THE HISTORY OF THE

nEw WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

6/16/2002 - 10/8/2005

New Era Wrestling was founded in June of 2002 by Eric Bischoff (Jason King). It was one of the most prominent e-feds of its time and has roots with Solid Gold Wrestling that run deeper than any other company due to the fact that Arn Anderson (Mike Frost), the founder of Solid Gold Wrestling, had a hand in its inception. In many ways, it was considered a "sequel" to Solid Gold Wrestling, likely due to the amount of SGW alumni that populated the roster in the beginning.

We include this world title history complete and uncut out of respect for the championship, the promotion, and the competitors who worked to make it what it was.

 

 

1st CHAMPION

HANDLER
Brett Albers

DATE
 06 / 16 / 2002

REIGN
 28 days

Val Venis defeated Evan Karagias (Shawn Hall) to become the first nEw World Heavyweight Champion.

2nd CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Patrick Quinlan

DATE
 07 / 14 / 2002

REIGN
 14 days

Lance Storm defeated Val Venis and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (Simon Omant) in a Triple Threat match to become the new nEw World Heavyweight Champion.

3rd CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Nick Nolan

DATE
 07 / 28 / 2002

REIGN
 8 days

Curt Hennig defeated Lance Storm to become the nEw World Heavyweight Champion.

 

4th CHAMPION

REIGN #2

HANDLER
Patrick Quinlan

DATE
 08 / 05 / 2002

REIGN
 35 days

Lance Storm invoked his rematch clause and defeated Curt Hennig to regain the nEw World Heavyweight Championship.

5th CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Dan Nagle

DATE
 09 / 08 / 2002

REIGN
 42 days

Lance Storm defeated Val Venis and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (Simon Omant) in a Triple Threat match to become the new nEw World Heavyweight Champion.

6th CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Scott Smith

DATE
10 / 20 / 2002

REIGN
 14 days

Shawn Michaels defeated The Rock and Rob Van Dam (Rob Boyle) to in a Triple Threat match to become the nEw World Heavyweight Champion.

 

VACATED
11 / 03 / 2002

Shawn Michaels is assaulted backstage by Jeff Jarrett and the Inhumane Society. With Michaels due to miss time because of surgery, nEw owner Eric Bischoff stripped Michaels of the championship and announced that Jeff Jarrett would take Michaels' place in his scheduled title defense against Rob Van Damn with the vacant championship on the line.

7th CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Josh Smith

DATE
11 / 03 / 2002

REIGN
 13 days

Jeff Jarrett defeated Rob Van Dam (Rob Boyle) to win the vacant nEw World Heavyweight Championship after interference from Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell.

VACATED
11 / 16 / 2002

New Era Wrestling temporarily ceases operations and Jeff Jarrett is stripped of the nEw World Heavyweight Championship

 

8th CHAMPION

REIGN #2 (???)

HANDLER
 Jason King

DATE
 01 / 18 / 2004

REIGN
 22 days

An imposter claiming to be the deceased Curt Hennig, managed by former nEw staff member Paul Heyman, debuts in the X-Treme Wrestling Federation with the nEw World Heavyweight Championship.

9th CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Rich Thomas

DATE
02 / 09 / 2004

REIGN
 13 days

Bret Hat defeated the Curt Hennig imposter in an Iron Man match to become the nEw World Heavyweight Champion. After the match, Hart announced he would continue to defend the nEw championship in XWF to restore the legacy of the title and undo the damage done by the imposter.

10th CHAMPION

REIGN #2

HANDLER
 Dan Woodruff

DATE
02 / 22 / 2004

REIGN
27 days

The Rock defeated Bret Hart and the returning Curt Hennig (Jason King) imposter in a Triple Threat match to become the nEw World Heavyweight Champion. After the match, The Rock and Bret Hart threw the Curt Hennig imposter into a dumpster along with Paul Heyman. The Rock announced he would also continue to defend the championship in XWF until the memory of the false Curt Hennig had faded into obscurity.

 

11th CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Nick Nolan

DATE
 03 / 21 / 2004

REIGN
1 minute

Randy Orton defeated The Rock to become the nEw World Heavyweight Champion. Randy Orton immediately threw the nEw title in the trash, declaring it one more legend killed.

VACATED
03 / 21 / 2004

Upon being thrown in the trash in the middle of an XWF ring, the nEw Championship was declared vacant.

12th CHAMPION

HANDLER
 Eric Kotarski

DATE
12 / 17 / 2004

REIGN
7 days

Ric Flair won a battle royal, last eliminating Val Venis (Brett Albers) to become the nEw World Heavyweight Champion.

 

VACATED
12 / 24 / 2004

New Era Wrestling ceases operations once again and the title is declared vacant indefinitely.

On 09 / 24 / 2005, Val Venis (Brett Albers), while under contract to League of Champions, broke into the SGW archives and stole the physical SGW World Heavyweight and New Era Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship belts. He proclaimed himself champion of both dormant companies, though neither company recognizes this officially.

"The Six-String Samurai" Jeff Jarrett, the only other representative of both companies on the League of Champions roster, challenged Venis to a ladder match for both vacant championships, the winner of which would be recognized officially as the final champion in the record books.

13th CHAMPION

REIGN #2

HANDLER
 Josh Smith

DATE
10 / 08 / 2005

REIGN
 Final

Jeff Jarrett defeated Val Venis (Brett Albers) in a Ladder Match to claim the SGW and New Era Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship belts. As the reigning League of Champions World Heavyweight Champion, Jeff Jarrett unified all three championship belts, making him the first and only person to not only win all three titles but hold them at the same time.

The New Era Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship was absorbed into the lineage of the Solid Gold Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship and ceases to exist.


Unified: 10/08/2005

---