AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship

The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a title in the American Wrestling Association from 1981 until it closed in 1991. In 1988 Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling claimed that Jim Backlund won the championship, something not officially acknowledged by the AWA. From 1988 through the closure of the AWA in 1991 there were two separate lineages, with the championship recognized by FMW being renamed in 1991 to become the FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship and later the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship before being abandoned altogether in 1993.^[1]

AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
The championship belt
Details
Promotion	American Wrestling Association Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Date established	June 14, 1981
Date retired	1993
Other name(s)
FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship
Statistics First champion(s) Mike Graham Most reigns Buck Zumhofe and Katsuji Ueda (3 reigns) Longest reign Steve Regal (613 days) Shortest reign Mark Starr (7 days)

Title history

Promotioms

±	Indicates that the title was promoted by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling at this point in time.
§	Indicates that the title was promoted as the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship

Key

No.	Overall reign number
Reign	Reign number for the specific champion
Days	Number of days held

No.	Champion	Championship change			Reign statistics		Notes	Ref.
		Date	Event	Location	Reign	Days
1	Mike Graham	June 11, 1981<	AWA House show	N/A	1	^[Note 1]	Graham was awarded the title.	^[1]
2	Buck Zumhofe	June 19, 1983	AWA House show	Hamburg, Minnesota	1	280	Bobby Heenan defeated Zumhofe several times but was over the Light Heavyweight weight limit.	^[1]
3	Steve Regal	March 25, 1984	AWA House show	Saint Paul, Minnesota	1	613		^[1]
4	Buck Zumhofe	November 28, 1985	AWA House show	Saint Paul, Minnesota	2	^[Note 2]		^[1]
—	Vacated	July 1986	—	—	—	—	The title was vacated when Zumhofe was sent to prison.	^[1]
5	Mike Graham	December 13, 1988	AWA House show	Chicago, Illinois	2	^[Note 3]	Records are unclear on how Graham won the championship	^[1]
	Championship history is unrecorded from to .
!6	Buck Zumhofe	August 11, 1990	AWA House show	Rochester, Minnesota	3	^[Note 4]	Defeated Jonnie Stewart to win the title in AWA.	^[1]^[2]
	Championship history is unrecorded from to .
†	Jim Backlund §	December 10, 1988	House show	Tampa, Florida	1	^[Note 5]	Defeats Tyree Pride for FCW Light Heavyweight Championship; recognized as the sixth AWA champion by FMW in Japan but not by AWA itself.	^[1]
†	Lee Gak-soo §	April 1, 1990	FMW House show	Tokyo, Japan	1	^[Note 6]		^[1]
—	Vacated	September 1990	—	—	—	—	Lee left FMW	^[1]
†	Katsuji Ueda §	September 25, 1990	FMW House show	Nagoya, Japan	1	41	Defeated Jim Backlund to win the vacant championship	^[1]
†	Jim Backlund §	November 5, 1990	FMW 1st Anniversary Show	Tokyo, Japan	2	205	AWA officially closes in 1991 after not promoting shows since the fall of 1990. The championship is renamed the FMW World Light Heavyweight Championship at some point during Backlund's reign	^[1]
†	Ricky Fuji §	May 29, 1991	FMW House show	Tokyo, Japan	1	87		^[1]
†	Mark Starr §	August 24, 1991	FMW House show	Tokyo, Japan	1	7		^[1]
†	Katsuji Ueda §	August 31, 1991	FMW House show	Chiba, Japan	2	205		^[1]
†	Dr. Luther § / ±	March 23, 1992	FMW House show	Saitama, Japan	1	197	Renamed WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship in April 1992.	^[1]
†	Katsuji Ueda ±	September 7, 1992	FMW House show	Saitama, Japan	3	^[Note 7]		^[1]
—	Deactivated	1993	—	—	—	—	Replaced with Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship	^[1]

Footnotes

1. The date the title is changed is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.
2. The exact date the championship was vacated is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 215 and 244 days.
3. The length Graham's reign has not been verified by documentation, making the length of the actual reign too uncertain to calculate.
4. The exact date the AWA stops promoting on a regular basis is unknown making the length of the reign too uncertain to calculate.
5. The exact date the championship was won is unknown, which means that the reign lasted between 456 and 486 days.
6. The exact date the championship was vacated which means that the reign lasted between 518 and 542 days.
7. The date the title is abandoned is not documented making the championship reign too uncertain to calculate.

See also

• FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship
• WSL World Light Heavyweight Championship

References

1. "American Wrestling Association World Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
2. Hoops, Brian (August 11, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (August 11): Verne Gagne vs. Lou Thesz for AWA title, first ever G1 final". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 18, 2017.