On June 15, 2002, Major League Wrestling held an eight-man single-elimination tournament to crown the first MLW Champion at its inaugural Genesis event.

[4][5] Referee John Finnegan threatened that Douglas would be banned from wrestling in Philadelphia if he didn't defend the title.

[6] It was later reported that Kojima's employers, AJPW would not allow him to drop the title to an employee of a rival company Pro Wrestling Zero-One, which was Steve Corino.

In January 2018, MLW announced its Road to the World Championship, an eight-man single-elimination tournament to crown a new champion.

[14][15][16][17] Low Ki made the first international title defense since 2003 in Claremont, Australia, as he defeated Jonah Rock on November 30 in a New Horizon Pro Wrestling event.

[19] This lineage package would once again confirm Shane Douglas' reign as not recognized as part of the MLW World Heavyweight Championship history.