[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/NWANationalLogo_8806.jpg]]

''(If you're looking for the rap group from Compton, [[Music/{{NWA}} click here.]])''

One of the oldest {{professional wrestling}} associations still active in the world, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was created in 1948 and served as the biggest governing body for professional wrestling for over three decades. Unlike modern organizations like the Wrestling/{{WWE}}, the National Wrestling Alliance (as its name suggests) is made up of an alliance of various local and territorial independent wrestling leagues. Although the NWA today is a far cry from their glory days, they've managed to find new niches to fit into.

!!Early Years
The NWA was founded on the concept of unifying the various regional pro wrestling organizations that existed in the United States by the late forties. Its first true "world" champion would be its second title holder, the legendary Wrestling/LouThesz, whose belt was recognized in 1949 as a "world championship belt" by many of the major organizations of the day, including the American Wrestling Alliance (not to be confused with the Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation) and the National Wrestling Association. Over time, the NWA would become the main governing body for the vast majority of professional wrestling groups in North America and Japan, and the NWA moniker would become well known as promoting only "legitimate" wrestling organizations; these promotions entered into deals with the NWA that entitled the NWA payment in exchange for guarantees that they would each be granted their own "territory". Another guarantee to its member groups was the promise of aid in the form of nationally-known stars making the rounds in their promotions to help drive any local competitors out of business. The NWA also helped wrestlers who had become stagnant in their home territories by negotiating trades between member promotions, allowing them a new venue to develop their persona or work a fresh crowd.

However, the NWA's best known promotional tactic -- one which helped to unify its various regional members -- was the unified [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/nwa/world/nwa-h.html World's Heavyweight Championship]]. The champion would travel to various regional groups, fighting the local champions, thus lending those champions even more credibility. Given the rather large number of promotions in the NWA at its peak, being the world champion was a very difficult job, requiring large amounts of traveling and an enormous number of matches per year. (Wrestling/RicFlair mentions in his autobiography working up to 8 matches a week when he was NWA champ.) Prior to the spread of national television, having the champion visit a regional organization was considered a rare and important event, often drawing record crowds.

Various contractual disputes and antitrust lawsuits levied against the NWA throughout the sixties would lead to many of its larger member promotions leaving the organization, starting with the AWA in 1960 and the World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1963. Though it would take decades before the WWWF, which shortened its name to the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] in '79, would become a national juggernaut, it was already a major player as it held the Northeast territory, the most populous part of the U.S.

The second and nearly fatal blow to the NWA would come in the eighties, as national cable television became the norm and many of the NWA's old promotional tactics became useless, with many key members abandoning them in droves. {{Plot Hole}}s and [[ContinuitySnarl inconsistencies]] between the various member organizations became more readily apparent, and the NWA World Champion's appearance became less of a draw, since it was possible to watch matches from other territories. It was at this time that Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, fresh off of taking control of the WWF from his father, purchased NWA member territory Georgia Championship Wrestling, which had a weekly television show on Creator/{{TBS}} called ''World Championship Wrestling''. The ratings of which dropped precipitously, as its Southern fanbase disliked the WWF style, leading [=McMahon=] to sell back the time slot. (He used the proceeds to stage the first ''{{Wrestling/WrestleMania}}''.) Charlotte-based Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), then-largest and most successful member promotion of the NWA, had wound up with the TBS timeslot. In a near-desperate bid to compete, and lacking trust in the NWA's steadily-declining promotional capacity, JCP began buying out various local wrestling organizations from the other NWA promoters. Unfortunately, poor business decisions by Jim Crockett Jr., such as buying Bill Watts' failing UWF promotion (not to be confused with [[Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation the Japanese promotion of the same name]]) rather than simply letting the UWF fail and moving into their territory, led to JCP nearly filing for bankruptcy before it was bought out by TBS, who didn't want to lose a solid ratings-grabber. They turned the company into [[Wrestling/{{WCW}} World Championship Wrestling]], which at that point was the only active NWA member. WCW would admit a few new, smaller NWA members, planning on using them as development territories until they finally broke off in full in '93, as those same new members began to demand dates with the champion, which WCW couldn't be bothered with. On the international level, the NWA witnessed the loss of Stampede Wrestling out of Calgary, and the defection of [[Wrestling/{{CMLL}} Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL)]], [[Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)]], and [[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)]] during this time.

Once the ultimate authority in pro-wrestling, by the mid-nineties, the NWA was seen by many as a dead organization. A final effort to resurrect itself was attempted in '94 with a national tournament involving its few remaining member promotions to crown a new NWA World Champion. As WCW had formally withdrawn from the NWA, the finals of the tournament were held by the NWA's most prominent regional group (and the only one with a television show), Eastern Championship Wrestling...which would withdraw from the NWA in the most unusual form. When the NWA took control of the tournament's booking out of fear that ECW would monopolize the tournament, ECW heads Tod Gordon and Wrestling/PaulHeyman hatched a plan which came to fruition the night the tournament ended: Wrestling/ShaneDouglas, the winner of the tournament, threw down the NWA World Championship belt, declaring that the NWA was "an organization that died – RIP – seven years ago" (when JCP sold out to [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner]]), and proclaiming the beginning of "the new era of the sport of professional wrestling" before declaring himself the new "ECW champion of the world". Days later, ECW formally withdrew from the NWA and renamed themselves [[Wrestling/{{ECW}} Extreme Championship Wrestling]]...and the rest is industry history.

The departure of ECW saw the end of the NWA as a truly competitive promotion; it was basically on the sidelines during the Wrestling/MondayNightWars (as the remaining members, mostly tiny locals, lacked the money, the talent, or the promotional know-how to compete on that scale), not counting an ill-received angle in 1997-98. The then-struggling WWF actually hosted some NWA title matches among a group of guys led by Wrestling/JimCornette, whose traditionalist Wrestling/SmokyMountainWrestling was an NWA member at the time.

!!NWA in the 2000s
In 2002, after the Wars ended, Wrestling/JeffJarrett launched a new national promotion, NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA), which was a member of the NWA for the first two years of its existence. The NWA title, back in the national spotlight for the first time in a little under a decade, remained in use by TNA until 2007. But like WCW and ECW before them, TNA too would part ways; the NWA membership — which, other than TNA, was nothing more than a loose collection of farm-league promotions, none of whom dated back to before the 1980s — were upset that TNA talent wouldn't make appearances for them, and NWA broke off the agreement allowing TNA to use NWA's name and assets. Given the massively-altered landscape of the pro-wrestling industry as compared to the heyday of the NWA, it is very highly unlikely that the organization will ever return to its former glory.

Thanks to the rise of the internet, however, the NWA has been able to expose their product to a much wider market than, say, the 90s, and have gotten a slight resurgence of sorts. It began with a short-lived, internet-exclusive wrestling show called ''NWA Wrestling Showcase'' in 2008. Only ten episodes were produced before the series went on a hiatus which lasted a year. When the show briefly returned in '09, it was being taped from Hollywood, California. September of 2010 would mark the debut of ''NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood'', a new promotion and weekly television show seen on KDOC-TV in Los Angeles and online via Platform/BlipTV.

A massive shakeup in NWA ownership took place in August 2012. The owner of NWA Houston, Wrestling/BruceTharpe, sued the NWA for fraud after promises involving insurance coverage and other benefits following his joining the NWA were not fulfilled. In the aftermath of the lawsuit, Tharpe's promotion ended up as owner of the entire National Wrestling Alliance. Tharpe immediately began making earthshaking changes to the group's power structure, naming himself NWA President (a title with powers that had not been in use in nearly a decade) and changing the NWA itself from a membership to a licensee model. Among other things, this meant that NWA member promotions were no longer entitled to any say in booking and scheduling of the NWA's world champion, among other group-wide decisions. Instead, they each became InNameOnly NWA members while licensing the group's name for their own promotional use. This led to a major exodus of members from the group, including the flagship Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and world champion Adam Pearce, who vacated the world championship belt in the process.

During Tharpe’s tenure as president, the NWA entered into a partnership with New Japan. From early 2013 until March 2016, wrestlers from both promotions attended each other’s shows. After the partnership dissolved, NWA entered a similar partnership with Diamond Stars Wrestling in 2016.

!!NWA Today (2017-present)
On May 1, 2017, it was confirmed that [[Music/TheSmashingPumpkins Smashing Pumpkins]] frontman and longtime wrestling fan Billy Corgan purchased the company, including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. (There were however, some issues with what exactly he had purchased.)[[note]]As it turns out, the settlement that was reached when WCW left in 1993 gave WCW the rights to the pre-1993 title history, and WWE now owns said title history because of their purchase of WCW. Four years later, when the Jim Cornette-led NWA group was in the WWF, the then-NWA board signed over the name to the WWF as part of the legal clearances needed for that angle in what turned out to be an open-ended licensing contract. This means the NWA doesn't have exclusive rights to its own name.[[/note]] The announcement came months after Corgan was spurned in the purchase of TNA Wrestling, now known as Wrestling/ImpactWrestling. The deal closed on October 1 of that year, and the franchise agreements that Tharpe had made lapsed the day afterward.

Since the sale to Corgan, the NWA has gone an unusual route of having no home company or promotion doing business under the NWA banner. Instead, the strategy has been to promote the NWA championships themselves, marketing the titleholders as free agents who defend their titles in various promotions; in effect, this made the NWA a promotion unto itself. This has the benefit of keeping their brand in the public view, giving fans of more-established companies a special exhibition whenever an NWA title is featured on their programming, in exchange for said companies paying a promotional fee to the NWA for the privilege. All without the expenses of building and maintaining a wrestling company from scratch, with the high startup costs, failure rates, and razor-thin profit margins entailed. In a way, it is almost the same model as some major boxing promotions, who make their money from cable companies and arenas willing to pay to have their titles defended on their shows.

The new NWA has also made forays into social media and online video for the first time. The new ownership has launched a Website/YouTube series, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/NWA 10 Pounds of Gold]]'', which devoted several videos to the heritage and history of the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship before moving toward the present, following the stories of various wrestlers in the present day who both hold and compete for said title.

In September 2018, the NWA Title was defended at ''All In'' in Chicago, an independent show self-promoted by Wrestling/CodyRhodes and Wrestling/TheYoungBucks. With over ten thousand tickets sold, it was the highest attendance for an NWA title match in North America in nearly thirty years.

On August 2019, Corgan announced a new NWA television show. This came to be the internet-based weekly series ''NWA Power'' (stylized ''NWA Powerrr''), which premiered in October of that year on [=YouTube=] and Facebook. ''Power'' [[Main/CutShort went on hiatus after airing its last episodes in May 2020]], showcasing the last completed tapings of the build-up to the now-cancelled 2020 Crockett Cup due to the COVID pandemic. After the resignation of NWA Vice President David Lagana, the promotion began a corporate restructuring. A collaboration with the United Wrestling Network saw a new show, ''NWA Shockwave'', premiered in December 2020. The hiatus would end in 2021 with the announcement the Back For The Attack PPV and the return of ''NWA Power'', both through a new agreement with FITE TV.

In October 2023, the NWA announced it was (to a degree) bringing back the old territory system. The first new NWA territory is Exodus Pro (rechristened NWA Exodus Pro Midwest), a Cleveland-based promotion that Wrestling/{{EC3}} had started that August, shortly before he became NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion.

The NWA recognizes the titles and championship reigns of most other major promotions, in addition to promoting the following championships: [[labelnote:caveat]]For the purposes of this article, this refers to the titles under direct NWA control, extant and referenced in the current NWA incarnation, and not the literally hundreds of regional, international, and legacy titles that have been created in various NWA territories over the past sixty-plus years.[[/labelnote]]

* '''NWA [[InsistentTerminology Worlds]]'''[[note]]The NWA now insists on the use of the plural "Worlds" for its heavyweight title, despite its other world titles using the singular term.[[/note]] '''Heavyweight Champion:''' '''Wrestling/{{EC3}}''' since August 27th, 2023
* '''NWA National Champion:''' '''"The Thrillbilly" Silas Mason''' since August 26th, 2023
* '''NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion:''' '''Colby Corino''' since August 26th, 2023
* '''NWA World Tag Team Champions:''' '''Blunt Force Trauma''' '''(Carnage and Damage)''' since August 26, 2023
* '''NWA World Women's Champion:''' '''Kenzie Paige''' since August 27th, 2023
* '''NWA World Television Champion:''' '''Mims''' since August 29, 2023
* '''NWA World Women's Tag Team Champions:''' '''Pretty Empowered''' '''(Ella Envy and Kylie Paige)''' since August 27th, 2023
* '''NWA United States Tag Team Champions:''' '''The Immortals''' '''(Odinson and JR Kratos)''' since October 28th, 2023
* '''NWA World Women's Television Championship:''' '''Max the Impaler''' since August 26th, 2023

[[folder:Notable NWA World Heavyweight Champions]]
* Orville Brown
* Wrestling/LouThesz
* Whipper Bill Watson
* Dick Hutton
* Pat O'Connor
* Wrestling/BuddyRogers
* Gene Kiniski
* Wrestling/DoryFunkJr
* Wrestling/HarleyRace
* Jack Brisco
* Wrestling/GiantBaba
* Wrestling/TerryFunk
* Wrestling/DustyRhodes
* Tommy Rich
* Wrestling/RicFlair
* [[Wrestling/VonErichFamily Kerry Von Erich]]
* Ronnie Garvin
* Wrestling/RickySteamboat
* Wrestling/{{Sting}}
* Wrestling/TatsumiFujinami
* Wrestling/MasahiroChono
* Wrestling/TheGreatMuta
* Wrestling/BarryWindham
* Wrestling/ShaneDouglas (would relinquish the title immediately)
* Wrestling/ChrisCandido
* Wrestling/DanSevern
* Wrestling/NaoyaOgawa
* Gary Steele
* Mike Rapada
* Wrestling/{{Sabu}}
* Steve Corino
* Wrestling/ShinyaHashimoto
* Wrestling/KenShamrock
* Wrestling/RonKillings
* Wrestling/JeffJarrett
* Wrestling/AJStyles
* Ray González
* Wrestling/{{Raven}}
* Wrestling/{{Rh|yno}}ino
* [[Wrestling/{{Christian}} Christian Cage]]
* Wrestling/{{Abyss}}
* Adam Pearce
* Brent Albright
* Blue Demon Jr.
* Wrestling/ColtCabana
* The Sheik II (Joseph Cabibbo aka Wrestling/{{MLW}}’s Josef Samael)
* Kahagas
* Wrestling/RobConway
* Wrestling/SatoshiKojima
* Wrestling/HiroyoshiTenzan
* Jax Dane
* Tim Storm
* Wrestling/NickAldis
* Wrestling/CodyRhodes
* Trevor Murdoch
* Wrestling/MattCardona
* [[Wrestling/BrodusClay Tyrus]]
* Wrestling/{{EC3}}
[[/folder]]
----
!!Tropes:
* TheAce
** Lou Thesz is chronologically the second man to hold the NWA World Title but is considered the first ''World'' Champion of the alliance because he traveled around defeating rival claimants to the title of world champion and unifying their titles with his own.
** Dan Severn is the most standout world heavyweight champion off post territorial NWA. In fact his reign was longer than all but ''two'' of the territorial era champions and just like them he kicked ass all over the world, though he didn't have as many title defenses relative to his time with the belt as he also had mixed martial arts belts to defend.
* AllAmericanFace: Played with during The Real American Heroes (Wrestling/JoeyRyan and Wrestling/KarlAnderson) vs Los Luchas angle. Anderson and Ryan thought they were the good guys representing their country but went a little too far in the name of patriotism.
* AmoralAttorney
** Jeff G. Bailey, the manager of the NWA Elite, among others, has outright said he can't feel "common human emotions" like "guilt".
** Bruce Tharpe is widely viewed as one, especially after he took over the NWA as a whole, and is always shown to be in New Japan as he finds new ways to skew matches in the favor of his clients.
* AnAssKickingChristmas: Ultimate NWA's ''Clotheslines & Candycanes War Games'', which did feature a [[GimmickMatches War Games match]], by the way. V.I.P. Wrestling's ''Jingle Brawl'' and NWA Ireland's ''Christmas Crackdown'' too. Also, Ring Warriors's NWA exodus show was Christmas themed.
* AnnualTitle: The Spoiler 2000, best known around NWA Oklahoma and Texas. He probably wasn't the 2000th man to wrestle under The Spoiler mask but 2000 is the year he took it up.
* ArchEnemy: In the 1980s, Wrestling/DustyRhodes vs. Wrestling/RicFlair was the backdrop against which everything else was painted.
* TheArtifact
** The NWA Light Heavyweight, Middleweight and Welterweight titles, originally local titles granted to then-member CMLL for use within Mexico, were continued being used by CMLL despite leaving the NWA in the 80's. CMLL has returned the belts to the NWA and are using "NWA World Historic" titles instead. In particular, the Welterweight title is older than the NWA itself, having been established in 1934, but it came under NWA "jurisdiction" when CMLL joined. Hilariously, the Light Heavyweight/Middleweight Championship belts are closer to true "World Titles" than any of the NWA controlled ones, being more consistently defended in Japan in addition to Mexico (Wrestling/UltimoDragon was Middleweight Champion twice, and the Light-Heavyweight belt, along with the NWA Welterweight belt, was part of the [[TooManyBelts J-Crown]]).
** Weight classes in general became this with the X division, even after TNA's departure. The Middleweight Title belt basically collects dust, the Welterweight, Light Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight belts get more use but post TNA NWA put more focus on a tiered regional system centered around representing larger and larger areas of land as champions progress towards the World Heavyweight Title. As the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic ruined travel plans this model was also dropped in favor of a World Champion on "pay per view"(special shows) television champion on television(regular shows) approach.
** Mecha Wolf 450 retained elements of the [[Manga/DragonBall Freeza Force armor and scouter]] in his entrance gear, even though he dropped the "Prince Saiyan" gimmick a decade ago, because they still compliment his [[FurAndLoathing fur pelt]].
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: During the heyday of the NWA, the NWA world champions would tour around the territories, feuding with local wrestlers and eventually fighting the regional champion. Since there was always a risk that that the local champion might decide to shoot on the NWA champ and essentially steal the belt ({{Kayfabe}} being sacrosanct of course meaning that the NWA couldn't very well admit the title change wasn't supposed to happen), this meant the champion was usually someone with legit fighting or hooking skills, to ensure he could defend the title in a real fight if the need arose. This trait is not restricted to the world champions or the territorial era either. When NWA UK Hammerlock started in 1993 it only let wrestlers who were both credible ''and'' looked the part hold the British Commonwealth Title.
* BShow: CWF Florida had Championship Wrestling Superstars, which became Global Wrestling, which became North Florida Championship Wrestling, which became United States Class Wrestling, which became American Championship Wrestling, which became Southern Professional Wrestling, whew!
* BadassCape
** Baron Karl von Schober thought his was anyway, though not sure if badass was in common language during his time in the ring, he ''lived'' well after the time it was.
** Both Rob Conway and Satoshi Kojima wore them while competing for the World Heavyweight Title. Santana Garrett had a cape as World Women's Champion.
* BadassesWearBandanas: "The Bomb" Rob Williams, Wrestling/{{Konnan}}, Bad Street Boys (Christian York & Joey Matthews), The Amazing Red, The Naturals, Hotstuff Hernandez & [[Wrestling/NelsonErazo Homicide]] of Latin American Exchange, those are just ''some'' of the more successful examples. Gedo tends to wear bandanas over his eyes.
* BountyHunter
** The Cripler Rip Oliver acted as one outside of the Portland Oregon territory, especially in Texas, where he was kicked out for breaking the hand of Mike Von Erich.
** The New Bounty Hunters Ricky Murdock and Big Nasty Bill of NWA Mid-South. They actually dropped the tag team titles after doing their job and beating the Black Birds for them.
* BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins: The original NWA Hollywood and Championship Wrestling From Florida had the feathered hair dress wearing Chief War Cloud and Princess Little Cloud. Also known as Suni War Cloud and Bonita Little Cloud, Chief Crazy horse and Dixie Jordan. Little Cloud and the [[LegacyCharacter second]] War Cloud were part of a tribe that resides in what became Mexican soil.
* CanonDiscontinuity: In TNA, Wrestling/RonKillings complained about how no black man had ever been allowed to be NWA World Heavyweight Champion, as well as how Wrestling/RickySteamboat was held back from the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, as WWF considered "his people" (Steamboat is of Asian ancestry) to be second class citizens. While Wrestling/BoboBrazil, Carlos Colon and Jack Veneno had all held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt, none of them were recognized by the NWA, making him technically correct; the same thing happening with Japanese Wrestling/AntonioInoki and the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
* CaptainErsatz
** One of the most famous cases was Judy Grable, whom Buddy Lee tried to pass off as the fan favorite wrestler Judy Glover during the 1950s. Whether or not they were fooled, fans did like Grable enough not to call the promoters out, especially in Georgia.
** Nicoli Volkoff and Wrestling/NikolaiVolkoff, both Croatia wrestlers who used the same "Russian" gimmick and (almost) the same name when wrestling for CWF Florida. Nikolai came later and so could count as LegacyCharacter just as well.
** [[Videogame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pikachu]] from the Inoki Dojo
** Franchise/KungFuPanda in NWA Pro and PWR (though the gimmick is [[TheArtifact an artifact]] from the Mexican independent circuit)
** Jimi Mayhem, Vendetta Pro's [[Film/TheLastDragon Shogun of Harlem]].
* CarpetOfVirility
** The first NWA Americas Champion and Argentina's own Wrestling/PamperoFirpo. Appropriately enough, he used the bear hug as his finishing move.
** Less extreme but still impressive examples include Lou Thesz and "Whipper" Billy Watson. Dick Hutton had enough chest hair to pin a dollar on.
* TheCharmer: El Gran Lothario indeed had an interest in seducing people, including himself...mostly women though.
* TheChessmaster
** "The Mastermind" Dave [=DuPont=] of V.I.P. is a self proclaimed example and has served as the enforcer for a few stables.
** Bruce Tharpe's role in New Japan, based on his behind the scenes takeover of the NWA and the criticism he received for it.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The NWA has been the victim of this numerous times. Whenever a member becomes particularly successful they will end up leaving the NWA and becoming a rival. Examples include the [[Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation AWA]], Wrestling/{{WWE}}, Wrestling/{{WCW}}, Wrestling/{{ECW}}, and Wrestling/ImpactWrestling. CMLL, New Japan and All Japan retained working relations despite leaving, while World Wrestling Associates returned after seven years and Wrestling/ProWrestlingZero1 left but then came back after Wrestling/ShinyaHashimoto's passing.
* CollectibleCardGame: Filsinger made one for Championship Wrestling From Hollywood as a {{spinoff}} of ''Legends of Wrestling'', which in turn was a spinoff of ''Champions of the Galaxy''
* CompanionCube: Pampero Firpo's {{shrunken head}}. Ricardo Rodriguez's skeleton blowup doll, "Boner".
* ContinuitySnarl: As a governing body part of the NWA's job was to keep details between promotions consistent and while it did a fairly good job at establishing who the World Heavyweight Champion was, the claim of World Tag Team Champions was always in dispute until The Miracle Violence Connection were declared the official title holders in 1992. Before them the record simply reads "vacant", and that record, which includes at least a dozen disagreeing promotions, goes back to 1950.
* CoolMask: One of the first International members of the NWA was EMLL (later known as Wrestling/{{CMLL}}) from Mexico and it was also the promotion largely responsible for the numerous masked wrestlers associated with lucha libre. Later in the form Pro Wrestling Revolution, which sought to be a bridge for Mexican wrestlers into the USA and Blue Demon Jr., a {{masked luchador}} who was world heavyweight champ in 2008. El Hijo De Rey Misterio showed up for Vendetta Pro in 2013.
* {{Cult}}: Wrestling/KevinSullivan's Army of Darkness in the original Championship Wrestling From Florida.
* CutShort: As you can imagine, there have been many a CareerEndingInjury but two of the most dramatic were unrelated to wrestling events when the World Heavyweight and first World Junior Heavyweight Champions, Orville Brown and Leroy [=McGuirk=], were crushed and blinded in car accidents, respectively. [[TheShowMustGoOn These led to the rise of Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne, respectively]].
* DemotedToExtra: Mike Rapada from two time World Heavyweight Champion to {{jobber}} in TNA dark matches.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment
** Usually it's because a promotion already had that name before joining the NWA but some are by design, such as WCW prior to it splitting off. National Wrestling Alliance World Championship Wrestling?
** NWA Pro Wrestling of Santa Monica, California. National Wrestling Alliance Pro Wrestling?
* {{Determinator}}: Though reduced to a tiny fraction of its former prestige, give credit where credit is due. Almost every other wrestling promotion that's broken away has gone the way of the dodo, from the [=AWA=] and Jim Crockett Promotions in the 80's all the way to powerhouses like Wrestling/{{WCW}} and Wrestling/{{ECW}} in the early 2000's, with only a [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling notable]] [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} pair]] of exceptions. After being trashed by ''every'' member promotion that's gotten a whiff of success on the national scene, their World title treated as less than tin foil on television time and time again, nobody would have blamed the [=NWA=] leadership for throwing in the towel. But they've held strong, and with the rise of the internet, smaller promotions under the [=NWA=] umbrella who've never had an audience larger than a high school gym have been able to expose their product to a wider market without the need of traditional cable outlets, leading to a slight resurgence.
* DisqualificationInducedVictory: According to the NWA rule book, excessive force or particularly unsporting actions can cause the perpetrator to forfeit the match to his opponent. However, the same book says the champion cannot lose his title by disqualification...in theory. In practice, the two out of three falls system made purposeful disqualification to keep the title less effective. Also, during the mid 1950s the California Athletic Commission decided title belts ''could'' change hands if the champion was disqualified, much the NWA's chagrin.
* DistaffCounterpart: NWA Phoenix and NWA Coastal had the Fyrebird World Order, [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder fWo]].
* DivideAndConquer: When Wrestling/VinceMcMahon took over his father's company, the NWA did this to themselves. Although the leaders of the various organizations knew that together they could take out the WWF they were too paranoid to create a more unified body and decided to take on Vince one at a time.
* DoWithHimAsYouWill: Seth Delay abandoned his tag team partner, Sal Rinauro, to Wrestling/MattSydal at Wildside after Rinauro attacked and tried to forcibly French kiss Matt's friend Wrestling/DaizeeHaze. [[Wrestling/HunterJohnston Delirious]] and Altar Boy Luke were similarly apathetic to Rinauro's pleas for help but Ray Gordy decided to help him with Sydal.
* DoubleX
** PrettyBoy Beau Jaxx, NWA United Kingdom Junior Heavyweight Champion in Dropkixx Promotions.
** Jorge Estrada, known as Hexxy while wrestling for NWA Wildside.
** World Women's Champion Tiffany Roxx
** "Biohaxxard" Jeremiah St. James, heavyweight champion of NWA Top Of Texas and also had matches in NWA Southwest.
* DressedToKill: When it comes to rocking nice suits, Tatsumi Fujinami or The Four Horsemen are probably the most iconic, depending on where you watch your wrestling, but Masahiro Chono as world champion had the most emphasis on ''kill'', since he was implied to be connected to a {{yakuza}} company.
* DullSurprise: Dick Hutton is the TropeCodifier as far as the NWA goes. He was a three time NCAA Wrestling Champion and it showed. He was great on the mat, but not so much in the microphone, or in hyping up crowds, or really getting people to care. His superb wrestling might have been enough to carry him by if he didn't exist in the same era as Lou Thesz, Pat O'Connor, Buddy Rogers and, most obviously, his tag team partner Gene Kiniski. There were even strong arguments that junior heavyweight Verne Gagne should have been bumped up instead of Hutton.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: When the NWA World Welterweight champion Karloff Lagarde defeated Mexican National Welterweight Champion Jalisco Gonzales in 1963, the national title was vacated. This was in direct contrast to the NWA's earlier practice of absorbing local titles due to having already been established in the region. Fishman, El Dandy and Ángel Azteca abandoning the National title after winning the World title also looks a little strange when later wrestlers like Wrestling/UltimoDragon became known for holding multiple title belts of the same weight class at once.
* EpicFail: It was reported that NWA almost got a televised deal with The CW, which included the weekly Powerrr programming and a reality show to be aired in the network... that is until an incident took place in the Samhain PPV, where Father James Mitchell, alongside with women and wrestlers alike, are snorting cocaine. The segment drew negative reactions in the social media and was also negatively received by the CW executives as well. Since then, NWA Powerrr got relegated as a CW app show while the main CW channel will air Wrestling/{{WWE NXT}} instead, starting on October 2024.
* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: Hiro Matsuda was known as Mr. Samurai in 1970s Championship Wrestling From Florida.
* [[ForeignWrestlingHeel Evil Foreigner]]
** Many over its long existence, Korean wrestler Wrestling/{{Rikidozan}} was given a Japanese gimmick in order to make him more hated in the USA following World War II. By the 1980s, being Korean was apparently just fine for the role, as evidenced by Killer Kim.
** {{Subverted| trope}} completely with Japanese native Giant Titan, who speaks with a completely Floridian accent and has spent the overwhelming majority of his career in Florida (though looking like a white guy might help even more). Also subverted by Wrestling/LowKi in Wrestling/ProWrestlingZero1, whom the fans really took a liking to.
* EvilPrince: Wrestling/PrinceNana from Ghana in NWA Shockwave and Zero 1, Prince Kanu from Nigeria in NWA Houston. The latter doesn't take to kindly to being compared to the former.
* EvilSoundsRaspy
** Every last Vachon when working heel, even Butcher's adopted daughter Luna, Mad Dog being raspy even when working baby face.
** Jeff G. Bailey sounds this way when he really wants to make a point
* {{Expy}}
** Cyborg brings to mind UWA gym and Wrestling/{{AAA}} star Cibernetico.
** Wrestling/{{Glacier}} is one to [[Franchise/MortalKombat Sub Zero]].
** NWA SAW's Vic The Bruiser is [[Wrestling/DickTheBruiser particularly obvious]]
** When NWA invaded New Japan in the 2010s, Rob Conway was basically portrayed as an evil Lou Thesz. He was even called "Ironman", the English translation of Thesz's RedBaron "Tetsujin".
* FatAndSkinny: NWA Midwest Tag Team Champions Big Moe and Brandon Xavier, who go by "Bad For Your Health" Meat N Taters.
* {{Fireballs}}: This cheat has been in the alliance since at least [[Wrestling/EdFarhat The Sheik]] in NWA Hollywood and continued into the internet age with Azrael of the [[PowerStable NWA Elite]].
* AFriendInNeed: They resorted to briefly leaning on [[Wrestling/{{SMW}} Smoky Mountain Wrestling]] when ECW's departure left them without a World Champion. However, Wrestling/ChrisCandido's reign in Smoky Mountain was not recognized at first, and as soon as Dan Severn won it, the NWA packed up and left. Smoky Mountain would then close when its owner, Wrestling/JimCornette, got a full time offer to work for the WWF.
* FullNameBasis: For quite a while, NWA owner Billy Corgan used his full name of William Patrick Corgan in all NWA-related media. As of mid-2021, the use of "Patrick" is off and on, but NWA media still consistently use "William" instead of "Billy".
* FullyAbsorbedFinale
** The NWA New Zealand Heavyweight Title Belt did not originally have NWA preceding it, as it is one of the oldest championship belts in the world and certainly older than the NWA, having been established in 1919.
** Finnish wrestler Gus Kallio is considered to be the first NWA World Middleweight Champion, and he was, but he was awarded the belt in 1939, before ''[[AcronymConfusion this]]'' NWA gained ownership of it. The first champion under National Wrestling Alliance rule was EMLL luchador Tarzan Lopez, who was starting his fourth reign.
** The World Junior Heavyweight Title is technically older than the World Heavyweight Title, as Ken Fenelon was defending the belt before the NWA was established. In 1949, Leroy [=McGuirk=] "unified" the title with the even older National Wrestling Association's World Junior Heavyweight title but like most cases with the NWA, Ken Fenelon was still considered the first champion.
** Downplayed with the "original"(Cora Livingston's) World Women's title. Mildred Burke was given a new NWA World Women's belt to defend based on her matches with Clara Mortenson over the extant belt before the NWA was established but quietly kept defending the older strap as well before it was officially vacated when Burke was kicked out of the NWA. Even then, June Byers was given a one year reign while also holding the NWA version before the older belt was officially retired.
** Going the other way, [[Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation Union of Wrestling Force International]] used one of Lou Thesz's old NWA title belts as their own and All Japan used his International Heavyweight belt for the establishment of the Unified Triple Crown.
** Rick Michaels, the last recognized NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion, reused the belt for the NWA Wildside Heavyweight title.
* FunWithAcronyms: Dangerous Adrenaline Wrestling Gladiators: NWA '''DAWG''' Pound.
* GangBangers: This gimmick, along with WhiteGangBangers, pops up quite a bit. The Usual Suspects (AJ Steele and Murder-1) are two of the more successful examples.
* GarbageWrestler
** Besides the Brass Knuckles title belts, some of the pioneers of the style made their way through the territories, including Gypsy Joe (first World Brass Knuckles Champion), Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher and Wrestling/DickTheBruiser.
** Dusty Rhodes had a standout garbage match at least annually in the 1980s, usually in the form of Bunkhouse Brawls for JCP.
** Had an "Inter Promotional Hardcore Title" with fledgling Wrestling/{{CZW}} in 1999, though it did not last, Nick Gage and Lobo being the only holders.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ECCW started as a mostly "PG" wrestling promotion, violence aside, but as the years went on it got more extreme in the other areas, and also became more cultish, relying [[PanderingToTheBase heavier and heavier on its hardcore base]] than a general audience. Management, outside of "Gorgeous" Michelle Starr, felt this was the wrong direction and pushed back towards more traditional wrestling shows, culminating in joining the NWA and running dozens of charity shows for various causes across British Columbia a month, and making appearances at schools. Among the groups who caused trouble for management were The Riot, who were identified by a hand signal. It was identical to what is commonly known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shocker_%28hand_gesture%29 "The Shocker".]]
* TheGiant
** Many over the years, such as Wrestling/HaystacksCalhoun and Giant Titan, who are actually more mobile and agile than most examples. Still at 640 pounds, no one who had anything less than [[Wrestling/BrunoSammartino Sammartinon strength]] was slamming Calhoun and Giant Titan ''prides'' himself on being an immovable mass who only needs a few power moves to finish his smaller opponents. Then, of course, World Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/GiantBaba.
** The Skyscrapers were a stable of them, [[{{irony}} excepting]] "Masked Skyscraper" and manager Wrestling/TeddyLong.
** Ajaloko the Giant is probably the best known wrestler of NWA Nigeria to fans not based in the country, and the promotion had an entire "Super Heavyweight" division.
** Among the female examples we have Baby Doll (who used to go by Andrea The Lady Giant), the even larger Andrea Mother (who used to go by Rosie Lotta Love in Zero 1) and the larger still [[SevenYearRule Andrea The Giant]] ([[Wrestling/AndreTheGiant noticing a pattern?]]). The latter two [[OneSteveLimit both appeared]] at the 2015 edition of Vendetta's ''Casino Royale''.
* TheGift
** Danny Hodge may not have been the most muscular wrestler, but he had had double tendons, something that cannot even be acheived through surgery. This meant he could legitimately defeat most opponents by simply grabbing them, make people give up to a test of strength or even a handshake.
** Ric Flair trains rigorously, and has amazing cardio because of it. Jerry Lawler has comparable stamina to Flair and doesn't work out, he just wrestles. Jerry Lawler doesn't do any kind of training for any sport. He just showed up when it's time and played, and Lawler plays all sports he can. This didn't last however, Lawler would hit the gym as he got [[RingOldies older]].
** Barry Windham has far supperior cardio to Flair or Lawler, and still doesn't workout.
** Dick Murdoch didn't train, and unlike the above examples it wasn't harm to tell with his chicken legs, flabby big belly and stringy arms. He still had amazing cardio, could perform safe suplexes on men heavier than himself without assitance and could legitimately hurt people with a one inch punch.
* GlassJawReferee: Used for a KickTheDog moment when defending North American Champion Tim Storm's match with Seth Allen at an NWA Midwest show was ruined when Storm accidentally ran into the referee. An irate Storm proceeded to beat the piss out of the ref he already incapacitated [[RageQuit to ensure the match would not continue]].
* GorgeousGeorge: Besides the TropeNamer, there was also the TropeCodifier Wrestling/ExoticAdrianStreet, who won the NWA Alabama Heavyweight Title belt [[RingOldies at 69!]] Others include Lazarus (AKA "[[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Dustin Timberlake]]") of NWA Wildside and Gorgeous Michelle Star of ECCW.
* GreaterScopeParagon: The Board Of Directors, with each territory having its own owner, sponsor or athletic commission to serve as its BigGood. It's somewhat complicated in that other athletic commissions can challenge the decisions of the NWA Board, though they rarely win, and every single member of the NWA has voting power, so enough consensus among the "big goods" can also overturn a board decision. In times of crisis, the board can also give nigh absolute power a single individual who serves as "president".
* HalloweenEpisode: NWA Smoky Mountain has ''The Havoc Before Halloween''. Before that, NWA Pro worked with the Alternative Wrestling Show for ''Halloween Slaughter House 3''. Even WCW's "Halloween Havoc" annual October PPV started in 1989 while still a member of the NWA. October 2023 saw the debut of another Halloween-themed NWA PPV, ''Samhain''.
* HappyDance: Wrestling/LaParka is nearly always dancing and while Ophidian and Amasis don't stop by particularly often, they tend to dance even more.
* IAmVeryBritish: Sir Alan Garfield from ''Greater'' London England. Later, [[Wrestling/WilliamRegal Steve Regal]] in WCW and Wrestling/NigelMcGuinness in No Limit and Wildside.
* InvincibleHero: Lou Thesz is perhaps the first of these in professional wrestling, often going to great lengths behind the scenes to make sure he stayed champion in the 40's and 50's.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn
** In the NWA territories, the prevailing view among fans and wrestlers was "Blade Runner Wrestling/{{Sting}}'s alright, [[Wrestling/UltimateWarrior Rock]] sucks." and while Rock would fail to get over in many places that Sting did, Ultimate Warrior did become a top draw in the WWF. The only reason Sting also wasn't such a draw there is that he refused to sign with the WWE, at first because he felt WWE's risque shows conflicted with his religous beliefs (Sting is a born-again Christian), then later because he was afraid WWE would just use him to give a callback to the Monday Night Wars[[note]]This would prove to be a justified concern when WWE did exactly that when they finally signed Sting in 2014, jobbing him to Triple H at Wrestlemania 31. Even worse, WWE acted like Sting had been retired since WCW closed in 2001, ''refusing to even acknowledge'' his many years of (mostly) well-regarded work in TNA[[/note]].
** Ring Warriors was the first wrestling organization to stream matches online. Unfortunately it did this during the age of Dial Up internet in 1997, so it did not catch on...in its intended market. While Ring Warriors had little success in the USA until 2011, it beat both WWF and WCW in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia till the death of Hiro Matsuda in 1999.
* JackOfAllTrades
** In addition to being a pro wrestler, Lou Thesz was a promoter, manager, commentator, a referee and a dog trainer.
** Wrestling/JerryLawler is a promoter, illustrator, color commentator, softball player and almost politician in addition to being a pro wrestler.
** Alex Shelley is a commentator, singer, musician, certified athletic trainer and chauffeur in addition to being a pro wrestler.
** Wrestling/BlackRose is a swimmer, dancer, actress, personal trainer, and certified yoga instructor in addition to being a pro wrestler.
* JerkJock
** The "Natural Guy" Wrestling/BuddyRogers, natch. He later became the "Nature Boy".
** Wrestling/TheVarsityClub; Rick Steiner, Wrestling/MikeRotunda, Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams, and Wrestling/KevinSullivan who wore their letterman jackets as entrance attired and bragged about their amateur accomplishments.
** The All-Stars of NWA Wildside Chandler [=McClure=] and Cru Jones (who had an American Football Gimmick) plus "The Waterboy" Mike Horning and "The Male Cheerleader" Bryce Benjamin.
** One who started in the AWA but later made his way to the NWA, Mr. Perfect, Wrestling/CurtHennig, who supposedly excelled at ''all'' sports.
* KangaroosRepresentAustralia: In 1959 Wrestling/TheFabulousKangaroos became the first International Tag Team Champions and reigned throughout much of the sixties.
* KickedUpstairs: Ole Anderson pushed for Ric Flair to be World Heavyweight Champion because it would mean Flair would spend less time in the Carolina territories.
* TheLastDJ: Don Owen, the promoter of NWA Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Portland, Oregon, who managed to resist Jim Crockett and Vince [=McMahon=] up to 1992. The company itself started in 1925, stayed in the family since then and the PNW name has since been taken up by several others [[SpiritualSuccessor to keep the legacy going.]]
* LegacyCharacter: In 1971, rivals Mr. Wrestling and The Grappler [[HumiliatingWager put their masks on the line]] in a match hosted by CWF Florida. The Grappler defeated Mr. Wrestling and from then on became known as Mr. Wrestling #2. Before this, Angelo Poffo revived his own masked Grappler gimmick to challenge the upstart and after this another Grappler would show up in the 1980s, managed by Wrestling/JimCornette. Then a Grappler #3 would show up in Pro Wrestling Revolution during the new millennium. The Mr. Wrestling legacy has continued as well.
* LetXBeTheUnknown: Mr. X, Señor X, Dr. X, Lady X, and Madame X gimmicks usually come with a mask to conceal the face. The X Divisions are for the fact anyone is theoretically eligible to compete in them.
* MadEye: Wrestling/SinnBodhi's right pupil is in the shape of an X.
* MartialArtsHeadband: Jay Young Blood and tag team partner Ricky Steamboat, Wrestling/ShinyaHashimoto in promos esepcially, the Freebird rule abusing Koloffs...
* MasterApprenticeChain: NWA Wildside was full of Rick Michaels trainees, which was also part of the reason Jeff G. Bailey and The NWA Elite were dead set on ruining the place. This was most obvious when Zach Daniels and Lane Vasser, students of Michaels's student Slim J, were turned against him.
* MeleeATrois: NWA Empire's Lord of the Dance title and Vendetta's Triforce Title can only be defended in "three way dance" matches. TNA tried to enforce this rule on the X Division but it was negatively received, since the X Division had been established as having no limits.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate
** Dr. X in CWF Florida. Seemed to lose his doctorate in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, where he was merely Mr. X #2 (teaming with Mr. X, who became #1, obviously)
** Dr. Veneno, who was Titans Of The Ring International Heavyweight Champion in Xplosion Nacional de Lucha Libre.
* MrFanservice
** George Becker was a very early example. Wrestling/TheRockNRollExpress were seemingly pushed just because of their appeal with the ladies, and undoubtedly created the RickyMorton spot to further exploit it. AJ Styles, Altar Boy Luke and Seth Delay of Wildside were pushed as such when someone made note of the pitch the majority of their cheers got. Ricky Ruffin of the Western States division is known as "the last temptation".
** Cru Jones and Shawn Banks's "Hot Like Lava" tag team was supposed to be a {{hunk}} version of this
* NameTron: Lazer-Tron, a masked luchador who was World Junior Heavyweight Champion during the JCP era. [[spoiler:It was Hector Guerrero]].
* NewYearHasCome: NWA Pro's New Years Retribution (with So Cal Pro), NWA Smoky Mountain's New Year's Bash
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Jeff G. Bailey is in no way a criticism of the defense practices of F. Lee Bailey. Any similarities found between Luda Kash of All Money Is Legal and Ludacris of DTP are purely coincidental.
* NonIndicativeName
** The second oldest title to ever be given the NWA designation, the British Empire/Commonwealth Championship belt, was almost exclusively defended in Canada and then almost exclusively defended in New Zealand due to the European promoters not joining the NWA until after the territorial era had ended.
** NWA's name indicates it as a group of American promotions, but at its apex included promotions as far away as Japan (the Japan Wrestling Association, then New Japan and All Japan following its collpase), and after the Tharpe takeover was anything but an alliance. The Corgan purchase has made it hard even to call it an alliance InNameOnly.
* OddNameOut: The first generation of Vachons: Butcher, Mad Dog and Vivian. The second generation of Pitbull, The Beast and Luna was not quite so off but the latter was still the only one that could be a given name. Of the Monroes, you had Jet, Rocket, Sputnik and...Bubba?
* OneHeadTaller: The Unholy Alliance (not [[Wrestling/TheBigShow that]] [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker one]], or [[Wrestling/YoshihiroTajiri that]] [[Wrestling/MikeyWhipwreck one]]), holders of The South Atlantic Tag Team Titles. So Talon was not so tiny at an imperial 5'8 but Tower was 7'1! Brutally Heartless with the 6'6 Brutus Dylan and 5'9 [[Wrestling/RubyRiott Miss Heidi]](closer to 5'4 without lifts) are a more straight forward example.
* OneSteveLimit
** The National Wrestling Alliance itself was preceded by the National Wrestling Association (an offshoot of the National Boxing Association), which went out of business one year after the Alliance was founded. Association's Midwest Tag Team titles remained in use by other companies until 2013 though.
** For something as long lasting as the NWA in a business with as much turnover as pro wrestling, it was perhaps inevitable. Historically, one of their first attempted rivals was the IWA (International Wrestling Association, started by Eddie Einhorn. Another company called the Independent Wrestling Alliance would pop up in 2005 though it wasn't a direct rival). In the late 1990s and new millennium a then new rival was the IWA (Independent Wrestling Association) though this was a friendlier rival. Sabu defended the NWA World Heavyweight Title belt against Wrestling/ChrisHero at an IWA Mid-South show for instance. And while they've never been much of rivals, in part because the NWA was by then too small to threaten them, they had a working agreement together with IWA Japan (International Wrestling Association, unrelated to the first one) and The Naturals won the IWA Puerto Rico tag team titles.
** Legendary trainer of Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/TheGreatMuta and others, Hiro Matsuda, set out to make an "Americanized" version of New Japan Pro Wrestling called World Wrestling Superstars, with help from Howard Brody. However, since the World Wrestling Federation had taken to calling ''all'' its wrestlers superstars and even had a show called WWF Superstars, the name was changed to Ring Warriors.
** NWA Hollywood Wrestling and Championship Wrestling From Hollywood refer to Hollywood California. Ring Warriors and Future of Wrestling have often operated out of Hollywood Florida; two different towns in the same country.
** Both Championship Wrestling From Florida (CWF) and WWE's former developmental company Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), are based on an older promotion that was called CWF and FCW interchangeably. Specifically CWF called itself FCW after what was originally its BShow for a brief period when it was not allowed to use its original name.
** CWF can either mean Championship Wrestling From Florida or Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. Two promotions on different sides of the USA. Sometimes you have to read between the lines if someone neglected write it out.
** There are the Freebird Rule-using World Tag Team Champions Triple X[[note]]Christopher Daniels, Elix Skipper, Low Ki[[/note]] and the World Tag Team Champions Triple XXX.[[note]]Curtis Thompson and Drake Dawson[[/note]]
** Around the same time Onyx was heavyweight champion of Wildside, ''Dru'' Onyx was winning several heavyweight belts in the UK and Canadian NWA members.
* OvershadowedByAwesome
** Orville Brown is one of the most outstanding cases in pro wrestling. Over the course of eight years he held the Midwest Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship belt eleven times and this lead to him becoming the first World Heavyweight Champion of the National Wrestling Alliance. After holding the NWA title for over a year he had to retire from the ring due to a car crash and the vacant title was picked up by number one contender Lou Thesz, one of the pioneers of what would come to be recognized as the US style of pro wrestling.
** Gary Steele isn't remembered as the first Englishman to be World Heavyweight Champion but that guy who had no business in the ring with Ogawa. To Steele's credit, he would have a decent run as NWA UK Hammerlock's Heavyweight Champion later and Steele did have some degree of support during his seven day world title reign. It was afterwards that fans began to see Steele's win as undeserved when Ogawa became well thought of as a top {{face}} of Zero 1 and Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE. It probably didn't help him much at the time that he won the belt with a visibly botched rollup in a less than 10 minute long 3 way dance match where Ogawa spent most of it slapping both opponents around like flies.
* PartsUnknown
** [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan]] is from "The Iron Gates of Fate" (though this rarely comes up outside of his WCW run).
** [[Wrestling/DavidHeath Gangrel]] and Wrestling/LunaVachon are from "The Other Side of Darkness", as is the former's trainee Wrestling/{{Holidead}}
** Tasha Simone is from "The Darker Side of Evil" (or Dallas, Texas)
** Chris Hero is from [[Comicbook/{{Superman}} Metropolis]].
** Wrestling/MsChif and [[Wrestling/HunterJohnston Delirious]] hailed from "The Realm of Insanity" before moving to "The Inferno"
** {{Subverted| trope}} in the case of Jun Hado, who is billed from the "The Forbidden City, China", which is part of well known residential area Beijing. This is largely for RuleOfCool and he's been listed from Shanghai when necessary.
** Techno Destructo is "from beyond Venus, beyond Jupiter, and way past Uranus."
** The question of how "Your Daddy's Backdoor" got on the card was actually raised during a Fella Twins match in UCW-Zero.
* PatrioticFervor: During the territorial era that the NWA dominated, individual member promotions could support whoever they wanted however they wanted, but the board of directors officially sponsored the USA's wrestling team when the Olympic games rolled around.
* PintSizedPowerhouse
** A "World Midget's Title" was established in 1949, though it was discontinued in the year 2000. It was revived by NWA Mexico as the World Minis Title in 2009 and won by Octagoncito [[FullyAbsorbedFinale but ended up going to]] Pro Wrestling Revolution, becoming the PWR Mini's title. First midget champion Sky Low Low was called "The Little Atlas Of The Wrestling World".
** NWA's second World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz was comfortably above the heavyweight baseline at 6'1 224 lbs, but he was still smaller than the first ''ever'' pro wrestling world heavyweight champion, Estonian strongman Wrestling/GeorgeHackenschmidt, who was 6'0 230 lbs. Smaller men held the belt in the interim between Hackenschmidt and Thesz (Frank Gotch at 6'1 200 lbs, Earl Caddock at 6'0 182 lbs) but the size of contenders and champions such as those competing for the WWF would balloon to point men noticeably larger than Thesz like Wrestling/BretHart, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero were initially considered too small to be champions in that promotion. The average size of the NWA world champion remained around Thesz size for 70+ years, excepting standouts like Giant Baba, meaning the NWA World Champion almost always looked small compared to whoever WWF or WCW had the belt on.
** [[Wrestling/GeorgeWagner Gorgeous George]] was even smaller than Thesz, legitimately average to smallish for his time at 5'9 215 (only five heavier than Mexican Welterweight Wrestling/ElSanto, who also counts...) yet Gorgeous George was a top draw and eventually became the highest paid athlete in the USA.
** Mildred Burke, the first World Women's Champion, was only 5'1 115 lbs, which was small even for her time, being the ladies welterweight champion of Midwest Wrestling Association, but she was ripped and much stronger than those numbers would suggest. The fourth title holder, Betty Boucher may have been the smallest ever, being an inch shorter and five pounds lighter than Burke but she beat the [[Wrestling/TheFabulousMoolah legendary Fabulous Moolah]] for the belt (which the WWF, incidentally, [[CanonDiscontinuity refused to acknowledge]]). To hammer this in, the 138 lbs Fabulous Moolah was the first World Women's ''Junior Heavyweight'' Champion crowned by Jack Pfefer, though weight divisions for women at the world level were done away with, after which the NWA gave Moolah the World Women's belt.
* PoliticalOvercorrectness: At the time, this was how Sputnik Monroe's efforts to integrate audience seating in the Memphis territory arenas got presented. Nonetheless, [[TheBadGuyWins he succeeded]], to [[RootingForTheEmpire the cheers]] of many black wrestling fans.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain
** Jeff G. Bailey called Hotstuff Hernandez a "dirty wetback" in NWA Anarchy, not long after accusing the fans of being racists
** Wrestling/TheMidnightExpress manager Jim Cornette was well known for attacking racial minorities, the religious in general and the working class. Unlike Bailey he never said any slurs loud enough for the mics to pick up. This carried over to the Corgan era, as he was removed from ''Power'' for making a joke about famine in Ethopia.
** Vendetta's disputed owner Billy Blade actually tries to be politically correct, in an effort to be better than Ramirez from Revolution, but tends to fail miserably because the truth is he just doesn't trust you kind of people.
* PornStache: Ole Anderson had a disconnected one under his nose that instead connected with his sideburns in the 1970s but when it comes to looking like a porn star it was far surpassed by the legendary stache of Dan "The Beast" Severn. Joey Ryan makes reference to his, his finishing move being called "The Mustache Ride".
* PowerFist
** The Brass Knuckles title established in 1953 for the Texas territory, then others getting their own, such as Florida in 1960. Mainly, it was about matches where closed fists were legal but taped fist and brass knuckle use were not uncommon.
** "The Gameboy", also known as Max Morrison, uses a ''[[Creator/{{Nintendo}} power glove]]''. Techno Destructo has a giant wrench he can fit over his arm.
* PowerStable
** A whole lot. One of the most famous stables in pro wrestling history, Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen with Wrestling/RicFlair, started off here.
** James J Dillon, manager of The Four Horsemen, also ran one of the most successful stables of post ECW NWA, The Empire.
* PowerTrio: Many, but The Fabulous Freebirds Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, and Buddy "Jack" Roberts came up with the "Freebird Rule", which allowed all three of them to be NWA Tag Team Champions and any two of them to defend the belts on any given night. This would quickly be copied by Wrestling/TheMidnightExpress, then The Russians,[[note]]Wrestling/IvanKoloff, Wrestling/NikitaKoloff, and Krusher Khruschev[[/note]] then Wrestling/{{Demolition}} in the WWF and remained popular throughout the Wolfpac's[[note]]Wrestling/KevinNash, [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman Syxx]], Wrestling/ScottHall[[/note]] run in WCW and later in TNA, Triple X,[[note]]Wrestling/LowKi, Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels and Wrestling/ElixSkipper[[/note]], 3 Live Kru[[note]]Wrestling/RonKillings, [[Wrestling/RoadDogg BG James]] and Wrestling/{{Konnan}}[[/note]] and Wrestling/TheBeautifulPeople[[note]]Wrestling/VelvetSky, Wrestling/MadisonRayne and Lacey Von Erich[[/note]] in TNA, Wrestling/TheNewDay[[note]]Wrestling/KofiKingston, Wrestling/XavierWoods, and Wrestling/BigELangston[[/note]] in WWE and many trios beyond...
* RaceLift: There was a white Marie Laveau in Georgia Championship Wrestling, NWA Hollywood and CWF Florida during the 1970s.
* TheRemnant: Though reduced to a tiny fraction of its former prestige, give credit where credit is due. Almost every other wrestling promotion that's broken away has gone the way of the dodo, from the [=AWA=] and Jim Crockett Promotions in the 80's all the way to powerhouses like Wrestling/{{WCW}} and Wrestling/{{ECW}} in the early 2000's, with only a [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling notable]] [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} pair]] of exceptions. After being trashed by ''every'' member promotion that's gotten a whiff of success on the national scene, their World title treated as less than tin foil on television time and time again, nobody would have blamed the [=NWA=] leadership for throwing in the towel. But they've held strong, and with the rise of the internet, smaller promotions under the [=NWA=] umbrella who've never had an audience larger then a high school gym have been able to expose their product to a wider market without the need of traditional cable outlets, leading to a slight resurgence.
* {{Retraux}}: The set of ''NWA Powerrr'' has a distinctly low budget 80's and early-90's wrestling show feel to it.
* {{Revival}}
** The Calgary Territory goes back to 1930 but is best known by its 1948 {{revival}} as the Hart Family's Stampede.
** Southern Championship Wrestling, originally a Tennessee promotion started in 1982 by Jim Crockett, was revived in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida, the latter having the most longevity, even more than the original.
* RingOldies: Tim Storm was World Heavyweight Champion at 52! And at an imperial 6'3 260 lbs, not many people would want to fight him at a glance, and even if he was smaller, [[OlderThanTheyLook he didn't really look his age.]]
* RingOut
** The NWA rule book allows the referee to "count out" any wrestler they feel has been outside of the ring too long, awarding the match to the opponent they were apparently too scared to face, though savvy wrestlers quickly learned they could win matches by simply getting their opponent outside of the ring and then barring them from getting back in. For this reason, [[ObviousRulePatch title belts were said to be unable to change hands due to count out.]] As late the mid 1950s the California Athletic Commission insisted champions could lose a title belt by count out however.
** Infamously, this can be to the benefit of the person who suffers a ring out, as the NWA rules tossing the opponent over the top rope an offense worthy of disqualification. Fans at a Ring Of Honor event actually chanted "Dusty Finish" after Nigel [=McGuinness=] wasn't awarded the NWA World Title due to knocking champion Adam Pearce over the top rope.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Of a sports variety. The classic Ric Flair-Dusty Rhodes rivalry was designed to mirror the Lakers-Celtics rivalry that was huge at the time, pitting the flashy, stylish and flamboyant (Flair/Lakers) against the no-nonsense, workmanlike, determined style (Rhodes/Celtics). It worked for audiences in both cases.
* TheRival
** The American Wrestling Association, which boardered of FriendlyRival. The AWA wasn't appreciated at first, but over the years it became valuable to the NWA in fending off anti trust lawsuits and appeasing local territory champions who wanted runs as World Champion but couldn't get enough votes.
** NWA Florida, CWF Florida/FCW and Southern Championship Wrestling have an intertwined history.
** Within NWA Florida and Florida in general there was Billy Fives vs Scoot Andrews. After ten years it was supposed to end in one of them being retired in a steel cage(a draw). After seventeen years they decided to compete in a different way and become a tag team in Ring Warriors. That was still more about one upping each other than beating any opposing teams.
** Independent Pro Wrestling, Future of Wrestling and NWA Florida were involved in a three way rivalry in 2001. NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion Buck Quartermain would eventually defeat IPW Heavyweight Champion Mike Sullivan and FOW Heavyweight Champion Scoot Andrews in a "Three Way Dance" and "absorb" their championship belts into his own.
** Pro Wrestling Revolution gets its name from the fact it was created to spite another promotion, All Pro Wrestling, and Vendetta Pro get ''it's'' name from the fact it was started [[RebelliousRebel to spite Revolution]].
** After TNA got a deal with Panda Energy and left, Championship Wrestling From Hollywood and Ring Warriors eventually competed with one another to see who would become the new crown jewel of the NWA. CWF Hollywood got its show out first but then lost its member powers and left, Ring Warriors reluctantly deciding to follow them. Even after leaving the NWA, CWF Hollywood remained reluctant to so much as mention TNA by name on their television program, preferring to call it "That other company."
* RoguesGalleryTransplant: Black Tiger IV's wave making move in the NWA was defeating Jason Rumble for the World Junior Heavyweight Title, but he'd use that to set up a champion vs champion match against his expected rival, Tiger Mask IV, who held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title.
* RunTheGauntlet: The "Beat the Champ" Television Title in Johnny Doyle's NWA Los Angeles during the 1950s involved the current "champion" having to beat randomly selected "challengers" for five weeks in a row or else pay the former "champion" 100 USD. The belt was revived by NWA Hollywood in 1960s, Smoky Mountain Wrestling in the 1990s and NWA Wildside in the 2000s.
* SadistTeacher
** Stampede trained many wrestlers in a basement that was nicknamed "Stu Hart's Dungeon".
** NWA Quebec's wrestling school was given the welcoming name of "Onyx and [=LuFisto=]'s Torture Chamber".
* ScaryBlackMan
** NWA Hollywood had Mighty Joe Gaderson in the 1950s and Big Daddy Lipscomb in the 60s up to his death. Though given the latter was a football player only wrestling in the off season, he wasn't so scary to most of the audience.
** Wildside hosted the debut of The Beast Wrestling/BobSapp (who had failed in football and so didn't have the audience familiarity)
* SiblingTeam: Chavo and Héctor Guerrero as United States Tag Team Champions, the Von Erichs as WCWA "Six Man Tag Team Champions", Reid Flair and David Flair in NWA Charlotte
* SmashingWatermelons: Or slicing, as in with a metal sword in Sinn Bodhi's case. And he did so with the water melon on top of Jeckles The Jester. Despite chants of "Don't do it!" Bodhi managed to cut it in half without cutting Jeckles.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: George Bruckman, or Brockman? Gory Guerrero, or Gori?
* TheStarscream: Jerry Lawler's manager Wrestling/JimmyHart sought to takeover [[PowerStable The King's Army]], and quickly moved to crown Wrestling/PreciousPaulEllering as the new king.
* StartMyOwn
** The NWA International Heavyweight Title was created by Lou Thesz as an excuse to tour Europe and Japan more often. Thesz knew he could make more money in Japan than the United States, but there were far more member promotions in USA so that's where most of his World Heavyweight Title defenses would take place ''unless'' a majority of promoters could be convinced an overseas defense would be for the best.
** NWA Wrestling/{{Sabu}}, a territory started in 1994 by guess who
** The All Pro-Revolution-Vendetta saga.
** Adrian Street had Skull Krushers Wrestling School, until Hurricane Ivan wrecked most of it. He and Miss Linda also started a website that they used to design ring gear for wrestlers. One of their customers was [[Wrestling/MickFoley Dude Love]].
* StatuesqueStunner: Six foot one Sue Green, who triumphed over Fabulous Moolah for the World Women's belt in 1975, although her run was disputed by the NWA, and of course ignored by the WWF entirely.
* TagTeamTwins
** The "Clones" Pat and Mike Kelly were not real clones. They were even relatives, but they looked so much a like they quickly realized they could be a very successful tag team by playing tricks on referees.
** The Shane Twins, who infamously held the World Tag Team Championship belts for 20 days in Peru before they were forced to vacate them when the board of directors gave TNA control of the titles. It was still an improvement, as they only held the Future of Wrestling International tag team title belts ''two days'' in the same area beforehand.
* TakeThat: As a general rule, while the NWA has been more than willing to work with other organizations, it has never been above taking cheap shots against them in promotional material or on commentary.
** Future of Wrestling boasts to be the first promotion to ever go on tour throughout South America. This was a jab at Wrestling/BuddyRogers's supposed 1963 tournament in Brazil where he defeated Wrestling/BrunoSammartino and Wrestling/AntoninoRocca for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship when he was really just handed the belt, and then doing the same for Wrestling/PatPatterson in 1979 with the WWF Intercontinental Champiopnship. FOW would go on to crown Cyborg its first International Champion in 1999, during a show in Lima, Peru.
** During the 80’s, the NWA’s motto was "We Wrestle!" to provide a purposeful contrast to the more theatrical, less athletic product of the World Wrestling Federation.
** ''NWA Powerrr'' during its first episodes took several shots against "little boys" and "cosplay wrestlers", specifically meant to allude to the roster of Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling. It was made more pointed by the presence of Wrestling/JimCornette as an announcer, who has repeatedly insulted AEW and its roster on his podcast, although the comments have become much less frequent with Cornette's departure from the announce team.
* ThanksgivingEpisode
** NWA Pro's ''Thanksgiving Throwdown'', NWA On Fire's ''Thanksgiving Brawl''.
** The Crockett territory used to run two shows on thanksgiving, pulling 25,000 people between them. A mere five NWA territories usually pulled 100,000 on Thanksgiving(and there were usually 39 active territories in the US), with only Christmas or Christmas Eve being bigger for the NWA during its heyday.
* ThatManIsDead: Jeff G. Bailey said this of Prince Justice when he sent Wrestling/{{Abyss}} to take the NWA Wildside Heavyweight belt from Onyx back to the NWA Elite.
* ThrowTheDogABone
** While on their own shows, Wrestling/RingOfHonor has poked fun at the state of the NWA and will be quick to let anyone who asks know that they were never a member of it, ROH will send their talent out to help put over NWA guys, such as soon to be ROH World Champion Wrestling/AdamCole taking a fall to NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce at Ring Warriors.
** This ended up being a bone for Pearce too, sort of. People in ROH's parent company Sinclair didn't like him but allowed Adam Pearce the honor (no pun intended) of coming back to ROH and lose to Cole after ROH moved the Ring Warriors Grand Champion Bruce Santee to a dark match.
* TookALevelInBadass: Jax Dane's singles career is pretty straight forward. Houston Heavyweight Champion, Lone Star State Heavyweight Champion, National Heavyweight Champion, North American Heavyweight Champion and then World Heavyweight Champion.
* ToothyIssue: Missing teeth were a trademark of The Destroyer. Ox Baker lost 19 teeth during his first year as a pro.
* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: Inspire Pro Wrestling's "Battle Wars" with Wrestling/{{Chikara}}.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: The self-absorbed Southern Stomper Luke Hawx, who embodies almost everything people dislike about Hollywood (even though [[ArtisticLicenseGeography he'd logically more likely to be working in Orlando]]), was once a sweet altar boy.
* ValentinesDayEpisodes: BCW and NWA Wisconsin put on ''Valentines Vendetta''
* VestigialEmpire: About as vestigial as vestigial gets. Went from having a stranglehold on professional wrestling across the populated continents, bar Europe, to having tentative oversight of a handful of regional promotions in six-seven countries (but at least they got a foothold on Europe). Since 1995, non-member promotions that beforehand would have at best been acknowledged when asked and largely ignored (Wrestling/{{Toryumon}}), most likely branded outlaw and [[TheScottishTrope actively]] ignored (IWRG), possibly even under the radar and near completely ignored (LLF) in decades past, have been allowed to host World Championship matches by the NWA without direct oversight simply because the NWA really needed the attention. In the late 2010s NWA more or less gave up on governing territories in favor of sending the world champions out to wherever they may get the most exposure relative to the cost of booking them.
* VillainEpisode: The 320th NWA Wildside show was dedicated to the NWA Elite
* WhamEpisode: The aftermath of Bruce Tharpe's (owner of [=NWA=] Houston) lawsuit against the [=NWA=] board of directors. To make a long story short, Tharpe had his promotion join the [=NWA=] after being assured that his promotion would be covered by the [=NWA's=] insurance and other guarantees, which turned out not to be the case, resulting in him suing the organization for fraud and misrepresentation. In the resulting fallout, the [=NWA=] itself was given over to Tharpe's ownership, whereupon he immediately began making drastic changes to the leadership structure and membership status of the league. Most importantly, the old title and powers of the [=NWA=] President, last seen in 2005, were restored; and the [=NWA=] itself was changed from a membership model to a licensee model: "Member" promotions of the [=NWA=] are no longer truly members in the sense that they have an equal stake and say in the organization's future, but instead merely license the [=NWA's=] name and partnership from the board of directors while little say in, for example, choosing the [=NWA's=] world champion and having a chance to have him appear on their programming. Those powers now remain with the board of directors, on which the various member promotions' owners no longer have a voice. As a result of this massive shakeup, several promotions and wrestlers with [=NWA=] membership withdrew their affiliation in protest; most notably, immediately following a (for the [=NWA=], at least) high-profile series of matches called the Seven Levels of Hate between Adam Pearce and Wrestling/ColtCabana for the [=NWA=] World Championship belt, both wrestlers tore down the new ownership's actions and left [=NWA=] programming and vacated the title.
* WhiteMaskOfDoom: Most obviously The Destroyer's but also the original Mr. Wrestling. Dr. Wagner built up a fearsome reputation afterwards though he was mostly restricted to Mexico until All Japan took an interest toward the end of his career in the 1980s. Among the ladies there was African Princess.
* WorkedShoot: The "dispute" between various territories over whether Édouard Carpentier had defeated Lou Thesz for the world heavyweight title or not, resulting in both men being billed as World Heavyweight Champion at the same time. [[AbortedArc This was put to an end]] by a decree from NWA president Sam Muchnick when Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn pulled out of the NWA.
* WrestlingDoesntPay
** Wrestling/ChiefWahooMcDaniel, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Ernie Ladd and The All-Stars, wrestling football players
** Dr. Big Bill Miller, the wrestling veterinarian
** Plowboy Fraiser
** Altar Boy Luke abandoned his holy ways for the lavish lifestyle of a stuntman.
** While Lucha Family Films [[ShowWithinAShow is just a gimmick]], Leva Bates and Andrea (Mother) have served as stunt women for Universal.
* WrestlingFamily:
** Many, the Anoa’i, also known as "The Wrestling/SamoanDynasty", being a particularly long running example. Odd appearances from Afa still happening even as his grandson Lance wrestled in NWA Fusion and DAWG Pound. In 2018 there were no less than 18 Anoa'i family members wrestling in various parts of the world.
** The Funks are particularly associated with the NWA because of the brothers Dory Funk Jr and Terry, as well as rival brothers the Briscos.
** Running NWA Hollywood was a [[Wrestling/GeneLeBell LeBell]] family tradition. There is the tragic story of the Wrestling/{{Von Erich|Family}}s and [[{{Determinator}} their continued presence in the wrestling business despite it...]]
** In 2014 Vendetta played up a {{feud|ingfamilies}} between Damián 666 and his son Bestia against the Guerreros Chavo and [[Wrestling/ChavoGuerreroJr Chavo Jr.]]
* WrestlingMonster
** Pampero Firpo was one of the earliest examples of the Alliance, he was sometimes simply called "Monster".
** {{Subverted|Trope}} in the case of "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas, who despite holding both the South Eastern Heavyweight Championship belt for over a year, the Coastal Championship Wrestling Championship belt for over two years and then going on to become the first wrestler to win the NWA National, NWA North American ''and'' NWA World Heavyweight titles, proved to be a vulnerable champion who retained largely by being a dirty cheat. It must be said Kahagas was respected as a tough guy offset though, as with most other NWA champions.
** Played straight as can be with NWA Wildside's Abyss, at least until TNA got him to themselves and told everyone else not to touch him.
** Billy Blade vs [[Wrestling/DavidHeath "The Vampire Warrior" Gangrel]] at Vendetta Pro's 2013 ''Immortal Fear'' had the {{tagline}} "the monsters come out to play."
* XtremelyKoolLetterz: [=NWA-TNA=]'s flagship-turned-B-show ''Xplosion'', which launched the same year as the promotion in 2002.
** In 2010, Xplosion Nacional de Lucha Libre in Chile became an NWA member. Their first heavyweight champion was known as "Xtra Large".