National Wrestling Alliance

National Wrestling Alliance
shape	Wrestling Federation
Establishment date	June 19, 1948
Location	Brownsville , Texas
Territories	Global
founder	Paul "Pinkie" George Orville Brown Tony Stecher Sam Muchnick Max Clayton Fred Kohler Al Haft Harry Light
owner	Lightning One, Inc
management	Billy Corgan
Branch	Wrestling
Further information
Website	twitter.com/nwa

National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA ) is the name of a US wrestling federation that has been based in Houston , Texas since August 2012 . The current president of the organization has been the musician Billy Corgan since May 1st, 2017 .

The National Wrestling Alliance offers various independent promotions a platform on which they can be held under a common banner . For this reason, the NWA does not form a doctorate , but only a superordinate umbrella organization, which is also referred to in English as a Federation or Umbrella Organization .

history

prehistory

1900s to 1930s

Today's National Wrestling Alliance emerged from a small regional promotion in the Midwest. In February 1902 that promotion was set up in the state of Iowa, which had been directed by the promoter "Pinkie" George since about 1930 . Under whose direction this promotion came under the banner of the National Wrestling Association of Iowa of the Association National Wrestling at.

However, "Pinkie" George quickly came into conflict with Tom Packs , who had controlled wrestling in the Midwest with his company Tom Packs Sport Enterprises from St. Louis, Missouri since 1922 . Packs' company understand the St. Louis-based Promotion Northwest Association, and Tom Packs himself operated the local affiliate there since 1929 under the banner of the National Wrestling Association of St. Louis .

From around 1930, Packs led the National Wrestling Association in an authoritarian manner and tolerated almost no contradiction in his decisions from his co-promoters . In order to ensure a certain balance, the NWA Board of Directors decided in 1935 to put Paul Bowser at his side. With his American Wrestling Association, he dominated the US east coast with the New England states and New York.

However, it quickly became apparent that Bowser couldn't prevail against packs. Tom Packs took over the booking for the mid-west and Bowser for the east coast.
Packs' authoritarian leadership style became more and more controversial within the National Wrestling Association .

The first promoter to openly rebel against Tom Packs was Orville Brown , based in Kansas City, Kansas . This succeeded in January 1940 to get some influential promoters on his side. In the team with George Simpson , Brown controlled the twin cities of Kansas City, as well as the cities of St. Josef, Minnesota, Topeka and Wichita in Kansas.

The promoter Al detention put in Columbia, Ohio the banner Midwest Wrestling Association (MWA) on, which Orville Brown joined and his mentor George Simpson. The new banner now hosted throughout the Midwest and created its own MWA World Title on June 13, 1940 , which now revealed the instability of the National Wrestling Association under the dual leadership of "Packs-Bowser".

1940s

Orville Brown had succeeded in January 1940, some disgruntled promoters of the National Wrestling Association to draw to his side. Brown was the first to emphasize to Tom Packs that the NWA was just a federation , a voluntary association of various promoters. So he, Al Haft , and George Simpson began holding tournaments under the banner of the Midwest Wrestling Association .
A short time later they were also joined by the promoters Max Baumann , Norris Stauffler , Johnny Apt , Billy Sandow and Perry Bash . They now formed an alliance with the Haft-Simpson-Brown trio, which openly opposed the authoritarian leadership of the National Wrestling Association by Tom Packs , who claimed absolute control in this.
Baumann, Stauffer, Apt, Sandow and Bash hosted the first promoters of the Midwest in January 1941 under the banner of the National Wrestling Alliance , which was also joined by the MWA under custody, Simpson and Brown.
They eventually went so far that they held their events between February 24, 1941 and April 29, 1946 under the banner of the National Wrestling Alliance of Kansas . Wichita, Kansas now became the headquarters of this NWA in the NWA.

Ever since Max Baumann and Billy Sandow set up the National Wrestling Alliance banner in Wichita, Kansas , this Midwestern city has become a stronghold of the independent scene, de facto independent of the National Wrestling Association .

The wrestler Roy Dunn , the favorite of the duo "Baumann Sandow" was allowed on April 9, 1941 against Packs' former NWA champion Ray Steel to the newly created National Wrestling Alliance World Championship compete.
Dunn convinced the audience with an above-average performance and made Steel look bad several times.

The "National Wrestling Alliance" absolutely needed a world title in order to free itself from the supremacy of the National Wrestling Association and to be able to exist as an independent promotion alongside the NWA. Until then, she was just considered a rebellious NWA affiliate .
Max Baumann and Billy Sandow were now trying to poach Ray Steel from the National Wrestling Association. His contract expired shortly and negotiations began. It seemed as if Steel was ready to represent the newly created title as a former NWA champion. The "National Wrestling Alliance" had designed a belt for Steel that was closely based on that of the National Wrestling Association . Baumann and Sandow looked forward to the day the contract was signed.
But on the day the contract was signed Ray Steel stayed away and so the NWA title belt was handed over to Roy Dunn , who now officially declared it the National Wrestling Alliance World Championship . For his part, Dunn had 200 small platinum-edged diamonds attached to the title belt so that it was now clearly different from that of the National Wrestling Association.

Dissatisfied with the general situation within the National Wrestling Association , the desire of the promoters of the “National Wrestling Alliance” to become legally independent from the overwhelming NWA grew.
The open break between the “National Wrestling Alliance” and the National Wrestling Association came in April 1942. The originally only internal contrast between “NWA vs. NWA ”developed into a real antagonism, which Tom Packs called a“ war between graduations ”.

The trigger for this dispute was that Roy Dunn lost his NWA Championship to Packs' new favorite Ede Virag on April 28, 1942 , and the latter began to defend it throughout the Midwest.
Virag took part accordingly in tournaments that were organized by the Midwest Wrestling Association and the "National Wrestling Alliance of Kansas".

In June 1943 “Pinkie” signed George Virag for a few sporadic appearances. Ede Virag was then with the MWA under the banner of the "National Wrestling Alliance" in Iowa and so George saw his great opportunity to free himself from the supremacy of the National Wrestling Association.
"Pinkie" George began to poach the then top stars from Packs' Promotion Northwest Association . In competition with the Midwest Wrestling Alliance , George began to organize in the states of Missouri and Kentucky.
In November 1943, "Pinkie" George reorganized his promotion into the new National Wrestling Alliance of Iowa banner .

As part of his reorganization of the NWA Iowa, "Pinkie" George declared on November 3, 1943 Packs' former NWA champion Ray Steel the first National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Champion . This one-sided statement shocked even very well-informed wrestling insiders at the time . The appointment by "Pinkie" George to the champion was made without legal basis. "Pinkie" George was neither entitled to the title nor was Steel officially committed to him. For example, Steel was only referred to as a "former NWA champion" during his appearances in other promotions and this was also true.

All in all, the NWA Iowa remained unknown to the general public for a long time. That changed abruptly on January 12, 1944. "Pinkie" George actually succeeded in getting Ray Steel into the "National Wrestling Alliance". But this collaboration between the two was not particularly successful. Orville Brown
was signed on November 8, 1944 and declared NWA World Champion . Brown had won the NWA title on June 6, 1944 at a tournament in Topeka, Kansas. There he was allowed to defeat his opponent Ede Virag for the title. On August 18 of the same year Brown secured the MWA title in Kansas Cita, Kansas by defeating then champion Lee Wykoff . Orville Brown came as a double champion in Georges NWA. With the engagement of Brown as "Alliance" -NWA champion, an ingeniously designed marketing of the "Alliance" -NWA followed. This appeared under the banner of the Midwest Wrestling Association as the region's major promotion . Due to the collaboration with Georges NWA Iowa, the MWA was often referred to as the Midwest Wrestling Alliance in the friendly press . The influence of the National Wrestling Association had declined in favor of the MWA in the states of Kansas, Kentucky and Iowa, but also in much of Missouri.

The following years were marked by the Second World War. Many active wrestlers were drafted into the US Army as soldiers. So the title was temporarily suspended. On November 3, 1947, the "Alliance" -NWA reactivated their World Championship and Sonny Myers became the official title holder . But when Paul George set up a competition promotion for the "Alliance" -NWA in July 1948, the promoters present decided that Orville Brown, as the reigning MWA champion, would now also be the official NWA champion. As a result, Myers finally recognized the title and gave it to Brown, who combined it with his MWA title.

In the period between 1940 and 1946, a total of five doctorates from the Midwest came together to form the "Alliance" -NWA. These essentially controlled the states of Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas.

In December 1945, Packs' long-time right-hand man, journalist Sam Muchnick , opened his own small promotion with Sam Muchnick Sports Attractions in St. Louis, Missouri . Since this began to work with the breakaway promotions of the Midwest, Muchnick was now the liaison of the "Alliance" to Tom Packs. So he quickly achieved great influence within the "Alliance" -NWA. The reorganization of the National Wrestling Association now appeared to all involved as a done deal, but its planned direction - regional, national or global - was disputed. Orville Brown and Paul George stood for the regional reference of the renewed NWA, Muchnick favored the national and thus also for the ultimate global activity of the NWA.

The "Alliance" -NWA was joined by more and more promotions that were disappointed by Packs . The "Alliance" could now look back on territories in the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, but also in large parts of New York and the New England states lay.

National Wrestling Alliance (since 1948)

1940s

On January 18, 1948, Paul George invited promoters Bill Colbert (St. Paul, Minnesota), Max Yeargain (Topeka, Kansas), and Tom McHugh (Kansas City, Kansas) to Des Moines, Iowa for initial talks. Max Clayton (Columbia, Ohio) chaired it . At this preliminary meeting, a general assembly was decided for the summer of the same year.

Because of the meeting that took place in January 1948, Paul George and his brother Andrew called Tom Packs and six other promoters to a general assembly in Waterloo, Iowa on July 18, 1948 , at the end of which the reorganization of the National Wrestling Association should stand.
However, since Packs had already sold his territory to a consortium in June 1948, including Lou Thesz , he took part in this meeting with other representatives of the "Association" -NWA. Thesz and the other representatives of the original NWA had no official say at this general assembly and therefore had no influence on the formation of the renewed NWA. But they began to discuss different storylines in the form of storylines , at the end of which the two NWAs should be united.

Thus, in this July 18, 1948 decided by all voters that the current National Wrestling Association in a "roof organization" (English. Umbrella Organization ) as a Federation Wrestling should be reorganized in which all brought together promoters are equal partners. This umbrella organization should officially run its events under the banner of the National Wrestling Alliance . Each promoter present was now assigned a specific region for which only he was responsible. The territorial principle of the National Wrestling Association was largely adopted and expanded for this purpose .
Paul George was elected the first president of the NWA, but fell into isolation within the new NWA. Orville Brown and he were the representatives of the regional connection of the National Wrestling Alliance and they saw in the newly created booking committee only a central contact point for the various wrestlers .
Ultimately, Sam Muchnick was able to prevail with his nationally oriented performance. According to Muchnick, the NWA should first dominate the national wrestling market and then take over the global market leadership.
The official motto of the NWA came from Muchnick:

"A Community of Wrestling Promoters in the United States, Canada, Hawaii, and Mexico - Subsidiaries in Other Countries"

- Sam Muchnick, 1948

At the first meeting of the newly formed NWA Board of Directors , which took place on July 18, 1948 in Waterloo, Iowa, it was found that there were two different currents in the newly formed National Wrestling Alliance. Midwestern promoters, Paul "Pinkie" George and Orville Brown , were the representatives of the Regional Direction.
For them, the National Wrestling Alliance should be a central point of contact for wrestlers . The NWA should therefore only be a central booking office , i.e. only a booking office.
George and Brown quickly got into isolation within the board of directors , as promoter Sam Muchnick was able to convince those present, with the exception of Paul George, that the future of the National Wrestling Alliance would lie nationally as well as internationally.

Paul George was elected by the promoters as the first president of the NWA, but this disappointed largely withdrew from wrestling in 1948 . He was now more active in other sports, such as boxing or baseball. For example, Paul George bought a regional baseball team, but it turned into a financial fiasco for him. His doctorate, the NWA Iowa , led George to March 1959 as a direct competitor to the NWA. Then he was forced by the board to close down his doctorate.
The leading force in the NWA board was now Sam Muchnick, who headed it for almost 20 years with interruptions.

At the end of November 1949, the NWA board began to take control of national wrestling. A big step in this direction was when on November 27, 1949 the National Wrestling Association , which had been competing until then, was able to take over. For this purpose, their champion, Lou Thesz , was named Undisputed World Champion and the titles of the two NWAs have now been combined.

1950s

In the period between 1950 and 1953, the world championship titles of the American Wrestling Association , the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium and numerous other titles were combined in the NWA title.

In 1953 the National Wrestling Alliance was at its height. She had almost unlimited control over US wrestling and had started to operate globally. The NWA's rise to the top wrestling leader was all the easier since many of its founders, such as Sam Muchnick , were also members of the State Athletics Commission . Muchnick owned the St. Louis NWA office and was also the local representative for the Missouri State Athletics Commission .
It owed its almost monopoly position to the aggressive implementation of its basic program and the various expansions. A means of pressure that was very often used in the NWA was the so-called black book . The Black Book of NWA was not significantly different from those of the sports committees on which they were subordinate, or from the National Wrestling Association . The only difference was that the NWA leadership locked out faster and longer than their competitors.

Many wrestlers and promoters who were not represented in the NWA and were thus independent were forced to compete in the territories of the NWA under their conditions. Here now reached point 9 of the basic extension of 25 September 1948: A refusal represented a major "damage of Wrestling" and had an entry in the NWA Black Book and a lock in the corresponding NWA territory result. In the 1950s, the other territories mostly followed suit with an NWA regional block, so that the original regional block became a national one. In the case of a national blockage, this had to be approved by the board . The person in question was actually blocked nationally, as all State Athletics Commissions took over the entries in the subordinate Blackbooks.

The banned person could only compete in the few states that did not have an NWA office (and thus were not NWA territory) and in which there was no State Athletics Commission . But there were also various promoters in the NWA regions who overruled the block. One of these was California-based promoter Nick Lutze , who continued to give performance opportunities to wrestlers banned from the NWA.
Between September 5 and 7, 1952, the annual meeting of the NWA board was held in Santa Monica, California . Sam Muchnick gave the local NWA offices , but in particular the Los Angeles-based NWA Los Angeles, the order to take massive action against the promoter Nick Lutze , as this wrestler, who had been banned by the NWA, continued to offer a public platform and they could bypass the block . Most banned wrestlers and promoters simply waited for their ban to expire and then joined the NWA so as not to get any further problems.

However, there were also cases in which those affected resisted. Such cases are known: On January 27, 1953, the local FBI office in Boston, Massachusetts received an anonymous complaint against the regional NWA office . This anonymous wrestler exposed the NWA for discrimination against him and denounced the syndicate-like behavior of the NWA, which restricted his activities in the USA and Canada. Another case concerned Nick Lutze, who was known by name . This promoter ran the International Wrestling promotion in Los Angeles for over 30 years , which was also regularly seen on local TV on Saturdays.

On April 14, 1953, Lutze showed up at the FBI Los Angeles and reported the National Wrestling Alliance, since the local NWA representatives, Cal Eaton and Johnny Doyle from the NWA Los Angeles office , their shows now also on Saturday and exactly 30 minutes earlier than broadcast the program from Lutze. When Lutze hosted a live event, the NWA Los Angeles also held one in the immediate vicinity and presented the current top stars of wrestling there, while Lutze could only come up with local matadors and a few old stars.

Nick Lutze accused the NWA of "organized crime" at the FBI in the best Mafia fashion and compared their aggressive approach to a criminal syndicate. He made the claim that the National Wrestling Alliance ruled 90% of American wrestling.
However, the Los Angeles FBI bureau dismissed Lutze because he had no evidence to support his suspicions. Lutze was told that the United States was a free country with free competition. And this competition also applies to wrestling. However, the FBI acted very differently with another promoter who reported the NWA with evidence.

Sam Muchnick, however, invited Lutze to Chicago, Illinois. He was to attend the annual general meeting between September 4 and 6, 1953.
Lutze actually attended that meeting and tried to discuss his problems with Cal Eaton and Johnny Doyle with Muchnick. However, Lutze tried to influence Lutze to leave his territory to the NWA and made him understand that he, Muchnick, could not do without the NWA office in Los Angeles and that there were other possibilities to solve Lutze's problems with the NWA .
After the September meeting of the NWA, Lutze went to the FBI again and presented them with a list of influential NWA promoters who had defended this approach of the NWA office in Los Angeles as legitimate at the annual meeting. The FBI in Los Angeles decided to watch the National Wrestling Alliance.

But the National Wrestling Alliance was now having great difficulties elsewhere as well. For example with Frank Wiener , the chairman of the State Athletics Commission of Philadelphia : He sentenced the NWA promoter Ray Fabiani to close his doctorate and to pay a fine of US $ 15,000. Wiener had previously complained in writing to the NWA President Sam Muchnick and dubbed the NWA's approach in Pennsylvania as "unreasonable" and asked him to remedy the situation by setting a deadline.
Muchnick, however, let this ultimatum slip by, and Wiener's reaction was immediate. This now declared Philadelphia an “open state” and unceremoniously suspended the NWA rules.

Muchnick was now openly forced to act. Just three weeks after the Pennsylvania Territory was closed, a disgruntled Southern California promoter, Frank Pasquale , donated US $ 550,000 to Nick Lutze to cover the pending litigation costs in order to take legal action against the local NWA. Pasquale told the FBI in February 1955 that there was a deliberate anti-competitive scheme in southern California at the NWA. He also expressed to the agents his suspicion that the NWA deliberately violated the antitrust laws and referred to this literally as a "national conspiracy" planning a plot to achieve unrestricted market leadership in wrestling.

On December 17, 1954, Pasquale sent Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. a telegram he had received from Muchnick. As early as December 18, 1954, part of the telegram was published in the edition of the “Los Angeles Times”: “Sam Muchnick, President and Secretary of the NWA, warns wrestler Charles Moto in Los Angeles in this way. He will have it banned nationally if it competes in the South Gate Arena, Southern California. (...) This is the first time that a national organization is working hand in hand with the local monopoly. ”
The removal of Lutzes and the takeover of his territory had obviously been put on hold by the NWA and they had now shot at Pasquale. The FBI used Frank Pasquale's accusations as a means of taking action against the NWA.

Between 1948 and 1953, 38 wrestling promotions and over 100 promoters were united in the National Wrestling Alliance and this was now at its zenith. However, the year 1956 brought a turning point, as the NWA was stripped of its monopoly position by court order.

And as early as 1957 it became apparent that the National Wrestling Alliance was inherently extremely unstable when Eddie Quinn withdrew from the NWA St. Louis Office because of massive disagreements with Sam Muchnick . And in just 14 months, the NWA lost eight of its members. From 1959 Quinn worked with the NWA San Francisco .

In 1957, the American Wrestling Association slowly withdrew from the NWA after it was not sufficiently involved in the title event for the NWA World Title . In August 1958, the then NWA champion Edouard Carpentier and AWA champion Verne Gagne agreed that the latter should win the title in Omaha, Nebraska; Promoter Eddie Quinn had agreed to change the title in Boston against Killer Kowalski , who needed the title to build his own doctorate. Quinn was then able to prevail on the championship committee. So Gagne was allowed to win the title in Omaha as planned between Carpentier and him, but the title change itself has now been declared illegal. Verne was then withdrawn from the title and handed over to Kowalski a little later. For two years, Verne Gagne, who was fobbed off with the NWA United States Champion Title (AWA Version) , tried to sue for the title from the NWA or to be actively involved again in the events surrounding the title.

In the spring of 1960, the American Wrestling Association, under its new owner Gagne, then unilaterally declared NWA champion Pat O'Connor AWA World Champion and thus gave the championship committee a 90-day ultimatum. During this time, the handover of the title to the AWA should take place, as O'Connor had to lose against Verne in a title match .
But the championship committee let this ultimatum expire without any reaction and so the AWA left the NWA in May 1960.

The NWA expanded now globally. She held various tournaments in Canada , Mexico and Cuba . The National Wrestling Alliance also opened up the Asian market for US pro wrestling : On October 28, 1951, it organized a tournament in the Japanese capital of Tokyo. For this purpose, the first Asian wrestling promotion was set up, which was called Japan Pro-Wrestling Association (JWA) and was to belong to the NWA for two decades. With the JWA, the NWA now had its first affiliate whose territory was not on the American continent.
In 1953 the National Wrestling Alliance was at its peak. But her star slowly began to sink. Although the state of Hawaii was won over to the NWA in 1952, it lost eight of its most influential members within almost a year and a half from 1957. For example, the territory of Canada was lost.

Former journalist Sam Muchnick would prove to be one of the most influential people in the National Wrestling Alliance. Under his leadership, the NWA was to reach its zenith, but it was also to be shaken by numerous scandals and lawsuits that made the National Wrestling Alliance negative in the headlines.
The longtime right hand man of Tom Packs founded his PhD Sam Muchnick Sports Attractions in December 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri . He now became the link between the promoters of the "National Wrestling Alliance" on the one hand and Tom Packs on the other.

Sam Muchnick took part on July 18, 1948 at the meeting called by Paul "Pinkie" George, at the end of which stood the founding of what is now the National Wrestling Alliance.
At this meeting, Muchnick was able to convince the present promoters that the future of the NWA was not on the regional, but on the national and international sector. With the exception of Paul George, everyone present joined him and this now became insignificant.
It was Muchnick who proposed George as NWA President for two years. However, since the presidential function was only representative, Paul George had no influence on NWA politics.

The NWA board of directors elected Sam Muchnick as president at its annual meeting in 1950. This now began to purposefully expand his position and influence.
It became apparent that the NWA now obviously had an egomaniac for president, because Muchnick hardly allowed any contradiction in his decisions. That reminded the promoters gathered in the NWA unpleasantly of the authoritarian leadership style of Tom Packs . However, nothing was done about it, although the NWA board would have had the opportunity at their annual meeting. But since Muchnick had influential business connections and he was a member of the State Athletic Commission of Missouri , the regional sports commission, he was allowed until 1960.
Under Muchnick's presidency, the majority of the promoters gathered in the NWA also joined the sports commissions in their region. This controlled all sporting activities and all sports clubs etc. had to be registered with them. With the receipt of a license issued by the sports commission, a club or a promotion was officially established.
Since almost all wrestling promoters were now represented there, the sports commission had the wrestling area more or less withdrawn, since the promoters in the commission were now exercising their influence.

Muchnick systematically expanded the National Wrestling Alliance until 1953, when the first scandals shook the NWA.
After a protracted legal process, the NWA was sentenced in 1956 to the fact that it also had to allow so-called NWA nonmembers , which were promotions that did not belong to the NWA, now also to allow tournaments in their area.
As a direct result of the lost process, the then NWA Los Angeles office was closed in 1957 after internal negotiations and the affiliated NWA Los Angeles was discontinued. The local promoters were banned from the NWA in 1958 for a period of 10 years.
These banned promoters were now active in the independent scene .

1960s

The former wrestling territories in the USA and Canada .

In 1960 Sam Muchnick was replaced as NWA President by Frank Tunney (1960–61), Fred Kohler (1961–62) and "Doc" Karl Sarpolis (1962–63). Under Tunney's reign, the National Wrestling Alliance lost, among other things, the American Wrestling Association, and under the leadership of Sarpolis, the Promotion World Wide Wrestling Federation became independent. The NWA board therefore decided in 1963 to introduce a “strong man” to the organization again and Sam Muchnick was re-elected president. Under Muchnick, the portfolio of NWA Affiliates could be maintained and in some cases even expanded: In 1968, the successor to the NWA Los Angeles, which had been discontinued in 1958, joined the NWA.

1970s

In the 1970s, the National Wrestling Alliance's decline began to slowly emerge. The booking of Sam Muchnick was considered outdated by the fans and they were looking for a replacement. This was believed to have been found in 1975 in the Texan promoter Fritz Von Erich , who, for that time, organized a refreshingly modern storyline event in his territory and whose promotion World Class Championship Wrestling was considered young and up-and-coming. In 1975 the era of Sam Muchnick officially ended; For a long time, however, the presidents who succeeded him placed great value on his opinion for their decisions.

Loss of territory to the AWA

With the exit of the American Wrestling Association this closed its NWA office in Minneapolis and began to expand its sphere of influence permanently and to incorporate NWA territories into their area. For example, it was able to win the following territories for itself until the 1980s:

1. The NWA Minneapolis office was closed and the states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and much of the New England states were taken over by the AWA. The former Minneapolis office now expanded its influence to Iowa and Nebraska.
2. The New Mexico NWA office was closed and the state of Colorado was taken over by the AWA.
3. The states of Illinois (1966), Indiana (1966) and Wisconsin (1964) when the NWA Chicago office closed in 1964 and the Promotion World Wrestling Association was acquired.
4. Championship Wrestling Association (1986) which was based in Memphis, Tennessee and which operated in the states of Tennessee and Arkansas.
5. Continental Wrestling Federation (1988), which was based in Knoxville, Tennessee and which served in the states of Tennessee and Alabama.

Loss of territory in the northeast

When the American Wrestling Association left the NWA, numerous other promotions followed. Among other things, the National Wrestling Association was reactivated. But a major slump came on April 28, 1963 when the Capitol Wrestling Federation , which controlled the Northeast Territory, split from the NWA and became an associate promotion of the National Wrestling Association. The former was thus downgraded and the latter was upgraded. With the withdrawal of Capitol Wrestling, the NWA lost the following territories:

1. Connecticut
2. Delaware
3. Maryland
4. New York City Metropolitan Area, New York
5. New York Upstate, New York
6. Philadelphia & Eastern Pennsylvania
7. Pittsburgh & Western Pennsylvania
8. Washington, DC

Capitol Wrestling now hosted under the new banner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation . But Vincent J. McMahon , the owner of WWWF, still sat on the NWA board and so the promotion rejoined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1971. In 1973 the NWA Puerto Rico was added.
In 1979 the WWWF was sold by McMahon to his son and now renamed the World Wrestling Federation . The WWF slowly developed into the wrestling market leader from 1980 and began to rise to become the most influential affiliate of the NWA.

The rise of the WWF to become the market leader

Meanwhile, the World Wrestling Federation began using the new cable network for their TV formats, and was now seen nationwide. The promotion thus circumvented the prevailing territorial principle due to a gap in thought from 1948: The affiliates of the NWA were forbidden from holding shows in the territories of the other shows, but only holding them in their own home areas. The same was intended for the TV formats. Like the promotions, the TV channels were only locally related and in 1948 no one had thought of nationwide broadcasts. The only exception was NWA World Wide , a TV format that had existed since 1975 and was broadcast nationally and for a time had a large audience.

When the first cable stations went on air in 1980, the promotions, with the exception of WWF, remained true to their old stations, provided they had a current TV format, as they were bound to them by long-term contracts. The WWF, however, canceled its old broadcasting slot and now bought into various cable channels. She only concluded short-term contracts that were limited to a maximum of two years. The promotion was extremely flexible and was able to adapt its programs to the new circumstances as required. The WWF now began to broadcast its TV formats nationally and in neighboring Canada , as the NWA board had failed to adapt its regulations to the new situation. And so the WWF, although it only put on its shows in its own territory, could be seen nationwide in the USA as well as in Canada and Mexico. She also began to use the new medium "video" by offering her major events on video for sale from 1983, when the first WrestleMania was held .

As a result, the monthly events of the NWA affiliates fell behind. Wrestling fans could now see stars like Hulk Hogan , Paul Orndorff , etc. on a weekly basis. The WWF storylines were also extremely modern for the time. The TV audience noticed unpleasantly that the storylines at the local NWA were no longer fully coordinated and the resulting contradictions could no longer be resolved by the NWA leadership in good time. The wrestling style of the NWA was now considered out of date, as the NWA set of rules, which is binding for all wrestling promotions, dates back to 1974.

The TV audience of the WWF could now see actions from the second and especially from the third ring rope at their shows, which was forbidden by the affiliates of the NWA. Actions from the top ring rope were only allowed to Japanese and Mexican guest wrestlers in the NWA via a special clause.
The NWA rules also forbade a wrestler to use the third ring rope to bring his opponent outside. Such an action led to the immediate disqualification of the performer; at the World Wrestling Federation such actions were also to be seen and therefore it was ultimately considered the most modern promotion in the United States.

1980s

In 1983 , shortly before the nationwide TV broadcast of its first WrestleMania , the World Wrestling Federation had finally left the NWA and with this event had risen to become the national market leader. In order to curb further national expansion of the WWF or to make it more difficult, the then NWA President Jim Crockett had started in 1985 to buy up various NWA territories. In March 1985 he bought the Promotion Championship Wrestling From Georgia and combined it with his own promotion Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling .

From Georgia, Crockett organized national TV shows from 1983 along with the then Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion . The GCW was now also considered a national doctorate. These shows ran under the banner of World Championship Wrestling and Crockett now deliberately defied the principle of territoriality . In his capacity as NWA President, he decreed that title matches for the originally promotional NWA World Championship would only have to take place at WCW. This deliberate violation of the territorial and title principles by Crockett was his direct response to the WWF's quest for supremacy in wrestling in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Crockett had realized that this was the way the NWA had to act in order to survive against the WWF.

All in all, however, the attempt to stand up to the World Wrestling Federation with the WCW failed . WWF owner Vince McMahon managed to poach important sponsors from Crockett's WCW in 1984. The producing promotion Georgia Championship Wrestling then got into massive financial problems and was ultimately closed by the NWA due to insolvency. The WWF took over the GCW including the Georgia territory, the GCW continued to operate as a development area of ​​the WWF until 1987.

Cooperation with the AWA

As a result of the "World Championship Wrestling" experiment, the NWA was driven to the brink of insolvency by Jim Crockett .
But in order to further hinder the rise of the WWF, the NWA now needed financially strong partners. She found one in the American Wrestling Association des Verne Gagne . So some affiliates of the NWA joined forces with this to a real promotion , which was now called Pro-Wrestling USA .
Other NWA affiliates were reorganized and also freed from the principle of territoriality. For example, in 1986 the Texas Promotion World Class Championship Wrestling , which competed nationwide with other promotions.

On April 28, 1986, the AWA and the NWA hosted a joint tournament in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which was called Rage In A Gage .

Turner Broadcasting

Media mogul Ted Turner was looking for a new job in 1988. His company "Turner Broadcasting" has brought some sports on TV. His regional stations also broadcast various wrestling shows . But now, in addition to American football , baseball and boxing , wrestling was to be broadcast nationwide on its channels. So he began to negotiate with Vince McMahon about the sale of World Wrestling Federation .

Turner quickly realized that McMahon wanted him to be a sponsor but not a co-owner.

So Ted Turner turned to the NWA President Jim Crockett . Turner suggested that he sell him his Jim Crockett Promotions , which had now grown to a considerable area. So the following PhDs and areas belonged to Crockett:

1. Championship Wrestling From Georgia with Georgia and West Virginia
2. St. Louis Wrestling Club with Missouri
3. Championship Wrestling From Florida with Florida and
4. Universal Wrestling Federation with Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi

Ted Turner agreed with Crockett's proposal and it was agreed that the new Turner promotion should now operate under the banner of NWA World Championship Wrestling .

1990s

Break with the WCW

Ted Turner quickly fell out with the NWA board . In early 1991, he began to prepare for his split from the National Wrestling Alliance. On January 11, 1991 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Turner had the NWA World Title referred to as the WCW World Championship for the first time through its TV station and personally provided the reason: "The names 'NWA' and 'WCW' are interchangeable, since both are identical. ” He made it clear to the NWA board that his doctorate was the most attractive of all NWA affiliates and that the NWA without them financially at the end. In Turner's eyes, the WCW was of course the NWA. And the NWA board as such reluctantly let Turner do it, because he and his financially strong WCW were really needed. But in order to prevent a final separation of the WCW, the NWA leadership began a long-standing legal dispute with Ted Turner. As a result, she filed a lawsuit against Turner in Charlotte, North Carolina Administrative Court.

On August 8, 1991, NWA Champion Ric Flair unexpectedly showed up with a title belt in the World Wrestling Federation after the new NWA President Jim Herd (the President of NWA World Championship Wrestling) refused to reimburse his security deposit of US $ 25,000 , because Flair wanted to switch to the competition. Flair therefore declared the NWA belt to be his personal property. In September Flair and Hulk Hogan were involved in an extremely successful feud program , in which Flair was called the Real Heavyweight Champion of the World and ultimately won the WWF World Title . In the meantime, Flair had come to an agreement with the new NWA President Seiji Sakaguchi and returned the NWA title belt to the Championship Committee after receiving the outstanding deposit of US $ 25,000 plus a bonus of an unknown amount.

Exit of the WCW

When Ric Flair left the NWA in August 1991, Ted Turner began running his shows now under the banner of World Championship Wrestling . The WCW now openly distanced itself from the National Wrestling Alliance and appeared in public as an independent promotion, as Ted Turner now deliberately omitted the abbreviation "NWA" in front of the name. In response to this, Jim Cornette founded the Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion with some partners in October 1991 , but it was closed again in 1995 for financial reasons.

In 1993 Flair returned to the NWA after his two-year contract with WWF expired. You let him win again on July 18, 1993 in Biloxi, Mississippi, the NWA champion title and defend it in the WCW. At the beginning of September of the same year, the newly created NWA 3-man committee and Ted Turner got into another dispute over a TV PPV. This committee had replaced the Japanese Sakaguchi and consisted of Dennis Coralluzzo as President and Jim Crockett and Steve Rickard as Vice-President. Ted Turner created an independent WCW World Title from the WCW International Championship and so Sting became the first official WCW Champion. This meant that the reigning and competing in the WCW Ric Flair was no longer recognized as the sole world champion. A little later there was a so-called title union match between Flair and Sting that was decided in favor of the latter. With that the exit of WCW was completed. In order to visually represent the identity between NWA and WCW titles, Turner's WCW used the current NWA title belt for their newly created World Title .

The National Wrestling Alliance tried since August 1991 by court ruling to prevent the exit of its financially strongest sub-organization. On September 13, 1993, the Charlotte, North Carolina Administrative Court ruled in favor of Turner. The NWA World Heavyweight Championship was declared vacant . The current title belt remained with WCW for their world title . The NWA Championship Committee thus had the problem that you had a world title , but no corresponding belt. So the belt that was in use between 1973 and 1986 was reactivated. The NWA still uses this belt today.

Between 1993 and 1995 numerous smaller doctorates at home and abroad joined the NWA in order to increase their own awareness under the traditional NWA banner . For example IWA Japan and IWA Puerto Rico .

Exit of the ECW

NWA Vice President Jim Crockett and Todd Gordon , the promoter of NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling , agreed in August 1994 to host the vacant championship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and broadcast it nationwide. At that time, ECW was the last affiliate with an ongoing TV contract. But at the end of this tournament for the NWA World Title , the new NWA champion Shane Douglas declared the exit of the ECW from the National Wrestling Alliance and Todd Gordon officially confirmed this on August 31, 1994. After the NWA no longer had an affiliate with TV format when the ECW left, it had lost its former importance and hardly played a role in global or national wrestling.

Re-organization and modernization of the NWA structures

With the exit of the ECW, the National Wrestling Alliance was financially at an end and was actually considered dead, as it only had seven promotions. The NWA leadership now realized that changes urgently needed to be made.
The Board of Directors decided to officially reform the structure of the NWA. It had now realized that the traditional principle of territoriality was out of date. This simply had to be given up in order to allow the National Wrestling Alliance to continue to stand up to its major competitors World Wrestling Federation , World Championship Wrestling , American Wrestling Association and Extreme Championship Wrestling .

After the WCW and NJPW left the NWA in 1993, a three-man leadership committee was set up, consisting of Jim Crockett Jr. (Dallas), Dennis Coralluzo (NWA New Jersey) and Steve Rickard (NWA New Zealand). This circumvented the election of a new president, since the Japanese Seiji Sakaguchi (NJPW) had left the umbrella organization.

Although the NWA was more than weakened with the exit of the WCW (1991/1993) and was considered "clinically dead" with the exit of the ECW (1994), it was able to expand its sphere of influence slightly: On November 2, 1993 the NWA took its first European one Affiliate by joining the NWA with UK Hammerlock .
The official dropping of the territorial principle also provided a further incentive for smaller promotions to join the NWA, as they could now stage their shows nationwide.

Promoter Jim Crockett was removed from the NWA Board of Directors in January 1995 after the latter failed to pay his membership fees. Howard Brody , promoter of NWA Florida , replaced Crockett on the committee and was elected NWA president in 1996.

In January 1998 a new member was accepted into the NWA with the Pro Wrestling Organization, LLC . Together with the National Wrestling Alliance, LCC , she led the umbrella organization. Little by little, all rights of the NWA were transferred to the Pro Wrestling Organization and the old parent company was discontinued.

2000s

On June 16, 2002, the National Wrestling Alliance appeared like the phoenix from the ashes when the NWA Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion was founded in Alabama and shortly thereafter had an ongoing TV contract. In 2003 and 2004 the National Wrestling Alliance also accepted NWA France , NWA Ireland and NWA Scotland into their organization.

After TNA split from the NWA in 2007, it was firmly anchored in the wrestling world again. The local promotions had created a solid fan base again by changing the wrestling style, which as New Style Wrestling essentially corresponded to the wrestling style of the IWA Mid-South or the Combat Zone Wrestling , and began closely with other promotions in the independent scene to work together. This year, the NWA British Commonwealth and the NWA Pro - Australia were reactivated or reorganized. The NWA thus had regular new members who replaced the discontinued banners .

2010s

In January 2012, Bruce Tharpe successfully sued the Pro Wrestling Organization, LCC in Brownsville, Texas . The organization International Wrestling Corp, LCC , operated by Tharpe, Chris Ronquillo (NWA Houston) and Fred Rubenstein (NWA New Jersey) since August 2012, was awarded the ownership and operation of the “National Wrestling Alliance” brand. Tharpe is thus the de facto owner of the NWA and the official seat of the National Wrestling Alliance has been relocated from Waterloo ( Iowa ) to Houston, Texas.

However, many promoters and actors are not satisfied with the current development within the NWA. For example, on October 28, 2012, multiple NWA Champion Adam Pearce and Colt Cabana left the NWA. Both had participated in a show at the Australian promotion NWA Warzone and completed their feud program there. The NWA World Heavyweight Title was then declared vacant . The California- based promotion NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood has also resigned under Dave Marquez and is now organizing under the new banner Championship Wrestling from Hollywood .

NWA Territories

→ Main article : List of NWA territories

Between 1948 and the 1990s, the NWA was strictly structured according to a territorial principle . This prohibited a sub-organization of the NWA ( Affiliate ) from organizing another show in the territory.

Hall of Fame

The NWA Hall of Fame was established in 2005. Lou Thesz was accepted as the first member. Since then, selected wrestlers, managers, ring announcers and commentators have been inducted into the Hall of Fame every year.

Title holder

title	Current title holder	Regent- economy	Date of title win	Days	place	annotation
NWA World Heavyweight Championship	Nick Aldis	2	October 21, 2018	677+	Nashville , Tennessee
NWA National Heavyweight Championship	Willie Mack	1	October 21, 2018	677+	Nashville , Tennessee
NWA World Women's Championship	Allysin Kay	1	17th April 2019	391+	Concord , North Carolina
NWA World Tag Team Championship	Eli Drake & James Storm	1	January 24, 2020	119	Atlanta, Georgia

literature

• Tim Hornbaker: National Wrestling Alliance. The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling. ECW Press Toronto, Canada (2007), ISBN 978-1-55022-741-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Billy Corgan NWA purchase update , pwinsider.com
2. ↑ Billy Corgan buys the NWA ( Memento from August 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), power-wrestling.de, accessed on May 2, 2017
3. ^ ^{A b c} Tim Hornbaker: National Wrestling Alliance. P. 2.
4. ^ Tim Hornbaker: National Wrestling Alliance. P. 23.
5. ^ A Cooperative of Wrestling Promotors in the United States, Canada, Hawaii, and Mexico - Affiliates in Other Countrys.
6. ^ Tim Hornbaker: National Wrestling Alliance. P. 122 ff
7. ^ Tim Hornbaker: National Wrestling Alliance. P. 123.

Web links

Commons : National Wrestling Alliance  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• nationalwrestlingalliance.com