How Blind Arrogance Killed Wrestling's Coolest Cult Promotion
7. The Original Fall Of The NWA
What made the NWA's resurgence so special in 2019, was the fact that those letters had meant so little for the longest period of time.
From being the industry's standard bearer, the National Wrestling Alliance name became utterly worthless by the time of the mid '90s. Truth be told, the writing was on the wall as soon as Vince McMahon's ruthless aggression began to run rampant in 1982.
While the NWA - driven by Jim Crockett Promotions - put on the first Starrcade in 1983, McMahon set about putting on his own supershow spectacle that would be bigger, brasher and brighter than anything the combined might of the NWA could deliver. Of course, those Vince plans led to WrestleMania in 1985, and the rest is history.
One of the most significant strikes McMahon made against the NWA, was purchasing Georgia Championship Wrestling. A famed member of the NWA, GCW's sale allowed WWF to take over the promotion's spot on TBS; a spot that GCW had held for 12 years. While ratings for WWF on TBS tanked, that did lead to McMahon selling that timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions for $1 million... and that fee played a major part in helping fund the first WrestleMania.
The introduction of the Survivor Series PPV was another nail in the coffin on the NWA, with McMahon boldly running that show on the same night of Starrcade '87. Threatening PPV providers that they wouldn't be allowed WrestleMania IV if they offered Starrcade, Vince's competitive drive saw Survivor Series' buyrate be more than double that of its NWA counterpart.
From there, the WWF ran the first Royal Rumble PPV on the same night as NWA's Bunkhouse Stampede, and an attempt from the National Wrestling Alliance to counter WrestleMania IV with the first Clash of the Champions did nothing to put a chink in McMahon's armour.
This battle forced JCP into financial ruin, which led to Ted Turner purchasing the promotion through TBS and renaming it to World Championship Wrestling. Unfortunately, by 1993, WCW was a strong enough entity to stand on its own feet, and thus the organisation withdrew from the NWA.