# British Heavyweight Championship (XWA)

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. Due to being stolen a new belt had to be created. 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. 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.
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 |
| 1 | Mark Sloan | 1 | 11 July 1999 | 231 | Portsmouth, Hampshire | No Surprises | Defeated Paul Glory in a tournament final |
| 2 | Alex Shane | 1 | 27 February 2000 | 129 | Birmingham, West Midlands | Black Country Chaos | Two out of three falls match |
| 3 | Guy Thunder | 1 | 5 July 2000 | 8 | Hertford, Hertfordshire | Live event | Two out of three falls match |
| - | Vacant | - | 13 July 2000 | | | N/A | |
| 4 | Justin Richards | 1 | 5 August 2000 | 259 | Halifax, West Yorkshire | Evil Intentions | Defeated Scottie Rock, Guy Thunder & Jorge Castano in a four-way match |
| - | Vacant | - | 21 April 2001 | | Bolton, Greater Manchester | When Thunder Strikes | Stripped for missing title defence |
| 5 | Doug Williams | 1 | 19 May 2001 | 307 | Portsmouth, Hampshire | High Potential | Defeated Scott Parker in a tournament final |
| 6 | Flash Barker | 1 | 22 March 2002 | 128 | Walthamstow, London | Urban Legends | Two out of three falls match |
| 7 | Jody Fleisch | 1 | 28 July 2002 | 6 | Portsmouth, Hampshire | No Surprises | Two out of three falls match |
| - | Vacant | - | 3 August 2002 | | | N/A | |
| 8 | Jody Fleisch | 2 | 13 October 2002 | 12 | Bethnal Green, London | British Uprising | Defeated Flash Barker in a ladder match |
| 9 | Christopher Daniels | 1 | 25 October 2002 | 148 | Walthamstow, London | London Calling | Defeated Jody Fleish & Doug Williams in a three-way match |
| 10 | Doug Williams | 2 | 22 March 2003 | 602 | Philadelphia, PA | Night of Champions | |
| 11 | Alex Shane | 2 | 13 November 2004 | 449 | Coventry, West Midlands | British Uprising 3 | |
| 12 | Hade Vansen | 1 | 5 February 2006 | 160 | Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire | New Frontiers | Defeated Alex Shane, Joe Legend, Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm in The Champion Series five-way match |
| 13 | Robbie Brookside | 1 | 15 July 2006 | 266 | Morecambe, Lancashire | Summer Classic | Defeated Hade Vansen & Jonny Storm in a no-disqualification three-way match. Championship renamed British Heavyweight Championship |
| 14 | Jonny Storm | 1 | 7 April 2007 | 455 | Morecambe, Lancashire | War On The Shore 3 | |
| 15 | Stevie Knight | 1 | 5 July 2008 | 63 | Morecambe, Lancashire | Vendetta 2008 | Defeated Jonny Storm, Sam Slam, and Johnny Phere in a Final Four match |
| 16 | Sam Slam | 1 | 6 September 2008 | 371 | Morecambe, Lancashire | Last Fight at the Prom 2008 | |
| 17 | Spud | 1 | 12 September 2009 | 203 | Morecambe, Lancashire | Last Fight at the Prom 2009 | Spud becomes XWA's first double champion by holding the British Flyweight Championship before this match |
| 18 | Johnny Phere | 1 | 3 April 2010 | 0 | Morecambe, Lancashire | War On The Shore 6 | |
| 19 | Alex Shane | 3 | 3 April 2010 | 553 | Morecambe, Lancashire | War On The Shore 6 | |
| 20 | Johnny Phere | 2 | 8 October 2011 | 294 | Morecambe, Lancashire | Last Fight At The Prom 2011 | |
| - | Vacant | - | 28 July 2012 | | Morecambe, Lancashire | XWA vs GPW Vendetta | The company went on hiatus after being defeated by GPW |
| 21 | Damian O'Connor | 1 | 31 October 2014 | 653 | Sudbury, Suffolk | XWA Revival | Defeated Doug Williams, Martin Stone and Jimmy Havoc in a Four-way match |
| 22 | Lion Kid | 1 | 14 August 2016 | 81 | Colchester, Essex | XWA 42: The Summer Supershow | |
| 23 | Thomas Dawkins | 1 | 27 November 2016 | 104 | Colchester, Essex | XWA 44: Go Big! | Defeated Paul London and Lion Kid in a triple threat match |
| - | Vacant | - | 11 March 2017 | | Colchester, Essex | XWA 45: Goldrush | Vacated after interference from a mystery assailant on behalf of the champion, the winner of the Goldrush rumble later in the evening would become the new champion |
| 24 | Cara Noir | 2 | 11 March 2017 | 365 | Colchester, Essex | XWA 45: Goldrush | Formerly Thomas Dawkins |
| 25 | Rhia O'Reilly | 2 | 17 February 2018 | 160 | Bethnal Green, London | XWA 51: WrestleFriends: Equal Fights! | |
| 26 | Malik | 2 | 18 August 2018 | 50 | 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 | Doug Williams | 2 | 909 |
| 2 | Damian O'Connor | 1 | 653 |
| 3 | Alex Shane | 2 | 578 |
| 4 | Thomas Dawkins/Cara Noir | 2 | 469 |
| 5 | Jonny Storm | 1 | 455 |
| 6 | Lion Kid | 1 | 399 |
| 7 | Sam Slam | 1 | 371 |
| 8 | Johnny Phere | 2 | 294 |
| 9 | Robbie Brookside | 1 | 266 |
| 10 | Justin Richards | 1 | 259 |
| 11 | Mark Sloan | 1 | 231 |
| 12 | Spud | 1 | 203 |
| 13 | Hade Vansen | 1 | 160 |
| 14 | Rhia O'Reilly | 1 | 160 |
| 15 | Christopher Daniels | 1 | 148 |
| 16 | Flash Barker | 1 | 128 |
| 17 | Stevie Knight | 1 | 63 |
| 18 | Malik | 1 | 50 |
| 19 | Jody Fleisch | 2 | 18 |
| 20 | Guy Thunder | 1 | 8 |