WWF North American Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() The North American Heavyweight Championship belt. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Details | |||||||||||||||||||||
Promotion | World Wrestling Federation (WWF) New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date established | February 13, 1979 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date retired | April 23, 1981 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The WWF North American Heavyweight Championship was a relatively short-lived title in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1979 until 1981.[1] It was established as the WWWF North American Heavyweight Championship on February 13, 1979 before the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was renamed to WWF the following month. The inaugural champion was Ted DiBiase and the final champion was Seiji Sakaguchi.[2]
Second champion Pat Patterson was recognized by the WWF as Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship after he reported on WWF television that he had won a (fictitious) one-night tournament in Rio de Janeiro to create a new overall title.[3][4] Nonetheless, the North American title was later awarded to Seiji Sakaguchi after he defeated Patterson on a New Japan Pro-Wrestling house show.[5]
In March 2018, the now WWE established a new North American championship for their NXT brand, the NXT North American Championship, and in 2024, created the NXT Women's North American Championship. These new titles, however, do not carry the lineage of the promotion's original North American championship.[6]
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page).