8 WCW Championships That Fans Completely Forgot About

Beginning from its early days as a National Wrestling Alliance territory, World Championship Wrestling was seen as the main alternative to WWE and eventually became the number one wrestling organization in the world. As wrestling legend goes, through various mismanagement and creative uncertainty, WCW would close its doors in 2001 after being purchased by Vince McMahon. Despite its poor ending, there is no denying the impact that WCW had on the wrestling landscape, which continues to be felt in the modern era when various championships that are still active in wrestling today date back to WCW's legacy.

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While championships like the WWE United States Championship and the original World Heavyweight Championship date back to WCW, there are many others that existed for only a brief period of time before disappearing. In their attempt to become number one in the industry, WCW threw many things at the wall to see if they would stick. While not all of them succeeded, they remain in the history books to be uncovered.

8 WCW Women's Championship

Throughout all its years of operation, WCW was not known for its women's wrestling division. The company did not have a women's division throughout most of its operation, particularly during the height of its popularity. Very few women wrestled matches in WCW over the years, and even fewer can say they held the often-forgotten WCW Women's Championship.

While WCW did recognize the NWA Women's Championship at one point, they did brand their own women's division in 1996. Originally to be centred around Madusa who had defected from WWE, the division only featured two Japanese-born wrestlers as champions, and only lasted two years before being disbanded and never brought back.

7 WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship

When AEW introduced the World Trios Championship in 2022, they were not the first international organization to do so. While they have taken inspiration from companies like New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor, WCW did it much earlier. WCW established their Six-Man Tag Team Championship in 1991, drawing the idea from the original NWA incarnation from the fifties.

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The titles lasted less than a full calendar year in WCW but did well in establishing itself in a short period of time. Grounded by the Rock n' Roll Express and The Fabulous Freebirds, the division attempted to breathe some additional action on WCW programming, but it became difficult to maintain three-man teams and was disbanded.

6 WCW International World Heavyweight Championship

While the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship is recognized by the Big Gold Belt, it does not hold the same lineage as the long-reigning WCW World Championship. During WCW's withdrawal from the National Wrestling Alliance in 1993, the companies began feuding over the rights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, which resulted in the creation of this belt.

For close to a year, the International World Championship was the top prize in WCW and was quickly defended outside of the United States to gain World Championship status. With usual WCW suspects like Ric Flair and Sting holding the championship, it also helped launch Rick Rude into the main event scene with multiple championship runs.

5 WCW Hardcore Championship

In the early 2000s, hardcore wrestling was reaching mainstream popularity, but it had lost most of the extreme nature that made it popular in the underground wrestling scene. While companies like ECW focused on pure violence, WWE and WCW turned the action in a cartoonish way.

WCW was the final promotion to begin a Hardcore division in late 1999, and the division was a joke until it ended in 2001. The representatives from the division were either aging wrestlers like Brian Knobbs and Terry Funk, or wrestlers who had little business being in an upper-echelon feud, and the division came to a slow end to little uproar from fans.

4 WCW Light Heavyweight Championship

One of the best draws in WCW's history was their cruiserweight division, which helped differentiate them from other wrestling programming due to the fast-paced and high-flying action. However, few fans remember that the Cruiserweight Championship only began in 1996, and there was a championship that preceded it in 1991.

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The WCW Light Heavyweight Championship tournament began in 1991 and featured Flyin' Brian Pillman becoming the inaugural champion as he began his popular run in the company. The division was an exciting prospect and featured action that pre-dated the cruiserweight division, but it was ultimately vacated after only a year after an injury to the current champion, Brad Armstrong.

3 WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship

While WCW was not known for its women's wrestling, it did make an attempt to establish several divisions for women to compete in over the years, but they never lasted very long. Like their ill-fated Women's Championship, they attempted to create a secondary title for smaller women to compete for, but it only lasted less than a year.

The WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship was a joint venture with the former GAEA Japan promotion and featured solely Japanese performers in its short history. Rarely even seen on WCW programming, the title was defended mainly in Japan and only featured three champions before the dissolution of the relationship between both companies.

2 WCW United States Tag Team Championship

During territorial wrestling days, it was not uncommon for championships to be named after regional areas instead of being considered world championships. During WCW's transition away from the NWA, the United States Tag Team Championship was one of those titles that retained the name, despite there also being a WCW World Tag Team Championship at stake as well.

Starting in 1990, the titles remained exclusive to WCW and were defended in the company before they were finally merged with WCW's other championships. Having two tag team divisions in the same company without any different brands was a strange idea, but it lasted for close to a year.

1 WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship

In 2001, WCW did not have plans to go out of business and was continuing to try and grow the new direction for the company, which included an enhanced focus on the cruiserweight division. After being relegated to the lower card for many years, the talent of the division could not be denied and they were to receive a secondary title to compete for.

The WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship was established in early 2001 with multiple teams vying for it in a tournament. Unfortunately, the first champions were crowned a week before the company learned they were to shut their doors after being purchased by WWE. After only two weeks in activation and two separate champions, WCW closed and the titles were never brought up again.