The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship is a defunct professional wrestling world heavyweight championship that was contested in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) between 1993 and 1994. A popular misconception about the title was that it was a secondary title, due to the word "International" being in the name. In reality, the championship was presented as the highest accolade of "WCW International", a fictitious subsidiary of WCW. The championship was contested at WCW events and at several events in Japan under the aegis of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Represented by the historic Big Gold Belt, the championship originated as the world heavyweight title of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an umbrella organization of wrestling promotions from which WCW withdrew in 1993. At that time, WCW was responsible for deciding which of their wrestlers would hold the NWA championship. When the NWA withdrew WCW's control of the booking of their championship, a fictitious alternative was created to promote the use of the title belt. Over the title's history, eight title reigns were shared between four wrestlers. Rick Rude's three title reigns comprise the longest total time as champion with 202 cumulative days. Hiroshi Hase is the champion with the shortest reign of eight days; Rude holds the longest individual reign of 178 days. Ric Flair was the first and last titleholder. Background The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship has its origins in the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the principal championship of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA was a syndicate of wrestling promotions who would book an overall champion. In 1991, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion was Ric Flair, who held the title when he wrestled for WCW. Flair was simultaneously considered the WCW World Heavyweight Champion; he was stripped of both titles because he left to work for rival company World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). Lex Luger won the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which would remain the promotion's primary title throughout WCW's existence until the company's assets were bought by the WWF; Masahiro Chono won a tournament designed to crown the next holder of the NWA championship. As a result of WCW withdrawing its membership of the NWA in September 1993, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, now once again held by Flair, no longer carried the NWA name, but WCW retained the physical belt they had used to represent the title. This belt became the WCW International Heavyweight