On July 11, 2011, then-NWA World Junior Heavyweight ChampionCraig Classic announced that he was relinquishing his title in protest over the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) stripping The Sheik of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[4] However, on September 20, NWA affiliate Pro Wrestling Zero1 announced that they still recognized Classic as the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion.[1] When Classic returned to the promotion on October 2, he was still in possession of the NWA title belt (which was the belt worn by the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, in the 1980s), which he went on to successfully defend against Munenori Sawa.[5][6] Despite this being the first appearance of the new version of the title, Zero1 went as far as adopting the original title's history, referring to Classic as the 108th champion and his defense against Sawa as his 22nd successful defense.[1][7] Meanwhile, NWA crowned their own NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Kevin Douglas, on October 7, meaning that there now were two champions supposedly holding the same title.[8] That same month, Zero1 quit the NWA and renamed all of their National Wrestling Alliance championships "New Wrestling Alliance" championships.[9]
Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been a total of twenty-four reigns shared among tewnty different wrestlers. The current champion is Takumi Baba who is in his second reign.
Classic defeated Mike Quackenbush to win the championship; this match was promoted by NWA Florida. Zero1 continued to recognize Classic as the reigning NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, despite him having vacated the title on July 11, 2011.
^Classic's reign is calculated from the day he won the NWA-recognized World Junior Heavyweight Championship until the day he lost the title as recognized by Zero1. As such, it excludes him vacating the title and predates the split in the championship lineage.
^Classic made three defenses of Zero1's NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, however, Classic made 23 total defenses of the NWA-recognized World Junior Heavyweight Championship and Zero1's NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.
^The exact date on which Kodaka were stripped of the championship is not known, which means that his reign lasted between 242 and 265 days
Combined reigns
As of January 30, 2025
†
Indicates the current champion
¤
The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest length is considered.