All Asia Heavyweight Championship
The All Asia Heavyweight Championship (Japanese: オールアジアヘビー級王座, Hepburn: Ōru Ajia Hebī-kyū Ōza) is a title owned and promoted by the Pro Wrestling Land's End promotion. The title was originally created in 1955 in Japan Wrestling Association (JWA), with the inaugural champion crowned on November 22, 1955.[1] Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a match with a predetermined outcome. The current champion is So Daimonji, who is in his first reign.
| All Asia Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||
| Promotion | |||||||||
| Date established | November 22, 1955 | ||||||||
| Current champion(s) | So Daimonji | ||||||||
| Date won | June 6, 2023 | ||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||
Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) All Asia Heavyweight Championship Asia Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||
| |||||||||
History
This title was contested for originally in JWA where it was known as the Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) All Asia Heavyweight Championship or All Asia Heavyweight Championship for short. When JWA shut down in 1973, the title went inactive until being reactivated in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1976 after New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) announced the creation of its own version of the title.[2] The NJPW title was retired in 1981, while the AJPW title was retired in 1995, following the retirement of final champion Kintarō Ōki.[2]
On December 15, 2017, the Pro Wrestling Land's End promotion announced that it had gotten the blessing of Pacific Wrestling Federation chairman Dory Funk Jr. and Mitsuo Momota, the son of inaugural champion Rikidōzan, to revive the Asia Heavyweight Championship with a tournament to crown the new champion set to take place in South Korea on January 21, 2018.[3] This also led to a new name[4] and a new design of the championship. The tournament was won by Ryoji Sai who defeated Bodyguard in the finals of an eight-man tournament.[4]
Inaugural championship tournament (1955)
| Rikidōzan | 4.0 |
|---|---|
| King Kong Czaya | 2.5 |
| Dara Singh | 2.5 |
| Tiger Joginder Singh | 1.0 |
| Syed Saif Shah | 0.0 |
| Dara | Czaya | Shah | Tiger | Rikidōzan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dara S. | — | Draw | Dara S | Dara S | Rikidōzan |
| Czaya | Draw | — | Czaya | Czaya | Bye[note 1] |
| Shah | Dara S | Czaya | — | Tiger J | Rikidōzan |
| Tiger J. | Dara S | Czaya | Tiger J | — | Rikidōzan |
| Rikidōzan | Rikidōzan | Bye[note 1] | Rikidōzan | Rikidōzan | — |
| Final | ||||
| 1 | Rikidōzan | KO | ||
| 2 | King Kong Czaya | 90:50[5] | ||
Notes
- King Kong Czaya and Rikidōzan received a bye into the finals.
Championship revival tournament (2018)
| First round (January 21) | Semifinals (January 21) | Final (January 21) | ||||||||||||
| Bodyguard | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Dr. MONZ Jr. | 6:45[4] | |||||||||||||
| Bodyguard | Sub | |||||||||||||
| Dolgorsuren Beringon | 0:59[4] | |||||||||||||
| Yun Boy-ik | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Dolgorsuren Beringon | 04:24[4] | |||||||||||||
| Bodyguard | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Ryoji Sai | 19:23[4] | |||||||||||||
| Uncle | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Masashi Takeda | 7:53[4] | |||||||||||||
| Masashi Takeda | KO | |||||||||||||
| Ryoji Sai | 13:20[4] | |||||||||||||
| Ryoji Sai | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Che Yon | 9:53[4] | |||||||||||||
Reigns
| 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 | ||||||
| Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance | ||||||||||
| 1 | Rikidōzan | November 22, 1955 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 2,945 | Defeated King Kong Czaya in a tournament final to become the inaugural champion. | [2] | ||
| — | Vacated | December 15, 1963 | — | — | — | — | Title vacated when Rikidōzan died. | [2] | ||
| 2 | Kintarō Ōki | November 9, 1968 | House show | Seoul, South Korea | 1 | 797 | Defeated Buddy Austin to win the vacant title. | [2] | ||
| 3 | Bill Dromo | January 15, 1971 | House show | Tokuyama, Japan | 1 | 18 | [2][6] | |||
| 4 | Kintarō Ōki | February 2, 1971 | House show | Hiroshima, Japan | 2 | 2,061 | The title became inactive on April 14, 1973, when the JWA closed, and was reactivated on March 26, 1976, after New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced the creation of its own version of the title. | [2] | ||
| — | Vacated | September 24, 1976 | — | — | — | — | Title held up after match against Waldo Von Erich in Omiya, Japan. | [2] | ||
| All Japan Pro Wrestling | ||||||||||
| 5 | Kintarō Ōki | October 21, 1976 | House show | Fukushima, Japan | 3 | 373 | Defeated Waldo Von Erich in a rematch to win the held up title. | [2] | ||
| 6 | Giant Baba | October 29, 1977 | House show | Kuroiso, Japan | 1 | 1,251 | Already held the PWF Heavyweight Championship, so both titles may have been defended simultaneously, or not at all. | [2][7] | ||
| — | Vacated | April 13, 1981 | — | — | — | — | Championship vacated for undocumented reasons. The NJPW version of the title is retired on May 21, 1981. |
[2] | ||
| South Korea | ||||||||||
| 7 | Kintarō Ōki | May 5, 1981 | House show | South Korea | 4 | 5,023 | While not being defended for nearly a decade the championship was not officially retired until Ohki officially retired. | [2][8] | ||
| — | Deactivated | February 4, 1995 | — | — | — | — | Title abandoned. | [8] | ||
| Pro Wrestling Land's End | ||||||||||
| 8 | Ryoji Sai | January 21, 2018 | House show | Seoul, South Korea | 1 | 189 | Defeated Bodyguard in a tournament final to win the vacant title. | [2][8] | ||
| 9 | Bodyguard | July 29, 2018 | Summer Action Series 2018 | Osaka, Japan | 1 | 182 | This was an All Japan Pro Wrestling event. | [2][8] | ||
| 10 | Kim Nam-seok | January 27, 2019 | House show | Seoul, South Korea | 1 | 467 | [2][8] | |||
| — | Vacated | May 8, 2023 | — | — | — | — | Title vacated because Kim was not able to enter Japan to defend the title due to the COVID-19 pandemic. | [9] | ||
| 11 | So Daimonji | June 6, 2023 | Yokohama Fukushimania | Yokohama, Japan | 1 | 141+ | Defeated Dylan James to win the vacant title. | [2][8][10] | ||
Combined reigns
As of October 25, 2023.
| † | Indicates the current champion |
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kintarō Ōki | 4 | 8,254 |
| 2 | Rikidōzan | 1 | 2,945 |
| 3 | Giant Baba | 1 | 1,251 |
| 4 | Kim Nam-seok | 1 | 467 |
| 5 | Ryoji Sai | 1 | 189 |
| 6 | Bodyguard | 1 | 182 |
| 7 | So Daimonji † | 1 | 141+ |
| 8 | Bill Dromo | 1 | 18 |
See also
References
- Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- "All Asia Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Titles. Archived from the original on 18 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
- "緊急告知！！". Land's End (in Japanese). 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
- "2018年1月21日(日) ワールドアジアヘビー級王座決定 ワンデイトーナメント in SEOUL". Land's End (in Japanese). 2018-01-22. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
- "JWA Asia Championships - Tag 10". Cagematch. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
- Hoops, Brian (January 15, 2019). "Pro wrestling history (01/15): Big John Studd wins 1989 Royal Rumble". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
- "PWF Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Titles. Archived from the original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
- "All Asia Heavyweight Championship". Cagematch.net. Archived from the original on 2014-09-17. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
- Pro Wrestling Land's End [@landsend_voyage] (May 8, 2023). "Notice regarding the All Asia Heavyweight Title match" オールアジアヘビー級王座決定戦開催についてのご報告 (Tweet) (in Japanese). Retrieved August 21, 2023 – via Twitter.
- Saalbach, Axel. "Land's End Yokohama FukushiMania". wrestlingdata.com. Retrieved August 21, 2023.