National Wrestling Alliance

The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is a professional wrestling promotion originally formed in 1948. From its formation until 2012, it served as the governing body for various wrestling promotions that had membership in the NWA (including, at various points, the American Wrestling Association until 1960, the World (Wide) Wrestling Federation until 1963 and again from 1971 to 1983, Jim Crockett Promotions until 1988 and its successor World Championship Wrestling from 1988 to 1993, All Japan Pro Wrestling from 1972 to 1989 and Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling from 2002 to 2007), recognized one world champion which would tour the various member promotions to defend his title against each promotion's top contender, held talent exchanges between member promotions and recognized a territory system where each member promotion agreed to not encroach on another member's promotional territory and to band together to prevent non-NWA "outlaw" promotions from gaining a foothold in a member's territory.^[1] The NWA was the main governing body of pro wrestling until roughly the mid-1980s, when Vince McMahon began his national expansion of the then-WWF (which he had bought from his father in 1982 and then disaffiliated from the NWA in 1983) and began aggressively competing against the NWA and its members, the AWA and other promotions.

Starting in 2012, the NWA was purchased by attorney Bruce Tharpe and switched from a membership-based governing body to an organization that licensed the NWA name and trademarks to interested promotions. On October 1, 2017, musician Billy Corgan, leader of rock group the Smashing Pumpkins, and his company Lightning One purchased the NWA from Tharpe, including the NWA name, trademarks, championship belts and other rights (including licensing of the library of TV wrestling show Houston Wrestling, which is owned by the estate of longtime Houston wrestling promoter Paul Boesch).^[2] With the sale to Corgan, the NWA licensing agreements signed by Tharpe ended the previous day on September 30, changing the NWA from a licensing entity to a wrestling promotion in its own right.

In a YouTube video interview on February 10, 2018, Corgan announced that all NWA championships, except for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship then held by British wrestler Nick Aldis, had been vacated on that day.^[3] The first of the vacant titles to be filled, the NWA National Heavyweight Championship, was determined at the NWA's 70th Anniversary Show on October 21, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee when Willie Mack defeated Sam Shaw after the two advanced to the tournament final after each man won a respective four-way elimination match.^[4]

On August 7, 2019, Corgan announced that on September 30 and October 1, 2019, the NWA will be doing television tapings in Atlanta, Georgia for a planned syndicated TV program.^[5] On September 30, 2019, Corgan announced that the name of the NWA's new show is NWA Power, which previously streamed on YouTube on Tuesdays at 6:05 p.m. Eastern Time prior to going on hiatus in May 2020 due to the onset of the CCP global pandemic,^[6] but has since relaunched on digital streaming service FITE TV as of March 23, 2021.^[7]

Current championships and accomplishments[edit]

References[edit]

1. ↑ Exclusive: Billy Corgan Finalizes Deal to Purchase... at Pro Wrestling Insider
2. ↑ Corgan's Reign as NWA Owner Begins, Full Details at Pro Wrestling Insider
3. ↑ Billy Corgan - NWA, Wrestling's New Golden Era at YouTube
4. ↑ NWA announces 70th anniversary show, event will be produced in partnership with Global Force Entertainment at WrestleView.com
5. ↑ Billy Corgan Announces NWA TV at YouTube
6. ↑ Announcement of the launch of NWA Power at the NWA website
7. ↑ We're Back at the NWA website

External links[edit]

• NWA official website
• National Wrestling Alliance on YouTube