{"id":10551,"date":"2017-12-10T22:48:47","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T03:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=10551"},"modified":"2021-01-08T17:42:17","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T22:42:17","slug":"history-nwa-worlds-heavyweight-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2017\/12\/10\/history-nwa-worlds-heavyweight-title\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last night at <em><strong>CZW Cage of Death XIX<\/strong><\/em>, <strong>Tim Storm<\/strong>&#8216;s 414-day reign as NWA World Heavyweight Champion came to an end, when <strong>Nick Aldis<\/strong> (formerly <strong>Magnus<\/strong> in <strong>Impact Wrestling<\/strong>) was crowned the new World Champion to the shock of all those in attendance and millions of wrestling fans around the world. With this victory, Aldis became the 93rd NWA World Champion in nearly 70 years, joining a long list of some of the most revered pro wrestlers of all time. And while the NWA and its crown jewel, the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, has had its ups and downs, it&#8217;s still a title that for many wrestling historians and fans symbolizes something great &#8211; a link to the glory days of pro wrestling&#8217;s beginnings.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">AND NEW&#8230;. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XL8P09JY57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/XL8P09JY57<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NWA (@nwa) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nwa\/status\/939847103022583808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 10, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>THE NWA WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: THE GLORY YEARS (1948 to 1980s)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10553\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10553\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10553\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/02.jpg 400w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/02-223x300.jpg 223w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/02-313x420.jpg 313w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10553\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Orville Brown, the 1st NWA World Champion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champions<\/strong>: Orville Brown, Lou Thesz, Whipper Billy Watson, Dick Hutton, Pat O&#8217;Connor, &#8220;Nature Boy&#8221; Buddy Rogers, Gene Kiniski, Dory Funk Jr., Harley Race, Jack Brisco, Giant Baba, Terry Funk, Dusty Rhodes, Tommy Rich, &#8220;Nature Boy&#8221; Ric Flair<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10559\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10559\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10559\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/Lou_Thesz_by_Tim_Hornbaker-500x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/Lou_Thesz_by_Tim_Hornbaker-500x600.jpg 500w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/Lou_Thesz_by_Tim_Hornbaker-500x600-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/Lou_Thesz_by_Tim_Hornbaker-500x600-350x420.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10559\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lou Thesz, 3x NWA World Champion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <strong>National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)<\/strong> was founded in 1948 by promoter <strong>Paul &#8220;Pinkie&#8221; George<\/strong> when he corralled four of the United States&#8217; most powerful and influential promoters to create one governing body to unite the territories &#8211; Ohio&#8217;s <strong>Al Haft<\/strong>, Minnesota&#8217;s <strong>Tony Stecher<\/strong>, Detroit&#8217;s <strong>Harry Light<\/strong>, and St. Louis&#8217; <strong>Sam Muchnick<\/strong>. The five men unanimously agreed to recognize wrestling champion <strong>Orville Brown<\/strong> as the alliance&#8217;s official World Champion, and thus a governing body was created, that would unite over a dozen territories around North America and Europe. In 1960, Minnesota&#8217;s <strong>Verne Gagne<\/strong> would lead several northern US territories in leaving the NWA to create the <strong>American Wrestling Association (AWA)<\/strong>, followed three years later by <strong>Vince McMahon Sr. <\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>Toots Mondt<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF)<\/strong>. While these two left the governing body and recognized their own separate World Champions, they still had members on the NWA Board of Directors and would still co-promote Super Fights between their respective stars versus NWA stars. And while AWA and WWWF held weight in their respective regions (Minnesota and New York), the NWA World Heavyweight Title was still widely considered the top prize in the industry.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10558\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10558\" style=\"width: 475px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10558\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/IFcwyuX-e1512962676582.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"600\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10558\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">7x NWA World Champion Harley Race<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>THE NWA WORLDs HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: THE FRACTURE (The 1980s &amp; Early 1990s)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10555\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10555\" style=\"width: 508px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10555\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/78efe32d6d615eb5089043944b4d3365-e1512962701890.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"508\" height=\"600\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10555\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">9x NWA World Champion Ric Flair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>NWA World Heavyweight Champions:\u00a0<\/strong>Ric Flair, Harley Race, Kerry Von Erich, Ronnie Garvin, Ricky Steamboat, Sting, Tatsumi Fujinami, Masahiro Chono, The Great Muta, Barry Windham<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10560\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10560\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10560\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/Vince-McMahon-Retro-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10560\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When <strong>Vince McMahon Jr.<\/strong> took over the WWWF in 1984, renamed in the <strong>World Wrestling Federation (WWF),<\/strong> and severed all ties with the NWA, it set off a chain reaction in the territorial system. McMahon&#8217;s new WWF jumped headfirst into the emerging cable television boom and began buying up several NWA territories, mostly for their regional TV deals &#8211; in 1984 alone, he purchased <strong>Georgia Championship Wrestling<\/strong>\u00a0and two Canadian NWA territories, Toronto&#8217;s <strong>Maple Leaf Wrestling<\/strong> and Calgary&#8217;s <strong>Stampede Wrestling.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10562\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10562\" style=\"width: 454px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10562\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/17ef072677efbff39988ea8590a4fbd2-nwa-wrestling-wrestling-stars-e1512962970781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"454\" height=\"600\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion Ricky Steamboat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In order to combat McMahon&#8217;s rising power, <strong>Jim Crockett<\/strong>, owner of the <strong>NWA Mid-Atlantic<\/strong> territory, bought up territories like <strong>NWA Mid-South<\/strong> and <strong>Championship Wrestling from Florida<\/strong>, while Texas&#8217; <strong>World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW)<\/strong> seceded from the NWA and attempted to go on their own. Both endeavours would lead to near bankruptcy &#8211; Crockett would end up selling his business to <strong>Ted Turner<\/strong> in 1988, who renamed the company <strong>World Championship Wrestling (WCW)<\/strong>, while <strong>Fritz Von Erich<\/strong> attempted a failed merger with ailing territories AWA and <strong>Continental Wrestling Association (CWA)<\/strong> in 1988. When the merger failed, Von Erich sold WCCW to CWA&#8217;s <strong>Jerry Jarrett<\/strong>, which he merged into the <strong>United States Wrestling Association (USWA)<\/strong>, while Gagne withdrew the AWA, which ended up folding in 1991. USWA would close its doors in 1997. During the course of the 80s, the NWA lost most of its international alliances, as <strong>EMLL<\/strong> (the pre-cursor to <strong>CMLL<\/strong>), <strong>NJPW<\/strong> and <strong>All Japan<\/strong> all withdrew from the NWA&#8217;s governing body and decided to go on their own as well.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10561\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10561\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10561\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/tumblr_npc5aiJtXd1rkf4k0o1_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/tumblr_npc5aiJtXd1rkf4k0o1_500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/tumblr_npc5aiJtXd1rkf4k0o1_500-267x300.jpg 267w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/tumblr_npc5aiJtXd1rkf4k0o1_500-374x420.jpg 374w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10561\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion Sting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While WCW still honored the NWA as it&#8217;s governing body in Turner&#8217;s early years of ownership, it would withdraw from the NWA in 1993, leaving only a handful of territories left under the NWA banner. In what many consider the death knell that ended the NWA&#8217;s dominance for the past 40 years, in 1994 one of their strongest remaining territories, Philadelphia&#8217;s <strong>Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW)<\/strong>, withdrew from the NWA following an NWA World Heavyweight Championship tournament final that was supposed to crown the new World Champion following WCW&#8217;s departure. But after <strong>Shane Douglas<\/strong> won the title, he immediately threw it down and declared ECW was withdrawing and they were now going to be <strong>Extreme Championship Wrestling<\/strong>, and a new major promotion was born.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shane Douglas sends a message: ECW, Aug. 27, 1994\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_kpEjrKqf3s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>THE NWA WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: THE VOID (The 1990s)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10564\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10564\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10564\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/resize_image-e1512963119886.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"477\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2x NWA World Champion Dan Severn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>NWA World Heavyweight Champions:\u00a0<\/strong>Shane Douglas, Chris Candido, Dan &#8220;The Beast&#8221; Severn, Naoya Ogawa, Gary Steele, Mike Rapada, Sabu, Steve Corino, Shinya Hashimoto<\/p>\n<p>Following the ECW debacle, the NWA struggled to remain relevant as former allies like the WWF, WCW, ECW, NJPW and more began to distance themselves in terms of promotion, television coverage, PPVs, and prestige. The remaining territories were hardly more than regional local indies in some cases. At the beginning of the Attitude Era in the WWF, the NWA briefly allied once again with their old territory with an NWA Invasion that saw NWA World Heavyweight Champion (and former UFC Champion) <strong>Dan Severn<\/strong> come to the WWF, as well as NWA Tag Team Champions <strong>The Rock &amp; Roll Express<\/strong>. But the angle didn&#8217;t last long and soon the NWA was once again on its own.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>THE NWA WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: THE TNA EXPERIMENT (Early 2000s)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10566\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10566\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10566\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/9e06d1cf60da0c3c5ca5fba074e1688d-aj-styles-wrestling-e1512963358879.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10566\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion AJ Styles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>NWA World\u00a0Heavyweight\u00a0Champions:\u00a0<\/strong>Ken Shamrock, Ron (R-Truth) Killings, Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Ray Gonzalez, Raven, Rhino, Christian, Sting, Abyss<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10572\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10572\" style=\"width: 433px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10572\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/nwa001-big.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"433\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/nwa001-big.jpg 433w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/nwa001-big-237x300.jpg 237w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/nwa001-big-331x420.jpg 331w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion Raven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2002, the NWA signed a working agreement with <strong>Jeff Jarrett<\/strong>&#8216;s new promotion, <strong>Total Nonstop Action (TNA)<\/strong>, to be the NWA&#8217;s new flagship promotion, with the NWA&#8217;s main titles, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Tag Team titles, being controlled by TNA. When Severn failed to appear for TNA&#8217;s first PPV taping, he was stripped of his championship belt and a tournament was held, where <strong>Ken Shamrock<\/strong> (Severn&#8217;s old UFC rival) was crowned the new champion. The TNA-NWA alliance lasted five years, until 2007, when TNA ended its alliance and created its own TNA World and Tag Team titles.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10567\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10567\" style=\"width: 366px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10567\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/41e5017e0bd9c17298b5020d80b318e3-boxing-champions-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"366\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/41e5017e0bd9c17298b5020d80b318e3-boxing-champions-1.jpg 366w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/41e5017e0bd9c17298b5020d80b318e3-boxing-champions-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/41e5017e0bd9c17298b5020d80b318e3-boxing-champions-1-279x420.jpg 279w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10567\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion Christian Cage (Photo: Matt Roberts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>THE NWA WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: THE INDIE YEARS (2000s to Now)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10568\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10568\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-10568\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/267-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"575\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10568\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion Adam Pearce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>NWA World Heavyweight Champions:\u00a0<\/strong>Adam Pearce, Brent Albright, Blue Demon Jr., Colt Cabana, The Sheik II (Ali Azzad), Kahagas, Rob Conway, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jax Dane, Tim Storm<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10569\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10569\" style=\"width: 514px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10569\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/CabanaNWAchamp-e1512963657580.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"514\" height=\"600\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10569\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion Colt Cabana (Photo: Shane M. Kidder)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once again, the NWA was forced to return to the indie territories as it&#8217;s life support, but this time the indie scene was in far better shape than it had been following the 80&#8217;s territorial collapse. New promotions like <strong>Ring of Honor, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW)<\/strong>, <strong>Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG)<\/strong> and <strong>CHIKARA<\/strong> had emerged (although not all would work with nor recognize the NWA&#8217;s authority). A new tournament was established and the finals took place in <strong>IWA Puerto Rico<\/strong>, which was scheduled to be <strong>Bryan Danielson<\/strong> (Daniel Bryan) vs. <strong>Brent Albright<\/strong>, but due to injury Danielson was replaced by <strong>Adam Pearce<\/strong>, who ended up winning the NWA World title that night. On several occasions, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship would show up in Ring of Honor, including a champion vs champion match that saw NWA World Champion Adam Pearce defeat ROH World Champion <strong>Nigel McGuinness<\/strong> at <em><strong>ROH Battle for Supremacy<\/strong><\/em> in 2008, or Brent Albright beating Pearce for the belt at <em><strong>ROH Death Before Dishonor VI<\/strong><\/em>. Mexico also began to re-embrace the NWA, when <strong>Blue Demon Jr.<\/strong> won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and it began to appear on rising new indie promotions like <strong>Championship Wrestling From Hollywood (CWFH)<\/strong>. Even NJPW briefly played with an NWA alliance, with <strong>Satoshi Kojima<\/strong> winning the title at <em><strong>Wrestle Kingdom 8<\/strong><\/em> in 2014. <strong>Hiroyoshi Tenzan<\/strong> also won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for a brief run in 2015. While this era of the NWA was nearly as unknown as the 1990s, in hindsight, the title was held by many worthy contenders.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10571\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10571\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10571\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/FB_IMG_1505132276393-e1512963685194.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"502\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10571\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWA World Champion Tim Storm (Photo: CWFH)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>THE NWA WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: NOW<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10570\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10570\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10570\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/DQqiIlVW0AAR_Ip-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10570\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: twitter.com\/RealNickAldis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The wrestling was stunned earlier this year when former Impact Wrestling executive and Smashing Pumpkins frontman <strong>Billy Corgan<\/strong> announced he had purchased the NWA&#8217;s rights and was working with former WWE and Impact creative <strong>Dave Lagana<\/strong> to bring the NWA back to glory. Corgan took over officially on October 1, 2017 and since, had promoted <strong>Tim Storm<\/strong> with more media coverage in the past three months than he&#8217;d received in the 365 days prior. The NWA World Champion once again appeared back with CWFH and CZW, at which he lost his title to the 93rd Champion, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2017\/12\/09\/breaking-nick-aldis-wins-nwa-world-heavyweight-championship\/\" target=\"_self\">Nick Aldis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>THE NWA WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: FACTS AND FIGURES<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10573\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10573\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10573\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/NWA-Logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/NWA-Logo.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/NWA-Logo-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10573\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: NWA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some interesting facts and figures about the NWA World Heavyweight title and it&#8217;s champions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Most Title Reigns:<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><strong>1.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestling-titles.com\/nwa\/world\/nwa-h.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ric Flair<\/a>, 9; <strong>2.<\/strong> Harley Race, 7; <strong>3.<\/strong> Jeff Jarrett, 6;\u00a0<strong>4.\u00a0<\/strong>Adam Pearce, 5;\u00a0<strong>5.\u00a0<\/strong>Four tied with 3 (Lou Thesz, AJ Styles, Dusty Rhodes, Giant Baba)<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Longest Consecutive Title Reign:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><strong>1.\u00a0<\/strong>Lou Thesz (1st reign), 1,934 days;\u00a0<strong>2.\u00a0<\/strong>Dory Funk Jr., 1,563;\u00a0<strong>3.\u00a0<\/strong>Dan Severn (1st reign), 1,479;\u00a0<strong>4.\u00a0<\/strong>Gene Kiniski, 1,131;\u00a0<strong>5.\u00a0<\/strong>Lou Thesz (3rd reign), 1,079 days<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Most Combined Days As Champion:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><strong>1.\u00a0<\/strong>Lou Thesz, 3,749 days;\u00a0<strong>2.\u00a0<\/strong>Ric Flair, 3,116;\u00a0<strong>3.\u00a0<\/strong>Harley Race, 1,799;\u00a0<strong>4.\u00a0<\/strong>Dory Funk Jr., 1,563;\u00a0<strong>5.\u00a0<\/strong>Dan Severn, 1,559<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">First NWA World Champion<\/span>:\u00a0<\/strong>Orville Brown, July 14, 1948\n<ul>\n<li>First American NWA World Champion: Orville Brown<\/li>\n<li>First British NWA World Champion: Gary Steele, September 25, 1999<\/li>\n<li>First Canadian NWA World Champion: Whipper Billy Watson, March 15, 1956<\/li>\n<li>First Japanese NWA World Champion: Shohei &#8220;Giant&#8221; Baba, December 2, 1974<\/li>\n<li>First Mexican NWA World Champion: Blue Demon Jr., October 25, 2008<\/li>\n<li>First New Zealand NWA World Champion: Pat O&#8217;Connor, January 9, 1959<\/li>\n<li>First Puerto Rican NWA World Champion: Ray Gonzalez, April 3, 2005<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night at CZW Cage of Death XIX, Tim Storm&#8216;s 414-day reign as NWA World Heavyweight Champion came to an end, when Nick Aldis (formerly Magnus in Impact Wrestling) was crowned the new World Champion to the shock of all those in attendance and millions of wrestling fans around the world. With this victory, Aldis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":10574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7205,6,6504],"tags":[294,1464,1486,520,1765,771,1829,7206,469,1824],"class_list":["post-10551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-history","category-north-america","category-nwa","tag-czw","tag-harley-race","tag-lou-thesz","tag-magnus","tag-nick-aldis","tag-nwa","tag-nwa-world-heavyweight-championship","tag-pro-wrestling-history","tag-ric-flair","tag-tim-storm"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}