Formation in North America In 1948,
Paul "Pinkie" George, a professional wrestling promoter from the
U.S. Midwest, founded the National Wrestling Alliance with the backing of six other promoters:
Al Haft,
Tony Stecher,
Harry Light,
Orville Brown,
Don Owen, and
Sam Muchnick. The concept of the NWA was to consolidate the championships of these regional companies into one true world championship of professional wrestling, whose holder would be recognized worldwide. The newly formed NWA Board of Directors decided that Brown would become the first ever
NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
Governing body 1950s–1970s In 1950,
Sam Muchnick, one of the original promoters of the NWA and
Lou Thesz's booker, was named the governing body's President, a position to which he was unanimously re-elected and held until 1960, making him one of the longest-tenured presidents in the organization's history. Following the advent of
television, professional wrestling matches began to be aired nationally during this time, reaching a larger audience than ever before. Rising demand and national expansion made wrestling a much more lucrative form of entertainment than in decades previous. This era went on to be known as the "Golden Age" of professional wrestling. From 1948 to 1955, each of the three major television networks broadcast wrestling shows; the largest supporter being the
DuMont Television Network. Several promoters left the organization during this time, with some managing to find niches in the United States. In 1957,
Montreal promoter
Eddie Quinn walked out of the August NWA meeting in St. Louis, having fallen out with Muchnick over a number of issues. At the time Quinn walked out, a wrestler of his named
Édouard Carpentier was involved in an angle where he and Lou Thesz were both being presented around the NWA as world champion after Carpentier had a disputed win over Thesz on June 14, 1957. As the 1950s came to a close, professional wrestling was losing television ratings, and soon TV stations dropped most wrestling shows from their lineups. The remaining televised wrestling promoters had small, local
syndicated shows, which aired as late-night filler programming. Promoters started using localized television by purchasing airtime from rival territories, at the consequence of putting some of them out of business. On January 24, 1963, at
Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Lou Thesz defeated
Buddy Rogers in a one-fall match and was declared NWA World Heavyweight Champion for the third and final time. However, after the event,
Vincent J. McMahon and
Toots Mondt of the
Capital Wrestling Corporation (CWC) refused to recognize the title change since Thesz was not a strong draw in their
Northeastern territory. They then withdrew the CWC from the NWA. As a result, McMahon and Mondt formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, later to be known as
WWE) with Rogers as its first
world champion in April 1963. Although both Gagne and McMahon promoted their own world champions, their promotions continued to have representatives on the NWA Board of Directors and regularly exchanged talent with NWA promotions during this time. Wrestling's popularity continued to decline in the 1970s. They changed their name from the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. At some point during the decade, Muchnick reportedly declared
Atlanta, Georgia as the "leading wrestling city" for its "drawing capacity and near-capacity crowds at the City Auditorium or the Omni every Friday." While the
American Wrestling Association (AWA) and World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation (WWWF/WWF) both faltered during the 1970s, the NWA once again took over as the top promotion and gained huge dominance with their program,
Georgia Championship Wrestling, which became the first nationally broadcast wrestling program on cable television through then-superstation
TBS in 1979. They brought in
Gordon Solie, dubbed "The Walter Cronkite of Professional Wrestling," from former NWA President Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida territory to be lead commentator and host. The WWF left the NWA for good in 1983, as
Vincent K. McMahon, who bought the WWF from his father in 1982, worked to get WWF programming on syndicated television all across the United States. That same year,
Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and the NWA created its primary
supercard,
Starrcade, the first to be broadcast via
closed-circuit networks and was regarded as their flagship event. On Saturday, July 14, 1984, in what would become known as
Black Saturday, McMahon bought NWA member
Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and merged it into the WWF. The WWF took over GCW's TV slot on
TBS, which had been home to GCW's
World Championship Wrestling program for 12 years. This move proved disastrous as ratings plummeted, and the WWF ended up losing money on the deal. Then-NWA President
Jim Crockett, Jr., the owner of JCP, bought the
World Championship Wrestling program from McMahon for $1 million and returned NWA programming to TBS. By 1985, JCP had become the flagship territory of the NWA by acquiring more time slots on TBS and merging with other NWA territories in an attempt to compete with the WWF. With the success of
WrestleMania III in 1987, the WWF scheduled another pay-per-view,
Survivor Series, on Thanksgiving night to compete directly with NWA's Starrcade event, and demanded exclusivity from cable providers on carriage of the event. As a result, Starrcade was moved to December the following year, with the show now held around
Christmas Day beginning in 1988. The WWF then scheduled their first
Royal Rumble event in January 1988 to counterprogram against the NWA's
Bunkhouse Stampede. The NWA responded by creating
Clash of the Champions on TBS to counterprogram
WrestleMania IV. By 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions was facing bankruptcy. On October 11, under the direction of owner
Ted Turner, TBS bought the assets of JCP and renamed it
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after the TV show of the same name. Originally incorporated by TBS as the Universal Wrestling Corporation, Turner promised fans that WCW would retain the athlete-oriented style of the NWA. The sale was completed on November 2, 1988, with a television taping of
NWA World Championship Wrestling that very same date in WCW's hometown of Atlanta. By September 1993, WCW would withdraw completely from the NWA.
1993–2012 On August 27, 1994, NWA:
Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) held a
World Title tournament for the vacant
NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Unbeknownst to any one, the event was staged for ECW's public withdrawal from the NWA, with tournament winner
Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title belt and instead picking up the ECW Heavyweight Championship belt, proclaiming himself to be the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. ECW founder
Tod Gordon subsequently announced ECW's secession from the NWA, rechristening the promotion as Extreme Championship Wrestling. From 1994 to 1997 the most visible NWA promotion was
Dennis Coralluzzo's NWA
New Jersey/Championship Wrestling America, which lasted until 2000. NWA New Jersey worked with promotions such as
IWA Japan and
Steve Corino's
North Carolina-based NWA 2000; the latter eventually merged with the New Jersey territory. In 1998, the
World Wrestling Federation reached an agreement to use the likeness of the NWA titles, branding, and its history, to create a storyline. It would be later claimed that WWE still owned the rights. In June 2002,
Jeff and
Jerry Jarrett launched a new promotion called
NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA). NWA:TNA was given creative control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships through an agreement with the NWA. This lasted until March 2007, when the NWA terminated its agreement with TNA. TNA lost control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships by the morning of the 2007
Sacrifice pay-per-view event on May 13. On September 17, 2010,
KDOC-TV Los Angeles premiered
NWA: Championship Wrestling from Hollywood.
R. Bruce Tharpe and International Wrestling Corp. (2012–2017) In August 2012, International Wrestling Corp., a holding company run by Houston, Texas-based attorney and wrestling promoter R. Bruce Tharpe, sued Trobich, Baucom, the NWA, and its then-parent company, Trobich's Pro Wrestling Organization LLC, claiming insurance fraud regarding the NWA's liability insurance policy. A settlement was negotiated that transferred the rights to the NWA name and trademarks from Trobich's company to Tharpe's. CWFH was the unofficial home promotion of both the then-current NWA champion (
Adam Pearce) and the most recent previous champion (
Colt Cabana), both of whom publicly left the NWA, with Pearce vacating the NWA World Title while exiting. Other major NWA territories like
NWA Pro/NWA Pro West,
NWA Georgia,
NWA Pro East, NWA Southwest and NWA Midwest folded. In 2013, the NWA re-established a relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where Bruce Tharpe became an on-screen character, portraying a villainous manager of wrestlers representing the NWA. Over the next two years, the NWA World Heavyweight, World Tag Team and World Junior Heavyweight Championships all changed hands at NJPW events. In September 2016, NWA signed a deal with the new Japanese Diamond Stars Wrestling (DSW) promotion to promote shows in not only Japan, but also other parts of Asia. As part of the deal, DSW chairman Hideo Shimada was appointed the NWA Vice President of the Asian Pacific region while Jimmy Suzuki was appointed senior NWA consultant.
Billy Corgan and Lightning One, Inc. (2017–present) 2017–2019: Acquisition and relaunch On May 1, 2017, it was reported that
Billy Corgan, lead singer of the
Smashing Pumpkins, had agreed to purchase the NWA, including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The report was confirmed by Tharpe that same day. Over the following weeks, the NWA trademarks were moved from Tharpe's International Wrestling Corp. over to Corgan's Lightning One, Inc. production company. According to multiple sources, as part of his acquisition of the NWA, Corgan also purchased Tharpe's stake in the NWA's "On Demand" VOD service and licensing of the Paul Boesch wrestling library. Corgan's ownership of the NWA took effect on October 1, 2017. All licenses granted by Tharpe to use the NWA branding expired the previous day, putting Corgan in complete control of both the brand and its championships. The match took place on November 12 and saw Storm retain the title. This was the first title match under the new NWA regime headed by Corgan. On December 9, Aldis defeated Storm in a rematch at
Cage of Death 19 to become the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion, making him the second British-born champion after
Gary Steele. In 2018, the NWA briefly allied with
Impact Wrestling, the former NWA:TNA, to hold an Empty Arena match at
Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida. It was contested by
Tim Storm and
Jocephus and served as a qualifier to challenge then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. The match was recorded on January 14, 2018, and uploaded to
YouTube the next day. Starting in 2018, NWA allied with
Ring of Honor (ROH). NWA wrestlers such as Aldis,
James Storm, and
Eli Drake appeared at several ROH events, with ROH-contracted talent even winning NWA titles. On September 1, 2018, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was featured at
All In, with
Cody defeating Aldis for the title, becoming the first second-generation NWA World heavyweight champion. After All In, the NWA returned to hosting its own events. The
NWA 70th Anniversary Show, which took place on October 21, 2018, was the first to be produced directly under Lightning One, The main event saw Aldis defeat Cody to recapture the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and
Willie Mack winning a tournament for the vacant
NWA National Championship, which became the main secondary title. The
Fourth Crockett Cup, an eight-team, single-elimination tournament that was revived to crown new
NWA World Tag Team Champions, took place on April 27, 2019, as another collaboration between the NWA and ROH. This was the last event to be co-promoted with ROH; on July 24, 2019, the NWA announced that they had ended their partnership. Subsequently, it was announced the following month that the NWA would host tapings in Atlanta on September 30 and October 1 for a new television series, later revealed to be titled
NWA Powerrr.
2020–2023: COVID-19, restructuring, and departures In January 2020,
Marty Scurll, and other Ring of Honor characters, began to appear at NWA events once again as part of an inter-promotional angle. In addition to re-signing with ROH, Scurll joined the company's booking team, enabling him to appear for both the NWA and ROH. However, in the fallout of the
Speaking Out Movement, Scurll was accused of having intercourse with a 16-year-old female who was inebriated. After an investigation, Scurll was removed from his position as booker, and by the following January in 2021, was no longer under contract. Nick Aldis was scheduled to face
PCO at
Supercard of Honor XIV on April 4, 2020, before the event was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. On June 18, 2020, Dave Lagana resigned as Vice President of the NWA after allegations of sexual assault were made public. The promotion went on hiatus as a result of this and the pandemic. During this time, several wrestlers also left the NWA, including former Tag Team Champions
James Storm,
Eli Drake,
Marti Belle, and
Royce Isaacs, former Women's Champion
Allysin Kay, former Television Champion
Ricky Starks, former Television Champion
Zicky Dice.
NWA World Women's Champion Thunder Rosa made appearances for
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) while under contract with the NWA. On September 5, 2020, Rosa unsuccessfully challenged
AEW Women's World Championship Hikaru Shida at
All Out. On October 27, 2020,
Serena Deeb defeated Rosa during the
United Wrestling Network's Primetime Live event to become the new NWA World Women's Champion. On March 2, 2021, the NWA announced their return to promoting events, with the
Back For The Attack and new
Powerrr episodes as part of a new distribution agreement with
FITE TV. As part of this agreement, the NWA removed content from their YouTube channel. On January 5, 2022, the NWA announced the launch of the
NWA All Access subscription package on FITE TV, including past and upcoming pay-per-view events (PPV), new episodes of
Powerrr on Tuesdays, and the newly announced
NWA USA weekly series. In addition, it was announced that
Powerrr would return to YouTube, airing on Fridays after the FITE premiere, and that
NWA USA would air on Saturdays on the platform before moving to Sundays on FITE. Finally, it was announced that the NWA would expand their PPV schedule to six events per year, as part of a new deal with FITE TV. Though the partnership ended in 2023, with NWA's programming returning to YouTube, FITE still carries NWA PPV events.
2023–present: Return of the territories; The CW partnership On October 9, 2023, the NWA reestablished itself as a governing body, with
EC3's
NWA Exodus Pro Midwest being the first
territory to be sanctioned. On October 18, it was reported by news blog Haus of Wrestling that NWA had signed a deal with
The CW to air
Powerrr and a reality show documenting behind the scenes footage. However, a
controversial segment from that month's
Samhain PPV event, in which
Father James Mitchell along with several women and wrestlers were seen pretending to consume
cocaine, drew negative reactions online. The following month, The CW signed a deal with
WWE for its weekly
NXT program. Though it was rumored to be in-response to the Samhain segment, Corgan later revealed in a 2024 interview with Fightful that the CW executives didn't have a problem with the spot, and that "it was a completely invented story by either a troll inside the company, a leaker or something.” Following Samhain, episodes of
Powerrr were later added to The CW's app in November. In January 2024, NWA announced that new episodes of
Powerrr would be available on The CW app from February 6. The same year, NWA included new territories: NWA Chicago in
Chicago,
Illinois, Kross Fire Wrestling (KFW) in
Sevierville, Tennessee,
World League Wrestling in
Missouri as NWA's developmental system, and NWA Texas. On May 16, 2025,
Variety reported that
Paramount Global Content Distribution would launch
Wrestling Central, a
free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel on
The Roku Channel in the United States and Canada. The channel will feature weekly NWA matches alongside WOW –
Women of Wrestling, marking NWA's first appearance on a FAST platform. Programming includes new matches, classic episodes, previously unreleased content, specials, and documentaries. On June 10,
Deadline announced that NWA has signed a streaming deal with Roku, airing in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. ==NWA presidents==