The WWF North American Heavyweight Championship was a relatively short-lived title in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1979 until 1981.[1] It was established as the WWWF North American Heavyweight Championship on February 13, 1979 before the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was renamed to WWF the following month. The inaugural champion was Ted DiBiase and the final champion was Seiji Sakaguchi.[2]
Second champion Pat Patterson was recognized by the WWF as Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship after he reported on WWF television that he had won a (fictitious) one-night tournament in Rio de Janeiro to create a new overall title.[3][4] Nonetheless, the North American title was later awarded to Seiji Sakaguchi after he defeated Patterson on a New Japan Pro-Wrestling house show.[5]
In March 2018, the now WWE established a new North American championship for their NXT brand, the NXT North American Championship and NXT Women's North American Championship. This new title, however, does not carry the lineage of the promotion's original North American championship.[6]
Over the championship's two-year history, there were only three reigns among three champions. Ted DiBiase was the inaugural champion, with Seiji Sakaguchi being the last. Sakaguchi has the longest reign at 532 days, while DiBiase has the shortest at 126 days. Pat Patterson was the oldest champion at 38 years old, while DiBiase being the youngest at 25 years old.