The NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

sanctioned by the

National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion and former professional wrestling governing body operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA ...

and defended in its

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

Pacific Northwest Wrestling Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) (also known as Big Time Wrestling and Portland Wrestling) is the common name used to refer to several different professional wrestling companies, both past and present, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. T ...

, which promoted shows in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

s of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, and occasionally other areas in the

northwestern United States The Northwestern United States, also known as the American Northwest or simply the Northwest, is an informal geographic region of the United States. The region consistently includes the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. ...

. The title was created in 1955 by Don Owen Sports for the NWA Pacific Northwest territory, and became the top singles title for that area. The first champion was

Ed Francis Edmund Charles "Ed" Francis (June 11, 1926 – November 18, 2016) was a professional wrestler and wrestling promoter in Hawaii in the 1960s. Many wrestlers who came through Hawaii in the 1960s and 1970s were bound to come across the name Ed Fra ...

, who was already the territory's top singles champion, holding the Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship. Upon Francis taking on the NWA PNW Heavyweight Championship, his Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship was retired. The title was also briefly defended in the Japanese promotion

Wrestling International New Generations Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion specialized in deathmatches. History After leaving Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in the summer of 1991, Kazuyoshi Osako and Kiyoshi "Mickey" Ibar ...

(W*ING) in 1992, but the title changes in W*ING were not officially recognized by PNW. The title remained active until July 1992, when Don Owen retired and sold his company to

Sandy Barr Ferrin Charles Barr (January 21, 1938 – June 2, 2007) was an American professional wrestler, referee, promoter and trainer who spent his career mostly in the Western United States and Canada. Under the name as Sandy Barr, he was best known for h ...

. Barr retired all NWA PNW titles with Owen and began operating under the company name "Championship Wrestling USA", creating new championships. The actual retired (Owen Era) NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship belt was auctioned off by Len Denton (The Grappler) to Bruce Owens. Dave Millican (The Ace of Belts) purchased it from Owens and later sold it to a collector who wishes to remain anonymous.

Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) (formerly known as NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling and Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling) is a Western Canada-based professional wrestling promotion and a former member of the Nati ...

(formerly NWA/Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling) became recognized as the NWA Pacific Northwest territory in 1998 and have an

ECCW Championship The ECCW Championship (formerly known as the NWA/ECCW Heavyweight Championship) is the top singles championship in Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling. It was first established in 1996 in the then-independent ECCW, and its name was changed whe ...

, which is sometimes referred to as the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship. In January 2015, the NWA made its return to Portland when local promotion Blue Collar Wrestling (BCW) joined the Alliance.

Title history

Original version

This version was promoted by

(PNW).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nwa Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship Pacific Northwest Wrestling championships National Wrestling Alliance championships Heavyweight wrestling championships National Wrestling Alliance state wrestling championships Regional professional wrestling championships

Title history

Original version

See also

References