10 More Wrestling Facts You Probably Didn't Know
2. The NWA Invaded The WWE Before WCW
By the mid-nineties, the National Wrestling Alliance more or less existed in name only. WCW had formally withdrawn from the NWA in September 1993, and ECW had dramatically followed suit in August 1994. The once tyrannical organisation had become a paper tiger, desperately clinging onto a reputation that belonged to history.
On 5 January 1998, the WWF’s pre-taped RAW Is War broadcast the return of Jim Cornette to the company’s programming - and he brought friends, NWA promoters Dennis Coralluzzo and Howard Brody. Incredibly, a match would be made for the vacant NWA North American Heavyweight Championship between Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham on WWF television.
A week later, the Rock 'N' Roll Express joined Cornette and Jarrett on RAW as NWA tag champions, officially making ‘the NWA’ a stable within the WWF as it competed with WWF stars in WWF storylines. Although the line-up would fluctuate wildly in typical Attitude Era style, at the end of March, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn arrived to join the faction.
It wasn’t to last. Vince McMahon made the executive decision to quit promoting NWA talent on his programming after the King of the Ring event at the end of June. The NWA ‘invasion’ of the WWF was over by the beginning of summer.