The NWA World Heavyweight Championship Needs To Travel Again
This past weekend, the National Wrestling Alliance had two incredible shows in Empowerr and NWA73. There were wrestlers from AEW, Impact Wrestling and AAA Mexico. Ric Flair showed up and had an amazing promo and talked about how the NWA was his home and how he traveled from city to city, and country to country. We then saw Trevor Murdoch end the almost three-year reign of Nick Aldis. Before there was ECW, WCW, AEW, Impact Wrestling, or Major League Wrestling there was the NWA. During the height of the NWA, there champions like Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Dory Funk Jr., Jack Brisco, Terry Funk, and Kerry Von Erich. They were all traveling champions who traveled all the territories and different countries as the World Champion of professional wrestling. The territory days have been long gone for many years now, but there is a new opportunity to shine and help make the championship even more prestigious than it already is.
We have often heard AEW President Tony Khan talk about the “Forbidden Door.” It’s common knowledge that AEW, AAA Mexico, Impact Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the NWA have a working relationship that allows talent to crossover when they want to wrestle someone from another company. We all know one company can’t house all the talent, so this relationship between companies has been very beneficial. What if the NWA World Championship became the traveling championship like it use to among promotions? It would allow for more crossover opportunities for stars that would want to go after a piece of history and cement their legacy. It would also keep the true spirit of the National Wrestling Alliance alive and well like it should be. My biggest criticism of Nick Aldis almost’ three-year championship reign is that you didn’t see him in AEW, Impact Wrestling, or New Japan defending the championship. He went to Ring of Honor and a few other smaller promotions, but nothing that has the following that the other three promotions.
Let’s not forget about the fact that Impact Wrestling once had a rich history with the NWA when it was known as NWA-TNA. They had champions like Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Raven, Rhino, Christian Cage, and Abyss. These are all notable names that helped get the NWA Championship noticed. If you’re still not getting it, the NWA has had its share of downtime of not being noticed. During that downtime they had some great champions. They had Adam Pearce, Colt Cabana, Rob Conway and Dan Severn. Imagine if they would have the exposure on national television. Now Severn did show up on WWE Television with the championship a few times, but nothing ever came of it. Pearce would make appearances in Ring of Honor, but again ROH did not have the exposure at that time.
Not only should the NWA Champion travel to AAA Mexico, AEW, Impact Wrestling, NJPW, but there is one other thing I would love to see Billy Corgan do with the National Wrestling Alliance. I would love to see NWA partner with one promotion in each of the 50 states, so new talent can be discovered and the NWA could send their main talent to different promotions to help build that promotion up. This is the same concept the NWA had in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. They would send their champion to a different territory to help build up that territory and their top talent. It also allowed that top talent to be put in the National Spotlight. Just because pro wrestling has gone mainstream, that doesn’t mean you can’t recreate the territorial system and make it mean something again.
The NWA has a lot of momentum coming out of NWA73 and the entire weekend. I would love to see them embrace the traditional and core value that made the NWA great to begin with. Billy Corgan and his crew have done masterful job of resurrecting the NWA and making it a special place again. However, there is also more room to grow and make it even bigger. That all starts with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and making it the most recognizable and most prestigious championship on the planet again.
