NWA World Midget's Championship
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
| NWA World Midget's Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | 1949 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date retired | December, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
The NWA World Midget's Championship was the National Wrestling Alliance's midget wrestling singles championship. Large parts of the championship history is undocumented due to lack of documentation of Midget wrestling for large periods of time from the 1950s to the 1980s. In that period of time, there were two touring groups of midget wrestlers in the United States, both had a "World Champion", leading to some uncertainty as to who was the NWA World Midget's Champion, often based on if the champion was booked as defending the championship in an NWA territory.[1][2] The first wrestler to lay claim to the Midget's World Championship was Sky Low Low after he won a 30-man tournament in Paris, France.[citation needed] The tournament was either fictitious or not an NWA sanctioned event as it took place in Europe. But at some point after 1949 the NWA recognized Sky Low Low as their champion.[1][2][3]
It is impossible to determine who held the championship the longest, but it is plausible that Farmer Pete's 7 day title reign in 1957 was the shortest of all the reigns. Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo are both credited with three championship reigns, but due to incomplete records it is possible that either had more reigns or someone else had more than three reigns in total. Because the championship was a professional wrestling championship, it was not won or lost competitively but instead by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The championship was awarded after the chosen participant "won" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.[4]
Title history[edit]
- Key
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| # | The overall championship reign |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed. |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title changed hands |
| N/A | The specific information has not been found |
| — | Used for vacated reigns in order to not count it as an official reign |
| (nlt) | Indicates that a title change took place "no later than" a certain date. Often because the date of a title change is not found but a date of a title defense by the champions is found. |
| Title history is uncertain in that time period. |
| # | Wrestler | Reign | Date | Days held | Location | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sky Low Low | 1 | 1949 | [Note 6] | Paris, France | Live event | Won a 30-man tournament to become the first World Midget champion, but the title may not be recognized by the NWA.[1][2][3] |
| 2 | Little Beaver | 1 | 1950s | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | [1][2][5][6] |
| 3 | Sonny Boy Cassidy | 1 | September 1957 (NLT) | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | Was recognized as the World champion by non-NWA promoter in Dallas, TX as of June 1953; recognized in Memphis, Tennessee as of September 1957 and Florence, Alabama as of October 1957.[1][2] |
| 4 | Farmer Pete | 1 | October 4, 1957 | 7 | Florence, Alabama | Live event | |
| 5 | Sonny Boy Cassidy | 2 | October 11, 1957 | [Note 6] | Florence, Alabama | Live event | [1][2] |
| 6 | Cowboy Bradley | 1 | June 1960 | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | Recognized as champion in Georgia.[1][2] |
| 7 | Lord Littlebrook | 1 | March 1966 | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | [1][2][7] |
| 8 | Sky Low Low | 2 | 1967 (NLT) | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | [1][2] |
| 9 | Lord Littlebrook | 2 | June 28, 1968 (NLT) | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | Recognized in St. Joseph, Missouri; Still billed as champion on January 31, 1969.[1][2] |
| 10 | Lord Littlebrook | 3 | 1972 (NLT) | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | Recognized in Los Angeles, California in 1972.[1][2] |
| 11 | Little Beaver | 2 | January 1974 (NLT) | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | [1][2][5] |
| 12 | Little Tokyo | 1 | August 1974 | [Note 6] | [Note 7] | Live event | Recognized as champion in Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma. Possibly recognized in other NWA territories.[1][2][8] |
| 13 | Cowboy Lang | 1 | April 25, 1980 | [Note 6] | Calgary, Alberta, Canada | Live event | [1][2][9] |
| 14 | Little Tokyo | 2 | December 1981 | [Note 8] | [Note 7] | Live event | [1][2][8] |
| 15 | Tiny Tom | 1 | December 25, 1981 | [Note 6] | Dallas, Texas | Live event | [1][2] |
| 16 | Cowboy Lang | 2 | May 1983 | [Note 9] | [Note 7] | Live event | [1][2][9] |
| 17 | Little Tokyo | 3 | May 30, 1983 | 958 | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | Live event | [1][2][10] |
| 18 | Little Mr. T | 1 | January 12, 1986 | [Note 6] | St. Joseph, Missouri | Live event | [1][2] |
| Championship inactive at some point after 1986 | |||||||
| 19 | Tiny the Terrible | 1 | October 4, 1998 | 167 | Terryville, Connecticut | Live event | Defeated Half Nelson for the championship.[1][2] |
| 20 | Little Killer | 1 | March 20, 1999 | 175 | Thomaston, Connecticut | Live event | [1][2] |
| 21 | Jinx | 1 | September 11, 1999 | [Note 6] | Monroe, Connecticut | Live event | [1][2] |
| Championship inactive at some point after 1999. | |||||||
| 22 | Octagoncito | 1 | September 20, 2009 | [Note 10] | Santa Cruz, California | PWR Live event | Defeated El Espantito to become the Pro Wrestling Revolution (PWR) Mini's champion, which was also acknowledged as the NWA World champion at the time |
| Championship inactive In December 2009 when PWR leaves the NWA. Octagoncito continues to defend the title as the PWR World Mini's Championship. | |||||||
See also[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ^ Championship history is too uncertain to determine.
- ^ Records in the birth dates of wrestlers from this era are not complete, it is possible there was an older champion.
- ^ Records in the birth dates of wrestlers from this era are not complete, it is possible there was a younger champion.
- ^ Records for the weight of some wrestlers from this era are not complete, it is possible there was a heavier champion.
- ^ Records for the weight of some wrestlers from early era are not complete, it is possible there was a lighter champion.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Records are unclear on most of the dates prior to 1998 making it impossible to correctly calculate the length of this reign
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k The location of the match was not captured as part of the championship documentation.
- ^ The date the championship was lost has not been documented which means the championship reign lasted anywhere between 1 day and 24 days
- ^ The date the championship was lost has not been documented which means the championship reign lasted anywhere between 1 day and 29 days
- ^ The date the PWR withdrew from the NWA has not been documented which means the championship reign lasted anywhere between 72 days and 102 days
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "NWA World Midgets' Title". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "World Midget's Championship". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ a b "Sky Low Low". Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on 2009-03-03. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
- ^ Ed Grabianowski. "How Pro Wrestling Works". How Stuff Works. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
- ^ a b Burke, Tom. "Little Beaver". Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on March 31, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
- ^ "SLAM! Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame: Little Beaver". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Oliver, Greg (2004-05-09). "Hall of Fame grows some more". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b Oliver, Greg (2011-09-06). "Little Tokyo remembered with laughter". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b Oliver, Greg (January 9, 2007). "Midget star Cowboy Lang dies". Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Hoops, Brian (May 30, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (May 30): Inoki beats Andre to win MSG league, Garea & calhoun win WWWF Tag titles, Gagne vs. Funk Jr., UFC booker wins title". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved March 21, 2020.