10 Obscure International Wrestling Championships

4. Canadian Heavyweight Championship (WWF)

When WWE began to expand across Canadian borders and into Montreal in 1985, Vince McMahon entered into a temporary working agreement with Montreal-based Lutte Internationale (a.k.a. International Wrestling). With this arrangement came Lutte headliner, Dino Bravo; who was set for solid run as the Canadian showpiece of the ever-growing World Wrestling Federation.

As a means of hyping Bravo’s introduction into the world of Titan Sports, the WWF would bill the Canadian powerhouse as the “WWF Canadian Heavyweight Champion”; a title created exclusively for Bravo’s initial run in the WWF and inspired by his status as reigning Canadian International Heavyweight Champion in Lutte International at the time of the takeover. A big name in Canadian wrestling, Bravo was an inspired choice for inaugural WWF Canadian Champ, having already established himself as championship material in Jim Crockett Promotions by challenging Harley Race for the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship on several occasions .

Despite his frequent billing as WWF Canadian Champion, Bravo only defended his championship on three recorded occasions; retaining against Nikolai Volkoff, Tiger Chung Lee and Randy Savage respectively. All of these defences took place north of the border in Toronto’s fabled Maple Leaf Gardens, adding further credence to the fact that it was the WWF’s Canadian Championship; however, only the Volkoff bout was televised, making air on the November 26th, 1985 edition of Prime Time Wrestling.

Pre-dating his run as the monstrous muscleman in baby blue trunks, the pre-blonde Bravo is barely recognisable from the “Canada’s Strongest Man” character the world would become accustomed to in the years that followed. As for the WWF Canadian Championship, the title lasted less than six months and was abandoned without further mention in early 1986 when Bravo left the company following a reneged feud with Hulk Hogan that had been cancelled at the last moment.

When Bravo returned to the WWF later that year with a new look and new attitude, the title remained dormant; where it has stayed ever since.