Welcome by Space Mountain
Having been a fan of British Wrestling as a youngster, I first discovered the NWA in about 1990. The episodes that were being shown on UK TV were around 12-18 months old, so in fact the NWA I discovered was from 1989. It was shown at about 3.00 in the morning.
In my first year as a fan I remember seeing teams like the Royal Family (Rip Morgan and Jacko Victory) taking on the Andersons, and later in 1990 a huge masked duo named Doom who turned out to be Ron Simmons and Butch Reed. The commentary was by Lance Russell ("don't you dare switch over")
It turns out, of course, that I was watching Jim Crockett Promotions. The ring apron just said NWA. It was before the initials WCW crept in.
I enjoyed the big men like Sid Vicious, Dan Spivey and Mean Mark Callous - remember this was in the days of squash matches, where only the "main event" was vaguely competitive.
Then I saw a wrestler who became my favourite the second I saw him. It was Ric Flair.
The match was a tag between him and his partner - Arn Anderson I believe - against the massive Doom. Flair it seemed was able to outwit the vastly physically superior opponents, and then the match ended when he hit one with a chair.
This was 20 years ago but i still remember the sight of the slightly effeminate looking veteran with ash-blonde hair in pale blue trunks taking on the huge team of Doom.
That year the programme was rebranded to WCW and I heard the commentators say Ric Flair had lost the title to a young wrestler called Sting, who I'd never seen on the weekly show.
The NWA wrestling I watched was tough, gritty, with a real bar-room brawl feel to it. There was the big bullies like Dan Spivey, the cowboys like Stan Hansen, the monsters like Vader and the wily veterans like Tommy Rich.
That year, SKY (satellite) TV was launched in England, and the two most popular programmes on it seemed to be the Simpsons (fair enough!) and the WWF wrestling. All my school friends followed the cartoonish antics of the WWF wrestlers. Larger-than-life cartoon characters in neon bandanas like Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, the Bushwackers, the Warlord and the Big Bossman. Everyone seemed to be a mountie, a cowboy, a viking, a racecar driver, a soldier... Nobody actually seemed to be a wrestler - and I hated it.
I discovered the wrestling magazines, first the indy ones like Wrestling Eye and then the PWI family of mags like Wrestling Classics. I became fascinated in the lineage of the NWA title. I heard the names that Ric Flair and his predecessor Harley Race had traded the title with, men like Rick Steamboat, Ron Garvin, Kerry Von Erich, Dusty Rhodes, Tommy Rich, Jack Brisco and the Funks. I began drawing up title lineages. Remember this was a good five to seven years before most people had the internet.
In 1991, the unthinkable happened. Ric Flair went to the WWF.
I coped.
In 1994, the unthinkable happened. The WWF came to WCW and Hulk Hogan legdropped Ric flair for the big gold belt and Hacksaw Jim Duggan squashed Vader for the US title.
I didn't cope. Well, my love of WCW didn't anyway.
I found solace in the Japanese UWFI, as Nobuhiko Takada wore Lou thesz's old NWA belt and real wrestling was talked about again.
Then something else comforting happened. The NWA re-appeared. Shane Douglas and then Chris Candido won the NWA title. Candido lost the belt to Dan Severn and Severn won the UFC. The NWA was back and this time Hulk Hogan wasn't going to spoil it for me.
For the most part I enjoyed TNA's run with the NWA title. Personally I didn't like the idea of Jeff Jarrett as the new Thesz/Race/Flair perennial champion and I liked monsters like Abyss, Raven and Rhyno taking the gold even less. I kind of liked AJ Styles with the belt. And Sting with the belt again was even better.
But when I watched Brent Albright taking on Bryan Danielson in the Reclaiming the Glory days, I felt NWA magic for the first time since those halcyon days of JCP. I love Adam Pearce as champion. I loved Brent Albright and I even kind of liked Blue Demon.
In my "other life" as a martial arts instructor (Jujutsu) I was able to train with one of the UWFI's fighters and I also arranged a co-operation between my group and NWA UK Hammerlock's representative, Andre Baker. We planned to exchange Jujutsu and Catch Wrestling techniques. Unfortunately Andre died.
This website is a tribute to my 20 years of love-hate relationship with the NWA.
In my first year as a fan I remember seeing teams like the Royal Family (Rip Morgan and Jacko Victory) taking on the Andersons, and later in 1990 a huge masked duo named Doom who turned out to be Ron Simmons and Butch Reed. The commentary was by Lance Russell ("don't you dare switch over")
It turns out, of course, that I was watching Jim Crockett Promotions. The ring apron just said NWA. It was before the initials WCW crept in.
I enjoyed the big men like Sid Vicious, Dan Spivey and Mean Mark Callous - remember this was in the days of squash matches, where only the "main event" was vaguely competitive.
Then I saw a wrestler who became my favourite the second I saw him. It was Ric Flair.
The match was a tag between him and his partner - Arn Anderson I believe - against the massive Doom. Flair it seemed was able to outwit the vastly physically superior opponents, and then the match ended when he hit one with a chair.
This was 20 years ago but i still remember the sight of the slightly effeminate looking veteran with ash-blonde hair in pale blue trunks taking on the huge team of Doom.
That year the programme was rebranded to WCW and I heard the commentators say Ric Flair had lost the title to a young wrestler called Sting, who I'd never seen on the weekly show.
The NWA wrestling I watched was tough, gritty, with a real bar-room brawl feel to it. There was the big bullies like Dan Spivey, the cowboys like Stan Hansen, the monsters like Vader and the wily veterans like Tommy Rich.
That year, SKY (satellite) TV was launched in England, and the two most popular programmes on it seemed to be the Simpsons (fair enough!) and the WWF wrestling. All my school friends followed the cartoonish antics of the WWF wrestlers. Larger-than-life cartoon characters in neon bandanas like Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, the Bushwackers, the Warlord and the Big Bossman. Everyone seemed to be a mountie, a cowboy, a viking, a racecar driver, a soldier... Nobody actually seemed to be a wrestler - and I hated it.
I discovered the wrestling magazines, first the indy ones like Wrestling Eye and then the PWI family of mags like Wrestling Classics. I became fascinated in the lineage of the NWA title. I heard the names that Ric Flair and his predecessor Harley Race had traded the title with, men like Rick Steamboat, Ron Garvin, Kerry Von Erich, Dusty Rhodes, Tommy Rich, Jack Brisco and the Funks. I began drawing up title lineages. Remember this was a good five to seven years before most people had the internet.
In 1991, the unthinkable happened. Ric Flair went to the WWF.
I coped.
In 1994, the unthinkable happened. The WWF came to WCW and Hulk Hogan legdropped Ric flair for the big gold belt and Hacksaw Jim Duggan squashed Vader for the US title.
I didn't cope. Well, my love of WCW didn't anyway.
I found solace in the Japanese UWFI, as Nobuhiko Takada wore Lou thesz's old NWA belt and real wrestling was talked about again.
Then something else comforting happened. The NWA re-appeared. Shane Douglas and then Chris Candido won the NWA title. Candido lost the belt to Dan Severn and Severn won the UFC. The NWA was back and this time Hulk Hogan wasn't going to spoil it for me.
For the most part I enjoyed TNA's run with the NWA title. Personally I didn't like the idea of Jeff Jarrett as the new Thesz/Race/Flair perennial champion and I liked monsters like Abyss, Raven and Rhyno taking the gold even less. I kind of liked AJ Styles with the belt. And Sting with the belt again was even better.
But when I watched Brent Albright taking on Bryan Danielson in the Reclaiming the Glory days, I felt NWA magic for the first time since those halcyon days of JCP. I love Adam Pearce as champion. I loved Brent Albright and I even kind of liked Blue Demon.
In my "other life" as a martial arts instructor (Jujutsu) I was able to train with one of the UWFI's fighters and I also arranged a co-operation between my group and NWA UK Hammerlock's representative, Andre Baker. We planned to exchange Jujutsu and Catch Wrestling techniques. Unfortunately Andre died.
This website is a tribute to my 20 years of love-hate relationship with the NWA.