1. WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship
The World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship was a belt with a strange lineage. Despite being created in 1978, the title was never defended until sometime in 1985. Initially, the belt was created for Antonio Inoki and awarded to him by the World Wrestling Federation. At the time, the WWF and Inokis New Japan promotion had a working relationship. On December 18th in 1978, Inoki made a trip to the United States to compete for the Federation. Upon his arrival, Vince McMahon Sr. presented the Japanese grappler with the specially made title. It was more of a symbolic gesture than anything else. However, by 1985, the partnership between New Japan and the WWF had faded, with the Federation entering its Rock n Wrestling boom period. Inoki took the opportunity to make the World Martial Arts belt an official championship in his New Japan promotion. The title was then defended on a handful of occasions. Its no secret, however, that Inoki has always had an affinity for legitimate martial arts competition, so the belt was contested in shoot fights -- its unclear if these bouts were legit shoots or simply worked with the appearance of a genuine battle. The World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship only traded hands twice. Initially, Shota Chochishvili defeated Inoki for the belt via a knockout in the fifth round on April 24, 1989. However, Inoki regained the title just one month later on May 25th. The World Martial Arts Championship was rarely defended after that and faded into obscurity. However, that was not to be the end for the belt, itself. The physical title was revived in 1990 as the Greatest 18 Championship. It was the representation of the Greatest 18 Club -- a Hall of Fame created by New Japan. The belt was then awarded to Japanese legend Riki Choshu. Choshu subsequently lost the title to the Great Muta on August 16, 1992 and was then retired by Muta, so he could continue to focus on his IWGP Heavyweight Championship defenses.