24.) Shane Douglas
Total Days: <1
Number of Reigns: 1
We went from the golden years of the World Title to the darker period. Everything really fell apart with the infamous incident involving “Franchise” Shane Douglas when he won the vacant belt in a match against Too Cold Scorpio. I’m surprised the NWA is even recognizing this reign but I guess it’s way too historic to be totally forgotten and somewhat recent too, happened in 1994 which they couldn’t really “erase” easily. If you have no clue on what happened well you’re in for a treat. Around the early 90’s the NWA was starting to become an afterthought amidst the war between the WWF and WCW. It all really went down the drains when the NWA and WCW partnership ended and the World Title lost a permanent home for a while. Then in 1994 Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) hosted a tournament for the vacant NWA World Title, in which Douglas won. Unbeknownst to the NWA officials, ECW founders: Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman, along with Douglas sabotaged the NWA Title as soon as he won it, he cut a promo but quickly thrashed the belt in favor of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, thus the Extreme Era for ECW was born. It was a shoot incident that shocked a lot of people at the time and was seen as a disrespectful act, especially for such a historic title as the NWA. However as they say, bad publicity is still publicity and ECW would rose to fame while the NWA floundered and never really got back the same momentum it had for a long time. If you want an extensive background regarding this infamous part of the title’s history, I recommend checking out some shoot interviews on YouTube regarding the topic.
25.) Chris Candido
Total Days: 97
Number of Reigns: 1
By this point the NWA was already at a limited exposure, they somewhat found a temporary home at Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) and held a tournament there for the vacant belt in which Chris Candido won in the finals defeating Tracey Smothers. At this point of his career Candido was still pretty young, this is even before he came to the WWF as 1/2 of The Bodydonnas with Tom Prichard. Because of the aforementioned limited exposure, majority of his title defenses went unrecorded as it was either on SMW shows or smaller independent events. It wasn’t that long of a run as well and he would drop it to Dan Severn few months into the run. Candido would go on to wrestle for multiple promotions in the US such as the WWF, ECW, WCW, and TNA before prematurely passing away in 2005 at the young age of 33.
26.) Dan Severn
Total Combined Days: 1,559
Number of Reigns: 2
While the majority of the NWA Title scene around the late 90’s until the 2000’s was in a bad state, there were still some highlights through it all and most prominent of them is “The Beast” Dan Severn. A lot of people claim to be legit badasses in the wrestling business but not many could claim they are as legit as Dan Severn. At an SMW event, Severn defeated Candido for the title and would go on to have the single third longest reign with the belt at an impressive 1,479 days. Around this time Severn was not only competing in pro wrestling but also in MMA particularly for a young up and coming promotion you might know as the UFC. In fact he is the first and only man to ever hold an MMA and pro wrestling championship at the same time, and also the only fighter to enter the octagon with a wrestling title when he entered with the NWA World Title at a UFC event. As per cagematch.net there are only 42 recorded defenses of that long run by Severn that lasted for almost five years. There were mainly at small independents hosted by the NWA both in the US and Japan. He wrestled mostly against local talents but also some veteran and familiar names like Jim Neidhart, Tajiri, Typhoon, Steven Regal, the Original Doink (Matt Borne), and The Great Kabuki just to name a few. His run ended at an event called “Universal Fighting Arts Organization” (UFO) where he loss at the main event to Japanese wrestler and MMA fighter himself: Naoya Ogawa. A couple of years later Severn would gain back the belt in 2002 defeating Shinya Hashimoto at ZERO1 event in controversial fashion with the referee doing a fast count. There was only one recorded title defense of this 80 day reign against a wrestler called Big Kahuna before Severn was stripped off the belt after failing to make a defense at the inaugural TNA event. Dan Severn brought back some legitimacy to the belt but came at a time where the NWA was really gone from a lot of people’s radars. To this day he still competes primarily as a wrestler for independent shows, still going strong at 61.
27.) Naoya Ogawa
Total Combined Days: 469
Number of Reigns: 2
From one legit fighter to another we go to Naoya Ogawa. A world champion in the martial arts of Judo, Ogawa bagged multiple medals in All Japan Judo Championships and the World Judo Championships, his record for the latter at seven medals is still unbroken to this day. He also won the silver medal at the Olympics. So even by then he was already a pretty accomplished athlete which gained the attention naturally of the pro wrestling industry and that he entered specifically for NJPW. Ogawa may have been a great judoka but his wrestling career is best remembered by many due to the infamous rivalry he had with Shinya Hashimoto wherein during their match, Ogawa decided to shoot fight on Hashimoto, destroying his rival’s credibility as up to that point Hashimoto was built up as the Ace (top main eventer) of New Japan. As for his NWA Title runs, they were pretty forgettable part of the belt’s history to be honest, nothing remarkable truly happened. In his first run he defeated Dan Severn at an independent show in Japan back in 1999, a run that lasted for 195 days, he defended the belt primarily in the US before losing it in a three way match. Just a week after losing the belt, Ogawa gained it right back this time having a much lengthier run at 274 days. Him and Hashimoto reignited their rivalry and main evented the Tokyo Dome in 1999 with Fujinami as the special guest referee for the NWA World Championship, a bout in which Ogawa won. His reign ended after vacating the belt. Nowadays Ogawa is retired from both MMA and wrestling, he had his last match in 2015 at Inoki’s IGF promotion.
28.) Gary Steele
Total Days: 7
Number of Reigns: 1
You might be asking yourself, who? Exactly. No disrespect to Gary Steele at all but man you can really see the quality of champions drop down slowly. Unless you were an “underground” wrestling fan of the late 90’s to early 2000’s you wouldn’t really be too familiar with Gary Steele as he had a short career himself. To his credit he was a decent worker but that’s about it. He won the title in NWA’s 51st Anniversary Show (1999) in a three way match involving defending champion Naoya Ogawa and a local wrestler named Brian Anthony. He is the first British wrestler to win the NWA Championship but just a week later dropped the belt right back to Ogawa. Steele was a mainstay at NWA UK Hammerlock and also did some tours for ZERO1 before retiring in 2002. He did return for one match only in 2011 winning a battle royal in his home promotion.
29.) Mike Rapada
Total Combined Days: 176
Number of Reigns: 2
Another wrestler that just makes you go “who?” but I guess some hardcore fans may know about “The Colorado Kid” Mike Rapada. He won the World Title twice, both of which are pretty forgettable reigns. His first one lasted for 56 days before dropping the belt to Sabu while his second run was a little longer at 123 days. I cannot even categorize them as good or bad reigns, they just happened. That’s it. Nothing noteworthy to talk about really. He wasn’t even remembered as an excellent worker just good enough I guess. Rapada’s last recorded match was in 2006.
30.) Sabu
Total Days: 38
Number of Reigns: 1
You blinked and you missed it, that was basically Sabu’s entire run with the NWA World Title. Before that though he is already an accomplished wrestler both in and out of the US. He doesn’t get enough credit but Sabu is an innovator, a lot of the moves especially when it comes to hardcore wrestling that we see today is because of Sabu. Was he a perfect wrestler in the ring? No. But that’s the beauty of it, he wouldn’t be called the homicidal, genocidal, and suicidal death defying maniac for nothing. He is one of the reasons why ECW became such a successful promotion and once the company closed, he began competing in various indies, primarily earlier on for NWA affiliated promotions. Sabu defeated Mike Rapada at an NWA event in 2000, had two successful defenses one of which was against a young Chris Hero (aka Kassius Ohno) before dropping the belt back to Rapada. Despite all the damage he has taken through the years, Sabu is still wrestling in numerous independent promotions in the US and Japan. He could very well wrestle till he is old just like his uncle Sheik.
31.) Steve Corino
Total Days: 175
Number of Reigns: 1
During ECW’s final years one of my personal favorite gimmicks around that time was Steve Corino being the “King of Old School” which ironically was a breath of fresh air amongst the hardcore stuff the promotion was showcasing. After the company folded, Corino continued this persona in the indies and it worked well with now him being the veteran among the field of young up and coming talents the scene had to offer. On April 2001 he defeated Mike Rapada for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and he held it for 172 days often defending the title in NWA affiliated indies and also in Japan. He had a total of 11 defenses but by the end was forced to vacate the belt after being unable to continue a match against Hashimoto due to suffering an injury. It wasn’t anything special but at least Steve Corino is an excellent wrestler and a notable name for someone to hold the belt. He continued wrestling for many independent promotions until in 2016 when he had his last match at ROH losing to Cody Rhodes. Nowadays Corino is a trainer for NXT and before that was a pretty good color commentator as well.
32.) Shinya Hashimoto
Total Days: 84
Number of Reigns: 1
One of the greatest Japanese wrestlers of all time, Shinya Hashimoto was the last bastion of NWA Champions during the 2000’s indies era. Before Kazuchika Okada came around, the one considered by many as the greatest IWGP Heavyweight Champion was none other than Hashimoto. His third run with the belt for a while stood record as the longest reign for the IWGP Title at 489 days. This was of course clearly surpassed many years later by Okada with his amazing 720 day reign. Throughout the 90’s while his fellow Musketeers: Mutoh and Chono would also find success in the US primarily for WCW, Hashimoto maintained a strong main event presence in New Japan and was the clear Ace of the company at the time. When the 2000’s came around though he has already left the promotion and started his own: Pro Wrestling ZERO1, while also being able to compete everywhere else. He won the vacant NWA World Title in 2001 at an event in Pennsylvania in a three way match involving former champions Steve Corino and Gary Steele. He successfully defended the belt twice, one time even in his own promotion of ZERO1 where he defeated Nathan Jones but would lose to Dan Severn. Hashimoto may not have had a lengthy run with the belt but just by virtue of him holding it, totally adds to the prestige to the already historic championship. He had his final match in 2004 but just a year later would sadly passed away. In the first ever main event of Wrestle Kingdom, his friends Chono and Mutoh dedicated their victory against TenCozy to Hashimoto in what was an emotional moment but also symbolic for a new start in the Puroresu revolution later on.
