NWA

History

The National Wrestling Alliance was, for most of the 20th Century, the preeminent wrestling promotion in the world. In actuality, the NWA was a confederation of many different promotions operating under a common name for both marketing and networking purposes. One could see an NWA show in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tokyo, or even small towns throughout the United States or Mexico, and be assured of a quality show. In addition, talent was traded between cities or "territories" to keep a constant influx of fresh faces for fans to see. The arrangment was beneficial to the promotors, the wrestlers, and the fans.

The NWA traces its lineage back to the turn of the 1900's, when professional wrestling was still in its infancy, having only recently become something other than a completely legitimate sporting event.

Internationally renowned member promotions of the NWA included EMLL (until the Lutteroth family pulled out of the NWA and necame CMLL), Jim Crockett Promotions (until Ted Turner bought the company, eventually pulling out of the NWA and forming WCW), and even Vince McMahon Sr's WWF, which was a member on two occassions, once upon its inception until a 1960 dispute over Buddy Rogers possession of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and again in the early 1970's until the advent of cable television allowed Vince McMahon to make the WWF a national entity in its own right.

The NWA sputtered after the secession of CMLL and WCW, until the advent of Jeff Jarrett's Total Nonstop Action promotion. TNA seemingly revived the NWA from the dead until the ending of the partnership in 2007. From 2017, the NWA is now a singular promotion owned by Billy Corgan, and produces the territory throwback-style show NWA Powerrr.

Relation to Lucha Libre

EMLL was a strong member of the NWA until the 1990's, and were given control of many of the world-class championships of the alliance, such as the NWA World Middleweight Championship, the NWA World Welterweight Championship, and the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship soon after the NWA was created.

While the current version of the NWA no longer recognizes these championships, CMLL continued to present them them as if the previous version of the NWA still existed and was running the same way it had at it's start. NWA title match referees were required to wear NWA patches on their shirt, and CMLL used the idea of (fictional) NWA rankings to explain why and when wrestlers gets NWA title chances.

NWA World Heavyweight Champions occasionally wrestled in Mexico and defended the championship, though it has never changed hands in Mexico until Blue Demon Jr. defeated Adam Pearce on October 25, 2008. He became the first masked wrestler to win the title.

NWA Mexico and the end of the NWA titles in CMLL

Earlier in 2008, Blue Demon Jr. announced a new NWA affiliate, NWA Mexico. There had not been an NWA allied company in Mexico since EMLL had left (though XLAW had run one show billed as an affiliate show in 2007.) As part of announcing the new company, Demon suggested the possibility of co-promoting with CMLL. CMLL ignored this offer, and Demon's later statements began to be less of an offer and more of a demand - the CMLL wrestlers who currently held NWA World championships must defend them on NWA shows, or give those titles up. CMLL continued to ignore Demon and NWA Mexico.

In 2010, NWA Mexico declared the CMLL champions invalid, promised to hold tournaments for new champions later that summer, and warned of legal action if CMLL continued to use their initials on their shows. In response, CMLL simply dropped the NWA initials from the names of the championships, calling them only "World [weight class] Championship". CMLL continued to use the same physical belts, with the NWA logos, thru August of that year.

On August 12, 2010, CMLL announced they were retiring these championships and placing the belts in their museums. The current champions were given new belts with a new name.

• Mephisto: CMLL Historic Welterweight Championship
• Averno: CMLL Historic Middleweight Championship
• Texano Jr.: CMLL Historic Light Heavyweight Championship

Since forming, NWA Mexico has run six shows, including a year off between it's last show in April 2009 before returning on the August 2010 Lucha Libre Expo. The only frequently visible sign of NWA Mexico's existence is the NWA Mexico Lightweight Championship and NWA Mexico Welterweight Championship, which appears to be a singular belt swapped between Skayde & Turbo indiscriminately. The tournaments announced to fill the NWA championships have not occurred.

For More Information

Wikipedia:NWA

Gallery

V	National Wrestling Alliance Championships (with lucha libre history)	E
World Welter (Akantus), NWA-Mexico: Mexico Light (Skayde), Mexico Welter (Vaquero Fantasma)
Dragon Gym: International Junior Heavy (Último Dragón)
Defunct: Middle, Light Heavy, Americas Tag
Reference: Jr. Heavy, Heavy
CMLL established titles: Historic Welter (Volador Jr.), Historic Middle (Carístico), Historic LH (Stuka Jr.)

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