The championship was originally created and contested for in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) but moved to XWA when the former company became defunct.
The first Champion was Mark Sloan, who defeated Paul Glory in a tournament final on 11 July 1999.
[3] Originally the belt was mostly defended under two out of three falls match rules, as was the tradition in British wrestling.
[6] However, in April 2009, XWA founder Greg Lambert announced the creation of a new British Heavyweight Championship that did not bear the FWA initials and gave the original belt back to Alex Shane in time for the resurrection of the FWA.
[7] On 17 February 2018 Rhia O’Reilly became the first woman to hold the title, defeating Cara Noir in an inter-promotional show with Pro Wrestling: EVE.