Date established October 15, 2006 Date won February 5, 2017 | Current champion(s) Trent Seven First champion(s) Drew Galloway | |
Promotion Insane Championship Wrestling Most reigns Drew Galloway, BT Gunn and Darkside (2 reigns) | ||
The ICW World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned by United Kingdom's Insane Championship Wrestling promotion. The title was first established as the ICW National Heavyweight Championship on at ICW's debut show on October 15, 2006, with Drew Galloway becoming the inaugural champion. On February 7, 2015, the title was officially renamed the ICW World Heavyweight Championship after Galloway successfully defended the title in a match against Matt Hardy for the Family Wrestling Entertainment promotion in New York. The championship has been defended in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Australia, Denmark, Italy and Germany. In addition to these international title matches, defenses can be seen televised in over 30 countries via Fight Network as well as an international presence on iPPV.
Contents
Trent Seven is the current champion in his first reign. Overall, there have been fifteen reigns shared among twelve wrestlers, with one vacancy.
The championship was featured prominently in both the Insane Fight Club documentaries produced by the BBC.
History
Drew Galloway became the inaugural champion of Mark Dallas' ICW promotion on October 15, 2006 at their debut show "Fear & Loathing," having won a triple threat match against Darkside and Allan Grogan.
Initially a regional heavyweight title in the Glasgow area, the title was defended outside Scotland for the first time by Jack Jester, who defeated Jimmy Havoc in London, England to retain the title on May 4, 2014. It was first defended overseas by Drew Galloway on December 20, 2014 in Denmark for Dansk Pro Wrestling promotion, when Galloway won a Title-for-Title Three-Way match against DPW Champion Michael Fynne and Chaos. Galloway then announced his intention to take the title overseas more often and make it a World Championship. His second international title defense was booked for February 7, 2015 against Matt Hardy in New York, USA after which the title was officially renamed the ICW World Heavyweight Championship. The ICW World Heavyweight Championship was defended in Australia for the first time on March 20, 2015 when Galloway retained over Andy Phoenix at an Outback Championship Wrestling show. The title was first defended in Northern Ireland when Galloway retained over Joe Hendry, TRON and Luther Valentine in a four-way match at a Pro Wrestling Ulster show on April 6, 2015. Galloway again defended the title in America on July 18, 2015 at a Warriors of Wrestling show in Staten Island where he retained over Joey Ace, Matt Macintosh and Logan Black. Galloway defended the championship in Kiel, Germany at a Maximum Wrestling show on October 16th, retaining in a triple threat over Chaos and Apu Singh. Big Damo would go on to win the championship from Chris Renfrew in Northern Ireland, before defending the title successfully in Wales and Ireland on ICW's 2016 tour. The title was defended in Italy for the first by Wolfgang on December 17, 2016.
The title was first defended outside of the UK (on an ICW show) by Big Damo at a show in Dublin, Ireland. Damo became the second man to defend the title in North America, battling VsK to a no-contest in Brooklyn, New York on May 20, 2016.
In addition to these international title matches, numerous wrestlers from outside Scotland have challenged for the title domestically, including Sabu, Fergal Devitt, Martin Stone, Doug Williams, Rhino, Tommy End, Noam Dar, Robbie Dynamite, Johnny Moss, Rampage Brown, Kris Travis and Bram. The only non-Scottish wrestlers to hold the championship are Mikey Whiplash, Trent Seven and Big Damo.
The title was defended in a pre-show "Dark" segment for the first time in its history on October 17, 2015 t when Drew Galloway would retain the title twice in two consecutive matches against Matt Daly and Coach Trip.
Statistics
As of August 2016, Drew Galloway, Darkside and BT Gunn all share the record for most reigns, with two each. Darkside's first reign is the longest in the title's history, at 1028 days (the company was largely inactive during this period), while Joe Coffey's reign is the shortest, as he lost the title the same day. Drew Galloway currently holds the record for the most defenses, both within an individual reign and cumulatively. Joe Coffey holds the record for least successful defenses, losing the championship to Wolfgang in his first defense.
List of combined reigns
As of March 19, 2017