The National Wrestling Association World Light 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 ...

originally sanctioned by the

National Boxing Association The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxi ...

(NBA) and subsequently sanctioned by the

National Wrestling Association The National Wrestling Association (NWA) was an early professional wrestling sanctioning body created in 1930 by the National Boxing Association (NBA; now the World Boxing Association, WBA) as an attempt to create a governing body for professional ...

(NWA), an offshoot of the NBA. The championship had an upper limit of , anyone above that limit was considered a heavyweight. The championship was created in 1930 and abandoned in the early 1960s. In 1930 the NBA decided to try and regulate professional wrestling in the way they had tried to regulate boxing in the United States. One of their first steps was to try and clear up the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

picture in the hopes of establishing one generally recognized championship. To that end they sanctioned a number of world championship tournaments, including one for the World Light Heavyweight Championship. The NBA requested that contenders post as $2,500 forfeit to enter the tournament. Only three light heavyweights paid the forfeit, which meant that Pinki Gardner faced Joe Banaskie, and the winner of that match would face Hugh Nichols for the championship. Nichols won the bout and became the first NBA sanctioned World Light Heavyweight Champion. In September 1930 the NBA formed the

to allow the organization to focus on pro wrestling. In 1948 a number of promoters joined together to form 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 ...

, forming a network of promoters across the United States and within a year or two the Alliance would usurp the Association as the controlling organization. In 1958 then champion Frank Stojack was stripped of the Association championship due to not having defended it for a long period of time. Subsequently, the Association decided to sanction the Alliance's

NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship The NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). For the majority of its existence the title was promoted by Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libr ...

when

Dory Dixon Dorrel "Dory" Dixon (born February 1, 1935) is a Jamaican retired professional wrestler who worked for the majority of his career in Mexico, where he eventually became a Mexican citizen. He is currently a pastor for the Seventh-day Adventist Churc ...

defeated Al Kashey in a match overseen by presidents of both the National Wrestling Association and the National Wrestling Alliance. In the early 1960s the Association existed in name only, withdrawing their recognition of the Alliance championships but not sanctioning a separate championship. Hugh Nichols was the first World Light Heavyweight Champion, winning the championship on April 4, 1940. The last officially sanctioned champion was

Gory Guerrero Salvador Guerrero Quesada (January 11, 1921 – April 18, 1990), better known as Gory Guerrero, was one of the premier Mexican American professional wrestlers in the early days of Lucha Libre when most wrestlers were imported from outside Mexico ...

, who won the championship on July 30, 1960.

Danny McShain Danny McShain (October 30, 1912 – July 14, 1992) was an American professional wrestler. He competed in the southern United States from the 1930s to the 1960s. Early life McShain was born on October 30, 1912, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He made hi ...

held the championship a total of ten times during his career, a record for most reigns. Frank Stojack's reign, lasting from August 10, 1953 until he was stripped of the championship on November 30, 1957, is the longest reign totaling 1,573 days. Danny McShain's third and seventh reign as champion only lasted seven days, although due to gaps in the championship history the possibility exists that someone else had a shorter reign.

Title history

Footnotes

References

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Light Heavyweight Light heavyweight, also referred to as junior cruiserweight or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruise ...

Light heavyweight wrestling championships

Title history

Footnotes

See also

References