On October 13, 1970, the championship was introduced as the NWA Eastern Heavyweight Championship during a
taping of
Championship Wrestling. It was announced that the
Missouri Mauler had defeated the defending champion
Pat O'Connor in
New York City to win the title; this title change was fictitious and a storyline to introduce the championship to the promotion; nevertheless, O'Connor's reign is denoted as the first official reign. Because it was fictitious, further information regarding O'Connor's reign is unavailable. On the September 6, 1973 taping of
Championship Wrestling, By 1974, JCP was also known as "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling" (MACW), which is why all of its championships included "Mid-Atlantic" in their names. On December 26, 1986,
Ron Garvin, after winning JCP's
version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship with
Barry Windham, vacated the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship and handed the belt to Crockett Jr. on a taping of
World Championship Wrestling. Crockett Jr. deactivated the championship for unknown reasons, and eventually, JCP was sold to
Ted Turner in 1988, thus becoming the new promotion,
World Championship Wrestling. In the late 1990s, NWA gave a group of promoters permission to establish a territory called "Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling"; however, this territory has not claimed any connection to the original JCP/MACW. As a result, their prime championship, called the MACW Heavyweight Championship, has no connection to this original championship or its lineage. ==Reigns==