British Heavyweight Championship (XWA) explained

Championshipname:	XWA British Heavyweight Championship
Promotion:	XWA Frontier Wrestling Alliance
Created:	11 July 1999
Mostreigns:	Jody Fleisch, Doug Williams, Alex Shane, Johnny Phere, Thomas Dawkins/Cara Noir (2 reigns)
Firstchamp:	Mark Sloan
Finalchamp:	Malik
Longestreign:	Damian O'Connor (653 days)
Shortestreign:	Johnny Phere
Youngest:	Mark Sloan
Lightest:	Lion Kid
Pastnames:	FWA British Heavyweight Championship (1999–2007) XWA British Heavyweight Championship (2007 – current)
Titleretired:	07 October 2018

The British Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship contested for in the XWA. The championship was originally created and contested for in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) but moved to XWA when the former company became defunct. It has also been contested for in Ring of Honor (ROH) due to a working relationship between them and FWA.

History

The first Champion was Mark Sloan, who defeated Paul Glory in a tournament final on 11 July 1999. Jody Fleisch was the first person to win the belt twice after being stripped of it, while American wrestler Christopher Daniels was the first non-British person to win the belt and go on to defend it on foreign soil.

Originally the belt was mostly defended under two out of three falls match rules, as was the tradition in British wrestling. This changed on 12 April 2005, when champion Alex Shane signed a cast-iron contract to make new FWA British Title rules official and permanent making all future championship matches simply one fall.

On 13 May 2006 the FWA British Heavyweight Title belt was stolen from the Morecambe Dome immediately following the FWA event at the venue during an FWA versus All-Star Wrestling show.^[1] Due to being stolen a new belt had to be created.^[2] When the FWA was forced to retire in its interpromotional war with International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom, the XWA carried the lineage of the championship simply renaming it the British Heavyweight Championship and using the same physical belt.^[3] However, in April 2009, XWA founder Greg Lambert announced the creation of a new British Heavyweight Championship that did not bear the FWA initials and gave the original belt back to Alex Shane in time for the resurrection of the FWA.^[4]

On 17 February 2018 Rhia O’Reilly became the first woman to hold the title, defeating Cara Noir in an inter-promotional show with Pro Wrestling: EVE.

Reigns

No.	Champion	Reign	Date	Days held	Location	Event	Notes	Ref.
	Mark Sloan				Portsmouth, Hampshire	No Surprises		^[5]
	Alex Shane				Birmingham, West Midlands	Black Country Chaos		^[6]
	Guy Thunder				Hertford, Hertfordshire	Live event
	Vacant					N/A		^[7]
	Justin Richards				Halifax, West Yorkshire	Evil Intentions
	Vacant				Bolton, Greater Manchester	When Thunder Strikes
	Doug Williams				Portsmouth, Hampshire	High Potential		^[8]
	Flash Barker				Walthamstow, London	Urban Legends		^[9]
	Jody Fleisch				Portsmouth, Hampshire	No Surprises
	Vacant					N/A
	Jody Fleisch				Bethnal Green, London	British Uprising
	Christopher Daniels				Walthamstow, London	London Calling
	Doug Williams				Philadelphia, PA	Night of Champions		^[10]
	Alex Shane				Coventry, West Midlands	British Uprising 3		^[11]
	Hade Vansen				Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire	New Frontiers		^[12]
	Robbie Brookside				Morecambe, Lancashire	Summer Classic
	Jonny Storm				Morecambe, Lancashire	War On The Shore 3		^[13]
	Stevie Knight				Morecambe, Lancashire	Vendetta 2008		^[14]
	Sam Slam				Morecambe, Lancashire	Last Fight at the Prom 2008		^[15]
	Spud				Morecambe, Lancashire	Last Fight at the Prom 2009		^[16]
	Johnny Phere				Morecambe, Lancashire	War On The Shore 6		^[17]
	Alex Shane				Morecambe, Lancashire	War On The Shore 6
	Johnny Phere				Morecambe, Lancashire	Last Fight At The Prom 2011
	Vacant				Morecambe, Lancashire	XWA vs GPW Vendetta
	Damian O'Connor				Sudbury, Suffolk	XWA Revival		^[18]
	Lion Kid				Colchester, Essex	XWA 42: The Summer Supershow		^[19]
	Thomas Dawkins				Colchester, Essex	XWA 44: Go Big!		^[20]
	Vacant				Colchester, Essex	XWA 45: Goldrush		^[21]
	Cara Noir				Colchester, Essex	XWA 45: Goldrush
	Rhia O'Reilly				Bethnal Green, London	XWA 51: WrestleFriends: Equal Fights!
	Malik				Bethnal Green, London	XWA 54: Everything Stops At 3 O'Clock
	Retired		07 October 2018

Combined reigns

Rank	Champion	No. of reigns	Combined days
1		2	909
2		1	653
3		2	578
4			469
5		1	455
6	Lion Kid		399
7	Sam Slam		371
8	Johnny Phere	2	294
9		1	266
10	Justin Richards		259
11			231
12			203
13	Hade Vansen		160
14	Rhia O'Reilly
15			148
16	Flash Barker		128
17			63
18	Malik		50
19		2	18
20	Guy Thunder	1	8

See also

• Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom

External links

• XWA British Heavyweight Championship

Notes and References

1. Web site: One Phere over the Cuckoo's Nest . 2008-06-30. XWA. 2009-07-22.
2. Web site: The FWA's fifty golden moments. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. 2009-08-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20090916001549/http://www.fwauk.com/index.php?page=history_gm. 2009-09-16. dead.
3. Web site: XWA – The legend lives on. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. Internet Archive. 2009-08-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20070531033214/http://www.frontierwrestlingonline.co.uk/backstage_pages/backstage.htm. 2007-05-31. dead.
4. Web site: XWA War On The Shore V. XWA. 2009-08-09.
5. Web site: FWA Results – 1999. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. 2009-07-17.
6. Web site: FWA Results 2000. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. 2009-07-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20090815180916/http://www.fwauk.com/index.php?page=results. 2009-08-15. dead.
7. Web site: FWA British Heavyweight Title. Title Histories. 2009-08-09.
8. Web site: FWA Results 2001. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. 2009-07-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20090815180916/http://www.fwauk.com/index.php?page=results. 2009-08-15. dead.
9. Web site: FWA Results 2002. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. 2009-07-17. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090815180916/http://www.fwauk.com/index.php?page=results. 2009-08-15.
10. Web site: Past Events. Ring of Honor. 7 April 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20130322142414/http://www.rohwrestling.com/live/events/past-event. 2013-03-22. dead.
11. Web site: FWA Results 2004. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. 2009-07-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20090815180916/http://www.fwauk.com/index.php?page=results. 2009-08-15. dead.
12. Web site: FWA Results 2006. Frontier Wrestling Alliance. 2009-07-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20090815180916/http://www.fwauk.com/index.php?page=results. 2009-08-15. dead.
13. Web site: XWA War on the Shore 3. XWA. 2009-07-17.
14. Web site: XWA Vendetta 2008. XWA. 2009-07-18.
15. Web site: XWA Last Fight at the Prom 2008 . XWA. 2009-07-17.
16. Web site: LastFight News – Spud v Sam Slam aftermath. 2009-09-13. XWA. 2009-09-15.
17. Web site: XWA War On The Shore VI – Official Review. 2009-09-13. XWA. 2010-04-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20110724135247/http://www.xwawrestling.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=534:xwa-war-on-the-shore-vi-official-review&catid=2:reviews&Itemid=7. 24 July 2011. dead.
18. Web site: XWA Wrestling 'Revival' Results *NEW CHAMPION*. Wrestle Ropes. 2016-02-11.
19. Web site: XWA Wrestling ‘The Summer SuperShow’ FULL Results. 2016-08-14. Wrestle Ropes. 2016-08-17.
20. Web site:
    1. Results: XWA (@XWAUK) "Winter WonderSlam" *Title Change*
    . 2016-11-27. 2016-12-30.
21. Web site:
    1. Results: XWA (@XWAUK) "45: Saturday Night Wrestling" *New Champion*
    . 2017-03-12. 2017-03-17.