Misplaced Pages

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47-615: The WWWA World Single Championship ( WWWA世界シングル王座 , WWWA sekai shinguru ōza ) was the top singles women's professional wrestling championship in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) from 1970 until it closed in 2006. It was also known in Pro Wrestling Illustrated and other London Publishing wrestling magazines as the All-Japan Women's International Championship . The title was descended from

94-519: A Winner Takes All triple threat match for the Raw and SmackDown Women's championships in what would be the first time that female superstars would main event WWE's flagship event. Nikki and Brie Bella, twin sisters who were inducted into WWEs Hall of Fame is 2021, came out of retirement for 2022 Women's Royal Rumble. Brie was the first to win a WWE Championship, but Nikki held the championship twice and held that reign longer than Brie. Promotions such as

141-595: A Cell match. At the 2017 Money in the Bank pay-per-view, the first-ever Women's Money in the Bank ladder match was held with the winner receiving a contract for a SmackDown Women's Championship match. The following month, WWE would hold a women's wrestling tournament called the Mae Young Classic , named after the late Mae Young . In 2018, the January Royal Rumble pay-per-view would feature

188-484: A junior heavyweight version of the NWA World Women's Championship (the predecessor to the original WWE Women's Championship ) in a tournament back in 1958, was recognized by most NWA promoters as champion by default. In WWE, female professional wrestlers are members of one of the promotion's four women's divisions who compete in both singles competition and tag teams . WWE has six active women's championships:

235-407: A men's promotion, had a small women's division that competed with women wrestlers from other promotions. All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (est. 1968) was the dominant joshi puro organization from the 1970s to the 1990s. AJW's first major star was Mach Fumiake in 1974, followed in 1975 by Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda (the "Beauty Pair"). In the early 1980s, Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami became

282-701: A new WWE Women's Championship , which has a separate title history from the original. WWE then reintroduced the brand extension in July 2016 and the Women's Championship (now Raw Women's Championship) became exclusive to Raw. In August 2016, SmackDown created the SmackDown Women's Championship as a counterpart title. In WWE's NXT brand, women compete for the NXT Women's Championship, which was established in 2013. The NXT UK brand would create its counterpart title,

329-590: A women's division. The top of the division is the CMLL World Women's Championship . Keiko "Bull" Nakano won the first CMLL championship in 1992. That same year, wrestling promoter Antonio Peña left the CMLL to form a new promotion called the Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). In addition to the annual Reina de Reinas Championship (Queen of Queens Championship), AAA also organizes

376-482: Is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport . As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called promotions . Some promotions are exclusively for women, while others have separate divisions for women. Among the nations that have women's professional wrestling are Australia , Bolivia , Canada , Japan , Mexico , the United Kingdom , and

423-476: Is another one of Shimmer's sister promotions and was founded as a developmental program for the latter company. In 2018, they began a partnership with Impact Wrestling, which saw Impact talent compete at Rise events. Women's wrestling has maintained a recognized world champion since 1937, when Mildred Burke won the original World Women's title . She then formed the World Women's Wrestling Association in

470-586: The 2019 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view . Impact's women's championship is the Knockouts World Championship , which debuted on October 14, 2007. Its inaugural champion was Gail Kim , who won the title at Bound for Glory 2007 . The promotion's tag team championship is known as the Knockouts World Tag Team Championship . The title was introduced at No Surrender 2009 and its inaugural champions were

517-558: The NXT UK brand. The Fabulous Moolah is recognized as WWE 's first Women's Champion , with her reign beginning in 1956. In 2002, WWE began what was called the WWE brand extension , where wrestlers and championships became exclusive to one of WWE's brands. At first, the Women's Championship could be defended on any brand, but later that year, it became exclusive to the Raw brand. In 2008, WWE created

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564-550: The NXT UK Women's Championship , in 2018. The WWE Women's Tag Team Championship was announced on the December 24, 2018 edition of Monday Night Raw . The inaugural champions were The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Sasha Banks & Bayley) who defeated The IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay), The Riot Squad (Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan), Nia Jax & Tamina, Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville and Naomi & Carmella at

611-603: The Naked Women's Wrestling League showcased nude females "battling" in the ring for titillation. The NWWL broadcast shows around the world, and its wrestlers were featured in magazines such as Penthouse , Playboy , and Maxim . In Japan, women's professional wrestling is called joshi puroresu ( 女子プロレス ) , or joshi puro for short. Women's wrestling is usually handled by promotions that specialize in joshi puroresu , rather than by divisions of otherwise male-dominated promotions. Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling ,

658-606: The Pro Wrestling Women's Alliance (PWWA) in 2007. This independent promotion is affiliated with Pro Wrestling Alliance Australia , as well as with Shimmer Women Athletes . They also had affiliations with Global Force Wrestling of the United States while the latter was active. It is the only all-female wrestling promotion in Australia. In Bolivia , female wrestlers called Fighting Cholitas dress in

705-525: The SmackDown Women's Championship . Becky Lynch would become the inaugural champion at Backlash after winning a Six-pack elimination challenge . The following month, at Hell in a Cell , Charlotte would face Sasha Banks in a match for the Raw Women's Championship in what would be the first time a women's match was the main event of a WWE pay-per-view, as well as the first-ever women's Hell in

752-581: The United States . In the United States, there are currently four major professional wrestling promotions that have a unified division with a title: WWE , Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Ring of Honor (ROH), and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), in addition to a number of independent promotions with women's wrestling divisions and championships. TNA's female wrestlers are branded as the Knockouts , while ROH's female talent were formally known as

799-768: The WWE Divas Championship as a counterpart title for the SmackDown brand. The two titles were eventually unified in September 2010. The Women's Championship was then retired in favor of keeping the Divas Championship, which became briefly known as the Unified WWE Divas Championship. The brand extension ended in 2011. In April 2016 at WrestleMania 32 , the Divas Championship was retired and subsequently replaced with

846-728: The WWE Raw Women's Championship (which is the successor to the WWE Divas Championship , which in turn succeeded the original WWE Women's Championship created in 1956) for the Raw brand, the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship for the SmackDown brand, the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship , the NXT Women's Championship and NXT Women's Tag Team Championship for the NXT brand, and the NXT UK Women's Championship for

893-587: The Women of Honor banner, culminating in the creation of the Women of Honor World Championship in December 2017 and the announcement at Final Battle 2017 of a tournament to crown the first champion. Stars from Japan 's World Wonder Ring Stardom also participated in the tournament. Sumie Sakai became the inaugural Women of Honor Champion when she won the title at Supercard of Honor XII in 2018. In 2015, WWE revamped its women's divisions by hiring mainly independent wrestlers as opposed to models, initially known as

940-798: The Women of Honor , and WWE's female talent were known as the Divas until 2016. Three notable women-only promotions are Shimmer Women Athletes (est. 2005) in Illinois ; the World Wrestling Network 's Shine Wrestling brand (est. 2012) in Florida , which is a sister to Shimmer; and Women of Wrestling (WOW) (est. 2000, 2012) in Los Angeles . Shimmer is recognized as the earliest and most prominent promotion to take women's wrestling more seriously. In addition to Shine, Rise Wrestling

987-873: The World Mixed Tag Team Championship , in which tag teams of one woman and one man compete. In 2000, businessman Luciano Alberto Garcia de Luna started an all-woman promotion company called Lucha Libre Femenil (LLF) in Monterrey . Current notable independent promotions include Pro-Wrestling: EVE , Bellatrix Female Warriors , The British Bombshells, and Fierce Females. Notable British women wrestlers include: Lady Blossom , Xia Brookside , Nikki Cross , Blair Davenport , Sadie Gibbs , Jamie Hayter , Laura James , Jetta , Klondyke Kate , Katie Lea , Dani Luna , Millie McKenzie , Tegan Nox , Paige , Jemma Palmer , Kay Lee Ray , etc. Pro wrestler Madison Eagles and her husband Ryan co-founded

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1034-475: The " Diva's Revolution " and later known as the "Women's Revolution". NXT TakeOver: Respect , held on October 7, 2015, saw then- NXT Women's Champion Bayley defend her title against Sasha Banks in a 30–minute Iron Man match in the main event . This was the first women's match to headline a major WWE event, and the first time in WWE history that a women's match had this stipulation. A new WWE Women's Championship

1081-402: The "junior heavyweight" class in men's wrestling. Arsion 's Sky High of Arsion Championship (est. 1999) and NEO Japan's High Speed Championship (est. 2009) are two such titles. In 2010, former Arsion and JDStar promoter Rossy Ogawa, retired wrestler Fuka Kakimoto , and veteran wrestler Nanae Takahashi started a new joshi puro promotion, World Wonder Ring Stardom . Stardom, considered

1128-410: The '86 - '02 championship in 2016. 2019–present: On September 30, 2019, NWA President, Billy Corgan presented a new NWA World Womans Championship. The belt was made by Belts By Dan. The design pays homage to the original design of the championship. The belt has 3 plates on a white strap. The plates are silver. The main plate pays homage to the original version of the championship. It features an angel at

1175-537: The 1990s include Manami Toyota , Bull Nakano , Akira Hokuto , Cutie Suzuki , Aja Kong , Megumi Kudo , Shinobu Kandori , Kyoko Inoue , Takako Inoue (who is unrelated to Kyoko), Dynamite Kansai , and Mayumi Ozaki . Some joshi have a high-flying style that precedes the X Division of men's wrestling in North America. Since, for cultural reasons, women wrestlers are not divided into weight classes , these wrestlers compete for special titles comparable to

1222-505: The NWA returned to using this design. The title was then renamed to the NWA Woman's World Championship. This title was mostly used by Jazz during this time. This design lasted until 2019. 2002 - 2010: In August 2002, a new design was created. This design features 5 plates on a black strap. The main plate is gold. The plate features a black oval in the center with the NWA logo on it. The top of

1269-413: The belt reads "World Womans" at the top and has a black banner at the bottem which reads "Champion". Below the black banner, it also has a red crown. Over time, the black oval was changed to red. There are 4 side rectangular side plates that feature the flags of some countries. Those being Switzerland, Japan, America, Italy, Mexico, Germany, Russia, and United Kingdom. 2010 - 2014: In 2010, a large new belt

1316-593: The championship in a battle royal in September 1956. In 1983, the physical belt was sold by Ellison to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), where it became the WWF Women's Championship . The World Wrestling Federation recognized Moolah as the reigning champion but did not recognize any of the title changes that had occurred since Moolah was first awarded the title in 1956. The NWA Women's title continued its lineage after Moolah's belt

1363-450: The early 1950s and recognized herself as the first champion, although the championship would be vacated upon her retirement in 1956. The National Wrestling Alliance however, ceased to acknowledge Burke as their Women's World champion in 1954, and instead acknowledged June Byers as champion after a controversial finish to a high-profile match between Burke and Byers that year. Upon Byers' retirement in 1964, The Fabulous Moolah , who won

1410-489: The first-ever women's Royal Rumble match in the main event, which would be the longest women's match in WWE history. The following month, at the 2018 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view , the first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match took place. Later that year, WWE would present its first all-women's pay-per-view event: WWE Evolution . The Women's Evolution would culminate at WrestleMania 35 in 2019, where Charlotte Flair , Becky Lynch , and Ronda Rousey would compete in

1457-520: The original Women's World Championship , which Mildred Burke won in 1937. On September 2, 2017, the title was revived for one day by former AJW wrestlers Kumiko Maekawa, Manami Toyota , Nanae Takahashi and Yumiko Hotta at an independent event produced by Hotta. The soon-to-retire Toyota then defeated Hotta and was awarded the title belt. Women%27s professional wrestling Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling

WWWA World Single Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1504-536: The original belt was given to NWA President, Billy Corgan . 1954 - 1986: Sometime after August 1954, a new design was presented. In 1983, During The Fabulous Moolah 's reign as champion, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) withdrew from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and The Fabulous Moolah sold the championship to the WWF. 1986 - 2002, 2016 - 2019: In February 1986, a new title

1551-474: The premier joshi promotion in modern times, was purchased by New Japan Pro-Wrestling parent company Bushiroad in 2019. In April 2024, Rossy Ogawa (formerly of AJPW and Stardom) founded a new women's promotion called Dream Star Fighting Marigold or Marigold . In Mexico, professional wrestling is called lucha libre ("free fight"), and women wrestlers are called luchadoras . The Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), or World Wrestling Council, has

1598-409: The previous version, are rectangular with the flags of some countries, those being United Kingdom, Australia, America, Italy, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and Brazil. This design lasted until January 2014. 2014 - 2016: In January 2014, another design was introduced. Unlike the previous version, this design is much smaller. The belt has 5 hexagonal plates on a black leather strap. This design was replaced with

1645-623: The stars of a second wave of women wrestlers who succeeded the glamor-oriented generation defined by the Beauty Pair. That decade later saw the rise of the " Crush Gals " Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka , a tag team who achieved a level of mainstream success as women wrestlers that not only was unprecedented in Japan, but unheard of in the history of women's professional wrestling. The Crush Gals' long-running feud with Kaoru "Dump" Matsumoto and her Gokuaku Domei ("Atrocious Alliance") stable

1692-552: The team of Sarita and Taylor Wilde . The titles were initially deactivated on the June 20, 2013 episode of Impact! , but their return was announced at Bound for Glory 2020 . At Hard To Kill , Fire N Flava ( Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz ) won a tournament to become the tag team champions. ROH's has sporadically featured women's wrestling matches at its shows, dating back to a former working relationship with Shimmer. By 2017, ROH had been regularly featuring women's wrestling under

1739-576: The title has been held by 25 different women for a total of 35 reigns. Via various partnerships, the NWA World Women's Championship has also been defended in other promotions. 1950 - 1954: Mildred Burke defeated Clara Mortensen on February 11, 1937, to win the original version of the Women's World Championship . Due to her victory, Burke was recognized as the inaugural NWA Woman's Champion in 1950. The original title belt last appeared in an NWA ring on August 20, 1954. In 2021, The main plate of

1786-407: The top of the plate. There are 2 black banners on the top and bottom. The top banner reads "National Wrestling Alliance" and the bottem reading "Women's World Champion", just like the original design. The center of the plate features a picture frame that has a picture of the wrestler that holds the championship, which changes with each champion, also from the original design. Above the picture frame has

1833-548: The traditional clothing of the Aymara people . They were the inspiration for the comic book Super Cholita , which premiered in 2007. NCW Femmes Fatales is an independent promotion founded in 2009; its headquarters are in Montreal . In 2023, wrestler Nikki Cross completed her master's degree in history; her dissertation was on the subject of women's wrestling. NWA World Women%27s Championship Mildred Burke

1880-454: The year 1948, which was the year the NWA was founded. Surrounding the picture frame and the 1948 are branches with leaves on them. On the left and right of the belt, there are shields with wrestlers engraved on them. The main plate also features 12 red gems all over the belt. The side plates are oval shaoed and feature the NWA logo on it. As of November 27, 2024, there have been 41 reigns, between 32 wrestlers and eight vacancies . Mildred Burke

1927-581: Was extremely popular in Japan; their televised matches were some of the highest-rated broadcasts in the history of Japanese television, and the promotion regularly filled arenas to capacity. In the 1990s, US wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer rated several joshi puroresu matches five stars —a rarely-awarded perfect score on the Cornette scale—in his periodical the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . Prominent joshi wrestlers of

WWWA World Single Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1974-512: Was introduced. It featured 3 plates on a black strap. The main plate is circular with the NWA Logo at the top. There are two black banners at the top and bottem, the top reading "WOMANS" and the bottem reading "CHAMPION", both in gold letters. The center of the main plate has a silver oval with a globe on the inside. The side plate are oval shaped. They feature the NWA Logo on both side plates. This design lasted until August 2002. In September 2016,

2021-400: Was introduced. This belt, like the previous version, has 5 plates on a black strap, all in gold. The main plate is large. It features the red NWA logo in the center. There are 3 black banners, 1 on the top and 2 at the bottem. The top one reads "Womans". The second banner located at the bottom reads "World". Below that is another black banner that reads "Wrestling Champion". The side plates, like

2068-433: Was purchased and renamed by the WWF. The Fabulous Moolah has held the title more times than any other wrestler, with a total of four reigns. She also has the longest reign of 3,651 days, and is the oldest champion after winning the title at 55 years old. Evelyn Stevens and Malia Hosaka have the shortest reign at 1 day each. La Reina de Corazones is the youngest champion after winning the title at 21 years of age. Overall,

2115-513: Was recognized as the inaugural champion in 1950. After her Two out of three falls match against June Byers in 1954 ended in a no contest, Byers was recognized as the NWA World Women's Champion, and Burke created the WWWA World Championship and was recognized as its first champion. Upon June Byers's retirement, it was held primarily (and operated) by Lillian Ellison (under the ring name of The Fabulous Moolah ), who first won

2162-416: Was the inaugural champion. The Fabulous Moolah holds the record for most recognized reigns at four. Moolah is the oldest champion at 55 years old, while La Reina de Corazones is the youngest at 21 years old. Moolah's third reign is the longest at 3,841 days, while Evelyn Stevens and Malia Hosaka 's reigns are the shortest at one day each. Kenzie Paige is the current champion, in her first reign. She won

2209-454: Was unveiled and contested at WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016, between then- Divas Champion Charlotte Flair , Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in a triple threat match. After Wrestlemania, the Diva's Championship and the "Diva's" branding would be retired. Following the 2016 WWE Brand Extension , the new Women's Championship would become exclusive to the Raw brand, resulting in the creation of

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