| AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | American Wrestling Association | ||||||||||
| Date established | May 1981 | ||||||||||
| Date retired | August 1991 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship was a title in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1981 until it closed in 1991.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||||
| American Wrestling Association (AWA) | ||||||||||
| 1 | Mike Graham | June 14, 1981 | House show | Green Bay, Wisconsin | 1 | 735 | Won a tournament final. | |||
| 2 | Buck Zumhofe | June 19, 1983 | House show | Hamburg, Minnesota | 1 | 280 | ||||
| 3 | Steve Regal | March 25, 1984 | House show | Saint Paul, Minnesota | 1 | 613 | ||||
| 4 | Buck Zumhofe | November 28, 1985 | House show | Saint Paul, Minnesota | 2 | 212 | ||||
| — | Vacated | June 28, 1986 | — | — | — | — | Zumhofe is sent to prison | |||
| Championship history is unrecorded from July 1986 to November 1988. | ||||||||||
| 5 | Mike Graham | December 13, 1988 | House show | Chicago, Illinois | 2 | Records are unclear on how Graham won the championship. | ||||
| Championship history is unrecorded from January 1989 to July 1990. | ||||||||||
| 6 | Buck Zumhofe | August 11, 1990 | House show | Rochester, Minnesota | 3 | 63 | Records are unclear on how Zumhofe won the championship. | |||
| 7 | Jonnie Stewart | October 13, 1990 | House show | N/A | 1 | 60 | ||||
| 8 | Buck Zumhofe | December 12, 1990 | House show | Rochester, Minnesota | 4 | |||||
| Championship history is unrecorded from January 1991 to August 1991. | ||||||||||
| — | Deactivated | August 1991 | — | — | — | — | ||||
In 1989, the Japan-based Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) began billing Florida Championship Wrestling/Professional Wrestling Federation champion Jim Backlund as the AWA champion. This was never sanctioned by the AWA. FMW's claimed title became FMW's lower weight division title. In 1992, FMW renamed the title to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship before retiring it in 1993.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | ||||||
| Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) | ||||||||||
| 1 (6) | Jim Backlund | December 10, 1988 | House show | Tampa, Florida | 1 | 477 | Backlund defeated Tyree Pride for the FCW Light Heavyweight Championship; because of this victory Backlund is recognized as the sixth AWA champion by FMW in Japan during 1989 but not by the AWA itself. | |||
| 2 (7) | Lee Gak-soo | April 1, 1990 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | |||||
| — | Vacated | August 1990 | — | — | — | — | Title vacated after Lee left FMW. | |||
| 3 (8) | Katsuji Ueda | September 25, 1990 | Battle Field | Nagoya, Japan | 1 | 41 | Defeated Jim Backlund in a "Different Style Match" tournament final. | |||
| 4 (9) | Jim Backlund | November 5, 1990 | FMW 1st Anniversary Show | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | 205 | ||||
| 5 (10) | Ricky Fuji | May 29, 1991 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 87 | ||||
| 6 (11) | Mark Starr | August 24, 1991 | House show | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 7 | ||||
| 7 (12) | Katsuji Ueda | August 31, 1991 | House show | Chiba, Japan | 2 | 205 | ||||
| 8 (13) | Dr. Luther | March 23, 1992 | House show | Saitama, Japan | 1 | 197 | The title is renamed to the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship in April 1992. | |||
| 9 (14) | Katsuji Ueda | September 7, 1992 | House show | Saitama, Japan | 3 | |||||
| — | Deactivated | September 1993 | — | — | — | — | The title is retired and replaced with the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship. | |||