A New Twist: NWA 2012

[PITFan48]

The Project

 

While I may be a new member here on the GDS forums, I have been reading the wrestling dynasties of this and other forums for many a years. About a year ago I began to write my own dynasty...kind of. When I say that I booked a fantasy promotion in my head and wrote yearly reports about said promotion til I came to the modern day. This promotion just happened to be the National Wrestling Alliance, which I took from the month after Shane Douglas threw down the World Championship.

 

So from 1995 to modern day...over 15 years of game time to bring us to the modern day. It was alot of work, believe me. Now, this project began with a fantasy scenario, but I've decided to convert this fantasy into one that I can plan on TEW. Now since the NWA is an active promotion, you may see some of today's superstars in other places, but for the most part the NWA has developed their own stars or signed free agent wrestlers, which means that the lineage of other promotions (WWE, TNA, and ROH specifically) are relatively unaffected.

 

Overview

 

Now alot of people might think that me fantasy booking a promotion back to national relevance means me making them instantly popular, with a whole bunch of cash and the resources to sign big names to the roster. On the contrary though, I find things like this to be unrealistic and would rather handicap myself so to say. For example, the National Wrestling Alliance promotion has merely $250,000 in the bank, showing the financial instability of the promotion. Size wise, the NWA could be considered a large cult promotion, somewhat similar to the size of ECW in 2000 before it folded. In the world rankings, the NWA ranks as the 4th biggest promotion in the world, following U.S. powers World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action, as well as Japan's New Japan Pro Wrestling.

 

Now to stimulate a realistic feeling to the build up of the dynasty, I have rewritten much of what I had already written, which I will post here as a build up to the first show. As such, you will see stupid booking decisions and a shakeup of leadership in the company. One has to remember that in 1995, the NWA was barely a national memory, and as such it would feature alot of turmoil just to regain its footing.

 

I will be posting yearly recaps to catch you up to date with the wrestling world today. If you guys have any questions regarding a certain event that happens, a certain signing, or anything else regarding to backstory I'll be more than happy to help. Once we get to the modern day, I will begin to post on a show-to-show basis. Hope you enjoy!

[PITFan48]

1995: Year in Review

 

 

A mere few years ago the NWA was sitting on the top of the world. Then, on September 1st, 1993, World Championship Wrestling withdrew from the National Wrestling Alliance and things came tumbling down. Not only did the NWA lose its biggest member, but it also lost its World Champion, Ric Flair. As a result, the NWA reached an agreement with member Eastern Championship Wrestling based out of Philadelphia to run a three night tournament to crown a new champion.

 

On August 27, 1994, ECW’s Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio to become the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and the NWA looked to begin the slow climb back to national prominence. However, this was not to be. As soon as he won the title, Douglas threw down the title and proclaimed himself the new champion of Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the NWA’s new flagship promotion withdrew from the Alliance. For the second time in less than a year, the NWA had lost both its flagship promotion and world champion. Many thought that the organization would fall, and for a while it appeared that it would.

 

At the end of the year meetings in Charlotte, North Carolina, a man by the name of Eric Billings, who at the time was an employee of WGN Superstation based out of Chicago, attended. Billings himself was not someone of power in the organization, but was one of a handful of individuals tasked with finding candidates to expand the programming at WGN. Billings was put in charge of the sporting candidates for the network, and began to look at professional wrestling. With the top two organizations in the United States already having television rights with the USA Network and TBS Superstation, Billings had to look past the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling in order to find his programming. Originally he wanted to contact Todd Gordon about his Eastern Championship Wrestling organization, but over the last few months of 1994 ECW began to shift more towards a hardcore style of wrestling, which would not play well on a national television station. As a result, he came to the NWA and proposed a radical shift in the organizations direction.

 

His proposition was to require all existing NWA affiliated promotions to make a deposit of $20,000 to remain affiliated with the alliance. This sum of money would be used to form a central promotion that would provide talent for the WGN Superstation for their wrestling program. This program would be the springboard to return the NWA to national relevance, and the money that had been collected from the affiliates would be returned when the promotion made a profit. The affiliates would be allowed to continue promoting under the NWA banner, and would be able to use the central promotion’s talent on their cards.

 

As one can imagine, very few of the existing promotions could afford to remain with the alliance, as approximately ten member affiliates made the payment. It was reported that over twenty companies withdrew or folded, but the exact number was never recorded.

 

With a new promotion formed, the NWA was back on national television. WGN gave them a timeslot on Friday nights at 10 PM, for approximately one hour. The show, entitled NWA Action Zone, would debut on January 6th of 1995, was to be hosted by Lee Marshall and Kevin Von Erich and be filmed at Chicago Theatre. With the program scheduled, the NWA needed talent to showcase on the program.

 

Not wanting to have arguments within the organization, the NWA appointed Eric Billings as Vice-President and Executive Producer of the company, and put him in charge of running the central promotion. Knowing that he had a national timeslot, he knew that it would be key to present the audience with names in order to draw them into the program. With a budget from the NWA, supplemented by some funds provided by WGN, Billings managed to sign names such as Tito Santana, “Cowboy” Bob Orton, and Ron Simmons to headline the promotion. The undercard would feature such talent as Chris Candido and Dean Malenko, alongside a reformed Fabulous Freebirds consisting of Terry Gordy, Steve Cox, and “Badstreet” Brad Armstrong.

 

Not much can be said on-screen about the early stages of the reformed NWA. During the first few weeks of NWA Action Zone, a tournament to crown the new NWA World Champion was held. In the end, it was Bob Orton who defeated Rick Martel to become the new champion. Despite being 45 years old and a mainstay of the NWA since its territorial days of the 1970’s, Orton had never won the World Championship before. Orton would go on and feud with Tito Santana throughout the Spring and Summer of ’95, losing title matches to Santana by disqualification on a few instances.

 

The tag division didn’t feature much variety either, as the main feud put The New Freebirds up against Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, better known as the Rock N’ Roll Express. The Freebirds initially won the titles, before losing them to the Express and winning them back the following week on Action Zone. While there wasn’t much variety in the division, two key occurrences during the fall began the push of a young wrestler who would prove to be a key member of the NWA roster for a long time.

 

In September, the Freebirds were set to defend their championships at a taping of Action Zone. The team was set to be Gordy and Armstrong, but Gordy would suffer a knee injury and be sidelined until December at the earliest. Due to the Freebird rule, Cox and Armstrong were scheduled to take on Bruce Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray, otherwise known as the Heavenly Bodies. Cox would be arrested for drunk driving the night before the taping, and was immediately released by the NWA. With only one member of the group able to wrestle, the Freebirds introduced a new member to their ranks…a young Texan by the name of John Layfield. Even though the New Freebirds would lose the championships, the newly introduced Layfield would provide a new energy to the group, and Layfield and Armstrong would soon recapture the titles.

 

On a late October edition of NWA Action Zone, a big surprise occurred though. Bob Orton was to face Ron Simmons in a non-title match, but the scheduled match never took place. A backstage attack on Simmons put him out of commission, leaving Orton to make an open challenge in the main event. A masked man came out of the back, and proceeded to defeat Orton for the NWA Heavyweight Championship. The man did not remove his mask until the following week, where it was revealed that Jeff Jarrett was the masked man. This was quite surprising, as Jarrett had been working on a per appearance contract with the WWF, and had appeared on that week’s edition of Monday Night RAW. Jarrett was subsequently released from his handshake agreement, and signed a 2 year contract with the NWA.

 

While the Heavyweight and Tag team divisions seemed to pick up steam as the year began to near its conclusion, the undercard featured some great matches by lesser know workers. Dean Malenko would make a strong impression on the NWA fans as a hard nosed wrestler who, unlike most, did not brag about his accomplishments. This attitude that he took towards his wrestling garnered him the nickname of “The Iceman”. Paul Roma also seemed to gain a place in the fans hearts, as he took Dean under his wing and acted as a mentor towards the young technician.

 

While the storylines of the NWA could be described as stagnant throughout the early part of its reformation, WGN Superstation was quite pleased with the ratings that the program obtained during 1995. Ranging from 0.2 to 0.4, the program would become one of the networks highest rated programs, eventually reaching the top five by December with a 0.47. While the NWA was nowhere near the superpower of wrestling that it had been in the past, 1995 was a critical year for the company as they began their climb back to relevance.

 

This is what the updates will look like initially. This is actually a very toned down version of what I wrote, as I trimmed it down from over 3,000 words to just under half of that. If you have any more questions regarding anything that happened during a certain year, let me know. I'm going to include a brief title history at the end of each post so you guys can be updated on the changes that occured during the year, so expect that to be edited in tomorrow.

[PITFan48]

1996: Year in Review

 

 

1996 would prove to be a very up and down year for the National Wrestling Alliance. They had a young, charismatic world champion in Jeff Jarrett, who was also one of the most popular workers on the roster. The former 3 time WWF Intercontinental Champion was out to prove that the NWA was a legitimate company, as he left the WWF in order to appear with the Alliance. Entering 1996, Jarrett was quite a different champion than Bob Orton, who would go toe to toe with his opponents and face them head on.

 

As the New Year turned, Jarrett began slowly but surely displaying more heelish tendencies after he attacked Tito Santana, who would go on hiatus following the attack. It was here that he began resorting to under handed tactics to keep his title, whether it be using weapons behind the referees back or his manager Ole Anderson distracting his opponent. Anderson had joined up with Jarrett following his heel turn, as he said that Jarrett was his “Chosen One”. Ron Simmons, a former World Champion in his own right, began to take offense to this proclamation, and began to feud with Jarrett over the world title.

 

While Jarrett was slipping out of his opponents grasps in the heavyweight division, the tag team division saw the introduction of a new challenger arise. A young man by the name of Lance Storm was recruited by Paul Roma to be Dean Malenko’s partner in a #1 contenders tournament. Showing supreme technical ability, the duo dismantled their opponents with a style of wrestling that the NWA was famous for back in the 1980’s. When they faced the New Freebirds (now consisting of just Layfield and Badstreet, as Gordy had been released) on the February 16th edition of Action Zone, the duo systematically targeted Armstrongs leg, leading Armstrong to be carried out on a stretcher during the match. With just Layfield left defending the titles, the two easily won the titles and won their first gold with the NWA.

 

It was around this time that the NWA experimented with doing shows outside of the Chicago Theatre. The March 1st and 8th editions of Action Zone were recorded on February 22 in Louisville, Kentucky. The March 8th edition featured the first ever NWA Steel Cage match, which saw Ron Simmons finally defeat Jarrett for the World Championship. His reign would be short lived however, as the following week Jarrett invoked his rematch clause and defeated Simmons with help from Ole. Simmons would fail in his attempt to regain the title, and Bob Orton would win the #1 contendership from him before he could get his rematch.

 

In early May the NWA would travel to Erie, Pennsylvania for two tapings of Action Zone. The episodes on the 17th and 24th were taped outdoors at Jerry Uht Park, and drew quite well for the revived promotion. Approximately 2,000 fans attended the event, which was about double the attendance Louisville had provided. It was here that the NWA decided to revive its Television Championship, and a battle royal that would air on the May 17th edition of Action Zone was used to crown a new champion. Eventually, The Warlord (who had been one of the main midcard workers of the promotion since mid-95) emerged victorious. The May 24th edition was headlined by the Heavenly Bodies (now accompanied by Missy Hyatt) defeating Lance Storm and Dean Malenko for the tag team championships.

 

As June rolled around it seemed that Jeff Jarrett would be unlikely to see any new challengers to his championship, but on the June 7th episode of Action Zone a masked man attacked Ole Anderson backstage prior to Jarrett’s match with Bob Orton. Near the end of the match the same masked man slid into the ring, and hit Jarrett over the head with a steel chair, allowing Orton to score the pin (in a non-title affair). The man would then take off his mask to reveal that it was Brian Pillman who was behind the attack, and set up a feud between Jarrett and Pillman. Pillman could initially not wrestle, as he had a shattered ankle, and he challenged Jarrett to a championship match on the July 5th episode of Action Zone, well after he was scheduled to be fully recovered. Unfortunately, Pillman would sign with the World Wrestling Federation in late June, and the scheduled title match never occurred.

 

The Television division saw a new champion crowned in June as well, as The Warlord would lose his title to 2 Cold Scorpio, formerly of ECW. This was just one example of how Eric Billings booked the promotion when he was in charge, as often shows were booked show to show, rather than featuring drawn out feuds. While there had been some exceptions, more often than not this was true. In this case, The Warlord had a nagging injury when he won the title, and managements initial decision to put the title on him showed immediate problems when it became apparent that The Warlord’s injury was much more severe than originally stated, and he was extremely limited in the ring.

 

Around this time Kevin Von Erich was replaced at the announce table as well, without any reasoning or warning to the viewer. While Kevin had not been the greatest commentator, he had developed a chemistry with Marshall that most viewers seemed to enjoy, as Lee called the play-by-play while Von Erich would act as a comedic babyface. His replacement ended up initially being Ole Anderson, who sat in for Kevin on the June 14th and 21st episodes before being permanently replaced by former Pro Wrestling Torch writer Mark Madden. Madden provided a very contrasting approach to the former Von Erich, as he began immediately favoring heel wrestlers, especially that of Jeff Jarrett. A distinct rivalry began between Madden and Marshall, as Lee began favoring the babyfaces more and more.

 

As the end of the summer neared, Billings approached the executives at WGN about a live 2 hour special, similar in idea to the WWF’s Saturday Night’s Main Event and WCW’s Clash of the Champions. Initially, WGN was not very receptive to the idea, as NWA Action Zone’s ratings had stagnated during its second year of existence. While the viewership had risen from a low .2 to almost a .5, viewership in ’96 had risen only slightly to a high of .58. The executives at WGN promised NWA its special if it could draw a .6 rating to an episode of Action Zone, which it managed to do on a late July edition. While the episode was nothing special, it did feature the first “All-Champions Match” in NWA History, as Jeff Jarrett and 2 Cold Scorpio took on the tag team champions in Jimmy Del Rey and Bruce Prichard.

 

The NWA’s first ever supercard entitled “Fight Night” was set to air on Saturday, September 14th, and while they would not leave their base in Chicago, IL, they would move to a much bigger venue in the UIC Pavilion. It was during the buildup to the event that 2 Cold Scorpio announced he had signed with the World Wrestling Federation, making him the second NWA wrestler since June to leave for greener pastures. Scorpio would drop the Television Championship to a young man by the name of Steve Corino, who like many of the younger workers in the company, was a very technically sound wrestler. Corino would gain the attention of “Coach” Paul Roma and his duo of Lance Storm and Dean Malenko, who would ask Corino to join them under Roma’s tutelage. Corino would refuse, setting up a match with Malenko at Fight Night I for the television title.

 

During August, John Layfield would also begin to feud with the Heavenly Bodies, setting up a return of “Badstreet” Brad Armstrong on the August 30th Action Zone. Armstrong had been out since March with a storyline “Knee Injury” (In actuality, Armstrong took time off to be with his ailing father, who had returned to health over the summer months). The return of the New Freebirds gave Fight Night I a tag title match, as well as a new contender to the championships. On the Action Zone that aired the day prior to Fight Night I, it appeared that Missy Hyatt had helped the Bodies get the edge over the New Freebirds. With Layfield taking on Del Ray in a singles match, Prichard and Armstrong were arguing on the outside of the ring. Francine prepared to slide a pair of brass knuckles to Del Ray, but was cut off by a returning Terry Gordy. Gordy, who hadn’t been seen since early January due to his release, returned to even the odds against the bodies as the New Freebirds manager.

 

The biggest draw for Fight Night I was to be the main event however. With a sly Jeff Jarrett using every dirty trick in the book to retain his title, it almost seemed like he would never lose the World Championship. Jarrett stated that with no one in the company able to challenge “The Chosen One’s” dominance, and therefore would not have to defend the title at Fight Night. This drew the ire of NWA Executive Director Eric Billings, who stated that Jarrett would be defending the title at Fight Night, although he would not know who his opponent would be until the night of the event. While Jarrett stated that this was not fair, Billings merely gave Jarrett the hint that his opponent was a former world champion. On the Action Zone that also featured the return of Terry Gordy, Jarrett faced off against Tito Santana (who had returned in early summer) in a warm up match for his title match at Fight Night. Jarrett won the match after Ole distracted Tito, allowing Jarrett to hit the Stroke for the pin. After the match, Jarrett called his manager into the ring and were set to attack Santana, but “Born in the U.S.A.” would hit the loud speakers as a debuting Barry Windham would prevent the attack.

 

The NWA’s Fight Night I took would take place the following night, airing live on WGN from 9 PM to 11 PM. While Lee Marshall and Mark Madden were in the announce booth as always, they were joined by NWA Executive Producer Eric Billings for the event. Approximately 2,200 fans filed into the UIC Pavilion, which saw such undercard matches as The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom) defeating the Rock N’ Roll Express, Bob Orton fighting Ron Simmons to a double countout, and a severely bandaged Tito Santana scoring a pinfall victory over former PWI Rookie of the Year Erik Watts. In the television title match, Cornio would retain his championship after Roma and Storm attempted to distract the referee to assist Malenko, but to no success. The New Freebirds would regain their championships from the Heavenly Bodies after Layfield unveiled a vicious new finisher he titled “the Clothesline from Hell”.

 

The main event of the evening was the match of the night however, as Barry Windham was accompanied to the ring by his father Blackjack Mulligan. With his father at ringside, Windham could ignore the ever annoying Ole Anderson, and focus strictly on Jarrett. The match itself was described as one of the best that the NWA had put on since its return, with the much larger Windham using his size to his advantage. Windham would nail a lariat which many thought would win him the championship, but Ole Anderson would pull the referee out of the ring as he counted the pin. Mulligan would accidentally push Anderson into the referee, causing him to get knocked out. With no referee in the ring, Billings would step into the role himself and following Windham nailing a superplex, would count the pin allowing Barry to win his second NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

 

While the event itself was considered a success both for WGN (as it garnered a .65 rating) and the NWA, long term effects of the event began to show almost instantaneously. It was leaked online that the original main event finish did not have the referee getting knocked out, and Billings himself taking over refereeing duties being unscripted. It had been originally planned for Blackjack Mulligan to work fulltime as his son’s manager, but due to his push of Anderson into the referee and legitimately injuring him, he was not brought back. It was also reported that former world champion Ron Simmons had accepted a contract with the WWF, and would be leaving the company at the end of the month. A third blow was struck when Bob Orton announced he would be retiring from active competition at the end of October, citing his age as a reason, though he would remain with the company as a road agent. This left a very thin uppercard scene for the promotion, as Jarrett, Windham, and Santana were the only ones to remain after the fallout.

 

One of the biggest occurrences that happened during this time was the resignation of Eric Billings as head booker. During the NWA’s first two years Billing’s had not only booked the promotion but ran the day to day operations of it as well. He appointed a committee consisting of Lee Marshall, Ole Anderson, and Bob Orton to write the shows afterwards, while Billings would focus on the business side of the NWA. It was here that the direction of the NWA seemed to focus more on the building of storylines, as the group began to build feuds that last more than a week or two.

 

The first such example was the continuing feud of the world champion and Jeff Jarrett. Instead of having Jarrett use his rematch clause immediately, he said he would use it when he wanted to and on his terms. This led to Jarrett teasing using the shot after Windham had already wrestled, which would turn into nothing more than Jarrett threatening the world champion. By mid October, Windham was getting tired of Jarrett’s threats and offered up something more if Jeff would use his shot. Not only would the World Championship be on the line, but if Barry lost he could not challenge Jarrett as long as he was champion. Jarrett, seeing the opportunity to suppress his biggest competitor, accepted the challenge. The challenger was eventually defeated, and Windham would move into a feud with Tito Santana over the world championship.

 

In the tag team division, The New Freebirds would remain on top for the remainder of the year, defeating new challengers such as The Destruction Crew and old foes such as Dean Malenko and Lance Storm, still coached by Paul Roma. While Steve Corino retained his championship against Malenko at Fight Night I, he still faced tough competition on a regular basis. Erik Watts, who was defeated by Tito Santana on the supercard, was thought to have won the title on November 1st episode of Action Zone, only for replays to show that Corino had tapped out following the fifteen minute time limit. Watts would eventually best Corino near the end of the year, and would win his first gold in the NWA.

 

Following Fight Night I, the NWA decided not to leave its home in Chicago, mainly due to the many changes that occurred during the aftermath of the event. With a large portion of the main event in disarray throughout the final months of the year, Eric Billings was working diligently on bringing in new talent that would replace the talent that had left. December saw this first wave of signings, as Japanese sensation Kaz Hayashi would be the first international talent to sign with the NWA, followed soon by Yoshihiro Tajiri. While the international workers might not have provided the name value that some of the older workers might have, they brought an attitude of hard work and professionalism that rivaled some of the best in the NWA.

 

While no big names debuted following Fight Night I, Eric Billings was working hard on bringing in a person that would provide instant recognition to the common wrestling fan, and solidify a relatively weak main event scene. This worker did not debut in December, but videos hyped his signing with the NWA. Set to Dokken’s “Dream Warriors”, this former world champion was hyped as being severely unstable and ready to run rampant over the NWA…

[Real Loose Cannon]

Cant wait to see what is happening current day