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The Light-Heavyweight Championship was an active championship in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1997 to 2001. The title could only be challenged by light-heavyweight wrestlers at a maximum weight of 215 lbs.
Early History in UWA 1981-1995
The title was created as part of a business partnership between the WWF and the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), a Mexican Lucha Libre promotion. Perro Aguayo became the first champion by winning a tournament in Japan on March 26th 1981. The title remained active in the UWA from 1981 until the promotion closed in 1995.
During this period there were 24 championship reigns, and although the title featured the WWF name, it was never defended on a WWF show. The title was mostly featured on cards in the US, Japan and Mexico. It became a staple of Mexican wrestling at the time.
Use in New Japan Pro Wrestling and The J-Crown.
The title migrated to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) in 1996. The reigning champion, Aeroflash, lost the championship to The Great Sasuke on March 24th 1996.
Sasuke would go on to lose the title to El Samurai on June 22nd 1996, making Samurai the last traditional winner of the championship due to the formation of the J-Crown.
The J-Crown or the J-Crown Octuple Unified Championship was a unification of eight Junior Heavyweight or Light Heavyweight championships in NJPW. The J-Crown was contested in an eight-man tournament where the winner would win all eight championships and thus winning the J-Crown.
The tournament was won by The Great Sasuke when he defeated Ultimo Dragon in the final. The holder of the J-Crown would actually carry around and defend all eight belts, as seen by the picture of The Great Sasuke above.
The J-Crown was defended until November 5th 1997 when reigning champion Shinjiro Otani was forced to vacate the J-Crown due to the WWF demanding their Light-Heavyweight Championship back. The WWF owned the trademarks to the title and NJPW had no choice but to return the belt.
Just as a quick side-note, I want to talk about one J-Crown holder, in particular, Ultimo Dragon. Ultimo Dragon won the J-Crown on October 11th 1996 and at this time he was contracted to World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He appeared on Nitro with the J-Crown on at least one occasion.
This means that the WWF Lightweight Championship appeared on WCW Monday Nitro during the infamous Monday Night Wars. Ultimo Dragon held the J-Crown until January 4, 1997, and according to WCW Cruiserweight Championship records, Ultimo Dragon won the WCW Cruiserweight Championship on December 29, 1996.
This means Ultimo Dragon was technically the first wrestler to simultaneously hold and defend a World Wrestling Federation Championship and a World Championship Wrestling Championship. Fascinating.
Use in WWF 1997-2001
Seeing the success of WCW's Cruiserweight Division, WWF wanted to set up a similar division themselves. During the November 3rd edition of RAW IS WAR a tournament began to crown a WWF Light-Heavyweight Champion. The tournament final was contested at In Your House: D-Generation X on December 7th 1997.
Taka Michinoku defeated Brian Christopher to become the "inaugural" WWF Light-Heavyweight Champion. WWF decided to not include the previous lineage of the title and their records show Taka as the first ever champion.
The Light Heavyweight Championship would have a lot of ups and downs during its time as an active title in the WWF. Taka went on to hold the championship for 315 days before finally losing the belt to Christian at Judgement Day 1998. Christian would hold the title for 30 days before losing it to Duane Gill.
The same Duane Gill who would go on to become Gillberg, the WWF's parody of Goldberg. Gill held the title for 448 days, making him the longest reigning champion ever. However, he only defended the title twice during that period. He lost the title to Essa Rios on February 8th 2000.
From there the title would be won by Dean Malenko then by Scotty 2 Hotty and then by Malenko again. Dean Malenko would hold the title for 322 days before losing it to Crash Holly.
There would be five more reigns after Crash Holly's, including one by Jeff Hardy who held the title for only 20 days. X-PAC was the final WWF Light Heavyweight Champion before it was unified with the WCW Cruiserweight Championship to form the WWF Cruiserweight Championship.
WWE credit X-Pac to be the first person to hold both the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship and the WCW Cruiserweight Championship although, as explained above, Ultimo Dragon was really the first to do so.
X-PAC was due to face Billy Kidman in the unification match at Survivor Series 2001 along with the rest of the title unification matches on that show, but the match never went ahead due to X-PAC being injured. The Light Heavyweight title just disappeared from TV and was never seen again.
