| Championshipname: | NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship |
| Promotion: | Pacific Northwest Wrestling Wrestling International New Generations Blue Collar Wrestling |
| Created: | 1955 |
| Retired: | 2017 |
| Firstchamp: | Luther Lindsay |
| Finalchamp: | Gregor Petrov |
| Mostreigns: | Rip Oliver (12 times) |
| Longestreign: | "Badd Blood" BJ Darden (425 days) |
| Shortestreign: | Matt Borne (1 day) |
| Pastnames: |
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The NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and defended in its member promotion Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW), which promoted shows in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington, and occasionally other areas in the northwestern United States.
The title was created in 1955 by Don Owen for the NWA's Pacific Northwest territory,[1] and became the top singles title for that area. The first champion was Luther Lindsay.[1] Early in the championship's history, the title would be won by Ed Francis, who was already the territory's top non-heavyweight singles champion, holding the Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship.[1] Upon Francis winning the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship, his Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship was retired.[1] In addition to the northwestern United States, the title was also briefly defended in Asia in the Japanese promotion Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING), but the title changes in W*ING were not officially recognized by PNW.
The title remained active until July 1992,[1] when Don Owen retired and sold PNW to Sandy Barr.[2] Barr retired all of Owen's NWA championships after renaming the company to Championship Wrestling USA (CWUSA), creating new CWUSA championships in their places. The physical Owen-era NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship belt was owned by "The Grappler" Len Denton, who later auctioned off the belt to Bruce Owens. Wrestling belt maker Dave Millican purchased it from Owens and later sold it to an unknown collector.[1]
Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW), also known as NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, became NWA's Pacific Northwest territory in 1998.[3] The promotion's top championship, the ECCW Championship, was briefly referred to as the NWA/ECCW Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship. ECCW left the NWA in 2011, leaving the NWA without a Pacific Northwest-based member promotion. In January 2015, the Portland-based Blue Collar Wrestling (BCW) promotion joined the NWA, reintroducing the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship – tracing the lineage back to the original version of the title.[3] The championship was retired after Billy Corgan purchased the NWA and ended its relationships with existing member promotions.
Championship history from Pro-Wrestling Title Histories