Wrestling / National Wrestling Alliance

(If you're looking for the rap group from Compton, 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 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 Lou Thesz, 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 American Wrestling Association) 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 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. (Ric Flair 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 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 Holes and 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 Vince McMahon, 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 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 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 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 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 Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and 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 Paul Heyman hatched a plan which came to fruition the night the tournament ended: Shane Douglas, 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 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 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 Monday Night Wars (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 Jim Cornette, whose traditionalist Smoky Mountain Wrestling was an NWA member at the time.

NWA in the 2000s

In 2002, after the Wars ended, Jeff Jarrett 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 Blip.tv.

A massive shakeup in NWA ownership took place in August 2012. The owner of NWA Houston, Bruce Tharpe, 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 In Name Only 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 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. The announcement came months after Corgan was spurned in the purchase of TNA Wrestling, now known as Impact Wrestling. 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 YouTube series, 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 Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks. 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 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 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: ^caveatFor 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.

• NWA 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. Heavyweight Champion: 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

Notable NWA World Heavyweight Champions

• Orville Brown
• Lou Thesz
• Whipper Bill Watson
• Dick Hutton
• Pat O'Connor
• Buddy Rogers
• Gene Kiniski
• Dory Funk Jr.
• Harley Race
• Jack Brisco
• Giant Baba
• Terry Funk
• Dusty Rhodes
• Tommy Rich
• Ric Flair
• Kerry Von Erich
• Ronnie Garvin
• Ricky Steamboat
• Sting
• Tatsumi Fujinami
• Masahiro Chono
• The Great Muta
• Barry Windham
• Shane Douglas (would relinquish the title immediately)
• Chris Candido
• Dan Severn
• Naoya Ogawa
• Gary Steele
• Mike Rapada
• Sabu
• Steve Corino
• Shinya Hashimoto
• Ken Shamrock
• Ron Killings
• Jeff Jarrett
• AJ Styles
• Ray González
• Raven
• Rhino
• Christian Cage
• Abyss
• Adam Pearce
• Brent Albright
• Blue Demon Jr.
• Colt Cabana
• The Sheik II (Joseph Cabibbo aka MLW’s Josef Samael)
• Kahagas
• Rob Conway
• Satoshi Kojima
• Hiroyoshi Tenzan
• Jax Dane
• Tim Storm
• Nick Aldis
• Cody Rhodes
• Trevor Murdoch
• Matt Cardona
• Tyrus
• EC3

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Tropes:

• The Ace
  • 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.
• All-American Face: Played with during The Real American Heroes (Joey Ryan and Karl Anderson) 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.
• Amoral Attorney
  • 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.
• An Ass-Kicking Christmas: Ultimate NWA's Clotheslines & Candycanes War Games, which did feature a 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.
• Annual Title: 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.
• Arch-Enemy: In the 1980s, Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair was the backdrop against which everything else was painted.
• The Artifact
  • 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 (Último Dragón was Middleweight Champion twice, and the Light-Heavyweight belt, along with the NWA Welterweight belt, was part of the 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 COVID-19 Pandemic 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 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 fur pelt.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: 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.
• B Show: 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!
• Badass Cape
  • 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.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: "The Bomb" Rob Williams, Konnan, Bad Street Boys (Christian York & Joey Matthews), The Amazing Red, The Naturals, Hotstuff Hernandez & Homicide of Latin American Exchange, those are just some of the more successful examples. Gedo tends to wear bandanas over his eyes.
• Bounty Hunter
  • 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.
• Braids, Beads and Buckskins: 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 second War Cloud were part of a tribe that resides in what became Mexican soil.
• Canon Discontinuity: In TNA, Ron Killings complained about how no black man had ever been allowed to be NWA World Heavyweight Champion, as well as how Ricky Steamboat 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 Bobo Brazil, 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 Antonio Inoki and the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
• Captain Ersatz
  • 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 Nikolai Volkoff, 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 Legacy Character just as well.
  • Pikachu from the Inoki Dojo
  • Kung Fu Panda in NWA Pro and PWR (though the gimmick is an artifact from the Mexican independent circuit)
  • Jimi Mayhem, Vendetta Pro's Shogun of Harlem.
• Carpet of Virility
  • The first NWA Americas Champion and Argentina's own Pampero Firpo. 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.
• The Charmer: El Gran Lothario indeed had an interest in seducing people, including himself...mostly women though.
• The Chessmaster
  • "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.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: 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 AWA, WWE, WCW, ECW, and Impact Wrestling. CMLL, New Japan and All Japan retained working relations despite leaving, while World Wrestling Associates returned after seven years and Pro Wrestling ZERO1 left but then came back after Shinya Hashimoto's passing.
• Collectible Card Game: 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
• Companion Cube: Pampero Firpo's shrunken head. Ricardo Rodriguez's skeleton blowup doll, "Boner".
• Continuity Snarl: 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.
• Cool Mask: One of the first International members of the NWA was EMLL (later known as 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: Kevin Sullivan's Army of Darkness in the original Championship Wrestling From Florida.
• Cut Short: As you can imagine, there have been many a Career-Ending Injury 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. These led to the rise of Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne, respectively.
• Demoted to Extra: Mike Rapada from two time World Heavyweight Champion to jobber in TNA dark matches.
• Department of Redundancy Department
  • 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 WCW and ECW in the early 2000's, with only a notable 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.
• Disqualification-Induced Victory: 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.
• Distaff Counterpart: NWA Phoenix and NWA Coastal had the Fyrebird World Order, fWo.
• Divide and Conquer: When Vince McMahon 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.
• Do with Him as You Will: Seth Delay abandoned his tag team partner, Sal Rinauro, to Matt Sydal at Wildside after Rinauro attacked and tried to forcibly French kiss Matt's friend Daizee Haze. Delirious and Altar Boy Luke were similarly apathetic to Rinauro's pleas for help but Ray Gordy decided to help him with Sydal.
• Double X
  • Pretty Boy 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.
• Dressed to Kill: 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.
• Dull Surprise: Dick Hutton is the Trope Codifier 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.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: 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 Último Dragón became known for holding multiple title belts of the same weight class at once.
• Epic Fail: 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 WWE NXT instead, starting on October 2024.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: Hiro Matsuda was known as Mr. Samurai in 1970s Championship Wrestling From Florida.
• Evil Foreigner
  • Many over its long existence, Korean wrestler 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 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 Low Ki in Pro Wrestling ZERO1, whom the fans really took a liking to.
• Evil Prince: Prince Nana 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.
• Evil Sounds Raspy
  • 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 AAA star Cibernetico.
  • Glacier is one to Sub Zero.
  • NWA SAW's Vic The Bruiser is 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 Red Baron "Tetsujin".
• Fat and Skinny: 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 The Sheik in NWA Hollywood and continued into the internet age with Azrael of the NWA Elite.
• A Friend in Need: They resorted to briefly leaning on Smoky Mountain Wrestling when ECW's departure left them without a World Champion. However, Chris Candido'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, Jim Cornette, got a full time offer to work for the WWF.
• Full-Name Basis: 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".
• Fully Absorbed Finale
  • 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 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, 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.
• Fun with Acronyms: Dangerous Adrenaline Wrestling Gladiators: NWA DAWG Pound.
• Gangbangers: This gimmick, along with White Gangbangers, pops up quite a bit. The Usual Suspects (AJ Steele and Murder-1) are two of the more successful examples.
• Garbage Wrestler
  • 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), Abdullah the Butcher and Dick the Bruiser.
  • 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 CZW in 1999, though it did not last, Nick Gage and Lobo being the only holders.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: 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 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 "The Shocker".
• The Giant
  • Many over the years, such as Haystacks Calhoun and Giant Titan, who are actually more mobile and agile than most examples. Still at 640 pounds, no one who had anything less than 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 Giant Baba.
  • The Skyscrapers were a stable of them, excepting "Masked Skyscraper" and manager Teddy Long.
  • 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 Andrea The Giant (noticing a pattern?). The latter two both appeared at the 2015 edition of Vendetta's Casino Royale.
• The Gift
  • 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 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.
• Glass Jaw Referee: Used for a Kick the Dog 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 to ensure the match would not continue.
• Gorgeous George: Besides the Trope Namer, there was also the Trope Codifier "Exotic" Adrian Street, who won the NWA Alabama Heavyweight Title belt at 69! Others include Lazarus (AKA "Dustin Timberlake") of NWA Wildside and Gorgeous Michelle Star of ECCW.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: The Board Of Directors, with each territory having its own owner, sponsor or athletic commission to serve as its Big Good. 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".
• Halloween Episode: 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.
• Happy Dance: La Parka is nearly always dancing and while Ophidian and Amasis don't stop by particularly often, they tend to dance even more.
• I Am Very British: Sir Alan Garfield from Greater London England. Later, Steve Regal in WCW and Nigel McGuinness in No Limit and Wildside.
• Invincible Hero: 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.
• It Will Never Catch On
  • In the NWA territories, the prevailing view among fans and wrestlers was "Blade Runner Sting's alright, 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.
  • 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.
• Jack of All Trades
  • In addition to being a pro wrestler, Lou Thesz was a promoter, manager, commentator, a referee and a dog trainer.
  • Jerry Lawler 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.
  • Black Rose is a swimmer, dancer, actress, personal trainer, and certified yoga instructor in addition to being a pro wrestler.
• Jerk Jock
  • The "Natural Guy" Buddy Rogers, natch. He later became the "Nature Boy".
  • The Varsity Club; Rick Steiner, Mike Rotunda, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, and Kevin Sullivan 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, Curt Hennig, who supposedly excelled at all sports.
• Kangaroos Represent Australia: In 1959 The Fabulous Kangaroos became the first International Tag Team Champions and reigned throughout much of the sixties.
• Kicked Upstairs: Ole Anderson pushed for Ric Flair to be World Heavyweight Champion because it would mean Flair would spend less time in the Carolina territories.
• The Last DJ: 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 to keep the legacy going.
• Legacy Character: In 1971, rivals Mr. Wrestling and The Grappler 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 Jim Cornette. Then a Grappler #3 would show up in Pro Wrestling Revolution during the new millennium. The Mr. Wrestling legacy has continued as well.
• Let X Be the Unknown: 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.
• Mad Eye: Sinn Bodhi's right pupil is in the shape of an X.
• Martial Arts Headband: Jay Young Blood and tag team partner Ricky Steamboat, Shinya Hashimoto in promos esepcially, the Freebird rule abusing Koloffs...
• Master-Apprentice Chain: 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.
• Mêlée à Trois: 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.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate
  • 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.
• Mr. Fanservice
  • George Becker was a very early example. The Rock 'n' Roll Express were seemingly pushed just because of their appeal with the ladies, and undoubtedly created the Ricky Morton 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
• Name-Tron: Lazer-Tron, a masked luchador who was World Junior Heavyweight Champion during the JCP era. It was Hector Guerrero.
• New Year Has Come: NWA Pro's New Years Retribution (with So Cal Pro), NWA Smoky Mountain's New Year's Bash
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: 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.
• Non-Indicative Name
  • 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 In Name Only.
• Odd Name Out: 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?
• One Head Taller: The Unholy Alliance (not that one, or that 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 Miss Heidi(closer to 5'4 without lifts) are a more straight forward example.
• One-Steve Limit
  • 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 Chris Hero 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 Hulk Hogan, The Great Muta 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 B Show 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 and the World Tag Team Champions Triple XXX.^note Curtis Thompson and Drake Dawson
  • Around the same time Onyx was heavyweight champion of Wildside, Dru Onyx was winning several heavyweight belts in the UK and Canadian NWA members.
• Overshadowed by Awesome
  • 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 Fighting Opera HUSTLE. 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.
• Parts Unknown
  • "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan is from "The Iron Gates of Fate" (though this rarely comes up outside of his WCW run).
  • Gangrel and Luna Vachon are from "The Other Side of Darkness", as is the former's trainee Holidead
  • Tasha Simone is from "The Darker Side of Evil" (or Dallas, Texas)
  • Chris Hero is from Metropolis.
  • MsChif and Delirious hailed from "The Realm of Insanity" before moving to "The Inferno"
  • Subverted 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 Rule of Cool 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.
• Patriotic Fervor: 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.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse
  • 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 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 George Hackenschmidt, 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 Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Eddie Guerrero 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.
  • Gorgeous George was even smaller than Thesz, legitimately average to smallish for his time at 5'9 215 (only five heavier than Mexican Welterweight El Santo, 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 legendary Fabulous Moolah for the belt (which the WWF, incidentally, 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.
• Political Overcorrectness: At the time, this was how Sputnik Monroe's efforts to integrate audience seating in the Memphis territory arenas got presented. Nonetheless, he succeeded, to the cheers of many black wrestling fans.
• Politically Incorrect Villain
  • Jeff G. Bailey called Hotstuff Hernandez a "dirty wetback" in NWA Anarchy, not long after accusing the fans of being racists
  • The Midnight Express 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.
• Porn Stache: 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".
• Power Fist
  • 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 power glove. Techno Destructo has a giant wrench he can fit over his arm.
• Power Stable
  • A whole lot. One of the most famous stables in pro wrestling history, The Four Horsemen with Ric Flair, 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.
• Power Trio: 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 The Midnight Express, then The Russians,^note Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff, and Krusher Khruschev then Demolition in the WWF and remained popular throughout the Wolfpac's^note Kevin Nash, Syxx, Scott Hall run in WCW and later in TNA, Triple X,^note Low Ki, Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper, 3 Live Kru^note Ron Killings, BG James and Konnan and The Beautiful People^note Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne and Lacey Von Erich in TNA, The New Day^note Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E. Langston in WWE and many trios beyond...
• Race Lift: There was a white Marie Laveau in Georgia Championship Wrestling, NWA Hollywood and CWF Florida during the 1970s.
• The Remnant: 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 WCW and ECW in the early 2000's, with only a notable 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.
• Ring Oldies: 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, he didn't really look his age.
• Ring Out
  • 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, 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.
• Ripped from the Headlines: 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.
• The Rival
  • The American Wrestling Association, which boardered of Friendly Rival. 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 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."
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: 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.
• Run the Gauntlet: 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.
• Sadist Teacher
  • 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".
• Scary Black Man
  • 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 Bob Sapp (who had failed in football and so didn't have the audience familiarity)
• Sibling Team: 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
• Smashing Watermelons: 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.
• Spell My Name With An S: George Bruckman, or Brockman? Gory Guerrero, or Gori?
• The Starscream: Jerry Lawler's manager Jimmy Hart sought to takeover The King's Army, and quickly moved to crown Precious Paul Ellering as the new king.
• Start My Own
  • 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 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 Dude Love.
• Statuesque Stunner: 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.
• Tag Team Twins
  • 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.
• Take That!: 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 Buddy Rogers's supposed 1963 tournament in Brazil where he defeated Bruno Sammartino and Antonino Rocca for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship when he was really just handed the belt, and then doing the same for Pat Patterson 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 All Elite Wrestling. It was made more pointed by the presence of Jim Cornette 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.
• Thanksgiving Episode
  • 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.
• That Man Is Dead: Jeff G. Bailey said this of Prince Justice when he sent Abyss to take the NWA Wildside Heavyweight belt from Onyx back to the NWA Elite.
• Throw the Dog a Bone
  • While on their own shows, Ring of Honor 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 Adam Cole 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.
• Took a Level in Badass: 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.
• Toothy Issue: Missing teeth were a trademark of The Destroyer. Ox Baker lost 19 teeth during his first year as a pro.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Inspire Pro Wrestling's "Battle Wars" with Chikara.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The self-absorbed Southern Stomper Luke Hawx, who embodies almost everything people dislike about Hollywood (even though he'd logically more likely to be working in Orlando), was once a sweet altar boy.
• Valentine's Day Episodes: BCW and NWA Wisconsin put on Valentines Vendetta
• Vestigial Empire: 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 (Toryumon), most likely branded outlaw and 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.
• Villain Episode: The 320th NWA Wildside show was dedicated to the NWA Elite
• Wham Episode: 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 Colt Cabana for the NWA World Championship belt, both wrestlers tore down the new ownership's actions and left NWA programming and vacated the title.
• White Mask of Doom: 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.
• Worked Shoot: 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. This was put to an end by a decree from NWA president Sam Muchnick when Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn pulled out of the NWA.
• Wrestling Doesn't Pay
  • Chief Wahoo McDaniel, 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 is just a gimmick, Leva Bates and Andrea (Mother) have served as stunt women for Universal.
• Wrestling Family:
  • Many, the Anoa’i, also known as "The Samoan Dynasty", 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 LeBell family tradition. There is the tragic story of the Von Erichs and their continued presence in the wrestling business despite it...
  • In 2014 Vendetta played up a feud between Damián 666 and his son Bestia against the Guerreros Chavo and Chavo Jr.
• Wrestling Monster
  • Pampero Firpo was one of the earliest examples of the Alliance, he was sometimes simply called "Monster".
  • Subverted 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 "The Vampire Warrior" Gangrel at Vendetta Pro's 2013 Immortal Fear had the tagline "the monsters come out to play."
• Xtremely Kool Letterz: 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".