List of WCW World Heavyweight Champions

List Of WCW World Heavyweight Champions

This is a chronological list of wrestlers that have been WCW World Heavyweight Champion by ring name. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship. Its lineage began when Ted Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions, which used the National Wrestling Alliance alliance name. Turner's organization was renamed World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and split from the NWA in 1991.

The WCW World Heavyweight Championship is the original world title of World Championship Wrestling. It was deactivated nine months after WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) in March 2001 and the title was unified with the WWF Championship. The championship was generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. There have been a total of 22 recognized champions who have had a combined 62 official reigns, with Ric Flair holding the most at seven (although the actual total is eight as WWE doesn't recognize the title being vacated after the Spring Stampede 1994 match, although WCW did recognize this). Flair was also, at 51, the oldest WCW Champion when he won it in May 2000, while The Giant (Paul Wight) was the youngest when he won it in October 1995 at the age of 23. The longest reigning champion was Hulk Hogan who held the title for 469 days, while Chris Jericho is the shortest reigning champion by unifying the title with the WWF Championship immediately after winning.

The championship has been known as:

• WCW World Heavyweight Championship (January 11, 1991 – March 26, 2001)
• WCW Championship (June 24, 2001 – November 18, 2001)
• World Championship (November 19, 2001 – December 9, 2001)