NWA World's Heavyweight Championship

NWA World's Heavyweight Championship
The NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship belt (1973 - 1986, 1994 - 2021); The current version of the championship belt, introduced in 2021, is the same, but the Australian flag side plate is replaced with a United Kingdom flag side plate.
Details
Promotion	National Wrestling Alliance
Date established	July 14, 1948
Current champion(s)	EC3
Date won	August 27, 2023
Other name(s)
NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1948–2016)[1] NWA World's Heavyweight Championship (2016–present)
Statistics First champion(s) Orville Brown Most reigns Ric Flair (9 reigns)[2] Longest reign Lou Thesz (2,300 days) Shortest reign Shane Douglas (3½ minutes) Oldest champion Tim Storm (51 years, 173 days) Youngest champion Chris Candido (22 years, 243 days) Heaviest champion Tyrus (375 lb (170 kg)) Lightest champion Kahagas (205 lb (93 kg))

The NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion. The current champion is EC3, who is in his first reign.

Although formally established in 1948, its lineage has been traditionally traced back to the first World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, which traces its lineage to the title first awarded to George Hackenschmidt in 1905. This effectively makes it the oldest surviving wrestling championship in the world.^[3]

The title began as a governing body's world championship and has been competed for in multiple major promotions around the world, including the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (which seceded from the NWA and became World Wide Wrestling Federation, now WWE), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Ring of Honor (ROH), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and the now-defunct American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP, later called World Championship Wrestling, WCW), Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW, later Extreme Championship Wrestling), World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), and many other defunct wrestling promotions.

In October 2017, the NWA governing body was purchased by Billy Corgan and gradually evolved into a stand alone wrestling promotion with the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship as its premier title.^[4][5][6]