ITC: A journalistic approach to diaries

[wrestlinggod]

Here’s my take on theoutlaw’s [COLOR="Blue"]Battlelines have been drawn…. [/COLOR]diary. [IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x272/wrestlinggod_bucket/trdwrs.jpg[/IMG] [FONT="Arial Black"] [CENTER] [IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x272/wrestlinggod_bucket/NWA20logo.gif[/IMG] [SIZE="4"][B]A brief history of the NWA.[/B][/SIZE] The National Wrestling Alliance is the governing body for a group of independent wrestling promotions and sanctions various NWA Championships. The NWA was formed and has been in operation since 1948. [SIZE="4"][B]Territories.[/B][/SIZE] Before the NWA was founded in July of 1948, there were many promotions/federations (each promoting its own 'World Champion'); but few received backing outside of their own respective geographic base areas. The concept of the NWA was to consolidate or unify all of these championships into one true world champion of pro wrestling. A champion to be recognized by all of the federations. In 1948, Pinkie George, a promoter from the Midwest, founded the original version of the NWA with the backing of 6 other promoters (Al Haft, Tony Strecher, Harry Light, Orville Brown, Paul George, and Sam Muchnick.) This newly formed board recognized Orville Brown as the first World Champion. Brown was the current holder of the Midwest Wrestling Association World Championship(based in Des Monies.) It was during the reign of the second NWA World, Lou Thesz, that the title was further unified. During Thesz's reign he unified the following titles: >He defeated Bill Longson on July 20, 1948 to become the National Wrestling Association World Champion. >He was awarded the National Wrestling Alliance World Championship on November 27, 1949 when champion Orville Brown is injured in an automobile accident and is unable to make the unification match. >He defeats American Wrestling Association World Champion(Boston) Gorgeous George on July 27, 1950. >He defeats Baron Michele Leone who holds the LA Coliseum version of the title on May 21, 1952. These unifications legitimized the claim of the NWA that its title was a unified World Title with a lineage that continues to this day. [SIZE="4"][B]Breaking Away From the NWA[/B][/SIZE] Over the years several promotions have broken away from the NWA umbrella. In 1957, the American Wrestling Association (AWA) broke away due to a dispute over the booking of the World Champion. Pat O'Connor the present champion was hugely popular. He was booked out of the St. Louis Wrestling Club by Sam Muchnick. The dispute arose from the fact that even though O'Conner was a very popular champ, the board had booked Lou Thesz to win the title back. The AWA who recognized the Omaha version of the title(once part of the unified title but no longer due to a disputed decision in a title match in 1957) that was currently held by Verne Gagne. Wally Karbo and Verne Gagne, cofounders of the AWA, pushed for Gagne to have a chance at the title. They were rebuffed in their requests. This led to the AWA naming the present NWA World Champion, Pat O'Conner, and the new AWA World Champion and giving him 90 days to defend the title against Verne Gagne. Because of contractual obligations to the NWA, O'Conner was unable to defend the newly awarded title. The AWA officially stripped him of the title and awarded it to Verne Gagne, whom they held as the number one contender, on August 16, 1960. Another promotion broke away and formed their own promotion in the 60’s. New York promoter Vincent J. McMahon, who ran Capitol Wresting Corporation. In 1963 the NWA World Title was held by ‘Nature Boy’ Buddy Rogers. He had started his career in the northeast territories and several members of the NWA felt slighted that he rarely defended the title outside of the northeast area. The board had become upset with Toots Mondt, one of the original founders of Capitol Wrestling Corp (along with Jess McMahon-Vince J’s dad.) After much politicking Rogers lost the belt to Thesz in a one fall match in Toronto on January 24, 1963. Mondt and McMahon had wanted Rogers just to keep the belt, but Rogers was unwilling to forfeit the $25000 deposit he had on the title( a requirement of title holders to insure that they would honor their commitments as champions.) The loss by Rogers of the title led to the withdrawal from the NWA by Mondt, McMahon and Capitol Wrestling Corp in protest and the formation of the World Wide Wrestling Federation. The WWWF claimed that Buddy Rogers had won the tournament for the title in Rio de Janeiro in April. Although the AWA and the WWWF(WWF) promoted their own world champion, both had representatives on the NWA Board and frequently exchanged talent with the other NWA members. Rarely venturing outside their home territories; the WWF in the northeast and the AWA in Minnesota and the Midwest. [SIZE="4"][B]The Decline of the Territories?[/B][/SIZE] Vincent Kennedy McMahon founded Titan Sports, Inc in 1980. He purchased Capitol Wrestling Corp from his father in 1982. The younger McMahon began an expansion process against the wishes of his father. He began syndicating WWF Tv shows to TV stations across the US. He began selling videos of live WWF events and then turning around and using the profits to poach talent from other promotions. As his father had feared, he had broke kayfabe and effectively crossed the unwritten laws of the territory system and had led to………… Battlelines being drawn…………….. [SIZE="4"][B]Battlelines have been drawn.[/B][/SIZE] December 18, 1982. Greenbrier Resort at the annual NWA membership meeting. The revelation of Vincent K. McMahon's manifesto. His plan to effectively end the territorial system and go national. A plan is spelled out by Jim Crockett, Jr to return to the roots of the NWA and use the territory system as a way to appear National. By using the existing territories and their TV contracts they can combat the aggressive expansion plan that Vince has concocted. The members all agree to make their workers more accessible to one another. Following this meeting two very important agreements are struck that could go along way towards deciding the fate of the territories. Jim Crockett's MACW strikes a deal with Jim Barnett to purchase and merge Georgia Championship Wrestling into a new promotion renamed NWA, INC. This gives Crockett the national cable deal that Vince has been secretly trying to obtain since summer. Effectively beating him to the punch. Crockett and Verne Gagne also reach an agreement to cross promote between the two companies. This allows workers a chance to work for two of the largest promotions in NA without having to choose between the WWF and one of the others. At this time we are first introduced to the new head booker of NWA, Huston Hartsell. He has worked as a stage hand for Crockett promotions for a number of years. He was recently promoted to this new position. We will learn that he is a strong willed adversary to Vince in the now openly declared war between the two promotions. One that is to be played out on a national stage. [SIZE="4"][B]1983 Opens with a bang![/B][/SIZE] Huston, Crockett and the NWA started off 1983 on the offensive as they signed some huge names such as Lou Thesz, Sam Muchnick, Paul Boesch, and Verne Gagne to work backstage. They inked some of Vince's own champions Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales to appear at the kickoff PPV of the year Homecoming. Dory Funk Jr signed on, as well as Dusty Rhodes and Nick Bockwinkel. And then making their debuts at Homecoming; Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. But Vince would not stand pat as he fired back in the court room filing an injunction and copyright infringement law suit that barred Backlund from appearing on air and the banned the use of the images of the title belts that were held by Backlund and Morales. This situation came to a head at the end of January when mysteriously a 7 second clip of video appeared on the telecast of The NWA Big Show for January. This brought on the immediate voiding of the contracts of Backlund and Morales and ushered in the court proceedings. Just as everyone had hunkered down for a long drawn out court battle, a settlement was reached between the WWF and NWA on the first night following testimony. Leading to the case being suddenly dropped the following morning. According to sources close to the situation Vince asked for and received concessions from Head Booker, Huston Hartsell. Tough never confirmed by the NWA these appear to include a ban on offering contracts to anyone under contract to the WWF for 6 months. As well as not pursuing the resigning of the Wild Samoans when their contracts were up at the end of February. And the agreement to not book Andre the Giant on Thursdays so that he would be free to appear for the WWF on their weekly PPV telecast. [SIZE="4"][B]Other Happenings[/B][/SIZE] Other interesting occurrences since the first of the year include the holding up of the National Hwt title following the upset win by The Spoiler over Paul Orndorff and then turning around and selling the title to Larry Zybszko. This resulted in a tournament for the title and continues to present. As it has gotten messy with the turn of The Spoiler on former tag team partner Roddy Piper and alignment with Zybszko. This situation is hot and set to be resolved as April opens. We had the possible beginnings of the breakdown of the agreement that was made in December between the members of the NWA as we had the Piper incident where he was paid a huge amount of money to miss a scheduled booking for the NWA. This led to the NWA and MLW falling out and a declaration of war being made. The end of February also saw the sudden departure of Jim Barnett from his role as on air authority figure for the NWA. He left to start a new promotion, Championship Wrestling from Georgia. He has since signed alot of talent also under contract to the NWA. This situation will bear watching. The AWA has fallen on hard times as owner Verne Gagne has mandated that Head Booker 'Fred' trim the roster by 25% following mounting losses and the shocking drop in size from cult to regional. Will Fred make it, or will he be a victim of Gagne's cuts? The month of April begins with the NWA coming off a very successful head to head win against the WWF as Star wars clearly topped Wrestlemania in every way you can measure. Everyone knows that Vince will not sit pat and let the NWA just walk away from them in the head to head war. What will his next move be? Will he be able to catch the NWA who have surged to the top of the mountain? Four months in and we still don't know that much about Huston. Just who is he? What secret is he hiding? Who's Pops? Will he continue to hold his own in the very heated and personal battle with Vince? Only time will tell as [COLOR="Blue"]Battlelines[/COLOR]..... [SIZE="6"][COLOR="Blue"]returns. [/COLOR][/SIZE] [/CENTER][/FONT] You pick the story up here: [URL="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=243484#post243484"]http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=243484#post243484[/URL]

[G-Prime]

[QUOTE=James Casey;242533]If no-one else volunteers, I'd love to do yours, G-Prime. Will take me a little while to catch up, but I love your backstory and the way you've gone from there.[/QUOTE] Everyone else had weeks to volunteer, I think you're pretty much the only one, so it's all yours dude.

[tristram]

I have no qualms if anyone wants to give their perspectives on Death of WCW at all. In fact, it'd be great to see ;) Great idea guys.

[theoutlaw321]

[QUOTE=wrestlinggod;243500]Here’s my take on theoutlaw’s [COLOR="Blue"]Battlelines have been drawn…. [/COLOR]diary. [IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x272/wrestlinggod_bucket/trdwrs.jpg[/IMG] [FONT="Arial Black"] [CENTER] [IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x272/wrestlinggod_bucket/NWA20logo.gif[/IMG] [SIZE="4"][B]A brief history of the NWA.[/B][/SIZE] The National Wrestling Alliance is the governing body for a group of independent wrestling promotions and sanctions various NWA Championships. The NWA was formed and has been in operation since 1948. [SIZE="4"][B]Territories.[/B][/SIZE] Before the NWA was founded in July of 1948, there were many promotions/federations (each promoting its own 'World Champion'); but few received backing outside of their own respective geographic base areas. The concept of the NWA was to consolidate or unify all of these championships into one true world champion of pro wrestling. A champion to be recognized by all of the federations. In 1948, Pinkie George, a promoter from the Midwest, founded the original version of the NWA with the backing of 6 other promoters (Al Haft, Tony Strecher, Harry Light, Orville Brown, Paul George, and Sam Muchnick.) This newly formed board recognized Orville Brown as the first World Champion. Brown was the current holder of the Midwest Wrestling Association World Championship(based in Des Monies.) It was during the reign of the second NWA World, Lou Thesz, that the title was further unified. During Thesz's reign he unified the following titles: >He defeated Bill Longson on July 20, 1948 to become the National Wrestling Association World Champion. >He was awarded the National Wrestling Alliance World Championship on November 27, 1949 when champion Orville Brown is injured in an automobile accident and is unable to make the unification match. >He defeats American Wrestling Association World Champion(Boston) Gorgeous George on July 27, 1950. >He defeats Baron Michele Leone who holds the LA Coliseum version of the title on May 21, 1952. These unifications legitimized the claim of the NWA that its title was a unified World Title with a lineage that continues to this day. [SIZE="4"][B]Breaking Away From the NWA[/B][/SIZE] Over the years several promotions have broken away from the NWA umbrella. In 1957, the American Wrestling Association (AWA) broke away due to a dispute over the booking of the World Champion. Pat O'Connor the present champion was hugely popular. He was booked out of the St. Louis Wrestling Club by Sam Muchnick. The dispute arose from the fact that even though O'Conner was a very popular champ, the board had booked Lou Thesz to win the title back. The AWA who recognized the Omaha version of the title(once part of the unified title but no longer due to a disputed decision in a title match in 1957) that was currently held by Verne Gagne. Wally Karbo and Verne Gagne, cofounders of the AWA, pushed for Gagne to have a chance at the title. They were rebuffed in their requests. This led to the AWA naming the present NWA World Champion, Pat O'Conner, and the new AWA World Champion and giving him 90 days to defend the title against Verne Gagne. Because of contractual obligations to the NWA, O'Conner was unable to defend the newly awarded title. The AWA officially stripped him of the title and awarded it to Verne Gagne, whom they held as the number one contender, on August 16, 1960. Another promotion broke away and formed their own promotion in the 60’s. New York promoter Vincent J. McMahon, who ran Capitol Wresting Corporation. In 1963 the NWA World Title was held by ‘Nature Boy’ Buddy Rogers. He had started his career in the northeast territories and several members of the NWA felt slighted that he rarely defended the title outside of the northeast area. The board had become upset with Toots Mondt, one of the original founders of Capitol Wrestling Corp (along with Jess McMahon-Vince J’s dad.) After much politicking Rogers lost the belt to Thesz in a one fall match in Toronto on January 24, 1963. Mondt and McMahon had wanted Rogers just to keep the belt, but Rogers was unwilling to forfeit the $25000 deposit he had on the title( a requirement of title holders to insure that they would honor their commitments as champions.) The loss by Rogers of the title led to the withdrawal from the NWA by Mondt, McMahon and Capitol Wrestling Corp in protest and the formation of the World Wide Wrestling Federation. The WWWF claimed that Buddy Rogers had won the tournament for the title in Rio de Janeiro in April. Although the AWA and the WWWF(WWF) promoted their own world champion, both had representatives on the NWA Board and frequently exchanged talent with the other NWA members. Rarely venturing outside their home territories; the WWF in the northeast and the AWA in Minnesota and the Midwest. [SIZE="4"][B]The Decline of the Territories?[/B][/SIZE] Vincent Kennedy McMahon founded Titan Sports, Inc in 1980. He purchased Capitol Wrestling Corp from his father in 1982. The younger McMahon began an expansion process against the wishes of his father. He began syndicating WWF Tv shows to TV stations across the US. He began selling videos of live WWF events and then turning around and using the profits to poach talent from other promotions. As his father had feared, he had broke kayfabe and effectively crossed the unwritten laws of the territory system and had led to………… Battlelines being drawn…………….. [SIZE="4"][B]Battlelines have been drawn.[/B][/SIZE] December 18, 1982. Greenbrier Resort at the annual NWA membership meeting. The revelation of Vincent K. McMahon's manifesto. His plan to effectively end the territorial system and go national. A plan is spelled out by Jim Crockett, Jr to return to the roots of the NWA and use the territory system as a way to appear National. By using the existing territories and their TV contracts they can combat the aggressive expansion plan that Vince has concocted. The members all agree to make their workers more accessible to one another. Following this meeting two very important agreements are struck that could go along way towards deciding the fate of the territories. Jim Crockett's MACW strikes a deal with Jim Barnett to purchase and merge Georgia Championship Wrestling into a new promotion renamed NWA, INC. This gives Crockett the national cable deal that Vince has been secretly trying to obtain since summer. Effectively beating him to the punch. Crockett and Verne Gagne also reach an agreement to cross promote between the two companies. This allows workers a chance to work for two of the largest promotions in NA without having to choose between the WWF and one of the others. At this time we are first introduced to the new head booker of NWA, Huston Hartsell. He has worked as a stage hand for Crockett promotions for a number of years. He was recently promoted to this new position. We will learn that he is a strong willed adversary to Vince in the now openly declared war between the two promotions. One that is to be played out on a national stage. [SIZE="4"][B]1983 Opens with a bang![/B][/SIZE] Huston, Crockett and the NWA started off 1983 on the offensive as they signed some huge names such as Lou Thesz, Sam Muchnick, Paul Boesch, and Verne Gagne to work backstage. They inked some of Vince's own champions Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales to appear at the kickoff PPV of the year Homecoming. Dory Funk Jr signed on, as well as Dusty Rhodes and Nick Bockwinkel. And then making their debuts at Homecoming; Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. But Vince would not stand pat as he fired back in the court room filing an injunction and copyright infringement law suit that barred Backlund from appearing on air and the banned the use of the images of the title belts that were held by Backlund and Morales. This situation came to a head at the end of January when mysteriously a 7 second clip of video appeared on the telecast of The NWA Big Show for January. This brought on the immediate voiding of the contracts of Backlund and Morales and ushered in the court proceedings. Just as everyone had hunkered down for a long drawn out court battle, a settlement was reached between the WWF and NWA on the first night following testimony. Leading to the case being suddenly dropped the following morning. According to sources close to the situation Vince asked for and received concessions from Head Booker, Huston Hartsell. Tough never confirmed by the NWA these appear to include a ban on offering contracts to anyone under contract to the WWF for 6 months. As well as not pursuing the resigning of the Wild Samoans when their contracts were up at the end of February. And the agreement to not book Andre the Giant on Thursdays so that he would be free to appear for the WWF on their weekly PPV telecast. [SIZE="4"][B]Other Happenings[/B][/SIZE] Other interesting occurrences since the first of the year include the holding up of the National Hwt title following the upset win by The Spoiler over Paul Orndorff and then turning around and selling the title to Larry Zybszko. This resulted in a tournament for the title and continues to present. As it has gotten messy with the turn of The Spoiler on former tag team partner Roddy Piper and alignment with Zybszko. This situation is hot and set to be resolved as April opens. We had the possible beginnings of the breakdown of the agreement that was made in December between the members of the NWA as we had the Piper incident where he was paid a huge amount of money to miss a scheduled booking for the NWA. This led to the NWA and MLW falling out and a declaration of war being made. The end of February also saw the sudden departure of Jim Barnett from his role as on air authority figure for the NWA. He left to start a new promotion, Championship Wrestling from Georgia. He has since signed alot of talent also under contract to the NWA. This situation will bear watching. The AWA has fallen on hard times as owner Verne Gagne has mandated that Head Booker 'Fred' trim the roster by 25% following mounting losses and the shocking drop in size from cult to regional. Will Fred make it, or will he be a victim of Gagne's cuts? The month of April begins with the NWA coming off a very successful head to head win against the WWF as Star wars clearly topped Wrestlemania in every way you can measure. Everyone knows that Vince will not sit pat and let the NWA just walk away from them in the head to head war. What will his next move be? Will he be able to catch the NWA who have surged to the top of the mountain? Four months in and we still don't know that much about Huston. Just who is he? What secret is he hiding? Who's Pops? Will he continue to hold his own in the very heated and personal battle with Vince? Only time will tell as [COLOR="Blue"]Battlelines[/COLOR]..... [SIZE="6"][COLOR="Blue"]returns. [/COLOR][/SIZE] [/CENTER][/FONT] You pick the story up here: [URL="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=243484#post243484"]http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=243484#post243484[/URL][/QUOTE] Thanks 'god, I appreciate your effort as well as your support. I hate it has taken so long to get this going again.