AWA Superstars World Heavyweight Championship

Infobox championship
championshipname=AWA Superstars World Heavyweight Championship
currentholder=Larry Zbyszko
won=February 5 2008
promotion=nobr|AWA Superstars of Wrestling
created=June 6 1996
mostreigns=Takao Ōmori small|(3)
firstchamp=Jonnie Stewart
longestreign=nobr|Jonnie Stewart small|(1,028 days)
shortestreign=Danny Dominion small|(>1 day)
titleretired=

The AWA World Heavyweight Championship is the highest ranked championship in the current AWA Superstars of Wrestling promotion. It was most recently defended in Pro Wrestling ZERO1, a Japanese wrestling promotion, as an official AWA territory before Zero1 severed ties with AWA Superstars.

The aforementioned AWA Superstars of Wrestling promotion claims the lineage of the historic American Wrestling Association's World Heavyweight Championship. The title was supposedly revived in 1996 in Dale Gagne's independent promotion AWA Superstars of Wrestling, who relicensed the AWA name. On top of the promotion's claim to the lineage of that of the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, they also recognize the title being held twice by Hulk Hogan, reigns not previously officially recognized by the original promotion. It is disputed, however, if the current championship is legitimately the AWA World Heavyweight Title that represented the American Wrestling Association, which was put in dispute when, on April 26, 2007 it was revealed that World Wrestling Entertainment had taken legal action against Dale Gagne for the use of the AWA name, citing trademark infringement, as the WWE owns the AWA tape library. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Wrestling_Association#AWA_Superstars_of_Wrestling]

Current champion

The current recognized AWA Superstars World Heavyweight Champion is Larry Zbyszko. He was awarded the title on February 52008 after Masato Tanaka was stripped of the title in the aftermath of ZERO1's departure from AWA Superstars.

On April 18 2008, Brian Logan defeated Larry Zbyszko and Ricky Landell in a three-way match at a AWA-Mountaineer Wrestling Association event in Fayetteville, West Virginia. However, AWA Superstars is not recognizing this match, as Mountaineer Wrestling Association departed AWA Superstars on April 302008. Mountaineer Wrestling joined with 3 other former AWA Superstars Territories and Championship Wrestling of Tennessee and founded a new organization, The American Wrestling Affiliates, and claims Logan as its first champion based on this match. However, It does claim the original AWA World Heavyweight Championship lineage with minor alterations and does not recognize any AWA Superstars reigns prior to Larry Zbyszko's, recognizing a continuous 18-year reign on the part of Zbyszko from 1990 to 2008.cite web|url=http://www.therealawa.com/champions.htm|title=The American Wrestling Affiliates - Champions|accessdate=2008-05-24]

Title history

* AWA Superstars considers Zbyszko's reign before and his reign after his loss to Brian Logan to be one continuous reign.
† Unofficial title changes not recognized by AWA Superstars.

References

Links

* AWA Superstars of Wrestling
* American Wrestling Association
* AWA World Heavyweight Championship