The NWA.... When you ask today's fans about the NWA, the ones that have only been watching for a couple of years, they either look at you with a blank look on their face or they ask if your talking about the rap group from the early 90's that had Dr.Dre, and Ice Cube, or if you ask long time fans about the NWA, they will probably just shake their heads, and give you a sad sigh, as they talk about the good ole' days of wrestling.
At one time the National Wrestling Alliance was the largest, and most powerful wrestling organization for over 40 years, but today it consists of over a dozen independent promotions, that draw less than a 100 people at their cards, even TV tapings for NWA Wildside in Nashville, which the last few times I checked drew about 50 fans. That is untill the Jarretts came in the summer of 2002 and created Total NonStop Action (TNA), and started airing weekly PPV's, using the NWA name & titles in atempt to become a strong alternative to the WWE, and so far they are doing an admriable job. So it looks like there is hope for NWA
Pre NWA(1900-1948)
At the turn of the century there was one "World's Champion" when George Hackenschmidt who was the European Greco-Roman Champion, defeated American Champion Tom Jenkins May 4, 1905 in New York City to be the first World's Champion. He held the belt until losing to Frank Gotch April 8, 1908 in Chicago. Gotch was regarded as the greatest wrestler of his time, and in 1913, Gotch retired and then the title became fragmented for the next 3 decades.
All the promoters across the country had their own versions of the World Title like the New York "World Title" which went back and forth between Joe Stecher, Ed"Strangler" Lewis, Jim Londos, and Stanislaus Zbyszco in the early 20's. There was a Boston "World Title" that was held by wrestlers like Lewis, Ed Don George, Gus Sonnenberg & Danno O'Mahoney. There was an "Omaha World Title" that was held mainly by Charlie Cutler, Stetcher, and Londos, and there was of course a "Los Angeles" version of the World Title, held by Londos, and Bronko Nagurski. You get the ideal; this was the way it was throughout the 20's and the 30's. There were a few dominate wrestlers who held most of these belts at one time or another, and they were Ed "Strangler" Lewis, Jim Londos, and Joe Stetcher and these men were considered legit as World Champions.
However there were some attempts at untangling the web of "World Titles". In 1929 the National Wrestling Association, the wrestling arm of the National Boxing Association was created, and Gus Sonnenberg won by beating Strangler Lewis, and for the most part it was recognized as the true "world championship", however there were several times where if a wrestler won the title that wasn't approved for one reason or another by the different promoters, those promoters would still have their own version of a world title. This is the title that was held by the likes of Dick Shikat, Jim Londos, Everett Marshal, Steve Casey, and this was the version of the title that Lou Thesz held of the first few of his 6 world titles. However one man would take charge to change all of this, and have one World Champion once and for all.
Birth of the Alliance (1948-the 1980's)
In 1948 St.Louis promoter Sam Munchnik, decided enough was enough and he decided to sort out the wrestling picture once and for all. He and several midwest promoters which included P.L "Pinkie" George from Des Moines, Orville Brown from Kansas City, Tony Stetcher from Chicago, Al Haft, and Harry Light from Ohio got together and agreed to work together to recognized one "World Champion", and to get around strict US anti-trust laws, they formed the National Wrestling Alliance and the sweet part of the deal was that each promoter would run their own "territories" as they saw fit and have their own stars and championships. They would have one World Champion, who would go to each territory and defend against the promoter's top stars, with that territory paying the World Champion a percentage of the gate, usually anywhere between 8 to 15 percent for that particular card as well as pay for his plane ticket to that arena, and it worked like a charm folks.
The National Wrestling Alliance members named Kansas City wrestler and promoter Orville Brown as the first Alliance World Champion on July 14, 1948 and they decided to have a unification match between Brown, and National Wrestling Association "World Champion" Lou Thesz would be held in St.Louis on November 25, 1949 and it was believed Brown was scheduled to win that match, but fate would intervene as Brown suffered a career ending auto accident just weeks before the match and on November 27, 1949 Thesz was awarded the title, and Thesz would spend the next several years unifying other titles to the NWA World Title.
On July 27, 1950 Thesz defeated "Gorgeous" George Wagner in Chicago to unify the old Boston-based AWA version of the World Title to the NWA World Title. On May 21, 1952 Thesz defeated Baron Michele Leone in Los Angeles to merge the California version of the World Title. The match drew a record $103,277 gate, the first gate of over $100,000 in American wrestling history. During this time other promoters joined the Alliance and by the 60's and 70's over a dozen or so promoters in North America were official members of the NWA. Promoters like Don Owen {Pacific Northwest in Portland), Frank Tuney (Toronto), Bob Geigel (Central States in Kansas City), Jack Addison (World Class in Dallas), Wally Karbo (Omaha, and Minneapolis), Eddie Graham (Florida), Stu Hart (Stampede in Calgary), Roy Shire (San Francisco), Gene Lebelle (Los Angeles), Dory Funk Sr. (Amarillo, TX), Joe Blanchard (Southwest in San Antonio), Sheoi Baba (All-Japan), Steve Rickard (New Zealand & Australia), Jim Crockett (Mid-Atlantic), Vince McMahon Sr. and Toots Modt(Northwest in New York), and Jim Barnett(Georgia) were all part of the Alliance. For the first time in over 40 years there was an undisputed World Champion. It wouldn't last long though.
On June 14, 1957 Edouard Carpentier defeated Lou Thesz in Chicago when Thesz could not continue due to a back injury. The NWA Board of Directors however ruled that the title could not change hands through an injury and returned the title to Thesz. Despite the reversal promoters in Minneapolis, Omaha, and Los Angeles based World Wrestling Association continued to recognize Carpentier as champion. During all this Thesz went to Japan and defended the NWA World Title against Rikidozan, the Japanese father of modern pro wrestler on October 7, 1957 in Tokyo. It was the first ever NWA World Title match in Japan and it went to a 60 minute time limit draw.
A couple of years later Verne Gagne defeated Carpentier and claimed to be World Champion, however the NWA ignored the claim, during this time The NWA World Title went from Thesz, to Dick Hutton, to Pat O'Connor who was the NWA World Champion as 1959 began. These midwest promoters led by Wally Karbo of Omaha clamored for a "unification" match between O'Connor and Gagne, again the NWA ignored this, so in 1960 these promoters broke away to form the American Wrestling Association, and in a half hearted attempt as a peace offering named O'Connor as the first AWA World Champion, but he had to defend the title against Verne Gagne within 90 days or he would be stripped of the title. Of course O'Connor ignored the title, and Gagne was awarded the title in August of 1960. However the NWA was still regarded as the true World Championship.
Then in June 30, 1961 "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers defeated Pat O'Connor for the NWA World Title in Chicago's Comiskey Park. However Rogers bookings were controlled by Northeast promoter Toots Mondt and Mondt rarely let Rogers defend the belt outside the Northeast. The Northeast promoters led by Mondt, and Vince McMahon Sr, had a strained relationship with the rest of the NWA members mainly because they controlled the biggest U.S. market as far as wrestling concerns including Madison Square Garden. The other NWA promoters led by Sam Munchnik were upset at Mondt trying to control the title, and decided that Rogers had to drop the title. At that time when a wrestler was chosen to be the NWA World Champion they were required to put down a "deposit", usually anywhere between $10,000 to $25,000. They were told it was as insurance for the actual title belt in case it got lost or stolen, but in reality it was to prevent double crosses by different promoters and wrestlers that was rampant in the 20's and 30's, and Rogers did not want to lose his $25,000 deposit on the belt, as that was a lot of money in those days, so on January 24, 1963 in Toronto, Lou Thesz defeated Rogers in a one fall match to regain the NWA World Title. The Northeast promoters, led by Mondt, and McMahon refused to recognize the title switch because at the time most championship matches were 2 out of 3 falls, and they broke away and formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and named Rogers as their first "world champion". Like the AWA however, the WWWF was considered a regional promotion, and the NWA World Title lost little of its luster and was still THE WORLD TITLE! Throughout the rest of the 60's and 70's the NWA was the largest wrestling organization and the World Champion defended the belt in all the territories around the world, in effect whoever held it was a "traveling world champion". By the start of the 80's though all that would come to an end.
The Beginning of the end
By 1980 some of the smaller or "weaker" territories went out of business. Both the Los Angeles and San Francisco territories went belly-up due to a lack of younger wrestlers being elevated, as well as the promotions in Detroit, and Amarillo, TX. The AWA took over the California area, while Fritz Von Erich of World Class took over the old Amarillo territory, and several promoters took turns promoting in Michigan.
Cable Television was beginning to change the face of pro wrestling in North America, as several promoters could get more exposure for their shows. The one leading the pact was Georgia Championship Wrestling which was on WTBS. By the early 80's Georgia Championship Wrestling was seen across the country due to it being the first of the "superstations", like WGN in Chicago, to be put on the basic cable systems and GCW stars like Paul Orndorff, Tommy Rich, Mr. Wrestling II, Ted Dibiase, Brad Armstrong, Austin Idol, The Freebirds, and the Road Warriors among others were being seen by fans across the country who only read about them before the advent of cable television in different wrestling magazines including the "Apter Mags" like Pro Wrestling Illustrated. They weren't the only ones however. Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling out of Dallas, had a lucrative deal with Pat Robertson's Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) and they were on several TBN stations across the country outside of Dallas again several of these stations were on cable. Joe Blanchard's Southwest Promotion out of San Antonio was being shown on the fledgling USA cable network in 1981. However after a couple of years Blanchard's time slot on USA was bought out by the WWF.
Because of cable these promoters started to hold cards outside of their territories. As mentioned before the AWA started to promote in California, World Class basically took over the whole state of Texas as well as some of the southwestern states, and Georgia Championship Wrestling began promoting in Baltimore, Cleveland, Nashville, and Cincinnati, and in 1983 they changed their names to World Championship Wrestling.
The one who betted the whole farm on national expansion was Vince McMahon Jr, who bought the WWWF from his father in 1982. In 1971 due to financial hardships Vince Sr, quietly rejoined the NWA, however when Vince Jr, took control, he dropped the Wide from the WWWF, and it became the World Wrestling Federation, and in 1983 he withdrew from the NWA, and starting in 1983 he began to promote in places like Detroit, Ohio, Chicago, Milwaukee, and California far past the Northeast. He also offered other promoters stars lucrative deals to wrestle exclusively for him, guys like Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, and Ricky Steamboat from Mid-Atlantic, Junkyard Dog, Hacksaw Duggan, and Jake Roberts from Mid-South, Randy Savage, manager Jimmy Hart, and King Kong Bundy from Memphis, Barry Windham, Mike Rotunda, and the Funks from Florida, Ken Patera, Jesse Ventura, manager Bobby Hennan, announcer Gene Okerland, and Hulk Hogan from the AWA, and Paul Orndorff, Masked Superstar, and The Spoiler from Georgia. The other promoters were outraged but could not agree to do anything about it, and a brief attempt at competing at McMahon, Pro Wrestling USA failed after a year due to infighting.
The biggest blow to the NWA came in May of 1984 when Jack & Jerry Brisco, the top investors in World Championship Wrestling sold out to McMahon and it included the TBS time slot. However very few of the Georgia wresters agreed to work with McMahon, and minority owner Ole Anderson formed a new group and began to promote in Georgia, and by 1985 that group came under the control of Mid-Atlantic promoter Jim Crockett. In June of 1985 short on cash, and with TBS owner Ted Turner pressuring McMahon on trying to buy into the WWF, McMahon sold the World Championship Wrestling rights and the TBS timeslot to Crockett for a million dollars.
By 1985 Jim Crockett began to expand control over the shrinking NWA. In that year Crockett would no longer let NWA World Champion Ric Flair (a long time Mid-Atlantic wrestler) to accept more than two dates per week outside the Mid-Atlantic area and those promoters would have to pay a guaranteed amount instead of a percentage of the gate as it was done for decades. Crockett also insisted that he supply the wrestlers for the top half of any card, which Ric Flair appeared on. Crockett also stopped loaning his stars out to Jack Tunney's Toronto promotion, which Crockett was doing since 1978, and because of this Tuney who was starved for talent sold to the WWF. This plus Stu Hart selling his Calgary Stampede promotion to McMahon in 1984 pretty much locked the NWA out of Canada, turning it to a WWF only wasteland that lasted for over a decade. This was pretty much the end of the NWA, as it was known since 1948.
With Crockett spotlighting only his Mid-Atlantic stars on TBS instead of having other wrestlers from the other NWA promotions which by this point included Portland, Florida, World Class, and Alabama on TBS, this pretty much froze out those members, and in fact Crockett wanted to break out from the dying NWA as well but didn't think he had enough power to break away and still used the NWA name, but each year Crockett was ignoring the remaining NWA members.
In February 1986 World Class left the NWA in their attempt to go national, and also in that year Crockett bought the Central States territory, and he also bought the St.Louis promotion, the old heart of the NWA. In early 1987 Crockett bought out the Florida territory, taking stars like Lex Luger, Barry Windham, and Mike Rotunda with him. A few months later Crockett bought out Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation (formerly Mid-South, which was never a part of the NWA), under the guise of a joint partnership, but instead absorbed the promotion and took their top stars like Sting, Rick Steiner, and Steve "Dr.Death" Williams. By the end of the year all of these were under the Crockett controlled company that was still using the NWA name, but it had little to due with the group that was operating for previous 40 years. The only ones left, Don Owen's Pacific Northwest out of Portland, and the Continental Alabama group for all intents and purposes were independent promotions with no more ties with the NWA.
THE END....OR IS IT?
However due to all the selling and acquiring, left Crockett in poor financial shape, and with the end fighting behind the scenes between his two top stars, booker Dusty Rhodes, and World Champion Ric Flair, and with Rhodes insane booking practices, which were designed to make Flair, the center piece of the NWA, look weak and having to cheat, and rely on outside interference from the Four Horsemen to keep the title, compared to Hogan crushing his competition for the WWF Title live show attendance plummeted to the basement, and Crockett's attempt at PPV was thwarted by the WWF's attempt to crush the NWA. The First NWA PPV Starcade'87 which took place on Thanksgiving night did terrible buy rates when McMahon debuted The Survivor Series at the same night as Starcade, and most cable companies chose the WWF which was the better known product. With talent like the Sheepherders, the Powers of Pain, and even NWA stalwarts like Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard leaving for the WWF, as well as NWA veterans Nikita Koloff leaving due to his wife dying of cancer, and the Rock n Roll Express leaving for Memphis, and the AWA, with low PPV's buy rates, and even lower live show attendance, Crockett was on the verge of bankruptcy and in November of 1988 he sold his company to Ted Turner who by 1991 did away with the NWA name and remained the company World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The NWA was dead for all purposes, but it refused to go away, as they still recognized Ric Flair as World Champion while he was WCW World Champion in early 1991, even when Flair left WCW in July of that year, but stripped of the title in September of 1991 when he appeared in the WWF.
In 1992 WCW Executive Vice President Bill Watts persuaded WCW to rejoin the NWA along with New Japan Pro Wrestling in the summer of 1992. In July, 1992 at the Great American Bash PPV, WCW World Tag Champions Steve Williams & Terry Gordy defeated Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes in a tournament final to win the NWA Tag Team Titles, and in August of that year in Tokyo, Masa Chono defeated The Great Muta in a tournament final to win the NWA World Title. Chono defended against WCW US Champion Rick Rude at Halloween Havoc in October, and Chono and Muta did a rematch at Starcade'92 in Atlanta. Muta in turn defeated Chono in Tokyo in January 1993. This arrangement went on until 1993 when the NWA World Title was changed between WCW wrestlers starting when Barry Windham who defeated the Great Muta in February 1993 in Ashville, NC, who in turn lost it to Ric Flair in July of 1993. During all this the NWA was adamant about having the NWA Champion defend the belt outside of WCW including going to Japan, Dennis Coralluzo's New Jersey promotion, and Eastern Championship Wrestling in Philadelphia. However Windham and Flair were both under WCW contract and WCW was not going to let either men go to those other NWA promotions which were smaller in stature than WCW, and in September of 1993 when WCW announced an NWA Title match between Flair and Rick Rude for their Fall Brawl PPV that month, The NWA refused to sanction the title match and the WCW withdrew from the NWA.
Of all the remaining NWA members Eastern Championship Wrestling was the most recognizable due to their TV programming on the regional SportsChannel America cable network, and in August 27, 1994 the NWA held a tournament to crown a new NWA Champion at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. ECW Champion Shane Douglas defeated Too Cold Scorpio in the finals to win the title, and just seconds later, he throws the title down, saying he didn't want to be a champion of a "dead promotion", declared himself the "ECW World Champion", and Eastern Championship Wrestling left the NWA and remained themselves Extreme Championship Wrestling. Now your asking what in the hell happened there, well that's another long story.
When Jim Crockett sold his promotion to Ted Turner in 1988 one provision in the deal was that it had a five year no-compete clause meaning that Crockett could not competes against Turner (by all accounts barring him from the industry) for five years. In 1993 that five years was up and Crockett formed another NWA promotion in Dallas in early 1994. Crockett still wanted to control the NWA World Title like he did in the 80's and ECW owners Todd Gordon and Paul Hymen resented this attempt. Also New Jersey promoter Dennis Corraulzo attempted to get involved in the title tournament, and may have joined up with Crockett in having Douglas drop the NWA title to one of Crockett's wrestlers and treating the ECW title has a stepping stone to the World Title much like the Missouri Title was used in the 80's. Upon hearing this Gordon and Hymen allowed Douglas to trash the title and the NWA lost buckets of credibility
After all of this Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain became a NWA member in order to try to get the NWA back up and running, and finally in November 19, 1994 in New Jersey, Chris Candido who mainly worked in Smokey Mountain, defeated fellow SMW worker Tracey Smothers in a tournament final to win the NWA Title, but again politics reared its ugly head. Crockett did not like Coralluzo's choice of Candido has champion and threatened to crown his own "NWA Champion". However peace was restored when the NWA Board of Directors agreed to let Crockett crown and control the NWA World Tag Team Championship. In April 11, 1995 Smokey Mountain's Rock n Roll Express (former NWA World Tag team champs in the 80's under the old Jim Crockett Promotions) won the NWA Tag title in a tournament final in Dallas. A month later, Crockett folded his Dallas promotion and joined Mississippi's Deep South promotion and continued to recognize the Rock n Roll Express as NWA Tag Champions until Deep South folded later that year, and titles were "vacant".
During all this time in February 1995 in Kentucky, Dan Severn defeated Chris Candido to win the title, and Severn would hold it for four years. During this time he also entered several Ultimate Fighting Championship PPV shows, winning two of them including a victory over archrival Ken Shamrock. Severn also defended the NWA Title "shoot-fight style" in several NWA promotions including SMW, the IWA in Japan, NWA New Jersey, Steel City Wrestling and other promotions as well as Steve Rickard's promotion in Southeast Asia in order to attempt to return to the ideal of a "traveling world champion".
In 1998 while still NWA Champion, Severn signed with the WWF and there was a brief attempt at a NWA invasion led by Jim Cornette (his Smokey Mountain promotion was folded in 1995) which included Jeff Jarrett (who never wrestled for the NWA), Barry Windham (long past his prime), The Rock N Roll Express (the NWA just named them NWA Tag Champions when the storyline with the WWF began), Severn, and the "New Midnight Express"("Bodacious" Bart Gunn, and "Bombastic" Bob Holly, two WWF wrestlers who won the NWA tag belts from the Rock n Roll, and later lost to WWF tag team, the Headbangers). However it took place in the beginning of the WWF's attitude area, and fans didn't care, and with Severn not adapting to the WWF's "sports entertainment" style of pro wrestling, was out of place in the WWF and was released in early 1999. Remember he was still NWA Champion all this time, in fact he did a injury angle with Owen Hart in the fall of 1998 so he could honor his NWA obligations.
Struggling Along(1999-2002)Since about 1998 the NWA has returned to the ideal of the original concept of the NWA of 1948. Several independent groups have joined the NWA, are paying dues and have the NWA Champion traveling to these different groups. In March of 1999 shoot fighter Naoya Ogawa defeated Dan Severn in Japan to win the NWA Title. However Ogawa rarely came to the United States to defend the title, and in 2000 he vacated the title as he became more involved in New Japan, which also left the NWA when WCW withdrew, as New Japan had a working agreement with WCW. Mike Rapada, the former Colorado Kid from Music City Wrestling out of Nashville (now NWA Wildside) won the title in a tournament beating former WCW jobber Jerry Flynn, not exactly in the league of the Funks, Harley Race or Ric Flair huh? A month later former ECW World Champion Sabu defeated Rapada to win the title and there was hope that the title would be elevated. Unfortunately Sabu was past his prime as injuries took their toll over the years, and he no-showed some NWA Wildside TV tapings, and in December of 2000 Mike Rapada regained the title from Sabu, and he held it until losing to another former ECW World Champion Steve Corino in April of 2001. The title became held up after a match between Corino and Japanese star & former IWGP Champion Shin'ya Hashimoto at the 53rd NWA Anniversary card on October 13 of this year in Tampa, FL in which Corino was unable to defend himself from Hashimoto's kicks but of course behind the scenes Corino announced his retirement from wrestling in North America a month before this show. In December 2001, Hashimoto beat Corino and Gary Steele from England (NWA UK) to win the vacant title. A few months later, Dan Severn defeated Hashimoto to regain the title in Japan.
The TNA Era(2002-to the present)
In early 2002 Jerry & Jeff Jarrett forrmed Total Nonstop Action, which began airing weekly ppv's for $9.95 in June of 2002 using the NWA name & the NWA Title and Tag Team Titles. The PPV's are held every Wednesday at the Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tennessee. On the first episode, they crowned a new NWA Champion, which was created when the NWA Board of Directors stripped Severn of the title when he could not attned the premimere TNA ppv in June of 2002. EX WWF star and UFC star Ken Shamrock won the vacant title beating Malace (formerly the Wall in WCW), after both men were the last two men after a battle royal that included Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, Steve Corino, Disco Inferno, and Jerry Lynn among others. Several big names have come and gone through TNA over the last year including Hall, Perry Saturn, Sandman, Shaun Whiltman, the late Curt Hennig, Justin Credible, Norman Smiley, Sabu, and the Harris Boys just to name a few.
A couple of months later, Ron Killings, the former K-Kwick in the WWF, beat Shamrock to win the NWA Title, the first black NWA Champion, and with his intense promos, and his improved wrestling skills was considered a better champion then Shamrock, and he held it until November of 2002 when co-owner, Jeff Jarrett beat Killings for the belt. Jarrett was portrayed as a face who had to overcome extreme odds in retaining the title, as he would face Raven for the title, in early 2003 overcoming his entire "nest" of wrestlers outside interference as an example. In June of this year A.J Styles beat Jeff Jarrett and Raven in a three way match to win the title, and Styles is the current champion.
Meanwhile the revived NWA Tag Titles have been defended on TNA shows. The most dominate teams over the last year to have held the titles have been America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm), Triple X(Elix Skipper & Christopher Daniels), and the current champions are Johnny Swinger & Simon Diamond (formerly of ECW).
However the talk of TNA has been the X Division, which is a combination of cruiserweights, and luchadores with no weight limit. A.J Stles was the first X Division Champion, with Jerry Lynn, Six-Pac(the former X-Pac), Kid Kash, and the current champion Micheal Shane (trained by Shawn Micheals) holding the titles, and with its fast-paced high spot matches, is the highlight of the promotion.
There have been some rough spots however. In late 2002 the Jarretts hired ex WWF writer and ex WCW creative director Vince Russo has the head booker, and there was a clash of styles due to the booking between Jerry Jarrett and Vince Russo, with Jarrett opting for the more traditonal southern style of booking, with more highlights on actual wrestling while Russo was booking more sports-entertainment style of booking with emphasis on promos and back stage skits. It resulted in instablity as one week the show would be focused on in ring action, then the next week, it would be more like an episode of RAW with all the backstage crap and tits and ass segments. In early 2003 Panda Engergy bought out the Jarretts share of TNA, giving the company finacial stability, and TNA was able to sign most of their wrestlers one year deals, to prevent the WWE from stealing their talent. Panda sided with Jerry Jarrett in the booking struggle, even though Russo is still on the booking team, and is even an on air personality.
Current members of the TNA roster include Jeff Jarrett, Raven, Glen Gilberti (the ex Disco Inferno), BG James (the former Road Dogg), Konnan, D-Lo Brown, Ron Killings, Americas Most Wanted AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, Christopher Daniels, Elix Skipper, Brian Lee, Shane Douglas, and Micheal Shane among others. Sting signed for a one shot deal earlier this year, as well as Dusty Rhodes who has made several apperances and now it appears that Hulk Hogan himself has signed to appear and they are already setting up a program between him and Jeff Jarrett and TNA has announced a three hour PPV on Sunday November 2. TNA officials hope this will lead to a cable deal, which is something TNA had been trying since their formation. They feel Hogan, who is still a very big name to the general public will help them secure that deal. TNA already has a syndicated deal with their program TNA Explosion, a one hour show.
So in the last year with TNA being viewed as the main alternative to the WWE, and with Hulk Hogan signing to the company, it appers the NWA is once again going to be a big player on the wrestling scene once again, like a pheonix rising from the ashes.
