Current champion(s) Karim Brigante Most reigns Harley Race (7) | First champion(s) George Baptiste | |
Promotion Central States Wrestling and St. Louis Wrestling Club (through 1986)
NWA Midwest (2002-2012)
NWA Central-States Championship Wrestling (since 2014) Date established October - December 1899 (original)
September 16, 1972 (current) Date won 000000002017-02-11-0000February 11, 2017 | ||
The NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship was the secondary singles championship in the National Wrestling Alliance's St. Louis Wrestling Club and Central States Wrestling promotions in the 1970s and 1980s. It was usually dominated by the area's top star, Harley Race, and as such it was considered a "stepping stone" to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (although only Race, Terry Funk, Kerry Von Erich and Ric Flair made it; Gene Kiniski and Dory Funk, Jr. were already former World Champions upon winning the Missouri title). A version of the Missouri Championship has been documented to exist in 1899, 1921, 1933 to 1934, 1937, 1947, 1950, and 1954 to 1955, but it was only in 1972 that a serious championship was established. Prior to the creation of the NWA the championship was not recognized outside of the region and used by regional promoters, it is even possible that competing Missouri Heavyweight Championships existed. The championship was abandoned in 1986, as the Central States promotion was being consolidated under Jim Crockett Promotions in order to counter the World Wrestling Federation's national expansion. NWA Midwest revived the title in 2002 and promoted it until 2012. On March 29, 2014 the new NWA Central-States Championship Wrestling promotion brought the Missouri Championship back.