MLW World Heavyweight Championship

The MLW World Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight championship owned and promoted by Major League Wrestling (MLW). It is the promotion's principal championship.[1] The championship was established on September 26, 2002 during the MLW Reload event and was active until February 10, 2004 after the promotion stopped hosting events.[2]

MLW World Heavyweight Championship
The MLW World Heavyweight Championship belt
(April 2018 — present)
Details
PromotionMajor League Wrestling (MLW)
Date establishedApril 7, 2002
Current champion(s)Jacob Fatu
Date wonJuly 6, 2019

Following their resurrection in 2018, Shane Strickland defeated Matt Riddle at The World Championship Finals of an eight-man single-elimination tournament to win the vacant championship.[3] Like all professional wrestling championships, the title is won via the result of a predetermined match. The current champion is Jacob Fatu, who is in his first reign.[4]

History

On June 15, 2002, Major League Wrestling held an eight-man single-elimination tournament to crown the first MLW Champion at its inaugural Genesis event.[5] Jerry Lynn, Shane Douglas, Vampiro and Taiyo Kea advanced to the semifinals.[5] Douglas defeated Lynn to advance to the finals, and caused the match between Vampiro and Kea to be declared a no contest. As a result, both wrestlers advanced to the finals for a three-way dance.[5] Douglas defeated both Kea and Vampiro to become the first champion.[5] Afterwards, Douglas threw the title down, like he did with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[6][7] Referee John Finnegan threatened that Douglas would be banned from wrestling in Philadelphia, if he didn't defend the title.[8] MLW went on hiatus for three months.

Upon the company's return, Satoshi Kojima defeated Jerry Lynn in New York City, New York at MLW Reload on September 26 for the vacant MLW World Heavyweight Championship.[9][10] Court Bauer would later confirm that this title lineage and belt design was a separate championship from the MLW Championship won by Shane Douglas in June 2002.[11] As such, Kojima was recognised as the first MLW World Heavyweight Champion. Kojima defended the title in his home promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), with the defenses airing on both MLW Underground TV and AJPW broadcasts in Japan.[9][10] Kojima lost the title at Hybrid Hell on June 20, 2003 to Mike Awesome. Afterwards, Awesome lost the title to Steve Corino, as Corino exercised Awesome's promise for a title shot.[8] It was later reported that Kojima's employers, AJPW would not allow him to drop the title to an employee of a rival company Pro Wrestling Zero1, which was Steve Corino.[12] Corino remained champion until the promotion closed on February 10, 2004.[2]

MLW resumed wrestling operations in July 2017. In January 2018, MLW announced its Road to the World Championship, an eight-man single-elimination tournament to crown a new champion.[13] During the tournament, ACH replaced Tom Lawlor in the semi-finals, after he suffered an injury.[14][15] On April 12, Shane Strickland defeated Matt Riddle in The World Championship Finals.[16][17][18][19] Low Ki made the first international title defense since 2003 in Claremont, Australia, as he defeated Jonah Rock on November 30 in a New Horizon Pro Wrestling event.[20] Starting in July 2019, MLW would begin playing a Championship Lineage video (similar to New Japan Pro Wrestling) highlighting all previous MLW World Heavyweight Champions before sanctioned Championship matches[21]. This lineage package would once again confirm Shane Douglas as not recognised as part of the MLW World Heavyweight Championship History.

Road to the Championship tournament (2018)
First round February 8, 2018 Semifinals Final
         
MVP [22]
Tom Lawlor
ACH
Matt Riddle
Matt Riddle [22]
Jeff Cobb
Matt Riddle [16]
Shane Strickland
Shane Strickland [22]
Brody King
Shane Strickland
Jimmy Havoc
Jimmy Havoc [22]
Maxwell Jacob Friedman

Reigns
The current champion Jacob Fatu

As of August 8, 2020, there have been 7 reigns and 1 vacancies. Satoshi Kojima was the inaugural champion, defeating Jerry Lynn at MLW Reload in September 2002. The current champion is Jacob Fatu who is the longest reigning champion at 399+ days.

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days
1 Satoshi Kojima September 26, 2002 Reload New York City, NY 1 267 Kojima defeated Jerry Lynn to win the vacant championship. [8]
2 Mike Awesome June 20, 2003 Hybrid Hell Fort Lauderdale, FL 1 <1 [8]
3 Steve Corino June 20, 2003 Hybrid Hell Fort Lauderdale, FL 1 235 Corino challenged Mike Awesome to a match following Awesome's victory over Satoshi Kojima. Corino claimed that Awesome had promised him a title shot before his win whenever Corino wanted. [8]
— Vacated February 10, 2004 — — — — Steve Corino was no longer listed as the MLW World Heavyweight Champion after the company stopped hosting events. [2]
4 Shane Strickland April 12, 2018 The World Championship Finals Orlando, FL 1 91 Strickland defeated Matt Riddle in the finals of an eight-man single-elimination tournament to win the vacant championship. [8]
5 Low Ki July 12, 2018 Fusion Orlando, FL 1 205 Match aired on July 20, 2018 via tape delay. [23]
6 Tom Lawlor February 2, 2019 SuperFight Philadelphia, PA 1 154 [23]
7 Jacob Fatu July 6, 2019 Kings of Colosseum Cicero, IL 1 399+ [24]
gollark: _scrambles to find thing to offer in preparation for moar reds_
gollark: Magmas are volcano-specific.
gollark: ~~I can't catch a million CB Golds!~~
gollark: ```Wants: CB honey, free for 2 hatchlings (red bsa auto)```
gollark: It's sunday and my shards aren't maxed. Time for a massbreed.

References
  1. "Current Champions List at mlw.com". Major League Wrestling. mlw.com. Retrieved 2018-09-30.
  2. "MLW history". Cagematch. September 17, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  3. Kreikenbohm, Philip. "MLW The World Championship Final « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  4. "MLW World Heavyweight Championship « Titles Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  5. "MLW World title tournament". www.wrestlingdata.com.
  6. Loverro, Thom (2007). The Rise & Fall of ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling. Simon & Schuster. pp. 67–75. ISBN 978-1-4165-6156-9.
  7. Linder, Zach (August 27, 2014). "Paul Heyman on Shane Douglas and the birth of Extreme". WWE. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  8. Martin, Fin (August 2003). "Major League Wrestling". Power Slam Magazine. Lancaster, Lancashire, England: SW Publishing LTD. pp. 22–23. 109.
  9. "MLW Japan relationship". Cagematch. September 17, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  10. "MLW Japan relationship 2". Cagematch. September 17, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  11. Bauer, Court (November 21, 2019). "Different title. June 2002 tournament was for the MLW Championship. Different belt and lineage from the MLW World Heavyweight that we established in September 2002".
  12. Martin, Findlay (August 2003), Power Slam, SW Publishing, p. 23, issue 109
  13. "MLW: Road to the World Championship". Major League Wrestling.
  14. "ACH To Replace Tom Lawlor In MLW Championship Tournament Due To Injury". Wrestling News.Net. February 28, 2018.
  15. "TOM LAWLOR INJURED, ACH TO REPLACE HIM IN MLW CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT". Pro Wrestling Insider. February 28, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  16. "MLW TV TAPING RESULTS: THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. April 13, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  17. "MLW Results: World Championships Finals – Orlando, FL (4/12)". Wrestling News.Net. April 13, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  18. "MLW "World Championship Finals Results" from 4/12/18". The Chairshot. April 13, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  19. "MLW TV Taping Results (4/12/18): New MLW World Heavyweight Champion Crowned". Fightful. April 13, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  20. "NHPW Final Chapter IX « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net.
  21. "MLW Kings Of Colosseum Recap (7/6): New Champion Crowned, Hammerstone Open Challenge, Reed Vs Horus".
  22. "MLW ROAD TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS: FIRST ROUND MATCHES". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  23. "NEW MLW CHAMPION CROWNED". Pro Wrestling Insider. July 12, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  24. "Jacob Fatu Wins MLW World Title From Tom Lawlor At Kings Of Colosseum". Fightful.com. July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
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