That Was Then 12.03.05: History Of The World Title Part I - The NWA World Title
Posted by Stuart Carapola on 12.03.2005
A look back at one of the most important titles in wrestling...
These days, most people would point to either John Cena or Batista as the top champion in pro wrestling. Prior to that, you’d probably have said either the WWF Champion or WCW Champion was the man, depending who was holding the title. But from 1948 until the mid 1980s, the man who held the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) World Title was almost universally recognized as the top guy in the business.
Since the mid 80s, the title had gone through various degrees of value and exposure. In fact, many question if the title currently around the waist of Jeff Jarrett should even be considered to be the same title that was held by men such as Ric Flair, Harley Race, the Funks, Jack Brisco, Lou Thesz, and others. In this first part of the history of the World Championship, we look at the lineage of the NWA Title and try to determine who exactly can truly claim the lineage of the World Championship.
The Early Years (1948-1969)
in the mid-1940s, the various regional promoters around the country decided that, in the interest of making money and settling several other disputes, it would be worth their while to band together and recognize a single World Champion. Due to the extremely tough antitrust laws of the time, they couldn’t actually merge into a single company, so they instead formed a loose confederation known as the National Wrestling Alliance. The board of the NWA would vote on a single World Champion, who would travel around to the different NWA territories and defend against the local challengers. Although they put on the façade of unity here, we were still dealing with a collection of carnies who would always take what they could get at the expense of the other NWA members, a true collection of cutthroats.
Still though, the NWA had its World Champion, and the first man to hold this distinction was a man by the name of Orville Brown. Brown was a top performer in the Midwest and was the Midwest Wrestling Association’s champion, then was awarded the first NWA World Championship when the MWA became one of the founding NWA member territories. To further the concept of a single World Champion, the NWA petitioned the National Wrestling Association (the wrestling arm of the National Boxing Association) to unify their World Title with their own. Feeling that a)wrestling would benefit from having their own commission instead of being a mere subsidiary of another, and b)that wrestling wasn’t something the NBA really wanted any association with anyway, they agreed. A match was scheduled for November of 1949 in which Alliance Champion would meet Association Champion Lou Thesz. Before the match could happen, however, Brown was in a car accident that more or less ended his career. Unable to make the scheduled title defense, the title was taken from Brown and awarded to Thesz by default.
Thesz would quickly shoot to the top of the wrestling scene. Already the now unified NWA World Champion, he later won and unified the recognized versions of the World Title in both Boston and Los Angeles, and for the first time in quite some time, wrestling had its one World Champion. Thesz would go on to hold the title for over six years, during which time he would bring great prestige to the title by traveling all over not only North America, but indeed the world. He even became a legend in Japan by defeating Japanese wrestling hero Rikidozan.
Thesz finally lost the title in 1956 to Whipper Billy Watson, but won it back eight months later. During this reign as champion, Thesz lost a title match to Canadian wrestler Edouard Carpentier. However, Carpentier won the match by disqualification and, even though the title could not change hands on a DQ, Midwest promoters Wally Karbo and Verne Gagne recognized Carpentier as champion. They soon moved the title onto Gagne himself despite Carpentier never actually appearing to defend the title. This didn’t stop Gagne and Karbo from creating the AWA World Title (which was what Gagne now held) and also causing the first major split in the lineage of the NWA Title.
Thesz continued defending the title for a full year, finally losing the title to Dick Hutton. The title was passed from Hutton to Pat O’Connor and then to Buddy Rogers, a name some of you might have heard of. Lou Thesz would reclaim his World Title in January of 1963, but again, renegade promoters (this time in the Northeast) would not recognize the title change, and so promoters Toots Mondt and Vince McMahon, Sr would break away from the NWA and form the World Wide Wrestling Federation, later to be known as the World Wrestling Federation and, currently, World Wrestling Entertainment. Buddy Rogers was recognized as their first World Champion, and this was the second split in the lineage of the NWA Title.
Thesz, in the meantime, held the title for another three years before finally losing it for the last time to Gene Kiniski in January of 1969. Although his time as World Champion ended with the 1960s, Thesz’s influence on the wrestling world cannot be understated, as he not only carried the title through most of the first 20 years of the existence of the NWA, but his reigns as champion were also the catalyst for the creation of the AWA and WWWF.
The Next Generation (1969-1981)
Following the retirement of Lou Thesz from the World Championship scene, it was clear that another man would have to step forward to be the standard bearer for the NWA. That man would not be Gene Kiniski, the man who had conquered Thesz, or Dory Funk, Jr, who had in turn ended Kiniski’s four year reign as champion. The man who would carry the NWA Title through most of the 1970s and early 80s was Harley Race.
Harley Race, a native of the Central States territory in Missouri, was trained by former world class grapplers Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko. He first became World Champion in 1973 when he defeated Funk in Race’s home territory of Kansas City. Race then went on to have one of the shortest reigns of any NWA Champion up to that point, lasting less than four months before dropping the title to former NCAA wrestling standout Jack Brisco.
Brisco held the title for a little over two years, except for a one week span in late 1974 where he lost the title to, and shortly afterward regained it from Shohei “Giant” Baba in Japan. Through his time as champion, he had a great rivalry going with former champion Dory Funk, Jr. Dory was never able to wrest the title from Brisco, but was still scheduled for another shot at Brisco in December of 1975 in Miami. Due to transportation problems, Dory was unable to make the show, but his younger brother Terry was there. Terry was given the shot at Brisco and defeated him with the spinning toehold to get the surprise submission victory and win the title.
Funk would in turn reign for just over a year before Race would finally reclaim the title, almost four years after losing it for the first time. This time around, Race would have much greater success with the title around his waist. He lost the title to Dusty Rhodes for five days, and then to Baba for a week (both in 1979), then would again drop the title to Baba in 1980, this time for only five days, and Tommy Rich also earned a four day title reign before dropping the title back to Race. However, except for those 21 days total, he was NWA World Champion for almost four and a half years.
Race, Brisco, and the Funks had identified themselves with a period of relative political calmness in the NWA that was certainly not characteristic of the years in which Lou Thesz held the title. However, their day would also end in 1981 when Race lost the title to Dusty Rhodes in Atlanta. Dusty Rhodes had ended Race’s lengthy run with the title, but the next man in line after Rhodes would have an even bigger stranglehold on the title than Race had or Rhodes could ever dream of..
The Crockett Years (1981-1993)
Although not previously seen as much more than a midcarder with a gift for promos, Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes in September of 1981 for the first of many World Titles. Flair came off as a bit flaky at first, “losing” the title several times, only to have the decisions quickly reversed and erased from history because they were usually unplanned and in NWA outposts where the news would never get out. He did finally lose the title for real almost two years later to former champion Harley Race. Race’s last big run with the title came to an end five and a half months later when Flair defeated him in a cage match in the main event of the first ever Starrcade.
From that point on, Flair would become almost synonymous with the NWA Title. He lost the title to Race again for two days in the Pacific, which was not recognized in North America for over 15 years. Kerry Von Erich won the title in tribute to his late brother David, but his reign only lasted 18 days. Dusty Rhodes regained the title from Flair in 1986, but only went two weeks before dropping it back to Flair. Looking to create interest for Starrcade, the decision was made to put the title on Ronnie Garvin, the only man willing to be a lame duck champion at that point. Garvin held the title for about two months before losing the title back to Flair as expected.
Flair had been the champion for the better part of eight years as 1989 began. 1989 was, of course, the year he had his famous feud with Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat won the title in February, then successfully defended the title against Flair in a 2 out of 3 falls match before losing it back to Flair in May. Flair would then feud with former champion Terry Funk and also Lex Luger, both of whom were unable to take the title from Flair.
As the 1990s dawned, it seemed that Flair’s time at the top was at an end. He lost the title to Sting and was bumped down to the midcard, but Sting’s title reign was poorly handled, and in order to salvage the situation as much as possible, the title was put back on Flair. Due to problems with management, Flair would soon leave the NWA while still holding the title. The title would be stripped of Flair and the WCW World Title was created and given to former top challenger Lex Luger. For this first time since its creation, there was no NWA World Champion. To compound things, the creation of the WCW Title, which basically replaced the NWA Title in Jim Crockett Promotions (which had by this point been renamed World Championship Wrestling) was now the third major break in the lineage of the NWA Title.
The NWA Title remained dormant for over a year, before finally being reinstated and given to Masahiro Chono, who won the title in a tournament in Japan in late 1992. Chono defended the title both in Japan and in the US against several WCW wrestlers, and lost the title shortly after the beginning of the new year to the Great Muta. Muta’s reign would only last about a month and a half before the title wound up back around the waist of a WCW wrestler, Barry Windham. Windham’s reign would be a mere transition period, as he eventually lost the title to the returning Ric Flair. Unfortunately for both Flair and the NWA, WCW would decide that it no longer needed to be an NWA member, and withdrew from the NWA, with Flair still as champion, in September of 1993. The NWA Title was again vacant, and its value was cast into question because of its handling since 1991.
The Dark Years (1993-2002)
The NWA Title would again lay dormant for the span of a year, and it was announced that the title would be filled with a tournament hosted by NWA member Eastern Championship Wrestling. The tournament was won by Shane Douglas, and Douglas totally discredited the NWA and its World Title by throwing the NWA Title belt down immediately after winning it, and declaring himself the Extreme Championship Wrestling World Champion, which was the fourth major anomaly in the history of the NWA Title.
Although the title would finally be filled three months later when Chris Candido won a second tournament, the NWA Title was entering a period of obscurity which almost totally destroyed any value it had left. Candido lost the title three months after winning it to amateur wrestling and UFC standout Dan Severn. Although Severn’s accomplishments outside of pro wrestling would bring some credibility to the title, his infrequent title defenses pretty much negated any of the value in having him as champion. What’s worse is that by this point, the NWA Title had no TV exposure, and was seen by many as no longer being a World Title, but simply an indy title with a famous acronym.
Severn reigned as champion for over four years, often going months without defending the title, before finally losing to Naoya Ogawa in Japan. Ogawa then lost the title in a three way to Gary Steele, but won it back a week later. His run as champion, notable only for ending Severn’s long reign, itself ended when Ogawa voluntarily gave up the title in July of 2000. Once again vacant, the title was won in yet another tournament, this time when “Colorado Kid” Mike Rapada won another tournament, defeating Jerry Flynn in the finals.
The names that were in the NWA Title picture by this point were so low on the totem pole that the NWA Title almost began to become a parody of itself. Fortunately, the title regained some credibility when Rapada lost the title to Sabu, regained it a month later, then lost it to former ECW World Champion Steve Corino. Corino had a healthy eight month reign as champion, and lost the title to Shinya Hashimoto. Hashimoto was a huge name in Japan and a former IWGP Champion, the Japanese equivalent of the WWF or WCW Title. Corino even went on record saying that Hashimoto had beaten him up worse than anyone had in his entire career.
More turmoil for the NWA Title would ensue, as Hashimoto’s reign only lasted a mere three months before he lost it to longtime former champion Dan Severn, thanks to a quick count from the referee. It looked like Severn would be in for another long, uneventful run as NWA Champion, but it was not to be, as the NWA Board of Directors would strip Severn of the NWA Title. This time however, it wouldn’t be due to chicanery on the part of a wrestler or promoter, or any other extreme circumstance. This time, somebody had actually purchased the rights to the NWA Title, which was soon headed back into the wrestling mainstream.
The TNA Era (2002-Present)
In mid-2002, Jeff Jarrett decided that since there was no real competition for the WWE, and since he had burned his own bridge with them anyway, he would simply create the competition. Thus was TNA born. The plan was to start with weekly PPV shows, and eventually try to get a cable TV slot and monthly PPVs, similar to what WWE had. The one problem was that nobody knew the TNA name, and they needed some kind of identifying mark that the wrestling fan would recognize. Jarrett decided that he needed his top title to be the NWA World Title.
In what would prove to be a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangement, Jarrett and TNA would get exclusive rights to use the NWA World Title, in return for which the NWA and the NWA Title would get a chance to regain its past glory and name value. In an interesting first move, the NWA Title was put on Dan Severn’s former UFC rival Ken Shamrock at TNA’s first weekly PPV event. The title then found its way from Shamrock to Ron “The Truth” Killings, before finally winding up where many figured it eventually would, around the waist of Jeff Jarrett.
The same way Lou Thesz, Harley Race, Ric Flair, and Dan Severn had all been identified with the NWA Title in their respective eras, the NWA Title would spend most of the TNA era around the waist of Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett’s first reign lasted seven months before he lost to young sensation AJ Styles. Four months later, Jarrett had regained the title. Jarrett’s second reign would last another six months before he was again defeated by Styles. The title would quickly jump from Styles to Killings and back to Jarrett, little more than a month after he lost it.
This next reign went on for almost a full year before Jarrett was defeated by Styles for a third time. Styles wouldn’t last long as champion before another former ECW Champion, Raven, won the title. He enjoyed a nice three month reign before losing the title back to Jarrett. Jarrett lost the title to Rhino in what amounted to a fluke victory, and Jarrett won the title back two days later, and remains champion as of this writing.
The Lineage
It’s interesting to look at the history of the NWA World Title and realize that the AWA, WWE, WCW, ECW, and TNA were all born out of NWA membership and all of them have a claim to the NWA Title. But who truly can claim the lineage of the NWA Title, dating back to Orville Brown in 1948?
Probably one of the stronger claims is that of WCW. They had almost sole control of the NWA Title from the early 80s on, and the WCW World Title basically replaced the NWA Title in their world. Many also see the creation of the WCW Title as the end of the NWA Title’s claim to being a World Title. But what about the AWA? Their recognition of Carpentier as World Champion was shaky at best, and Carpentier himself never actually appeared on an AWA show to defend the AWA Title. WWE has a stronger claim, as they chose not to recognize Buddy Rogers’ loss of the NWA Title, instead choosing to pass it on to Bruno Sammartino and everybody to hold the title since. They also controlled the WCW Title in its final year, unifying it with the WWF Title in 2001. ECW can also make a claim to the lineage, as Shane Douglas did win the title, even though he threw it down and doomed it to almost a decade of obscurity.
However, it is still the NWA that has remained the governing body controlling the title, and if Jeff Jarrett is currently recognized as the NWA World Champion, then to me this means that officially, he holds the same title that Flair, Race, the Funks, Brisco, Rhodes, Thesz, Severn, Corino, and Hashimoto all held. And thanks to Jarrett and TNA, it has now risen back to being one of the top titles in wrestling. Feel free to form your own opinion.
One claim I can definitively refute is that the history of the title goes back to the first few years of the 20th century. The National Wrestling Alliance World Title was created in 1948, and people often view its unification with the National Wrestling Association’s title as a way of extending the history of the title. However, even the Association’s title doesn’t go all the way back to the beginning of the century, although the titles it grew out of can be traced all the way back to the 1800s. In part two of this series, I will go into a little more detail of the history of the World Heavyweight Title, and all the offshoots, prior to 1948.
