The National Wrestling Alliance was founded in July 1948 in Waterloo, Iowa, USA. It was formed to be a governing body for a group of independent professional wrestling promotions. The group operated as a territory alliance which sanctioned championships and recognized one world champion, the Ten Pounds of Gold. It is the oldest wrestling company in the world predating World Wrestling Entertainment by five years. Its most popular period was during the Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1980s. The Ten Pounds of Gold have been held by some of the greatest Professional Wrestlers in the history of the business. Wrestlers such as Lou Thesz, Ric Flair, Harley Race, The Funk Brothers Dory Jr. & Terry, and the Son of a Plumber himself, Dusty Rhodes.
After the Golden Age, NWA was in quite a rough spot. Ted Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions and renamed the asset World Championship Wrestling and then withdrew completely from the NWA in 1993. Soon after, a promotion based in Philadelphia known as Eastern Championship Wrestling withdrew their membership from the NWA. They hosted a tournament to crown a new World Heavyweight Champion in Shane Douglas. Douglas threw the belt to the ground, claiming that he didn’t want to be the champion of a promotion that died seven years before.
While not in the National spotlight, the National Wrestling Alliance was still alive and well. The Ten Pounds of Gold was being recognized and defended in territories such as Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association. It was even held by one of the toughest individuals in Combat Sports, Dan “The Beast” Severn who held it while also holding the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Superfight Championship. Trying to bring legitimacy to the sport of Professional Wrestling, Jim Cornette from the World Wrestling Federation worked with the NWA and Vince McMahon to bring the national spotlight back to the NWA. Jim Cornette pitched the idea of a faction based around the NWA Champions including Dan Severn (World Champion), Jeff Jarrett (North American Champion), The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (World Tag Champions), and a debuting tag team dubbed the New Midnight Express featuring Bob Holly and Bart Gunn. The faction was short-lived and McMahon ended it since it never accomplished its intended purpose.
Four years later in June 2002, Jeff & Jerry Jarrett worked out a licensing deal with the NWA and formed NWA: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Through the licensing deal that allowed the Jarrett’s to use the World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Titles on their program bringing the brand back into the National eye. Soon after, the Jarrett’s sold majority ownership of NWA: TNA to Panda Energy. In 2004, TNA withdrew from the NWA but retained the rights to use the World Heavyweight and World Tag Team titles until 2007 when TNA created its own World and World Tag Team championships.
After TNA ended its relationship with the NWA, the brand began to suffer from the same problems that had plague it in the past: a lack of stable promotions within the alliance to help promote the brand and its traveling champions. In early to mid 2012, there was a feud that started to bring the spotlight towards the brand once again. It was a blood feud dubbed “Seven Levels of Hate” for the Ten Pounds of Gold featuring independent wrestling journeyman, Colt Cabana against the 5-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Adam Pearce. When the series was tied at three matches apiece, the NWA underwent another massive change. R. Bruce Tharpe and International Wrestling Corp, LLC. sued the NWA and its then parent company, Pro Wrestling Organization, LLC. Tharpe claimed that the NWA committed insurance fraud regarding the NWA’s liability insurance policy. A settlement was negotiated that transferred the rights of the NWA to International Wrestling Corp, LLC. The final match was scheduled to take place in Melbourne, Australia at a promotion who was a member of the NWA. Pearce wanted the NWA to sanction the match as a World title match but the new regime refused to do this. Cabana & Pearce went forward with the match, after Cabana won the match, the duo broke kayfabe when they declared they did not want to be the holder of the NWA World Championship.
Once Tharpe and International Wrestling Corp, LLC took control of the NWA the new organization moved from the membership model that the company had used as a business model for over 64 years, to a licensing model, licensing the NWA brand name to wrestling promotions caused many promoters to immediately cut ties with the NWA, including some of the biggest promotions that had been hosting matches since the ending of the TNA partnership. Trying to establish it as a global brand, Tharpe connected with Tiger Hattori of New Japan Pro Wrestling and began promoting the NWA brand overseas. While promoting the brand overseas, Tharpe sought to put his footprint in the modern era by creating an On Demand website which featured NWA content from the past. Meanwhile territories were going through the change of becoming independent, but still wanting to label their champion as the NWA Champion without paying proper fees or going through the correct channels. As a result, multiple promotions were popping up without proper affiliation with the NWA itself. Tharpe had an uphill battle throughout his time as NWA president, but he did his best to navigate the changing waters of the Modern Era.
On May 1st, 2017, William Patrick Corgan agreed to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance, including its name, rights, trademarks, and championship belts. As part of the acquisition, Corgan would also purchase Tharpe’s stake in the NWA’s On Demand service and licensing of the coveted Paul Boesch’s Houston wrestling library. Corgan’s ownership took effect on October 1st, 2017, at that point all existing NWA affiliation agreements were ended and all NWA championships, except the Worlds Heavyweight and World Women’s Championship were vacated.
Late October 2017, Lightning One, Inc began producing a YouTube series dubbed NWA Ten Pounds of Gold. The series was focused around the current champion Tim Storm, introducing him to the public eye, and showing him defending the championship across the United States. Since the NWA did not promote individual shows, they worked with various promotions putting on championship matches. A few months later, Nick Aldis became the face of the National Wrestling Alliance when he defeated Tim Storm for the Ten Pounds of Gold at a Combat Zone Wrestling event.
During Aldis’ reign or “Crusade” as he liked to call it, in 2018, the NWA partnered with Ring of Honor. NWA contracted talent such as Aldis, James Storm, and Eli Drake appeared at several ROH events. During this time, the Ten Pounds of Gold series and Being the Elite series focused on the build towards a championship feud between Nick Aldis and Cody Rhodes. Rhodes got the better of Aldis in their first encounter at the supercard dubbed All In. The rematch was set for the 70thAnniversary Show for the NWA in a Two out of Three Falls match, Aldis was able to regain the World’s Heavyweight Championship title when he defeated Rhodes 2 falls to 1 fall leaving their series tied 1 to 1. Aldis then went on to defend the title against competitors such as: former NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion Colt Cabana, James Storm, and Elite Member, Marty Scurll.
The NWA became a singular wrestling promotion with the announcement of their own tapings in Georgia Public Broadcasting Studios in Atlanta, Georgia on July 2019. The new television show was titled NWA Power and was uploaded on to YouTube for free globally. On June 2020, Dave Lagana resigned as Vice President of the NWA after allegations of sexual assault were made public during the Speaking Out movement. Multiple Wrestlers as well as backstage workers were immediately blackballed from the sport after the allegations came to light. The promotion would then go into hiatus as a result of the movement and COVID-19 pandemic.
In late February 2021, the Internet Wrestling Community noticed that the National Wrestling Alliance removed all YouTube videos from their channel as well as closed their merchandise shop on the National Wrestling Alliance website. During further investigation, the IWC also noticed that popular apparel website Pro Wrestling Tees had pulled the NWA from their shop. A lot of speculation began going as far as to say that World Wrestling Entertainment had purchased the NWA and their Video Library for use in the new partnership with Peacock.
A lot of fans had stated that the National Wrestling Alliance brand was dead. Most of the popular talent had moved on to other Wrestling promotions or decided to part ways with the organization. The pandemic took a massive hit on most Independent Wrestling promotions including the NWA. William Patrick Corgan decided that he wanted to wait until fans were able to attend tapings in full attendance instead of running with an empty GPB Studio arena. During the down time, a lot of talents decided to leave the brand instead of waiting to see if the Company will begin operating again. Only time will tell what is next for the National Wrestling Alliance. |
