National Wrestling Alliance
American professional wrestling promotion and governing body / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling promotion and governing body owned by Billy Corgan and operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc.[4]
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| NWA | |
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | |
| Founded | July 14, 1948; 75 years ago (July 14, 1948) in Waterloo, Iowa, U.S. |
| Founders | Pinkie George Orville Brown Al Haft Harry Light Sam Muchnick Don Owen Tony Stecher |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
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| Products |
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| Services | Licensing |
| Owner |
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| Parent | |
| Website | nationalwrestlingalliance |
Founded in 1948, the NWA began as the governing body for a group of regional professional wrestling promotions, the heads of which made up the board of directors. The group operated a territory system which sanctioned their own company championships while recognizing a singular world champion who defended his title across all the territories, participated in talent exchanges, and collectively protected the territorial integrity of member promotions. Prior to the 1960s, it acted as the sole governing body for professional wrestling in the United States. It remained the largest and most influential body in wrestling until the mid-1980s by which time most of the original member promotions went out of business as a result of the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) national expansion.
In September 1993, the largest remaining member promotion, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), left the NWA.[5] The NWA would continue as a loose coalition of independent promotions,[6] with NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA) given exclusivity over its World Heavyweight and Tag Team championships from June 2002 to May 2007.[7]
In August 2012, the NWA discontinued its memberships and started licensing its brand to wrestling promotions.[8] In 2017, it was purchased by Billy Corgan through his Lightning One, Inc. company.[9] By 2019, the NWA would transition to a stand-alone promotion.[10][11][12]
In October 2023, the NWA re-established its territory system, with Michael Hutter's NWA Exodus Pro Midwest being the first promotion sanctioned by the re-established governing body.[13]