Talk:PWI's list of wrestling World Heavyweight Title reigns

message: This list of champions needs to be fixed--JB 11:42, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: untitled

message: OK, seriously, these titles need to be added. There is absolutely no reason why they shouldn't be at this point.
[[User:Noah's Arc|Noah's Arc]
:Maybe because none of them are world titles? That's a very good reason. Just because a indy fed says their title is a world title doesn't make it so. And yes, all 3 of those are just indy feds. TJ Spyke 22:07, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: GHC, 1PW, & CZW World Titles

message: Can some one fix the table I tried to and had to revert it--JB 00:10, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Table 

message: As far as I know Flair only had 6 reigns as WCW champ so I changed it, I want there to conclusive proof that Flair held it 8 times before it is changed back. I don't want dispute over this at all.
:Wrestling Information Archive's title history, Wikipedia's Title History, and Flair's own Wiki Article all have him listed as an 8-time WCW champion. Clint 17:50, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Flair's reigns 

message: How does he have no WCW reigns, but 6 WCW international reigns? billz015
Could the word Wrestling appear in the title please? DJ Clayworth 18:15, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Indeed, but that championship was won in 1983, four years before being recognized as world championship. Therefore Hogan isn't recognized as IGWP "World Champion". I won't edit it out but the criteria for this page should be discussed. Secretaria 09:35, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, Hogan won the first IWGP "championship" in 1981.  I have updated the article to reflect this information. Eric42 16:18, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

text: Actually, even on the page you linked to, he is listed twice, so the answer to your question is Yes, they do. (btw, four ~ can be used to "sign" your name.) Eric42 03:28, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hogan 

message: The ECW World Title does not include Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Title reigns, because at its time it did not hold world status, only territorial status, this largely effects the Sandman who won one title in the Eastern, and 5 In the Extreme, thats 6 title reigns in the same organization yet only 5 are recognizable as having world status, although confusing it is fair.
If this is the case, then why are Low Ki and Xavier on the list? They held the ROH title before it attained world title status. Tromboneguy0186 18:41, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  World title status 

message: I don't think the name of this article is proper. The word "Heavyweight" should be added in, because I don't see any Cruiserweight titles listed here. Also, "according to PWI" should probably be added at the end as well. SilentRage 07:16, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree regarding the Heavyweight name...  it's only fair considering there are no other World Titles being listed here...  I'm not so sure regarding the "PWI" addition to the title, especially considering that its an independent standard.  Without such standard, any promotion who claims to have a World Title would have a World Title, and we'd have to acknowledge them and clutter this page with indy wrestlers who've held a meaningless belt many times... Clint 03:28, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Uh yeah... adding "according to PWI" in the title would do just what you said. It would help make this article less cluttered and prevent people from adding non-PWI approved "world titles". SilentRage 05:20, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: People need to read the article before editing it.  If they read the article, they'll be more than aware that the standard is set by PWI, and therefore they should not include any non-PWI approved titles.  You don't have to identify an official source in the title for this, but it is necessary in the explanation.  I maintain that its fine as is...  Clint 05:56, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Change of name? 

message: On the page listed "World Heavyweight Championship", it list Combat Zone Wrestling, World Wrestling All-stars, & Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as World titles. If this is true shouldn't why are they not recognized by PWI?
:The WWA World Heavyweight Title is recognized as a World Title...  CZW and PWG are only listed on the World Heavyweight Championship page because they have belts they claim to be World Heavyweight Championships.  Due to the fact that they are independent promotions that don't have worldwide scope (their belts aren't defended internationally, overseas, etc.), they don't qualify for World Title Status as per PWI...  Clint 03:26, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Just to clarify, don't know about the CZW title but the PWG Heavyweight title has been defended in Europe at least twice. --Kiltman67 03:04, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I guess I'm wrong then...  but PWI apparently still doesn't acknowledge them as World Titles.  If they do, someone needs to change the article and cite the source... Clint 06:01, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

text: I'd advise signing your posts...  anyway, I don't see any "stretching of the truth". Flair's reigns are listed according to each individual promotion's official title history. So what if WWE ignores that Flair won the belt in NWA 5 more times than they care to acknowledge?  It still happened. If you want more detailed explanations, go to his article and read up. This is just a list of numbers, as the title says.  Clint 06:00, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  CZW, WWA, & PWG World Titles? 

message: If we are going to "stretch the truth about Flair's title reigns, then you need to adjust the numbers for the other wrestlers as well. You have Flair listed as a 13 time NWA champ - it could be listed as 14. The 4 that are very questionable are the matches with Colon, Jovica, Veneno and the Midnight Rider match. This page is obviously only recognizing 3 of those matches - but which 3?  Colon is listed as a 1 time champ but neither Jovica or Veneno are listed here, and Dusty is only given credit for 3 titles (his "official" number).
:I'd advise signing your posts...  anyway, I don't see any "stretching of the truth". Flair's reigns are listed according to each individual promotion's official title history. So what if WWE ignores that Flair won the belt in NWA 5 more times than they care to acknowledge?  It still happened. If you want more detailed explanations, go to his article and read up. This is just a list of numbers, as the title says.  Clint 06:00, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Please justfy Flair's reigns on this page

message: On the table, it says that Sandman is only a one time champion when it should be four, according to that note at the bottom. Speaking of that note, Sandman has only won the ECW title 5 times, not 6. I would change it myself, but all of that code looks like gibberish to me and I don't want to screw anything up. So somebody should fix that. SilentRage 05:43, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: OK. I fixed it myself. I guess that I didn't screw anything up after all. :D  SilentRage 19:04, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

text: The code is a pattern of columns.  Its hard to get when looking at the whole picture, but if you look at the title row and the first two rows it starts to make sense...  Clint 06:02, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sandman 

message: On the 25/10/2002 in London England Christopher Daniels defeated Jody Fleisch & Doug Williams in a three-way match to become the first FWA British Heavyweight Champion who wasn't British. Then on 22/03/2003 at the Murphy Recreation Center in Philadelphia, PA Doug Williams defeated Christopher Daniels for the title. This match took place overseas so should the FWA British Heavyweight Championship be the FWA World Heavyweight Championship and given world title status Sion
:All you had to do was read the first paragraph on this article to answer your question. ONLY World Titles recognized by PWI are listed here.  SilentRage 05:15, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: While that may technically be true it's easier if we just stick to the PWI recongnized titles simply due to the numerous titles that have been defended overseas of their promotion, it would be impossible to keep track of all of them.--Trick man01 11:19, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

text: If I started a promotion with 6 of my friends, won the title, then drove 20 miles to Canada and defended the belt, would I be a World Champion on this page? Tino 01:02, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  FWA 

message: A few quick comments (and I love this page, I am just trying to make it more complete). All ECW champions should probably be considerd world champions retroactively, and if you listen to current TV or check WWE.com you can see that all people who held the ECW title at one time or another are given credit as World Champ (Sandman - 5, Sabu - 2, Funk - 2, by the way, if you don't agree with this, Funk should still be a 2 time champ on this page) Let's face it, the way many people will remember history will be by what is WWE's history, which is more powerful than PWI. I know that means we have to consider Johnny Hot Body a world champ, but oh well. 
Also don't forget there was a period in the late 70's - to early 80's when PWI revoked WWF world title status, they had rejoined the NWA, but who cares for the sake of this page.
I also think if at all possible we should include the WWA Los Angeles on this page.  On a worldwide basis you can make a good argument that the the WWA title was the 2nd most important belt during the late 50's early 60's. Only the NWA title carried more weight. If we are not going to count champions before the NWA, than we should still count champions from the start of the NWA. I am shocked there is no WWA LA title info on WIkipedia.
Also, PWI or no PWI, not including Noah's world title is BS. In recent years, especially during the Kobashi reign, this title was as prestigious as any in Japan.
I would love to hear others comments on this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.88.18.99 (talk • contribs) .
:While prestigious the title was never defended outside of Japan which is a requirement for consideration as a world title --Kiltman67 02:44, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think so. Technically PWI never gave ROH world title status either. TJ Spyke 19:49, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I know it's a bitch to prove a negative, but what evidence is there of that? Tromboneguy0186 11:25, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: WWWF, WWA, ECW, Noah Reigns

message: I have noticed that alot of people on here aren't sure what is considered a true WH title and which exact champions are infact WH champs. Alot of confusion is going on! So what we NEED for this article to continue being edited properly, is documented PROOF on the guidelines of what PWI considers to be a World Heavyweight Champion/Championship. Please also remember to sign your posts with four tildes (~), so that we know who we are talking to.  SilentRage 05:09, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed. For now though, only the people who have won the titles stated on this page(and during the periods listed) should be included. This means leaving Sandman at 1 since he only won the ECW Title once while it was a world title. TJ Spyke 18:51, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

text: Damn...  couldn't they have done something simpler and just granted such status to all champions (retroactive and future) for a World Title? And how does this affect the winners of the ROH Title?  According to how it affects the AWA, NWA, and WWF champions, its definitely going to force us to edit that as well...  Clint 06:06, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: EDIT: I just realized that this qualifies as "original research" or something like that. While I find it credible if you'll show me the email (I'll go out on a limb and trust you), I don't think it classifies as anything by Wikipedia's standards...  Clint 06:11, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  This is getting a bit out of hand. We need proof! 

message: I saw it pointed out above, but think it needs to be restated:
While this article claims to be a list of "World" Championships recognized by PWI, PWI has only ever officially recognized five championships as World Championships (this also applies to recognized World Tag Team Championships):
*WWF/WWE World Championship (the version currently on Raw)
*NWA World Championship
*AWA World Championship
*WCW World Championship
*ECW World Championship
The current "World" titles of Raw and SmackDown are not "officially" recognized as World Championships, but instead merely as the WWE Raw Championship and WWE SmackDown Championship respectively. It seems PWI's criteria for such recognition is: a) the title must have, at some point, been defended outside the US, and b) the organization must have a national television show.  This affects every title on the list except the WCW World Title. The WWE Title from 1971-1983, as well as the WWE Titles since the Raw and SmackDown split, the NWA Title from the beginning of WCW in 1991 until the beginning of TNA in 2002, the pre-1999 ECW Title, and the AWA Title after 1992.  Any other title included in the article was never "officially" recognized as a World Title by PWI. - Michael.douglas.dean 10:16 7 Jul 06
:::In that case, the IWGP Heavyweight Title IS a World Title, since it's been defended on foreign soil on more than one occasion and NJPW has a national show. Negating this would be rather dubious. --Voievod 21:00, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds nice and all, but how about you site your source.  SilentRage 14:37, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

text: Ditto on the citation please (even though I think you're right on this). I'd have to argue on the RAW Championship not being a World Title since it carries the lineage of both the WCW and WWF championships that were previously declared World Titles.  As for the revived ECW Championship, by that explanation it shouldn't currently be considered a World Title since RVD/Show haven't defended the belt overseas while Rhino sits with the original belt in a red bag on TNA television. Either way, with AWA having supposedly lost its status, that means the NWA belt is the sole remaining world title?  I find that hard to believe, though incredible news for TNA. Clint 06:09, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Actually, again from the August 2006 issue, they state bothe WWE Titles are World Titles and tat they are currently calling them (for clarity) the WWE Raw World Title and WWE Smackdown World Title while pointing out their liniage. --Talison 20:34, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Further reading on my part through my old PWI issues and I found this. In the PWI 20th Anniversary Special (Winter 1999) there were the results of a readers poll. Question 44 was "Who was the greatest wrestler never to hold a World Title?" The Reader's Pick was Rick Rude. The magazine then states that they think Rude would disagree with this since he held the World Class Title and the WCW international Title, but since PWI didn't recognize either of them as World Titles they maintained his eligibilty for the question and said that there was no shame in him being "The Best of the Rest."--Talison 21:57, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

text: The very reason why I think it should just be dropped and all World Heavyweight Titles should be added. From reading other comments here, I got the idea that there's more info than PWI has ever mentioned anyway. Eric42 22:37, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Adding in any title that claims world title status would not be a good idea, there are dozens of indy feds that call their main title a world title. PWI is accepted as the leading authority by both fans and those in the wrestling industry itself, that is why we use them. Also, PWI has since said that WWWF Champions from 1971-1983 have been given World title status, but only wrestlers who won the ECW Title after August 1999(including Taz) are considered World Title reigns. TJ Spyke 00:58, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: However, PWI should not be the single difinitive source of information. They were wrong their latest Almanac (2006 edition) in which they say Hulk Hogan was the first IWGP Title champion, when instead, he was just the winner of the first IWGP tournament, before there was a title. Eric42 01:33, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I wouldn't consider this a mistake. They also list the other tournament winners from before it was a standard Championship Title. Some people consider this part of the history of the title (the title having existed in two different forms) and some don't. PWI abviosly does. --Talison 18:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't have the issue in front of me, but PWI listed all the titles they consider to have World Title status and ROH wasn't there. I haven't read it in a few months though, so they may have changed that. I think part of the reason is that it's hard to justify giving world title status to a promotion that doesn't even have a TV deal. TJ Spyke 19:36, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  PWI World Title Recognition 

message: I don't think the AJPW Championship was ever defended outside Japan, so I don't think it should have world title status. Secretaria 12:00, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You're correct in that the Triple Crown was never defended outside Japan but the three titles that compose it were which I'd assume was used as the basis for it's world title status. --Kiltman67 16:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: But since the three titles you talk about aren't world titles should we mantain its status? Secretaria 19:24, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Obviously PWI recognise it as a world title which seemingly should be enough to keep it in the article, I was merely suggesting how it qualified in their eyes. --Kiltman67 17:34, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: So you can confirm the title is recognized by PWI? There seems to be some doubts about that fact in this disscussion page. I've never read it, but that's true then problem solved. Secretaria 18:40, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  AJPW World Title Status 

message: How about a column for the number of types of titles. Like, Ric Flair would get 4. I want to add this in, but I want some consensus from you guys first.  ---SilentRAGE! 15:09, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think the board is too big as it is and, right now, is not that hard to see that flair, for example, has 4 different world title reigns. Secretaria 19:09, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Column 

message: I may sound repetitive, but I don't think we have a final answer on the status of these titles. I've personally never read pwi magazine, but it has been claimed by this discussion page that neither of this titles are, as of now, recognized as world titles. Is this right and can someone confirm this? If they're not, should we delete them or add the much discussed GHC and PW1 titles who have a similar status as the ROH championship? Also, since wwe now owns wcw and doesn't consider the wcw international title to be a world title, maybe we should delete it. Tell me what you think? Secretaria Edited: 18:35, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't know if anything will happen, but I e-mailed PWI asking them if they ever declared them world titles, and asking them to state in their magazine or website all the titles they consider to have world title status. TJ Spyke 18:38, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I finally found proof that wwe recognizes the wcw international championship as a world title. It seems they just don't recognize Flair as one of the champions. His first reign is disputed (see the topic below) and his second reign only lasted a second. Here it is:
*http://www.wwe.com/superstars/dgenerationx/dxmembers/rickrude/profile/
Secretaria 07:47, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: WWE ignores 6 of Flair's title reigns. They also ignore Bob Backlund losing the WWF Championship to Antonio Inoki. TJ Spyke 07:57, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I know, I just thought that the reason they didn't recognized his wcw international reigns as world championships was because wwe didn't considered the championship to be a world title. Secretaria 11:08, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: ROH and WCW International Titles

message: I know this isn't the right place to discuss this, but I figured I would get a faster answer on this discussion page. The list of WCW International World Heavyweight champions page says that wcw left the nwa on the same day rick rude beat flair for the nwa champioship. From what I understand this means that rude was the first wcw international world champion, meaning that flair was not the first champion. Can someone reply and answer this? Should Flair be a two time or one time wcw international champion? I have some sources to back me up:
*http://www.cpol.net/tonyd/ricflair.htm
*http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/7411/Flair_titles.html
*http://www.popstarsplus.com/wrestling_men_ricflair.htm
*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282310/bio
Also should Rude's third reign be recognised?
*http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-in-h.html (note that Flair is recognised as champion in this page but my doubt remains). 
You can reply on the wcw international championship discussion page.
Secretaria 07:50, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  WCW International Championship reigns 

message: Page has serious inconsistencies. I don't read PWI, so for these world title reigns, I go here, but even here it seems twisted. It says in the description that the current incarnations of ECW and AWA world titles are not considered world titles by PWI, yet they're on the table of active titles with world status list. I of course don't follow the magazine to know what's recognized and what is not, there's got to be some information out there to clear this up. TonyFreakinAlmeida 04:32, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inconsistencies 

message: Why aren't Raven's 2 ECW World Titles recognised and only his NWA? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.240.104.109 (talk • contribs) 
:Do people not bother to check the notes section first? ECW title reigns before August 1999 are not considered world title reigns. TJ Spyke 23:26, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not to be uncivil, but I seriously don't get how so many people miss this in the article. Jeff Silvers 18:43, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Raven 

message: Listed as 3-time world champ including the WWE title (undisputed reign) and 2 WCW reigns? I'm not an expert but I think that's completely fabricated as far as WCW goes. STFmaryville 01:09, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What do you mean? He won the WCW Title on October 26, 2001. Then he won again on December 6, 2001. That same night, he defeated Steve Austin to win the WWE Title (and unify the two titles). That means he is a 3 time world champion. TJ Spyke 01:11, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm sorry, I had forgotten the WCW title being defended in the WWF that year. It is ridiculously confusing trying to remember the difference between the WCW belt in WWF and the newer WWE World belt. STFmaryville 23:03, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No problem. Just remember that the current World Heavyweight Championship (on SD) technically has nothing to do with the WCW Title other than having similiar designs, they don't share the same title history. TJ Spyke 23:08, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Chris Jericho? 

message: As it stands right now, he is still a 6-time world champion by PWI's standards.  TNA's title has not even been made public yet, nor has PWI recognized that TNA has a world title.  Once again this page is not remaining consistent with PWI's standards with the people continuing to edit in reigns that aren't even officially recognized by PWI as world title reigns. TonyFreakinAlmeida 17:15, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kurt Angle's reigns 

message: Just a bit of a warning; until PWI says that the TNA Title is an actual WH Title, we cannot add it here.  ---SilentRAGE! 05:17, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Kurt never won the NWA Title. The NWA took the belts back before the PPV, and even TNA has Cage listed as the firs TNA Champion. TJ Spyke 21:45, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

text: They seemed to have removed it now, but they had Cage listed as the first TNA Champion. TJ Spyke 23:31, 16 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[TNA World Heavyweight Championship]] 

message: Do people who held the NWA World Title between September 1993 and May 2002 count as having been world champions? At the time, nobody, including PWI(and who made them the last word anyway?) regraded the belt as a "world" title. I have old PWI's, Inside Wrestlings etc, and the belt was referred to as simply the "NWA Heavyweight Title", if it was even acknowledged at all. Obviously during the NWA-TNA era the belt regained its "World" title status, but after Flair was stripped of the "Big Gold Belt", and before Shamrock won the tournament, the NWA belt should NOT be regarded as a "World" Title, and anyone who held the belt during this period was NOT a World Champion.
Also, who says the ROH belt is a "world" belt? PWI don't recognise it is such, just as the "ROH Title".....
:When PWI restored world title status to the NWA Title, they also gave world title status to all those who had held it. They also gave world title status back to those who had the WWWF Title from 1972-1983 (when the title had been downgraded to regional status after the WWWF rejoined the NWA). Some people here call the ROH Title a world title. I suppose now that ROH are doing PPVs (they just taped their first one lat week and it will aire on July 1, they will tape another one next week), PWI may give it world title status. TJ Spyke 00:24, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If they did that for NWA and WWF, why didn't they do it for ECW?  ---SilentRAGE! 06:05, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Because both the NWA and WWF Titles had world title status before losing it (PWI just restored it). The ECW Title didn't get world title status at all until August 1999. You will have to ask PWI why exactly. TJ Spyke 06:08, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd like to know why the titles that obviously do not currently have world title status continue to be recognized as such.  It's so clear on PWI's history page which titles they recognize as world titles. TonyFreakinAlmeida 01:31, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I will take care of it tomorrow, there will probably be backlash from some people. If that happens, I will bring it up at WP:PW. TJ Spyke 01:35, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: From PWI's website:"Steve Corino drops the AWA heavyweight championship to Shinjiro Otani at a Zero-One Max show at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan." This means that pwi doesn't recognize post-91 awa reigns as reigns with world status. I'm gonna change the page.Secretaria 18:40, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Query

message: Chris Benoit should not be recognized as a former WCW Champion. Benoit's victory was what we call a Dusty Finish, ie Benoit's win was always going to be overturned, declared null and void, cease to be etc. Of course Benoit was so pissed off he jumped to the WWF who briefly recognized Benoit as a "former WCW Champion", until they realized how stupid that made them look. The old wcw.com website DIDN'T count list Benoit on their "World Title History" page, because his title victory was overturned!!! Only in 2003 when benoit got the Jesus Push en route to his WM World Title victory did WWE start up the lame "former WCW World Champion" nonsense again, apparently to show the "is for real". Hoever, if we count benoit as a former WCW World Champion, then Goldberg is a 2-time WCW Champion(see Halloween Havoc 1999), Sid Vicious is a 2-time WCW Champion(he may already be listed as such here?), Chuck Palumbo is a former WCW Champion(with regards to an incident in mid-2000), and who knows how many times the Steiner Brothers "won" the WCw Tag Titles from the Outsiders in 1997! Also, quite apart from the Midnight Rider incident, Dusty Rhodes is a 4-time NWA Champion(Starrcade 1985), RVD also "won" the WWE belt from the Undertaker in 2002, so he's a 2-time WWE Champion, and the list goes on an on. In short, Benoit's WCW World Title win was declared null and void, and thus he never officially held the belt. EVER. If we count Benoit as a former WCW champion, then should we start recognising all Dusty Finishes as title changes, and counting those as official title reigns? And don't say he "voluntarily vacated the belt after winning it". He was stripped of the belt, then asked for his release, which he got, and jumped to WWF/WWE. Since WCW were controlling their own title lineages, and they never ecognized Benoit as officially ever having held the World Championship, he should not be recognized as such by wikipedia. Unless you count ALL Dusty Finishes as official. So either Benoit isn't a WCW Champion, or Chuck Palumbo is also a former WCW World Champion. Take your pick. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.54.202.22 (talk • contribs) 08:30, May 26, 2007
:WWE has the final say in this subject since they bought WCW. If they officially recognize Benoit as a former wcw champ , then he IS a a former wcw champ. The same does not occur with the other wrestlers you mentioned. Terry Funk also had an unrecognized us title reign in wcw until wwe bought the promotion. On the other hand one of Flair's WCW championship reigns isn't recognized by the wwe so wikipedia isn't exactly being consistent, is it? Maybe we should ask what others think? Secretaria May 26, 2007 18:20 (UTC)
:WCW did count Benoit's win, they just stripped him of the title afterwards. Goldberg is NOT a 2 time champion, Sting complained that he didn't think it was a title match, JJ Dillion (head of the "WCW CHampionship Committee") agreed that the title didn't change hands and then stripped Sting of the title (for attacking the referee after the match), nor do any of those other counts since no one reckonizes them. WCW considere the Benoit title win legit, WWE considers it legit, PWI considers it legit, wrestling-titles.com (which conside) considers it legit. Bottom line, Benoit is a former WCW World Heavyweight Champion. TJ Spyke 21:05, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Chris Benoit as WCW World Champion?

message: The Sandman won the ECW Championship FIVE times, not one as the article shows! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.54.202.22 (talk • contribs) 04:36, 1 June 2007
:Only ECW Title reigns from August 1999 and after are considered world title reigns, and The Sandman only won thr title once after it got world title status. TJ Spyke 22:54, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Sandman

message: Where did it go? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.54.202.22 (talk • contribs) 04:36, 1 June 2007
:The title didn't have world status from PWI, so it was removed from the page. TonyFreakinAlmeida 15:43, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: WWA World Title

message: From PWI's wrestling history section:"Jeff Jarrett beats Sting to unify the NWA and WWA heavyweight championships in Auckland, New Zealand. (2003)" Neither championship is called a world championship altought in the same section they later grant world status to the nwa championship. However, they don't do the same  for the wwa championship. Perhaps it's time to change wikipedia's criteria for the world championships, afterall they only recognize 1999 to 2001 ecw champions as world champions  despite the promotion's popularity. Secretaria 13:00, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: We don't have criteria, we use PWI's criteria. I've never been comfortable with the WWA Title being considered a world title, so I wouldn't feel bad removing it. The NWA Title was given back world title status (and all previous champions given world title status), so everybody who has held the NWA Title is considered a world champion. TJ Spyke 22:44, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You havent't said nothing new to me. I don't think anybody cares about the wwa championship. Personally, a championship that lasted roughly two years and never appeared on tv should not be among wrestling's top championships. I think this is the final disscussion about this particular title. I'm taking it out.Secretaria 23:00, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What about the ROH, AJPW Triple Crown, IWGP and ECW titles?  They aren't world titles to PWI at the moment either. They only recognize WWE, World Heavyweight(WWE) and NWA(which will inevitably lose status soon). Also, was the WCW International title recognized?  I've read from some that it wasn't. TonyFreakinAlmeida 17:41, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think it's just a matter of time before ROH and ECW are recognized again since the championships are being/will be defended on TV so we might as well keep them. I don't know about the japanese and wcw international titles though. That's why I think this page's criteria needs to change. Secretaria 20:50, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah from looking at the history page they don't have the world status on the Japanese titles, heck, has PWI ever recognized a world title from a promotion outside of the United States? TonyFreakinAlmeida 00:52, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I just looked at an old issue of PWI (December 1997 issue), and it had AJPW and NJPW's titles just listed as "IWGP Championship" and "Triple Crown Championship" while it had the WWF and WCW's titles both listed as "World Championship". TJ Spyke 01:59, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Can someone check recent issues to confirm this, please? And TJ Spyke, does that issue or other one you have say anything about the wcw international championship? What does anybody think abou changing pwi's world status criteria to another one. It's kinda ridiculous seeing Scott Steiner on TNA.com claiming he was a a world tag team champion in Japan or that Team 3D are 20-times world tag team champions or ECW's Joey Styles calling Sabu a former world champion. I'm talking about the two most important and well known wrestling promotions of today. Secretaria 16:00, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

text: Nope, no mention of the WCW International title. I don't have any issues from when the WCW International title existed, and they don't mention the title at all in the issues I have. Sabu is technially a former world champion, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Remember that a lot of organizations call their titles world titles (including indy feds who never hold shows outside of their city area). TJ Spyke 21:48, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Just a question, why do you keep bringing up stuff like indy feds who claim world status when no one seems to be arguing any, for example, I don't see anyone trying to argue that Jersey All Pro Wrestling has a world title(just an example of what I don't see). Pro Wrestling Illustrated's world titles are so clear, WWE, WHC(WWE), NWA, with WCW, AWA and ECW reigns from August 1999 to 2001 as the inactive world titles. Also to Secretaria, not everyone goes by PWI's standards because there are many people out there who find that historically they've shown total bias. To some, the ECW tag titles and heavyweight title had right to claim their own world status, but there's no say that PWI is the official judge of anything.TonyFreakinAlmeida 00:12, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: They are no more bias than other sources (like Melter, whose history shows an anti-WWE bias). TJ Spyke 00:18, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Meltzer's good for news though IMO, most credible sheet out there from when I've followed.  That's all I say about that. TonyFreakinAlmeida 02:08, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not saying he isn't good for news (although he doesn't always mark his rumors as rumors, and lets people think they are true). I just don't trust his personal opinions. TJ Spyke 02:24, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: So, if there is no source we can trust, where does it leave us? If we can't trust any source, maybe we should have our own criteria. Maybe it's the most unbiased of them all. We'll just have to warn viewers at the top of the page that there isn't an unbiased source that classifies the real world titles. Then we would list the titles of the major promotions past and present such as AWA, AJPW, ECW, IWGP, NWA, NOAH, ROH, TNA, WWE. What do you think? Are we right to do this? Cause pwi's view on subject is IMO inaccurate, biased (specially against the japanese titles if indeed they don't recognize them as world titles) and often contradicts wrestling's most powerful promotions. Secretaria 07:45, 01 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah but this article is supposed to be solely for PWI world title recognition. AJPW and IWGP don't have world status.  It's already been said, WWE, WHC(WWE) and NWA are the titles currently recognized with world status at the moment with inactive world titles being, WCW, AWA(pre-AWA Superstars) and the ECW title reigns from August 99 til the promotion's demise recognized as World title reigns. PWI has only recognized 3 world titles at any given time historically and this page is not reflecting that, but it needs to. TonyFreakinAlmeida 15:30, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

text: No thanks on making a page for PWI world titles, if you haven't noticed, I hate PWI.  Personally I feel that anyone who uses PWI to to think of what is and what is not a world title, is an idiot.  I'm going by this quote at the top of the page. This list includes all title reigns for titles given "World Title Status" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI). Many promotions claim to have a World Title but PWI is considered a legitimate, unbiased, and independent authority on who really has a World Title and who does not. Then it goes on to say who "claims" world status. Well if this page is to be for promotions who have claimed world status then I guess we're just going to have to put WWA back right? For it was taken away all because PWI doesn't recognize it. It's been debated for a while about what titles have PWI status, because this page is for PWI's status. TonyFreakinAlmeida 22:46, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

text: While I would like for use to come up with our own criteria, we can't. That would basically be the definition of original research, which is not allowed on Wikipedia. TJ Spyke 22:53, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: And plus everything on the page points to the fact that this page is merely for PWI's status, with the exception of titles that are on this list that are not even recognized by PWI, which is most likely by mistake or someone added them all because of name.  Fact is, if this page wasn't for PWI, then I guess ECW wouldn't be listed from the date that PWI gave it world status, or it wouldn't be noted on the World heavyweight championship page how PWI restored world status to the NWA title in Summer last year.  TonyFreakinAlmeida 23:04, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Alright, it seems a complete listing of wrestling world title reigns is undoable. But this page needs to be changed radically. The title is misleading and makes people think that this page is much more than a pwi listing. This page is linked to all championship pages like it was that relevant instead of just being a pwi subpage. I mean look a this page's counterpart for the tag teams that I created, every day people keep adding the 8 championships the dudleys won in ecw because they don't understand that this is merely a  pwi subpage. This article needs to change now. Secretaria 11:00, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've changed the page to reflect its true purpose. If you don't agree with my changes just say so. If you do I'll change the tag team page too. Secretaria 13:10, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah the list of reigns by length also needs work too.  Thanks for going through with the changes, all I gotta say is, bout time it was set straight. TonyFreakinAlmeida 05:23, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

text: The problem is that would be original research too. If we are using PWI's standards, then we can't alter them the way we want. TJ Spyke 04:20, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

text: Just thought that I would point out that Sidney Crosby was only in college before playing in the NHL, and that's why most people hadn't heard of him. Lrrr IV 01:01, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

text: I got your point, I was just pointing otu why most people hadn't heard of Crosby (besides the fact that hockey in general is not a very popular sport outside of Canada). Lrrr IV 03:23, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: New criteria for wikipedia's world status?

message: Everyone seems to be so preoccupied with whether or not ECW Champions prior to August 1999 were retroactively given World Title status, that another point in Mr Staks' earlier post seems to have gone unnoticed...
"However, we are doing so with NWA champions who held the title during their tenure with TNA, but not before." (emphasis mine).
Thus the NWA Heavyweight Title was only considered a World Title from recognition of Orville Brown as the first NWA World Heavyweight Champion in 1948 to Ric Flair in 1991, and then from Ken Shamrock in 2002 to Christian Cage on May 13, 2007. Presumably the new NWA Champion will NOT be a "World" champion, but we'll have to wait and see about that. However, what is clear is the Messrs Chono, Windham, Candido, Severn, Ogawa, Steele and the rest were never World Champions in the eyes of PWI, and that Ric Flair's final reign as NWA Heavyweight Champion in 1993, was just that..the NWA Heavyweight Championship(NOT World). Thus the article needs some cleaning out of people who were never World Champions in the eyes of PWI.
:But what is your source for them not recognizing NWA Title reigns before 1948, or Flair's 1991 reigns being the point when they withdrew recognition? TJ Spyke 01:23, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: So do they recognize reigns from 91-02 or not? Cus we don't have PWI in Portugal, so I'm blind on the subject and I have deleted nwa reigns from the tag team page. Secretaria 13:48, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That e-mail is the one I sent to PWI's website and is what Stu said in the reply. However, we can't remove any NWA champions until we know when they stop recognizing it as a world title. TJ Spyke 22:37, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Except we know for a fact that only ECW Champions starting with Tazz are world champions. We don't know when the NWA Title lost world title status. Also, what is your source for the NWA Title before 1948 not being considered a world title? TJ Spyke 20:19, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have the answer. It's in the PWI website: 1948 - Later in the year, Orville Brown is recognized as the first NWA World champion. Also, Masahiro Chono, the first nwa champion after ric flair left for the wwe is the first to be simply called the nwa champion - IWGP champion The Great Muta (Keiji Muto) pins NWA champion Masahiro Chono in a title vs. title match. Secretaria 10:37, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Care to take a swipe at List of professional wrestling World Title reigns by length? It uses PWI as well, but continues to include the ROH Title, and someone tried to add Angle's TNA win. TJ Spyke 21:26, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's done, but I don't know the lenght of Orville Brown's reign. Secretaria 15:39, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Earlier comment

message: From PWI.com's latest article:"...with Joe’s most recent X division title reign, he’s now eligible for the “Match Of Champions” at Victory Road announced by Jim Cornette last night. There, the TNA World champion and X division titleholder will square off against the TNA tag champs with the man gaining the pinfall walking away with the title of the opponent he covered for the victory."
In the same article they call the ecw championship the "ECW title" not the ECW World Title so I think this pretty much proves that the TNA Championship has World Title Status. Secretaria 14:16, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The NWA Title only got world title status back thanks to TNA, so no surprise. Glad to see it official now though. TJ Spyke 23:33, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: NWA title is losing world status for sure, PWI only recognizes 3 world titles at any given time. TonyFreakinAlmeida 15:19, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Just because they traditionally have not recognized more than 3 doesn't mean they wouldn't. The fact that all the wrestlers in the NWA Title tournament (almost all of whom I have not even heard of) are indie wrestlers (the biggest name appears to be only Bryan Danielson. Nothing against Danielson, but he is just a indie wrestler) does seem to support the idea that the NWA Title won't have world title status when the new champ is decided. TJ Spyke 04:08, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well if PWI has made a reference to the NWA title in the magazine as of late, being that the tournament is into the second round, then we'll know, but the tradition has always been 3 world titles, heck, they probably have already withdrew the NWA's world status.  NWA is an indy in this day and age.  It only makes sense for this magazine to recognize those 3 world titles coming from the big two of wrestling promotions in the US today. TonyFreakinAlmeida 14:06, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: TNA has World Title Status

message: I was about to add him, but I wanted to check here to be sure I wasn't missing something. I thought there may be a reason he's not here already (there probably is). Gavyn Sykes 04:28, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: PWI doesn't seem to consider the ECW Championship to have world title status. They call the other two WWE Titles world titles (RAW World Championship and SmackDown World Championship) and the NWA Title (although they will probably demote it soon) and now the TNA World Championship, but they just call the ECW Title the "ECW Heavyweight Championship". We have decided to use PWI for this page (since we can't come up with our own guidelines and half of the wrestling feds out there call their main title a world title). TJ Spyke 04:31, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

text: I don't think it ever considered the ROH Title a world tilte. It's just that a few weeks ago we decided to go through and clean up the page, we had always used PWI for the standard but there were a bunch of titles listed that PWI did not consider world titles (the IWGP Championship, AJPW Championship, AWA Championship, ROH Championship, current ECW Title) and the NWA Title from 1993-2002. TJ Spyke 19:27, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

text: Oh, ok. I recall reading this article a few weeks back and seeing all of those titles listed. Thanks for clearing that up.Gavyn Sykes 19:30, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: NWA title probably already lost it's status, they only recognize upto 3 world titles at any given time.  Since NWA title is going right back to the indies and TNA title has a TV deals internationally, it already filled it's spot. TonyFreakinAlmeida 18:08, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Given the current news that the NWA is going back to national television that may not be entirely true. I think the three world titles recognitios is just a coincidence but I could be wrong. It's a new era, it seems. For the first time five world titles will be defended on tv. Secretaria 14:29, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, for one thing, even ECW's first PPV was very successful in '97 and that wasn't enough for PWI to grant that belt world status.  Remember this is PWI, and going by history of the most popular and biggest promotions in just about every decade, there have always been a maximum 3 that stood out above everyone else.  60s-70's, AWA, WWWF(even as a member of the NWA), NWA.  80s-early 90's, same promotions.  90's.  WWF and WCW, with ECW getting on national TV in '99.  And now, you have WWE, TNA with 3 PWI-recognized world titles between them, with NWA getting a TV deal(granted, on Dish Network, not everyone can see it), and ROH on PPV, I don't see how PWI will grant more than 3 titles that status given the big two at the moment are accessible through basic cable while the others are not. TonyFreakinAlmeida 01:15, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Johnny Nitro

message: I mean since they are a kayfabe magazine, they should know all the details as well as if TNA had until midnight and all that stuff. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.139.34.19 (talk • contribs) 
:The only reference I can find is in their weekly wrapup page (where they briefly recap what happened on RAW/SmackDown/ECW/iMPACT), and they refer to it as the TNA Championship (not the NWA). This appears to be the only mention of the incident: "The road to Slammiversary began last night with a ray of Louisville light being shed on the TNA World title situation and the official kick-off of the “King Of The Mountain” qualifiers. After the confusion stemming from the finish of the three-way World title battle at Sacrifice that saw Christian Cage, Kurt Angle, and Sting pretty much lose at some point, Jim Cornette cleared things up as much as made the waters a bit murkier. The TNA World strap is apparently vacant for the time being as a result and will be the top prize at Slammiversary's “King Of The Mountain” match of which Angle will be a participant after defeating Rhino last night. I can safely say right now, with Angle being the only member of the match, he is my rock-solid, stone-cold lock to win the match. Of course, that may change after more people are added."  Lrrr IV 00:51, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: From the wording of that, it seems that they recognize whatever title was on the line at Sacrifice as a world title. TonyFreakinAlmeida 16:17, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: In TNAToday, the final promo said Angle was a 7-time world champion. So we'll have to wait until TNA decides what to do. Secretaria 15:15, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

text: They never did recognize those titles as world titles to begin with. It sucks but its true. But, hey, it's just an opinion from a magazine. Secretaria 15:00, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Does PWI recognize Angle's NWA title win?

message: A world title?? Give me a break. Now that TNA has severed ties with NWA, I don't know what argument can be made to consider this title a world title.
:They only gave back world status to the nwa title because it was defended in TNA. It was a natural transition, though we still don't know if the nwa title lost its world status.  Secretaria 15:05, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Someone told me on a message board that in the latest issue of PWI the NWA title is infact listed as still being a world title, it might change though once a champion is crowned. TonyFreakinAlmeida 14:53, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: TNA title

message: I know this is not the right page but this seems to be a really "popular" wrestling talk page.
Since the NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic version) is the WCW World Tag Team Championship and not the current official NWA World Tag Team Championship should we change "PWI's List of Wrestling World Tag Team Title Reigns" page to reflect this? I don't know PWI's stand on this. Secretaria 19:00, July 24 2007 (UTC).
:About that, the Mid-Atlantic tag titles before they became the WCW World Tag titles were not a world tag team championship, it wasn't until the NWA board decided to create their own world tag titles that the NWA had an official World Tag Team title, so from the first WCW reign with Doom and onward, those are World Tag Team title reigns.  Anything before that is just a regional tag team title reign in NWA Mid Atlantic. TonyFreakinAlmeida 20:30, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd also like to add that according to the history page on here wikipedia, Doom's reign from Mid-Atlantic crossed over into the history of the WCW tag titles, so they weren't separate reigns, I'd have to look this up, as the Mid-Atlantic territory very much had national notoriety and maybe worldwide notoriety in PWI's case with how they view things. TonyFreakinAlmeida 05:14, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

text: Yeah I just checked out PWI-online's history page, and they refer to the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championships as the NWA World Tag Team titles at least from December of 1976 onward, so it's a safe bet that every NWA World Tag Team title reign from the Mid-Atlantic territory from 1975-1991 to WCW is recognized by PWI as a world tag team title reign. Here's a quote by the way from the piece 
December 25(1976): Ric Flair wins his first world title when he teams with Greg Valentine to beat NWA World tag team champions Gene and Ole Anderson in Greensboro, North Carolina.  
I'm not sure how big the Mid-Atlantic region (aka Crockett's promotions) were in those days but I think it's safe to consider every reign of those titles before they were renamed the WCW World Tag Team titles, as world tag team title reigns on the List of World Tag Team Championship reigns page.
TonyFreakinAlmeida 20:09, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

text: Doesn't anyone have a magazine to confirm if the mid-atlantic tag championship is recognized by PWI as part of the nwa tag team lineage or wcw tag team lineage? Secretaria 21:50, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  NWA Tag Team Title history 

message: In the PWI 2007 Almanac I read that the NWA World Title was re-awarded World Title Status on June 27, 2006. Why, then, is it considered to have World Title Status from the beginning of Ken Shamrock's victory in 2002? Did PWI given them World Title Status retroactively? Bmf 51 17:58, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  NWA World Title Status? 

message: In the 2007 PWI almanac, they include the WWE Title when it was on Smackdown! and the World Heavyweight Title after it moved to Smackdown! as part of the same lineage. They consider the pre-brand extension WWE Title, the World Heavyweight Title when it was on Raw, and the WWE Title since it moved to Raw, in a single lineage as well. I realize they refer to the WWE's two titles as the Raw World and Smackdown World Titles, but is it necessary to split all WWE Title reigns, while it was defended on Smackdown, from the rest of its title history? Bmf 51 17:56, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: PWI is crazy!-- bulletproof 3:16 23:04, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah, if you haven't noticed, PWI recognizes the title lineages as separate from show to show, so if you were to look at when Batista and Cena were both on Raw and when the WWE title moved to Raw from SmackDown and WHC from Raw to SmackDown etc you'd see more title reigns, it's how they do things, they don't call the titles by their actual names but create their own terms for them. TonyFreakinAlmeida 05:10, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  What's up with this? 

message: I was reading through a WWE.com article about Ron Simmons and Teddy Long, and about half way down, it says...
Picture it: Atlanta, 1986. The National Wrestling Alliance (later known as WCW) hires a young man named Theodore R. Long as a referee. That same year, a former college football All-American named Ron Simmons makes his sports-entertainment debut in the NWA.
A bold statement to make, eh? Maybe, in the mind of WWE, its like the Baltimore Ravens/Cleveland Browns situation in the NFL. The original NWA "became" WCW, and a newer version of NWA inherited the old versions history. Or, perhaps they believe WCW rightfully inherited everything.
This gives some insight into why they originally viewed the World Heavyweight Title as formerly being the WCW and NWA Titles (not that they don't still believe that, considering on the page showing the WCW title history it says...
The World Heavyweight Championship that has recently been carried by such greats as Batista and Triple H got its start in WWE back in 2002. But its prestigious lineage can actually be traced back all the way to George Hackenschmidt and 1904. For years, it was known as the NWA Championship; then when WCW pulled out of the NWA in the early 1990s, Ric Flair was recognized as the first-ever WCW Champion. Since that time, top names such as Hulk Hogan, Ron Simmons and Bret Hart carried the championship prior to WCW's demise.
Here are both articles:
http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/articles/4375906/bestman
http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/wcwchampionship/
Bmf 51 17:55, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  WCW/Pre-Split NWA one in the same, according to WWE? 

message: The Sandman is a 'FIVE-time ECW World Champion. Wikipedia only recognizes him as a 1-time holder of this title. What gives?
::Read through the previous questions on this talk page and you will find your answer. That question has been asked multiple times. 63.3.9.129 15:56, 4 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Sandman

message: What is PWI's take on people like Gotch, Stecher, etc who held recognized "World Titles" before the formation of the NWA? The Almanac recognizes these people as "World Champions", but it's clearly not any of the known World Titles after mid-1948, eg NWA, WWE etc. Should these people be listed? Or aren't these reigns even World Title reigns per se?
::Personally, I would recognize several pre-1948 titles including the one's belonging to AWA (Boston), the National Boxing/Wrestling Association, the Midwest Wrestling Association, the New York State Athletic Commission, and Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium, as well as Maryland's version of the World Title. All split from the original World Title, and all were unified into the NWA Title in the late 40s and early 50s. But this is PWI's list, not mine. I'm not sure if they even recognize any championship before 1948 (even though they include the main line of the lineage of the World Championship dating to 1904 with the current NWA's title history). Perhaps they haven't done so for fear of a little research.
:::My guess would be that they recognize the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as the very first, as it had many others unified with it and PWI most likely has no way of tracking any other "world" titles before this time, it's only upto their own interpretation. TonyFreakinAlmeida 20:28, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: World Titles before 1948

message: Does PWI recognize Killer Kowalski's NWA reign? According to Kowalski himself, he is a former NWA World Champion(during the early 60's) but the PWI Almanac makes no reference to this?
::"(Kowalski) never held the NWA title, but did wrestle as champion on some shows in Texas for promoter Morris Sigel in 1962. Kowalski had defeated the champ, Buddy Rogers, in Montreal when Rogers suffered a broken ankle and couldn't continue after the first fall. Sigel used this match to promote Kowalski as the NWA champion."63.3.9.129 16:29, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Killer Kowalski

message: According to PWI logic when they switched promotions in 2005, they each got credited with an extra title reign?
:It's possible, but seeing as they recognize Flair's NWA/WCW(1st) title reign from 1991 as one reign, they most likely do something similar for Cena and Batista's title reigns in which Cena went from SmackDown to Raw, and Batista from Raw to SmackDown. TonyFreakinAlmeida 20:30, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Batista and Cena

message: 2-time or 3-time World Champion according to PWI?
::TNA billed him as a World Champion after NWA had already stripped him of their title. But, TNA does not include his reign (or Kurt Angle's subsequent reign prior to him being stripped of his "title") in their own championship's history. My guess is PWI won't recognize this reign at all, making him a 2-time champion. We'll have to wait and see.63.3.9.129 16:10, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Christian Cage

message: Apparently, Flair was recognised as the first WCW World Champion after he beat Sting in January 1991, but I am sure that during his reign in 1990, Sting was specifially and unambiguously referred to as being "WCW World Champion", and his title as the "WCW World Title". Does anyone have any links or the like which can either confirm or disprove this?
:So are you saying that WCW recognized Sting as being WCW World Champ going into the match with Flair, which Flair won, and became first recognized champ?  Sorry, your post isn't very clear. TonyFreakinAlmeida 20:27, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The WCW World Title 

message: Adam Pearce just won the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Since this is the first reign after TNA severed ties with the NWA, should we wait and see if PWI recognizes the title as a World Title before putting him in the article, or should we put him in the article now and take him off later if his reign isn't recognized? TheNewMinistry 06:25, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: We put it now and take back later if he isn't recognized. Secretaria 14:00, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Someone edited the page and now it reads that NWA isn't an active world title in both heavyweight and tag team pages.  Any source that it lost it's world status or did someone jump the gun? TonyFreakinAlmeida 00:12, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: NWA Title - Pearce reign

message: 4-time World Champion according to ECW, but only 1-time according to wikipedia?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.158.128.105 (talk) 08:07, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: PWI did not recongnize the ECW Title as an actual World Championship during four of five of The Sandman's reigns. This article is based on PWI's list. If you check The Sandman's article you'll see that he is listed as a five time champion. Gavyn Sykes 17:04, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Sandman

message: I was checking the PWI website and I found this on its history sectio:"July 6 (1999): PWI grants world title status to ECW following the promotion’s deal with The Nashville Network to begin airing weekly programs on August 27.". This means that the world status was given on July 6 and not August 27, when it began airing on tv. Now, this fact doesn't affect the ecw championship since Taz was already the champion on July 6, but it affects the ecw tag team championship, whose championship changed hands 6 times from July 6 to August 27. Secretaria 22:00, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yep, and the Dudleys also had a couple of title reigns that aired on ECW on TNN's premiere and first couple of episodes, so this means that they actually did have possibly 2 out of their 8 ECW Tag Title reigns recognized as World Tag Title reigns by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. TonyFreakinAlmeida 15:39, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Correction, 3 world tag title reigns from PWI for Bubba Ray and Devon.  I see you've already made the changes, hadn't seen this sooner, good job on the find and edits. TonyFreakinAlmeida 15:40, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: ECW World title status

message: It seems to me that PWI is discriminatory towards any World Title claimant that's not of US origin... The only championship that are given "World Title" status are only those that originate from the US... All Japan and New Japan should and DESERVE World Title status... But of course, they're not American-originated World Champoinship, so that in itself nullifies any chance of it ever given recognition of World Championship. If PWI wants to be that discriminatory, then they should also nullify the recognition of non-Americans who have held "recognized" World Titles such as Bret Hart, Adam Copeland, Jason Reso, Masato Tanaka, Chris Benoit, Chris Irvine and so forth...
Why even call them "World" Titles if they won't recognized major championships from MAJOR companies from other nations.. the All Japan and New Japan are MAJOR companies and rival those like WWE and TNA.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iroquoisfalls (talk • contribs) 08:01, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: For one thing, both WWE and TNA have TV shows/PPV's that are shown internationally. Also, WWE tours outside of the country a lot and has their titles defended outside of the country and TNA is starting to do so. AJPW and NJPW do neither. If you want to know PWI's direct answers, e-mail them rather than complaining about it here. This page is for discussing ways to improve the article, not talk about the general subject (see WP:TALKPAGE). TJ Spyke 22:38, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: TJ's right, it's a sad truth of quite a few Japanese promotions and their reach outside their country of origin. TonyFreakinAlmeida 00:24, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "World" Title status and discrimination 

message: 5-time ECW Champion, but only 1-time world champion?
:Yes, you're right. Read above in one of the million "Sandman" sections. Secretaria 20:50, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sandman 

message: Not listed here? he definitely held the NWA Title for 24 hours, so why no mention?
:NWA doesn't recognize the reign, only TNA. Until the reign isn't recognized by the NWA, PWI won't recognize it either. Secretaria 20:50, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: NWA and PWI will likely never count it since TNA no longer had control over the belt. The NWA stripped Cage and Team 3D of the belts (and the NWA took them back), so there was no title for Angle to win that night. TJ Spyke 00:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kurt Angle's May 2007 reign 

message: PWI retroactively awarded all the NWA title reigns under TNA from 2002-2007 world title status.
So...where did they go? Jarrett still has his reigns listed, but Raven and others are missing their NWA reigns. TheNewMinistry 23:10, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  NWA title reigns from 2002-2007 

message: This page lists the NWA World Title as having been stripped of World Title status on May 13. This seems to be the logical thing for PWI to do, but this page doesn't cite a source. Does anybody have proof that the PWI has already stripped this title of World Title status? If not, I think we should assume they haven't, at least until PWI says otherwise. 63.3.9.129 04:36, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You're correct, there's no proof, but historically Pro Wrestling Illustrated has only recognized three world heavyweight titles at any given time.  It's been said they "quietly" stripped it of their status, since that title only got World Status from the magazine back because of it's exposure in TNA and all, once TNA dropped that title in favor of their own new title, it was a no-brainer that PWI would grant TNA's new title that status in the NWA title's place.  PWI hasn't mentioned the NWA title in their online updates since it's final days in TNA as well, so that's good indication of their care for it.  TonyFreakinAlmeida 03:02, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  NWA World Title? 

message: According to the new issue of Power Slam magazine, The Sandman is a 4-time ECW WORLD Champion! But he's just listed as a 1-time World Champion here. What gives?
:Please read the other topics on this page before posting. That has been brought up around a dozen times. I'm not going to bother explaining it again. Bmf 51 (talk) 01:35, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Sandman

message: Some messages above somebody mentioned that Chuck Palumbo is a former WCW World Champion. What's up with that? Is that a joke, or should Palumbo be included in this article?
:I don't recall Palumbo winning the World Title, even in a "Dusty finish". Even if he did win it in that fashion, it shouldn't be counted. The argument made in the message above was that if Chris Benoit's reign is recognized, so should Palumbo's reign (if it existed, which it might). However, WCW, WWE, and PWI all recognized/recognize Benoit's reign. None of those three recognize Palumbo as a former champion. So his reign (if he did indeed "win" the title in a Dusty finish) shouldn't be counted, nor should any other reign involving a Dusty finish be counted (including Benoit's two WWE title "victories", which were a result of Dusty finishes). But Benoit's reign in WCW should be counted because the victory wasn't overturned (as happens in Dusty finish). Rather, he was stripped of the title following his departure for WWE, with the match's result staying intact. Bmf 51 (talk) 01:52, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Chuck Palumbo

message: I added up Verne's list from the PWI Title History page, and get 9 AWA World Titles. It's listed as 10 here? :Not sure. TJ Spyke 18:39, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Verne Gagne 

message: he won the ECW World Title FIVE times, not one, as wrongly stated here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benoit's Ghost (talk • contribs) 
:He won the ECW Championship 5 times, but he only won it 1 time when it had world title status (August 1999-April 2001). TJ Spyke 18:39, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sandman 

message: At Bash at the Beach 2000 Hogan clearly pinned Jarrett, and usso in his "shoot", even stated that Hogan "got his wish and won the World Title". Should it be included? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benoit's Ghost (talk • contribs) 
:No, because Hogan didn't win the title. TJ Spyke 18:39, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hogan's seventh WCW reign 

message: Where is he on this list? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benoit's Ghost (talk • contribs) 
:He never won a recognized world title (his WWF Title win was never recognized). TJ Spyke 18:39, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Not that I know of. TJ Spyke 22:11, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Antonio Inoki