The destruction of the NWA World Title

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

In the Torch VIP they had a column by Mark Madden from 1993 about the NWA title and some other things from around that time.

 

The destruction of the NWA World Title

By Mark Madden

 

Little has amused me more than the fight the so­called NWA Board of Directors has waged with World Championship Wrestling over use of the phrase “NWA World Champion,” as well as possession of the title belt.

 

I mean, Tod Gordon and Dennis Coraluzzo couldn’t even divvy up Philadelphia without going through conniptions. How could they help pick an “NWA World Champion” unless Eddie Gilbert somehow found a way to manipulate both at the same time? Better still, could they find a guy who looks like he could take the Phillies’ John Kruk?

 

No matter. Fighting over the “NWA World Championship”—yes, I’m being sarcastic through constant use of quotation marks, thanks—is like fighting over grandpa’s corpse. And, unlike grandpa’s corpse, no one wants possession of the “NWA World Championship” for the purpose of giving it a decent burial. They want to prop it up a while longer, even as it whithers and rots.

 

I don’t write this flippantly. Really.

 

The NWA World Championship was MY title, the one I grew up watching. Even as a youth, I knew Bruno Sammartino was only champ of his little corner of the world, namely Philadelphia—I guess Gordon and Coraluzzo OK’d it—Boston, New York, and Pittsburgh. And I also knew that Dory Funk Jr., Terry Funk, Jack Brisco, and their like were traveling the country defending the NWA World Championship. I KNEW it was the real world title. I just knew it. I count the times I’ve been able to see Ric Flair hoist that belt among my fondest memories, right there with Mario Lemieux lifting the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992, with Roberto Clemente dominating the World Series in 1971. When Flair lost the NWA title, I didn’t cry. But sometimes I felt like I should.

 

Like when Ronnie Garvin beat him.

 

Anyway, the NWA title is dead. It will never regain its credibility as the real world title, as the only world title, even if Gordon can arrange a playoff match between Hawk and Ted DiBiase before dozens—hundreds, even—at ECW Arena before both split for Atlanta.

 

Nope, the NWA title is dead.

 

And here’s who killed it.

 

•Dusty Rhodes: Surprise, surprise. Dustaroonie is a multiple offender. He didn’t kill the NWA title the way they execute prisoners in Texas, with a single painless injection. More like the way the Manson family slaughtered Sharon Tate, with much suffering, pain, and gleeful self­serving sadism.

 

First of all, he put the belt on himself. I mean, I could end the column here.

 

Rhodes was, by most accounts, the first­ever NWA World Champion totally lacking athletic credibility. Sure, he was popular. He was a star by any definition of the word. He had personality—charisma, if you will. But was he a deserving NWA champion? NO. He didn’t look the part and couldn’t work the part. The NWA champion, to that point, was traditionally a polished worker. Dusty was not. Every time he wore the title, he damaged it more, especially during his last two reigns. He was just a big fat oaf who was champion before he was boss. No other NWA champ matches that description, not before and not since. And none ever will, unless I get appointed Coraluzzo’s booker.

 

Speaking of booking, Dusty’s systematic destruction of the belt as a booker is very well documented. This, I believe, was rooted in the fact that few considered him a credible champion. Dusty’s reaction: “If I can’t be a credible champion, no one can be.” So he ruined the NWA title. Even now, he puts possession of a not­all­that­attractive French maid over what used to be the NWA title. Not that it matters now. After a billion screw­job finishes, a decade of heel champs who never won, it just doesn’t matter.

 

Special kudos to Dusty for killing the NWA title in Japan with the Fujinami­Flair fiasco. Do you have any idea how hard it was to kill the NWA title in Japan? It was as over as a belt could be. But Dusty did. The Japanese considered the fol­de­rol typical American bullshit, which it was. Sad to say, we were so used to it that it didn’t even strike a nerve.

 

•Ric Flair: This is not a criticism of Ric Flair, which I know surprises everyone. But Ric Flair leaving the NWA, after being fired by Jim Herd, finished off the NWA. The presence of the NWA belt in the WWF got Flair over big­time, but forever relegated it to second­string status behind the WWF title in the eyes of fans who watched both organizations, especially when Flair discarded any pretense of the “other” title after becoming WWF champ. For hardcores, it destroyed the lineage of the NWA belt, which is no real big deal as far as the title’s credibility, but segues into interesting trivia.

 

The only other time the NWA title didn’t change hands in the ring was in 1948, when NWA standard­bearer Orville Brown was hurt in a car wreck before he could face National Wrestling ASSOCIATION champ Lou Thesz in a unification match—an honest piece of happenstance, unless the car was gimmicked, which I doubt. Anyway, they gave the belt to Thesz, which was a break for Brown in that the car wreck was likely less painful than having to work with Thesz.

 

•Jim Crockett Jr.: It’s mega­ironic that the sallow­faced son of a promoter from Charlotte. N.C. wants to revive the NWA title since he played a big role in killing it in the first place, and not just by hiring Rhodes. Starting in 1986, Crockett more or less stopped booking Ric Flair out to other NWA promotions, making the NWA title a Jim Crockett Promotions house title. This definitely sped up the demise of the title—as well as the demise of regional promotions—and annoyed the hell out of me since every little promotion felt the need to crown its own world champ at that point.

 

Crockett kept the NWA World Champion from being a touring world champion, which was what made the NWA title such a big deal in the first place.

 

•Fritz Von Erich: Hey, everything else he got close to kicked the bucket, so why should the NWA title have been any different? Booking­wise, he always had his kids beat Ric Flair but without ever giving the Nature Boy any legit victories, thereby killing the title stone dead in his promotion in a helluva hurry, almost as if struck in the chest by a singl… er, never mind. The bottom line is World Class was a very important promotion then, with more TV syndication than any other NWA affiliate. So when the NWA died in World Class, it died over a large portion of the country.

 

•Ron Garvin: His NWA championship reign was a farce. Garvin didn’t ask to be made world champion, so we can’t blame him. But it’s certainly worth examining why Garvin’s reign hurt the belt.

 

Simply put, he was a bum. He was maybe the No. 10 babyface in the NWA at the time. Just about any other babyface would have been a better choice as champion. Also, he took the belt out of action for a while when the NWA was embarassed by the non­crowds Garvin was drawing, “waived the 30­day title defense stipulation to allow him to prepare for a rematch with Flair.” i.e. they wanted to get his ass off the road and try something that might draw money. Keep in mind that matching the small crowds Ron Garvin drew would be cause for wild celebration at the WCW offices today.

 

Speaking of Garvin, it’s been said that you can tell how bad a wrestler was as world champion by how fast he disappears after he drops the strap.

 

So, anyone seen Ron Simmons lately?

 

•Riki Choshu and Bill Watts: When an attempt was made to revive the NWA title, Choshu and Watts narrowed down the championship field to Masa Chono and Keiji Muto. They made the wrong choice. Chono stunk up a PPV, and the renaissance of the NWA title never got off the ground. Chono lost to Muto, Muto lost to Windham, Windham lost to Flair in another boffo finish, Rude beat Flair, which brings us to now, with Flair and Rude arguing over Baby Doll, er, Fifi.

 

Special congratulations, however, must go to current NWA World Ch… er, World Heavy… ah, guy who holds that big old gold belt, Rick Rude. Just after WCW buried Rude’s belt with the announcement that WCW recognizes no championship other than its own, Rude does a convincing interview that buries every other belt but his.

 

So, what is the future of the “NWA World Championship?”

 

Ask Tod Gordon and Dennis Coraluzzo.

 

Oh, God. I could just cry.

 

MEMO TO WCW

 

WCW recently released a memo saying that any employee talking to the wrestling media—i.e. us dirtsheet guttersnipes—would be in violation of his/her contract and subject to dismissal. I only know about this because someone who works for WCW read me the memo.

 

It won’t stop WCW employees from talking to us. Face it, WCW management. Your employees would RATHER talk to us than you because:

 

1) They trust us more.

 

2) They recognize that someone has to keep track of the pathetic mess you’ve made of your company.

 

3) We’re fun guys.

 

4) Our steroid tests are legitimate.

 

Aside to WCW media liaison Mike Weber: I don’t know if you attend some of the closed­door meetings your management has with its employees. If you don’t but would like to know what goes on, call me. I’ll tell you.

 

MEMO TO WCW

 

Why not admit that your steroid tests are a fraud? You allegedly administered them. Everyone allegedly took them—the tests, not the steroids, cynics. No one got suspended. No one got fired. No one even got scolded. Do you mean to tell me that no one in your company is taking steroids? No one?

 

What’s next? Dumb question. I know what’s next. You’re gonna take the guy who looks most like he was inflated with a bicycle pump, the guy with the genetics of a singles hitter but the physique of a home­run slugger, the guy who looks like a basketball player who fell into a Dianabol vat, you’re gonna take that guy and make him undisputed world heavyweight champeen, right?

 

Nah, can’t be. Must be a vicious lie. But if you do that, you’ll interest no one but the Drug Enforcement Agency.

 

RADIO GA­GA

 

Bad enough that Bret Hart, the lowest­drawing world champion in history—excepting some, but not all, of the pseudo­world champs discussed earlier—calls Ric Flair overrated, 3 on a 10 scale, or whatever. I think the response to that is obvious, but here goes anyway.

 

While Bret Hart has had a handful of brilliant matches on pay­per­view, he waltzes through house show bouts and is, in general, a lazy S.O.B. unless the cameras are on. Add to that the fact that Ric Flair often has had five­star matches—matches better than Bret Hart dreams of—in front of house show crowds shy of a thousand, and you get the reason for Hart’s vitriolic statements, namely jealously over having one­half of Flair’s ability and one­millionth of his charisma. Bret may also be jealous of Flair who, at 45, looks like he could be 25 while Hart, at 35, looks like he could be dead.

 

Like I said, that was bad enough.

 

But Jim Ross had to have Hart repeat his drivel on “Radio WWF,” then “call Ric Flair in Jacksonville” to get his response, making Flair look like a schmos when the call went unanswered. Like anyone would be near a phone at a WCW house show, or anywhere near the show at all for that matter.

 

Ross, show some class. And if you’re going to let people rip Flair on your radio show, at least be honest enough to mention that when you were both in WCW, you had your tongue so far up Flair’s behind that you could taste what flavor gum he was chewing. I mean, the only time Flair missed shows due to injury was when he stopped suddenly and Ross’s fivehead—much bigger than a forehead, don’t you agree—smashed into his tailbone.

 

Honesty is the best policy, Jim. Give it a whirl sometime.

 

Mark Madden of Pittsburgh, Pa., is a 14­year veteran sportswriter and editor with the Pittsburgh Post­Gazette. He has contributed a monthly column to the Torch since April 1991.

[Guest PhantMan]

good reading. could you publish something from mitchell?

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

How did Dusty Rhodes hurt the NWA Title's credibility? If you blinked you missed his reign.

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Bad enough that Bret Hart, the lowest­drawing world champion in history—excepting some, but not all, of the pseudo­world champs discussed earlier—calls Ric Flair overrated, 3 on a 10 scale, or whatever. I think the response to that is obvious, but here goes anyway.

 

While Bret Hart has had a handful of brilliant matches on pay­per­view, he waltzes through house show bouts and is, in general, a lazy S.O.B. unless the cameras are on. Add to that the fact that Ric Flair often has had five­star matches—matches better than Bret Hart dreams of—in front of house show crowds shy of a thousand, and you get the reason for Hart’s vitriolic statements, namely jealously over having one­half of Flair’s ability and one­millionth of his charisma. Bret may also be jealous of Flair who, at 45, looks like he could be 25 while Hart, at 35, looks like he could be dead.

 

----

 

The more we read into the past, the more Bret's image is hurt.....

[TheFranchise 0]

Leave Bret alone

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

It's scary how great a writer Mark Madden was before he became a WCW shill.

[JST 0]

Mark Madden's greatest contribution to professional wrestling is the word "spin-a-roonie".