Inaugural World Champions of major pro wrestling promotions
When Chris Jericho became the first-ever AEW World Champion last year, he brought instant credibility to the upstart promotion. 'Le Champion' may have lost the gold, but he is still going strong at the top of the card. Whether it be fighting The Elite in pay per view main events or feuding with the likes of Orange Cassidy to create new stars, Jericho is one of the major reasons for the promotion's continued popularity.
Choosing who becomes the first ever World Champion in a wrestling promotion is extremely important as it sets the tone for how the promotion wants to be viewed by the public. The original ECW had Jimmy Snuka as their first World Champion. While it was appropriate for the 'Eastern Championship Wrestling' version of ECW, the extreme history of the promotion did not begin until Shane Douglas decided to take his newly won NWA ECW title and put it in the trash.
Douglas became the flag-bearer of the 'Extreme Championship Wrestling' version of ECW, heralding the arrival of an edgier product. Similarly, Ric Flair becoming the inaugural WCW Champion was exactly what the Georgia based promotion needed to stay true to its southern roots, while also legitimising its claim as a 'World' promotion.
This list takes a look at five of the major promotions in the world today (other than AEW which, you know, we just mentioned) and their inaugural World Champions.
#5 ROH World Championship - Low Ki
In the early 2000s, tape trading was still in demand and Rob Feinstein's RF Videos had turned a tidy profit distributing ECW videos. When Paul Heyman's promotion went under, it created a void for Feinstein's company and, after negotiations with other regional promotions failed, Feinstein decided to start his own wrestling company solely for the purpose of distributing wrestling videos. The promotion was named Ring of Honor.
While new promotions like TNA chose to highlight former WWE and WCW superstars, Feinstein's company focused on creating new superstars, especially young, athletic wrestlers who could have great matches. The likes of AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Amazing Red were all featured and soon a tournament was set up to crown the first ROH Champion.
After a set of tournament matches, the finals would come down to Daniels, Kendrick, Douglas Williams and Low Ki in a 60-minute iron man match. Low Ki won the fatal four-way by pinning Daniels to become the inaugural champion. He would go on to have classic matches defending the title against multiple wrestlers in ROH, establishing the upstart promotion as the place to be.
Over the years, many future WWE superstars would hold the ROH title, including Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Samoa Joe and Adam Cole.