Keirn was recognized as champion by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as well as the Los Angeles and Florida NWA territories , but not by

1050-441: The vacancy and declared Classic as the real champion . In 2014, NWA re-established its working relationship with NJPW. The champion at that time, Chase Owens , defended the title on several NJPW events. During the working relationship, Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask IV held the title. On May 1, 2017, Billy Corgan 's company, Lightning One, Inc., purchased the NWA, including its name, rights, trademarks, and championships. As

1085-432: The vacant title in November 1950, defeating Sonny Myers in the finals of a tournament, after which he was presented with the title belt by McGuirk. Gagne lost the title to Danny McShain one year later in November 1951. In May 1952, McShain unified the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship with the Los Angeles version of the World Junior Heavyweight Championship by defeating Rito Romero . In 1960, Danny Hodge had

NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1120-506: Was Ken Fenelon , who was awarded the title in May 1943 by Paul "Pinkie" George , the promoter of the local National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promotion. For the first few years of its existence, the title was contested largely in Iowa , where George's NWA promotion was based. On July 14, 1948, the NWA was established by George and his partners as a governing body for various regional wrestling promotions in

1155-760: Was J-Crown Champion, the titles appeared on World Championship Wrestling (WCW) programming, as Dragon also held the WCW Cruiserweight Championship and the NWA World Middleweight Championship at the time. When Liger was champion, he lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yuji Yasuraoka on June 6, 1997, in Tokyo, Japan . Liger, however, continued to defend the J-Crown with seven titles instead of eight. As part of their introduction of

1190-469: Was kept on as a syndicated television "B-show" to complement WCCW on ESPN . Wild West TV tapings, though, would become rare and often consisted of WCCW footage. Meanwhile, Crockett's circuit was sold to Ted Turner and eventually became World Championship Wrestling . By the early 1990s, Watts was the WCW president. The new era of World Class was to be short-lived. With WCCW unable to reach the heights it once had,

1225-457: Was often thought of as Von Erich's "go to guy" after the passing of Fritz's son, David , in February 1984. In May 1986, Mid-South promoter Bill Watts set his sights on a national expansion in the same vein as Vince McMahon 's World Wrestling Federation and Jim Crockett Promotions . One of his first acts was to hire Ken Mantell away from Von Erich's World Class, with the expectation that Mantell could bring across World Class fans and talent to

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