Thanks to Eric Cohen of About.com for the following:
The History of the World Title (12/1 release date)
Disc 1: Documentary & NWA Matches
Chapters: *Origins of Wrestling *"An American Hero" Frank Gotch *Ed "Strangler" Lewis *National Wrestling Alliance *Lou Thesz *Buddy Rogers *New Breed of Champions *1970s World Champions *A Flair for the Gold *Crockett's World Champion *NWA to WCW *WCW Withdraws From NWA *Revolving WCW Champions *The Undisputed Championship *World Championship Returns *Legacy Lives
Matches *Chicago 1961 - 2 out of 3 Falls: Pat O'Connor vs. Buddy Rogers *Florida 2/11/69 - Gene Kiniski vs. Dory Funk Jr. *Florida 12/10/75 - Jack Brisco vs. Terry Funk *Florida 8/21/79 - Harley Race vs. Dusty Rhodes *AWA SuperClash - Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA *Great American Bash '90 - Ric Flair vs. Sting
Disc 2 - WCW
*Clash of Champions XIV - Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner *Great American Bash '91 - Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham *Baltimore 8/2/92 - Vader vs. Ron Simmons *WCW Saturday Night 10/16/93 - Vader vs. Ricky Steamboat *Halloween Havoc '94 - Career vs. Career Steel Cage Match: Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair *SuperBrawl VIII - Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan *Nitro 7/6/98 - Hollywood Hogan vs. Goldberg *Bash at the Beach '00 - Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T *No Mercy '01 - The Rock vs. Chris Jericho
Disc 3 - WWE *Unforgiven '02 - Triple H vs. Rob Van Dam *Taboo Tuesday '04 - Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels *No Way Out '06 - Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker *SmackDown 4/7/06 - Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton *Armageddon '07 - Batista vs. Undertaker vs. Edge *Survivor Series '08 - John Cena vs. Chris Jericho *Extreme Rules '09 - Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Edge
So, does this mean they're linking the linage of the World Title to the "WCW" title. It smells like it, smells like money.
So, does this mean they're linking the linage of the World Title to the "WCW" title. It smells like it, smells like money.
When did they ever NOT link the lineage? It's been on their history page on wwe.com for years it seems.
The big gold belt representing the World Heavyweight Title has always had kind of a spotty lineage since around 1991. When WCW broke away from the NWA and began billing their World Title as the WCW World Championship and not the NWA World Championship, they still chose to retain the lineage of the NWA World Title, even though the NWA World Title still existed and was defended in NWA territories.
Of course, the big gold belt went to the WWF with Ric Flair "The REAL World Champion." Lex Luger, Sting, Ron Simmons, and Vader wore a different WCW World Title belt. Around 1993, the big gold belt was called the WCW "International World Title" and was defended concurrently with the WCW World Title, but that's a whole different can of worms. Around the time Hulk Hogan arrived in WCW in 1994, the two world titles mess was cleaned up so Hogan could win the one and only WCW World Championship, which was the big gold belt.
After WWE purchased WCW, the lineages of the WWE Championship and the WCW World Title, which was just referred to by that point as the WCW Championship, were combined when Chris Jericho became the first Undisputed WWE Champion. That belt went to Triple H, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, The Rock, and Brock Lesnar. Then Lesnar became brand-specific to Smackdown as champion and left RAW without a World Title.
This is where things get a little confusing. It was never made clear, to me at least, whether the Undisputed WWE Championship was divided back in two or not. It sure seemed at the time that Brock Lesnar's WWE Championship continued to retain the combined lineages of the WCW and WWE Titles.
When Eric Bischoff activated the World Heavyweight Championship on RAW via the big gold belt and gave it to Triple H, the Intercontintental and Hardcore Titles were merged into the World Heavyweight Championship. For a few months the World Heavyweight Championship was the only singles title on RAW. The only reason to do that, I thought, was to give the World Heavyweight Title the lineages of the IC and Hardcore belts because it couldn't claim the WCW Championship's lineage.
In any case, the new DVD seems to be at odds with wwe.com's own championship history. wwe.com claims the World Heavyweight Championship was activated in 2002 and Triple H is the first champion.
Regardless of that, WWE is obviously retroactively claiming the World Heavyweight Championship has the lineage of the WCW and NWA World Titles. Confusing, but whatever.
This looks much better then the other "History of the ... Championship" DVD's they've come out with. I'm very interested in the documentary. The documentary looks like it's going to cover timeframes never covered on any WWE documentary before. I mean we're going way back here, 40's and 50's. Nice to see some Vader love in the match selection.
Hopefully Luger/Windham will have the television ads hyping the PPV included, which of course were Flair vs Luger with a crawl saying that disregard the ad, it is Luger vs. Windham. Also, was Luger/Windham the first double turn?
Godspeed, men of the 2nd Bn, 127th Infantry, 32d "Red Arrow" Brigade, Wisconsin Army National Guard! Victory in Iraq!
Years ago, WWE put out little mini-history books (more like pamphlets) that I saw at grocery store checkouts. I snagged a few of 'em.
One of 'em states that image of the former WCW title belt was copied when the "World Heavyweight Title" was inaugurated.
Wasn't it at Survivor Series 2001 where the WWF and WCW titles were merged into the Undisputed belt? Therefore, the WCW title lineage is fused into that non-spinning spinner belt Cena's carrying around now, and the "World Heavyweight Title" is a whole different animal.
I hate when WWE contradicts themselves on title lineages like this, but I can see why in this case...gives 'em a greater depth of historical matches to put on the DVD collection (which I want, if only for the NWA stuff.)
The creation of the current-era WHC was incredibly lazy. All it needed was some form of disputed finish to justify Bischoff reinstating the old WHC as an active title, lineage and all. Instead he literally just handed the belt to HHH. Made Hunter look stupid, too - when people refer to him as a genius at keeping himself over I think of the opportunity he missed here in not booking himself to win an eight-man tournament for the championship.
Didn't HHH become the #1 contender by beating The Undertaker right before Brock decided he was Smackdown only? If so, that would make sense that he was then named the champion of the brand and that he wasn't simply handed the belt for no reason at all
Originally posted by JustinShapiroWhat happened first, Midnights/Road Warriors or Demolition/Powers of Pain?
Midnights/LoD was 10/28/1988, and Demolition/PoP was Survivor Series on 11/24/1988. But Midnights/Road Warriors wasn't a double turn; the Midnights won their tag belts from Tully and Arn, and the Warriors turned heel when they beat up Sting, and later took a spike to Dusty's eye.
I think of the history of the World Title as all different branches off the same tree.
The WWE World Title can be traced down the NWA lineage as a different track from the original path it started down. Not the same title, but it all comes from the same place. And, obviously, the same physical belt in some cases.
This looks like a cool DVD, there's a lot of great stuff on there, and even when it's not great, some interesting historical moments.
As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004 OFFICIAL THREE-MONTH COUNT: 112 pounds on March 9, 2005 OFFICIAL SIX-MONTH COUNT: 142 pounds on June 8, 2005 OFFICIAL ONE YEAR COUNT: 187 pounds on December 7, 2005 As of 2/27/06: 202 pounds "I've lost a heavyweight" As of 7/31/06: 224 pounds As of 12/7/08 (four years out): Still 210 pounds down! Now announcing for NBWA Championship Wrestling! *2008 NBWA Personality of the Year*
Originally posted by JustinShapiroWhat happened first, Midnights/Road Warriors or Demolition/Powers of Pain?
Midnights/LoD was 10/28/1988, and Demolition/PoP was Survivor Series on 11/24/1988. But Midnights/Road Warriors wasn't a double turn; the Midnights won their tag belts from Tully and Arn, and the Warriors turned heel when they beat up Sting, and later took a spike to Dusty's eye.
I thought the Midnights turned face on the Horsemen too, and were at least tweeners by the time they faced the Warriors. It seemed like the ME were transitional champs in that scenario.
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Originally posted by JustinShapiroWhat happened first, Midnights/Road Warriors or Demolition/Powers of Pain?
Midnights/LoD was 10/28/1988, and Demolition/PoP was Survivor Series on 11/24/1988. But Midnights/Road Warriors wasn't a double turn; the Midnights won their tag belts from Tully and Arn, and the Warriors turned heel when they beat up Sting, and later took a spike to Dusty's eye.
I thought the Midnights turned face on the Horsemen too, and were at least tweeners by the time they faced the Warriors. It seemed like the ME were transitional champs in that scenario.
I'm sure you's guys are right, I was only guessing based on the bits I'd seen.
Was posting towards the history of the world titles. Nice way to slough off the AWA by not including any of their title history on this particular set.
As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004 OFFICIAL THREE-MONTH COUNT: 112 pounds on March 9, 2005 OFFICIAL SIX-MONTH COUNT: 142 pounds on June 8, 2005 OFFICIAL ONE YEAR COUNT: 187 pounds on December 7, 2005 As of 2/27/06: 202 pounds "I've lost a heavyweight" As of 7/31/06: 224 pounds As of 12/7/08 (four years out): Still 210 pounds down! Now announcing for NBWA Championship Wrestling! *2008 NBWA Personality of the Year*
Originally posted by Eddie FamousWas posting towards the history of the world titles. Nice way to slough off the AWA by not including any of their title history on this particular set.
World Title. Singular. Specifically, the World Heavyweight Championship. Undertaker has it, it's on Smackdown this week. Has nothing to do with the AWA in any way.
WWE says that the NWA Championship became the WCW Championship, which, in turn, became the World Championship. The World and WWE Championships merged when Jericho won the Undisputed WWE Championship, and they un-merged when Eric Bischoff gave the World Championship to Triple H while Brock Lesnar was WWE Champion. No AWA presence here until this Friday, when Larry Zbyszko shows up on Smackdown to defeat the Undertaker and merge the belts. (spoiler)