Following the name of the champion(s): Indicates the number of times the wrestler has held that title at that point.
[...]
Indicates a gap in the listing where title changes are not known.
*
If used next to the names of the wrestlers, they may, in fact, not have held the title in the period indicated. If used next to the dates or places, either they are possibly wrong or the title changes are fictitious.
<
Title was held or changed hands no later than this. In these cases, it is known that a wrestler held the title at a certain time but not when he/she won it.
+
Broadcast date; the actual recording date is unknown.
@
Order uncertain. Different titleholders may be known for the same year, for example, but it is not known who held the title before whom.
#
Unofficial or disputable claims. These are usually matches that certainly took place, but where there is doubt that the wrestler shown should be recognized as a true title holder. These listings are also italicized in HTML files
Faces the collar-and-elbow champion John McMahon on 81-03-22 in New York, NY for the Police Gazette mixed championship medal but the match ends as no contest; announces his (temporary) retirement in 82-09.
Awarded as American champion by Muldoon upon retirement on 91-02-09 (or 91-12-31; one source says Muldoon awards the title to Ernest Roeber in 87); defeats French title claimant Apollon on 92-07-25 in New York, NY to be recognized as the world champion; also awarded the European version on 94-09-26 in Hamburg, GER; Evan "Strangler" Lewis defeats Roeber on 93-03-02 in New Orleans, LA in mixed-style match to become American (Catch-as-Catch-Can) champion; Roeber continues to be billed as graeco-roman champion.
Magnus Bech-Olsen
1900-03-21
New York, NY
Has been billed as the "champion wrestler of Europe"; defeats Roeber, billed as "champion of America", in a world championship match.
Defeats Raoul de Cahors to become American champion; often billed as world chammioin; still/again champion as of 07-06-05; former champion as of 11-03-14.
Charles Wittmer
1893-05
Ohio champion, starts being billed as the World champion (The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, OH, 93-04-27); also billed as world champion (The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, OH, 93-05-05); often billed as American champion; still/again world champion as of 02-01-12 and 03-05-11; billed as Cincinnati champion as of 04-01-25.
Claims the title in Boston, MA (The Boston Globe, 15-04-08); also defeats Wladek Zbyszko on 15-10-25 in New York, NY in the graeco-roman phase of the international wrestling tournament (reported as a title defense in some newspapers); still recognized in 16-01-29; passes away on 20-02-25.
Armas Laitinen
1920-10<
Claims the title (The Springfield Union, Springfield, MA, 20-10-26) "following the death of Alex Aberg" (The Springfield Union, Springfield, MA, 20-11-03); still champion as of 22-04-01 when Aberg wrestles Stanislaus Zbyszko to a draw to retain the title in Milwaukee, WI; most likely vacant in 22 when Laitinen returns to Finland.
Defeats Ernest Siegfried; also listed as champion under "Sport Champions of 1925", published in newspapers throughout the U.S. in early 26-01; still champion as of 27-01-23, 33-11-30, and 43-09-23; no longer champion as of 44-04-22.
John Freiberg
1931-04<
Billed as champion in Salt Lake City, UT (The Salt Lake Tribune, 31-04-05); still champion as of 31-05-13.
Hans Kämpfer
1931-06<
Billed as champion based on his victory in the world Graeco-Roman middleweight championship in Breslau, GER (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 31-06-02) on 30-09-28; also recognzied in Omeha, NE, Des Moines, IA, Evansville, IN, and probably other places; still champion as of 37-05-14; still/again champion as of 51-10-22.
