Footnotes:
^[1]: During the first few years of the century, George Hackenschmidt had won world championship tournaments in Italy, Germany, and England. As a result of this match, by defeating American champion Tom Jenkins in two straight falls, he became recognized as the top champion in North America.
^[2]: George Hackenschmidt left the ring, refusing to return, and the referee awarded the title to Gotch, who retired in 1913; his last match was a victory over George Lurich on April 9.
^[3]: Charlie Cutler had defeated Henry Ordeman and Jesse Westegard in a tournament, and had laid claim to the world title.
^[4]: Earl Caddock was awarded the title by the referee when Joe Stecher refused to return to the ring after the second fall.
^[5]: As a result of this match, Dick Shikat became recognized as the first champion of the National Wrestling Association (NWA), a division of the National Boxing Association.
^[6]: Henry DeGlane won the title by disqualification.
^[7]: This match on Long Island, New York, was billed as a world championship match, and was designed to halt the controversy that was splitting the sport at the time. Jim Londos was subsequently stripped of the title for refusing to meet the winner of this bout. Ed “Strangler” Lewis later affirmed his claim on the title with an October 10, 1932 victory over Jack Sherry.
^[8]: Ed Don George had been claiming rights to the world title ever since he defeated Henry DeGlane in Boston in 1933. Danno O’Mahony, because of his victories over Jim Londos, Ed Don George and Ed “Strangler” Lewis, became the closest thing to undisputed world champion at the time, representing a unification of sorts of the splintering of the world title that had taken place for several years.
^[9]: During his title reign, Ali Baba was disqualified in a match against Dave Lewin held in Newark, New Jersey. The State Athletic Commission reversed the match decision and allowed Ali Baba to keep the title. Soon thereafter, however, a rule change was made which stated that the title cannot change hands on a disqualification.
^[10]: The NWA decided to recognize Everett Marshall as champion because Steve Crusher Casey was out of the country and failed to defend the title on a regular basis.
^[11]: The National Wrestling Alliance was organized in July 1948. At that particular time, Orville Brown was recognized as champion. Forced to retire due to injuries received in a November 11, 1949 auto accident, Brown relinguished his claim on the title. Lou Thesz was scheduled to meet Brown in a title match in St. Louis on November 25, 1949.
^[12]: Time of the match: 20:38. Ric Flair is (according to WCW officials in April 1992) the first WCW World champion; Sting, therefore, as of April 1992, is a one-time NWA and one-time WCW World champion. In September 1991, Ric Flair signed with the WWF and the NWA title was declared vacant.
^[13]: This was a tournament final.
^[14]: The title was declared vacant in September 1993 when WCW withdrew from the NWA. It was renamed the WCW International title, held in the year that followed by Rick Rude, Hiroshi Hase, Rude again, Sting, then Flair again, but was finally abandoned when it was unified with the WCW World title at Clash of the Champions 27 on June 23, 1994.
^[15]: This was a tournament final. Douglas refused the NWA world title in favor of the ECW title, which is the belt he was already the possessor of at the time. Therefore, the NWA world title was made vacant once again.
^[16]: This was a tournament final.
^[17]: This was a three-way match involving Brian Anthony.
^[18]: This was a tournament final. Previous champ Naoya Ogawa voluntarily gave up the title.
^[19]: The title was held up following the bout between Steve Corino and Shinya Hashimoto on October 13 in St. Petersburg, Florida, which was stopped when it was ruled Corino could no longer properly defend himself.
^[20]: Hashimoto defeated Steve Corino and Gary Steele in a three-way bout to fill the vacant title.
^[21]: Shamrock won a 20-man battle royal to claim the title, which became vacant when the NWA stripped previous champion Dan Severn. Severn had previously announced he would be unable to appear and defend the title at the first-ever NWA-TNA PPV on June 19.
^[22]:This was a three-way match which also included Raven.
^[23]: This was a four-way match which also included Chris Harris and Raven.
^[24]: This was a King of the Mountain match which also included Chris Harris, AJ Styles and Raven.
^[25]: This was a King of the Mountain match which also included Abyss, Monty Brown and Sean Waltman.
^[26]: Match aired on TV on November 3, 2005.
^[27]: This was a King of the Mountain match which also included Abyss, Ron Killings and Sting.
^[28]: This was a three-way elimination match which also included Sting.
^[29]: This was a tournament final. Even though Adam Pearce had lost to Bryan Danielson earlier in the semifinals, Danielson had to withdraw from competing in the tournament finals because of a detached retina. Pearce went to the finals as a substitution and won the title.

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