5.3. What happened to the NWA?
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This article is from the Pro-Wrestling FAQ, by macika@emunix.emich.edu (Dominic Macika) with numerous contributions by others.
5.3. What happened to the NWA?
The transformation of the NWA into its current state took place
simply because the promoters stopped cooperating. Problems in the
NWA can be traced back into the 1970's but the major changes came
in 1985. In an attempt to turn into a national promotion, Jim
Crockett obtained the WTBS wrestling time slot from the WWF in
March, 1985. With this exposure, combined with controlling power
over the NWA title, Crockett was able to strong arm the other
member promotions into complying with his requests. Many of the
other promotions ended up going out of business or being bought
up by Crockett. Eventually, however, Crockett too ran into
problems and sold his promotion to Ted Turner. The Turner
controlled WCW continued, but with the exception of using the NWA
name in a co-promotional effort with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the
NWA essentially no longer existed except as a paper organization.
In 1992 and 1993, a number of promoters applied for membership in
the NWA and some were accepted. Among these promoters was Dennis
Coraluzzo, who became an NWA board member and began demanding
dates with the NWA champion. In the ensuing legal struggle, WCW
resigned its membership, but kept the "NWA" title belt, which it
had legal ownership of. Meanwhile, Coraluzzo and the remaining
NWA promoters were left without any powerful members and without
a champion.
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