National Wrestling Alliance

The **National Wrestling Alliance** (**NWA**) is an American professional wrestling promotion and former governing body operating via its parent company Lightning One, Inc.

Founded in 1948, the NWA began as a governing body for a group of independent professional wrestling promotions, the heads of which made up the Board of Directors. The group operated a territory system which sanctioned various championships, recognized one world champion, participated in talent exchanges, and collectively protected the territorial integrity of member promotions. Prior to the 1960s it acted as the sole governing body for most of professional wrestling. It remained the largest and most influential body in wrestling until the mid-1980s by which time most of the original member promotions went out of business as a result of the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) national expansion.

In September 1993, the largest remaining member promotion, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), left the NWA for the second and final time. The NWA would continue as a loose coalition of independent promotions, with NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA) given exclusivity over its World Heavyweight and Tag Team championships from June 2002 to May 2007.

In August 2012, the NWA discontinued its memberships and started licensing its brand to wrestling promotions. By 2019, the NWA would transition to become a singular, independent promotion.

## History

### 1948–1950: Formation

In 1948, Paul "Pinkie" George, a promoter from the Midwest, founded the National Wrestling Alliance with the backing of five other promoters: Al Haft, Tony Stecher, Harry Light, Orville Brown, and Sam Muchnick. The concept of the NWA was to consolidate the championships of these regional companies into one true world championship of professional wrestling, whose holder would be recognized worldwide. This newly formed NWA Board of Directors decided on Brown to be the first-ever NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Governing body

#### 1950s–1970s

In 1950, Sam Muchnick, one of the original promoters of the NWA and Thesz’s booker, was named the new NWA President, a position to which he was unanimously re-elected and held until 1960, making him one of the longest-tenured presidents in the organization’s history.[*citation needed*] Following the advent of television, professional wrestling matches began to be aired nationally during this time, reaching a larger audience than ever before. Rising demand and national expansion made wrestling a much more and lucrative form of entertainment than in decades previous. This would be known as the "Golden Age" for the wrestling industry. From 1948 to 1955, each of the three major television networks broadcast wrestling shows; the largest supporter being the DuMont Television Network.

In 1956, allegations were made that the NWA was an illegal monopoly blocking competition. An investigation led by the US Department of Justice resulted in the "NWA Consent Decree of 1956" (*The U.S. v. National Wrestling Alliance*). Several promoters would leave the organization during this time, with some managing to find niches in the United States. In 1957, Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn walked out of the August NWA meeting in St. Louis, having fallen out with Muchnick over a number of issues. At the time Quinn walked out, a wrestler of his named Édouard Carpentier was involved in an angle where he and Lou Thesz were both being presented around the NWA as world champion after Carpentier had a disputed win over Thesz on June 14, 1957.
As the 1950s came to an close, professional wrestling was losing television ratings, and soon TV stations dropped most wrestling shows from their lineups. The remaining televised wrestling promoters had small, local syndicated shows, which aired as late-night filler programming. Promoters started using localized television by purchasing airtime from rival territories, at the consequence of putting some of them out of business.
On January 24, 1963, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Lou Thesz defeated Buddy Rogers in a one-fall match and was declared NWA World Heavyweight Champion for the third and final time (official).[*citation needed*] However, after the event, Vincent J. McMahon and Toots Mondt from the Capital Wrestling Corporation promotion in the Northeast territory refused to recognize the title change since Thesz as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion was not a strong draw in their territory. They then withdrew CWC from the NWA. As a result, McMahon and Mondt formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation (later to be known as WWE) with Rogers as its first world champion in April 1963. Although both Gagne and McMahon promoted their own world champions, their promotions continued to have representatives on the NWA Board of Directors and regularly exchanged talent with NWA promotions during this time.[*citation needed*]

Wrestling's popularity continued to decline in the 1970s. The WWWF quietly rejoined the NWA in 1971 after their biggest draw, Bruno Sammartino, left the promotion. While still an NWA member in 1979, they changed their name from World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) to World Wrestling Federation (WWF). At some point during the decade, Muchnick reportedly declared Atlanta, Georgia as the “leading wrestling city” for its “drawing capacity and near-capacity crowds at the City Auditorium or the Omni every Friday.” While the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation (WWWF/WWF) both faltered during the 1970s, the NWA once again took over as the top promotion and gained huge dominance with their program, Georgia Championship Wrestling, which would become the first nationally broadcast wrestling program on cable television through then-superstation TBS in 1979. They brought in Gordon Solie, dubbed “The Walter Cronkite of Professional Wrestling,” from former NWA President Eddie Graham’s Championship Wrestling from Florida territory to be lead commentator and host.

#### 1980s–1993

Main article: Black Saturday (professional wrestling)

Videotape trading and cable television paved the way for the decline of the NWA's inter-regional business model, as viewers could now see plot holes and inconsistencies between each territories' storylines. The presence of stars like Ric Flair on TV every week made their special appearances in each region less of a draw.

The WWF left the NWA for good in 1983, as Vincent K. McMahon, who bought the WWF from his father in 1982, worked to get WWF programming on syndicated television all across the United States.[*citation needed*] That same year, Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA created its primary supercard, Starrcade, the first to be broadcast via closed-circuit networks and was regarded as their flagship event.

On Saturday, July 14, 1984, in what would become known as Black Saturday, McMahon bought NWA member Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and merged it into the WWF. The WWF would take over GCW's TV slot on TBS, which had been home to GCW’s *World Championship Wrestling* program for 12 years. This move proved disastrous as ratings would plummet, and the WWF would end up losing money on the deal. Then-NWA President Jim Crockett, Jr., the owner of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), would buy the *World Championship Wrestling* program from McMahon for $1 million (US) and returned NWA programming to TBS. By 1985, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) would become the flagship of the NWA by acquiring more time slots on TBS and merging with other NWA territories in attempt to compete with the WWF.

With the success of WrestleMania III in 1987, the WWF would schedule another pay-per-view, Survivor Series, on Thanksgiving night to compete directly with NWA’s Starrcade event, and demanded exclusivity from cable providers on carriage of the event. As a result, Starrcade was moved to December the following year, with the show now held around Christmas Day beginning in 1988.[*citation needed*] The WWF then scheduled their first Royal Rumble event in January 1988 to counterprogram against the NWA’s Bunkhouse Stampede. The NWA responded by creating Clash of the Champions on TBS to counterprogram WrestleMania IV.[*citation needed*]

By 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions was facing bankruptcy. On October 11, under the direction of owner Ted Turner, TBS bought the assets of JCP and renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after the TV show of the same name. Originally incorporated by TBS as the Universal Wrestling Corporation, Turner promised fans that WCW would retain the athlete-oriented style of the NWA. The sale was completed on November 2, 1988, with a television taping of *NWA World Championship Wrestling* that very same date in WCW's hometown of Atlanta. By September 1993, WCW would withdraw completely from the NWA.

#### 1993–2005

In 1998, the World Wrestling Federation reached an agreement to use the likeness of the NWA titles, branding, and its history, to create a storyline. It would be later claimed that WWE still owned the rights. Despite The NWA receiving international television publicity during the angle, it was considered a failure due to low viewer interests.

In June 2002, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett launched a new promotion called NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA) (now known as Impact Wrestling). Despite not actually being an official NWA member, NWA:TNA was given creative control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships through an agreement with the NWA.[*citation needed*] In August 2005, the presidency of the NWA was dissolved and the duties of the office assumed by the Board of Directors, following the resignation of Ernie Todd (NWA: Canadian Wrestling Federation).[*citation needed*]

#### 2005–2012

It was announced on the NWA's website on Monday, October 10, 2005, that NWA legal counsel Bob Trobich would become its new Executive Director. In 2007, NWA terminated its agreement with TNA, this would cause TNA to lose control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships.

In January 2008, Colours TV on Dish Network and the NWA announced that they would begin airing an hour-long show entitled *NWA Wrestling Showcase*, featuring the NWA's current lineup of stars in action. The show was hosted by David Marquez (with Rob Conway co-hosting the first four episodes) with match commentary by announcers Todd Kenneley, Kris Kloss and Rick Otazu. Ten episodes were shown before re-runs began. All the matches were taped at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. In January 2009, *NWA Wrestling Showcase* started airing new episodes, this time the tapings took place in Hollywood California.

On July 12, 2010, NWA Pro Wrestling, Inc. and KDOC-TV Los Angeles announced a partnership in producing National Wrestling Alliance branded television programming beginning September 2010. *NWA: Championship Wrestling from Hollywood (CWFH)* would premiered on September 17, 2010.
In April 2012, North Carolina businessman and NWA Carolinas promoter David Baucom took over as the Executive Director after the resignation of Trobich

#### 2020–present: COVID-19 and restructuring

In January 2020, Marty Scurll, and other Ring of Honor talent, began to appear at NWA events once again as part of an inter-promotional angle. In addition to re-signing with ROH, Scurll would join the company's booking team, enabling him to appear for both the NWA and ROH. However, in the fallout of the Speaking Out Movement, Scurll was accused of taking advantage of a 16-year-old girl who was inebriated. After an investigation, Scurll would removed from his position as booker, and by the following January in 2021, would be no longer under contract.

Nick Aldis was scheduled to face PCO at Supercard of Honor XIV on April 4, 2020 before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 18, 2020, Dave Lagana resigned as Vice President of the NWA after allegations of sexual assault were made public. The promotion would go into hiatus as a result of this and the pandemic. During this time, several wrestlers would also leave the NWA, including former Tag team Champions James Storm and Eli Drake, Marti Belle, former women's champion Allysin Kay, former Tag Team Champion Royce Isaacs, and former Television Champion Zicky Dice.

NWA World Women's Champion Thunder Rosa would also make appearances for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) while under contract with the NWA. On September 5, 2020, Rosa unsuccessfully challenged AEW Women's World Championship Hikaru Shida at All Out. On October 27, 2020, Serena Deeb defeated Rosa during the United Wrestling Network's Primetime Live event to become the new NWA World Women's Champion.
On March 2, 2021, the NWA announced their return to promoting events, with the NWA Back For The Attack pay-per-view and new *Power* episodes as part of a new distribution agreement with FITE TV. As part of this agreement, the NWA would remove content from their YouTube channel.