Mid 20th Century
69-814: IWA Hardcore Championship was a title contested under hardcore wrestling rules (with the application of the 24/7 rules ) in the International Wrestling Association in Puerto Rico . On October 4, 2008, the title was unified with the IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship . The first IWA Hardcore Champion was crowned on a 20 Minute Limit Hardcore Match and wrestlers that took part of it were Huracán Castillo Jr. , Pain , Miguel Pérez Jr ., Ninjitzu, Ricky Banderas , Apolo , TNT (Hombre Dinamita), Super Crazy , Tajiri , Chicky Starr , Victor
138-653: A World Title tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship . Unbeknownst to any one, the event was staged for ECW's public withdrawal from the NWA, with tournament winner Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title belt and instead picking up the ECW Heavyweight Championship belt, proclaiming himself to be the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. ECW founder Tod Gordon would subsequently announce ECW's secession from
207-514: A controversial segment from that month's Samhain PPV event, in which Father James Mitchell along with several women and wrestlers were seen consuming cocaine , drew negative reactions online. The following month, The CW signed a deal with WWE for its weekly NXT program. Though it was rumored to be in-response to the Samhain segment, Corgan later revealed in a 2024 interview with Fightful that
276-427: A holding company run by Houston, Texas-based attorney and wrestling promoter R. Bruce Tharpe, sued Trobich, Baucom, the NWA, and its then-parent company, Trobich's Pro Wrestling Organization LLC, claiming insurance fraud regarding the NWA's liability insurance policy. A settlement was negotiated that transferred the rights to the NWA name and trademarks from Trobich's company to Tharpe's. The new organization moved from
345-507: A larger audience than ever before. Rising demand and national expansion made wrestling a much more lucrative form of entertainment than in decades previous. This era would go on to be known as the "Golden Age" of professional wrestling. From 1948 to 1955, each of the three major television networks broadcast wrestling shows; the largest supporter being the DuMont Television Network . In 1956, allegations were made that
414-459: A membership model to a licensing model and significantly reduced the amount of territory some of the members held, which caused many promotions to immediately cut ties with the NWA. On September 9, 2012, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood (CWFH) announced it had left the NWA. CWFH was the unofficial home promotion of both the then-current NWA champion ( Adam Pearce ) and the most recent previous champion ( Colt Cabana ), both of whom publicly left
483-463: A new distribution agreement with FITE TV . As part of this agreement, the NWA would remove content from their YouTube channel. On January 5, 2022, the NWA announced the launch of the NWA All Access subscription package on FITE TV, including past and upcoming pay-per-view events (PPV), new episodes of Powerrr on Tuesdays, and the newly announced NWA USA weekly series. In addition, it
552-666: A new promotion called NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA). NWA:TNA was given creative control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships through an agreement with the NWA. This would last until March 2007, when the NWA terminated its agreement with TNA. TNA would lose control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships by the morning of the 2007 Sacrifice pay-per-view event on May 13. On September 17, 2010, KDOC-TV Los Angeles premiered NWA: Championship Wrestling from Hollywood . In August 2012, International Wrestling Corp.,
621-646: A number of issues. At the time Quinn walked out, a wrestler of his named Édouard Carpentier was involved in an angle where he and Lou Thesz were both being presented around the NWA as world champion after Carpentier had a disputed win over Thesz on June 14, 1957. As the 1950s came to a close, professional wrestling was losing television ratings, and soon TV stations dropped most wrestling shows from their lineups. The remaining televised wrestling promoters had small, local syndicated shows, which aired as late-night filler programming. Promoters started using localized television by purchasing airtime from rival territories, at
690-575: A professional wrestling promoter from the U.S. Midwest , founded the National Wrestling Alliance with the backing of six other promoters: Al Haft , Tony Stecher , Harry Light , Orville Brown , Don Owen , and Sam Muchnick . The concept of the NWA was to consolidate the championships of these regional companies into one true world championship of professional wrestling, whose holder would be recognized worldwide. The newly formed NWA Board of Directors decided that Brown would become
759-408: A referee was present to make the pinfall . The OVW Hardcore Championship had a trashcan passed from wrestler to wrestler rather than a belt. The GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship had a unique stipulation in that if a challenger who was outweighed by the champion survived 15 minutes, he won the match and the title. National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA )
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#1732793621141828-514: A result of the World Wrestling Federation 's (WWF, now WWE) national expansion . In September 1993, the largest remaining member promotion, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), left the NWA. The NWA would continue as a loose coalition of independent promotions, with NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA) given exclusivity over its World Heavyweight and Tag Team championships from June 2002 to May 2007. In August 2012,
897-514: A singular world champion who defended his title across all the territories, participated in talent exchanges, and collectively protected the territorial integrity of member promotions. Prior to the 1960s, it acted as the sole governing body for professional wrestling in the United States . It remained the largest and most influential body in wrestling until the mid-1980s by which time most of the original member promotions went out of business as
966-458: Is a documentary series chronicling the journey and career of the current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion as well as others in the division. Debuting on October 20, 2017, on the NWA's YouTube channel, it was the first series to be produced after the organization's acquisition. NWA Shockwave was a web television program that aired on the NWA's YouTube channel and Facebook page. The series debuted on December 1, 2020. On August 10, 2020, it
1035-403: Is an American professional wrestling promotion and governing body owned by Billy Corgan and operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA began as the governing body for a group of regional promotions, the heads of which made up the board of directors. The group operated a territory system which sanctioned their own company championships while recognizing
1104-427: Is often separated into distinct "levels" based on the graphic nature of the match: Hardcore matches tend to emphasize the use of certain weapons, the brutality of the attacks, moderate brawling techniques, and the extreme physical toll on the wrestlers, and thus many euphemisms for these matches are employed. The almost kayfabe -breaking accessibility of some of these weapons—often under the ring—to wrestlers has led to
1173-645: Is the flagship program of the NWA which currently streams on Tuesday nights on The CW 's app. The series debuted on October 8, 2019, originally airing on the NWA's YouTube channel. From 2021 to the end of 2022, the show had a first airing on Tuesday at 6:05 pm ET on FITE TV , with the episode debuting on the NWA's YouTube channel later in the same week in Friday at 6:05 pm ET. A companion series, titled NWA Power Surge (stylized as NWA Powerrr Surge ), premiered on April 13, 2021, and features wrestler interviews, unseen matches, and Powerrr recaps. Ten Pounds of Gold
1242-521: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship . The match took place on November 12 and saw Storm retain the title. This was the first title match under the new NWA regime headed by Corgan. On December 9, Aldis defeated Storm in a rematch at Cage of Death 19 to become the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion, making him the second British-born champion after Gary Steele . In 2018, the NWA briefly allied with Impact Wrestling ,
1311-776: The Texas and Florida territories, dating from the 1950s. (The Texas title was taken by World Class Championship Wrestling when it split away). Brawling continued to evolve and grow in popularity in America through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The Detroit territory was home to The Sheik , Abdullah the Butcher and Bobo Brazil , and featured long, bloody brawls. The Puerto Rico territory featured Carlos Colón , The Invader and Abdullah, and introduced fire as an element of violence. The Memphis territory featured Jerry Lawler , Terry Funk , Eddie Gilbert and Bill Dundee and introduced
1380-587: The 1970s, the NWA once again took over as the top promotion and gained huge dominance with their program, Georgia Championship Wrestling , which would become the first nationally broadcast wrestling program on cable television through then-superstation TBS in 1979. They brought in Gordon Solie , dubbed "The Walter Cronkite of Professional Wrestling," from former NWA President Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida territory to be lead commentator and host. Videotape trading and cable television paved
1449-857: The 1970s. They changed their name from the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. At some point during the decade, Muchnick reportedly declared Atlanta, Georgia as the "leading wrestling city" for its "drawing capacity and near-capacity crowds at the City Auditorium or the Omni every Friday." While the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation (WWWF/WWF) both faltered during
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#17327936211411518-495: The American South. New match types were devised that resembled street fighting , such as matches which were held in a cage , Texas Deathmatches which incorporated weapons, and Lights Out matches which were 'unsanctioned' and took place after the rest of the scheduled card, once the house lights had briefly been turned off to signify the end of the event. The National Wrestling Alliance had brass knuckles championships in
1587-483: The Bodyguard, Vyzago (Brett Sanders), Andy Anderson, Taka Michinoku , Andrés Borges and Sean Hill Hardcore wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Hardcore wrestling is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Taking place in usual or unusual environments, hardcore wrestling matches allow
1656-877: The CW executives didn't have a problem with the spot, and that "it was a completely invented story by either a troll inside the company, a leaker or something.” Following Samhain, episodes of Powerrr were later added to The CW's app in November. In January 2024, NWA announced that new episodes of Powerrr would be available on The CW app from February 6. The same year, NWA included new territories: NWA Chicago in Chicago , Illinois , Kross Fire Wrestling (KFW) in Sevierville, Tennessee , World League Wrestling in Missouri as NWA's developmental system, and NWA Texas. Powerrr
1725-816: The Hardcore-style matches that emphasize the spirit of JCW. Other euphemisms, such as the Good Housekeeping match and Full Metal Mayhem, emphasize the use of certain foreign objects as being legal (the former with kitchen implements and the latter with metallic objects). In a Fans Bring the Weapons match, wrestlers fight with "weapons" that members of the audience bring to the venue (most often brought are standard kitchen household appliances, like frying pans, toasters, or rolling pins, although its not unusual that fans occasionally bring in items that are far more improbable, like an artificial leg or LEGO); this
1794-576: The Japanese promotions. A new gimmick , breaking wooden tables , was introduced to ECW through Sabu , nephew of The Sheik. Sabu had developed a gimmick of throwing himself through a propped-up table in Japan in order to entertain the crowd and get his character over as a wild and possibly insane man. He then started to put opponents through tables, a relatively safe spot which looked and sounded devastating. He brought it with him to ECW, where it became
1863-517: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship was featured at All In , with Cody defeating Aldis for the title, becoming the first second-generation NWA World heavyweight champion. After All In, the NWA would return to hosting its own events. The NWA 70th Anniversary Show , which took place on October 21, 2018, was the first to be produced directly under Lightning One, and was co-produced with Global Force Entertainment ;
1932-552: The NWA World Heavyweight, World Tag Team and World Junior Heavyweight Championships all changed hands at NJPW events. In September 2016, NWA signed a deal with the new Japanese Diamond Stars Wrestling (DSW) promotion to promote shows in not only Japan, but also other parts of Asia. As part of the deal, DSW chairman Hideo Shimada was appointed the NWA Vice President of the Asian Pacific region while Jimmy Suzuki
2001-604: The NWA and ROH. This would be the last event to be co-promoted with ROH; on July 24, 2019, the NWA announced that had ended their partnership. Subsequently, it was announced the following month that the NWA would host tapings in Atlanta on September 30 and October 1 for a new television series, later revealed to be titled NWA Powerrr . In January 2020, Marty Scurll , and other Ring of Honor characters, began to appear at NWA events once again as part of an inter-promotional angle. In addition to re-signing with ROH, Scurll would join
2070-553: The NWA discontinued its memberships and started licensing its brand to wrestling promotions. In 2017, it was purchased by Billy Corgan through his Lightning One, Inc. company. By late 2019–2023, the NWA had transitioned into a stand-alone, singular promotion. In October 2023, the NWA re-established its territory system, with Michael Hutter's NWA Exodus Pro Midwest being the first promotion sanctioned. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s In 1948, Paul "Pinkie" George ,
2139-408: The NWA reestablished itself as a governing body, with EC3 's NWA Exodus Pro Midwest being the first territory to be sanctioned. On December 4, NWA welcomed Joe Cazana Promotions (JCP) to their territory system. On October 18, it was reported by news blog Haus of Wrestling that NWA had signed a deal with The CW to air Powerrr and a reality show documenting behind the scenes footage. However,
IWA Hardcore Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
2208-755: The NWA was an illegal monopoly blocking competition. An investigation led by the US Department of Justice resulted in the NWA Consent Decree of 1956 ( United States v. National Wrestling Alliance ). Several promoters would leave the organization during this time, with some managing to find niches in the United States. In 1957, Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn walked out of the August NWA meeting in St. Louis, having fallen out with Muchnick over
2277-505: The NWA's Bunkhouse Stampede . The NWA responded by creating Clash of the Champions on TBS to counterprogram WrestleMania IV . By 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions was facing bankruptcy. On October 11, under the direction of owner Ted Turner , TBS bought the assets of JCP and renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after the TV show of the same name. Originally incorporated by TBS as
2346-550: The NWA, Corgan would also purchase Tharpe's stake in the NWA's "On Demand" VOD service and licensing of the Paul Boesch wrestling library. Corgan's ownership of the NWA took effect on October 1, 2017. All licenses granted by Tharpe to use the NWA branding expired the previous day, putting Corgan in complete control of both the brand and its championships. On September 23, 2017, Nick Aldis made his debut for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and challenged Tim Storm for
2415-480: The NWA, rechristening the promotion as Extreme Championship Wrestling. In 1998, the World Wrestling Federation reached an agreement to use the likeness of the NWA titles, branding, and its history, to create a storyline. It would be later claimed that WWE still owned the rights. Despite the NWA receiving international television publicity during the angle, it was considered a failure due to low viewer interests. In June 2002, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett launched
2484-507: The NWA, the company changed its name to Extreme Championship Wrestling, and became the leading independent hardcore wrestling federation in North America. ECW coined the term "hardcore wrestling", but its usage there was slightly different from how it is used today. In ECW, 'hardcore' referred to a strong work ethic , high levels of effort, dedication to the fans, and lack of fluff or filler. Their level of violence rarely equaled that of
2553-477: The NWA, with Pearce vacating the NWA World Title while exiting. Other major NWA territories like NWA Pro/NWA Pro West , NWA Georgia , NWA Pro East , NWA Southwest and NWA Midwest folded. In 2013, the NWA re-established a relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where Bruce Tharpe became an on-screen character, portraying a villainous manager of wrestlers representing the NWA. Over the next two years,
2622-570: The NWA. On September 5, 2020, Rosa unsuccessfully challenged AEW Women's World Championship Hikaru Shida at All Out . On October 27, 2020, Serena Deeb defeated Rosa during the United Wrestling Network's Primetime Live event to become the new NWA World Women's Champion. On March 2, 2021, the NWA announced their return to promoting events, with the Back For The Attack and new Powerrr episodes as part of
2691-472: The United States, two independent promotions had brief but significant runs, serving as prototypes for Extreme Championship Wrestling. The Philadelphia-based Tri-State Wrestling Alliance held occasional supercards that featured big name stars among their own local talent, and showcased wild bloody main event brawls with Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik, Jesse James Sr. and others. The National Wrestling Federation (formerly known as Continental Wrestling Alliance)
2760-634: The United States. That same year, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and the NWA created its primary supercard , Starrcade , the first to be broadcast via closed-circuit networks and was regarded as their flagship event. On Saturday, July 14, 1984, in what would become known as Black Saturday , McMahon bought NWA member Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and merged it into the WWF. The WWF would take over GCW's TV slot on TBS , which had been home to GCW's World Championship Wrestling program for 12 years. This move proved disastrous as ratings would plummet, and
2829-548: The Universal Wrestling Corporation, Turner promised fans that WCW would retain the athlete-oriented style of the NWA. The sale was completed on November 2, 1988, with a television taping of NWA World Championship Wrestling that very same date in WCW's hometown of Atlanta. By September 1993, WCW would withdraw completely from the NWA. On August 27, 1994, NWA: Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) held
IWA Hardcore Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
2898-486: The WWF would end up losing money on the deal. Then-NWA President Jim Crockett, Jr. , the owner of JCP, would buy the World Championship Wrestling program from McMahon for $ 1 million and returned NWA programming to TBS. By 1985, JCP would become the flagship territory of the NWA by acquiring more time slots on TBS and merging with other NWA territories in an attempt to compete with the WWF. With
2967-589: The World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment, ladder matches , which had become more common, were now combined with tables and weapons matches to create Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches . ECW influenced wrestling organizations such as Xtreme Pro Wrestling , International Wrestling Syndicate , IWA Mid-South , Combat Zone Wrestling , and Juggalo Championship Wrestling , which carried on ECW's violent style after it went defunct. Hardcore wrestling has fallen out of favor in
3036-439: The advent of the now common "no holds barred" match marked the beginning of what is now known as hardcore wrestling. Methods were devised for wrestlers to make themselves bleed purposefully as part of their performance. During the 1950s and 1960s wrestlers such as "Wild Bull" Curry , "Classy" Freddie Blassie , Dory Funk, Sr. and Giant Baba were among those who introduced the bloody brawling style which caught on in Japan and
3105-540: The company's booking team, enabling him to appear for both the NWA and ROH. However, in the fallout of the Speaking Out Movement , Scurll was accused of having intercourse with a 16-year-old female who was inebriated. After an investigation, Scurll would be removed from his position as booker, and by the following January in 2021, would be no longer under contract. Nick Aldis was scheduled to face PCO at Supercard of Honor XIV on April 4, 2020, before
3174-547: The consequence of putting some of them out of business. On January 24, 1963, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Lou Thesz defeated Buddy Rogers in a one-fall match and was declared NWA World Heavyweight Champion for the third and final time. However, after the event, Vincent J. McMahon and Toots Mondt of the Capital Wrestling Corporation (CWC) refused to recognize the title change since Thesz
3243-483: The empty arena match and fighting among the crowd into the concession stands , improvising attacks with whatever appliances could be found. More specialties such as ladder matches , scaffold matches and Dog Collar matches were introduced. The NWA eventually instituted a World Brass Knuckles Championship , which was active in the Tennessee territory from 1978 to 1980. In 1989, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW)
3312-774: The event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 18, 2020, Dave Lagana resigned as Vice President of the NWA after allegations of sexual assault were made public. The promotion would go into hiatus as a result of this and the pandemic. During this time, several wrestlers would also leave the NWA, including former Tag Team Champions James Storm , Eli Drake , Marti Belle , and Royce Isaacs , former Women's Champion Allysin Kay , former Television Champion Ricky Starks , former Television Champion Zicky Dice . NWA World Women's Champion Thunder Rosa would make appearances for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) while under contract with
3381-452: The event was streamed live on FITE TV . The main event saw Aldis defeat Cody to recapture the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and Willie Mack winning a tournament for the vacant NWA National Championship , which became the main secondary title. The Fourth Crockett Cup , an eight-team, single-elimination tournament that was revived to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions , took place on April 27, 2019, as another collaboration between
3450-462: The first ever NWA World Heavyweight Champion . In 1950, Sam Muchnick , one of the original promoters of the NWA and Lou Thesz 's booker, was named the governing body's President, a position to which he was unanimously re-elected and held until 1960, making him one of the longest-tenured presidents in the organization's history. Following the advent of television , professional wrestling matches began to be aired nationally during this time, reaching
3519-529: The focus of a feud involving multiple teams. The table spot became a staple of ECW events, and has become so commonplace that it is now incorporated into otherwise non-hardcore matches in almost every promotion. In Japan, hardcore promotions sprang up around the country, including Wrestling International New Generations W*ING , the International Wrestling Association of Japan and Big Japan Pro Wrestling . New elements included fluorescent light tubes, scattered thumb tacks , flaming ropes and live piranhas . In
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#17327936211413588-594: The former NWA:TNA, to hold an Empty Arena match at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida. It was contested by Tim Storm and Jocephus and served as a qualifier to challenge then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. The match was recorded on January 14, 2018, and uploaded to YouTube the next day. Starting in 2018, NWA allied with Ring of Honor (ROH). NWA wrestlers such as Aldis, James Storm , and Eli Drake appeared at several ROH events, with ROH-contracted talent even winning NWA titles. On September 1, 2018,
3657-689: The major American promotions; the last major hardcore title was the WWE Hardcore Championship , which merged into the Intercontinental Title in 2002. However, WWE still features a yearly pay per view event based around hardcore wrestling called WWE Extreme Rules . In 2006, the MTV -affiliated promotion/show Wrestling Society X featured hardcore wrestling, but was cancelled after one season. The main rule behind hardcore can have various connotations. Thus, hardcore wrestling
3726-714: The mid-1990s, FMW eventually held female hardcore matches at the suggestion of Megumi Kudo . The first one was held between Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda as a deathmatch where the ring ropes were replaced with electrified barbed-wire with explosives. After the match, many female wrestlers had various brutal and bloody deathmatches in FMW with barbed-wire ropes, barbed-wire barricades, exploding barbed-wire barricades, electrified/exploding barbed-wire ropes, broken glass, or mixtures of any and all these. These matches often included various dangerous weapons such as barbed-wire wrapped chains, flaming barbed-wire baseball bats, and sickles . Most of
3795-928: The noun "plunder" in reference to them. For example, Street Fights and Bunkhouse Brawls are hardcore-style matches which emphasize that wrestlers need not be in typical wrestling gear when they are battling, while the No Holds Barred match emphasizes the no-disqualification rule, the "HardKore X-Treme matches are the version of hardcore rules match except weapons include flaming tables, flaming chairs, flaming weapons, razor wire, sheets of glass, and weapons that are covered in barbed wire, and Deathmatches that emphasize fluorescent light tubes, panes of glass, barbed wire, fire, thumbtacks, razor blades, gusset plates, syringes, needles, explosives, bed of nails, staple guns, concrete blocks, alive piranhas and all other foreign objects to provoke extreme and heavy bleeding. In WWE , Extreme Rules matches are hardcore-style matches that emphasize
3864-413: The ridiculousness they involved. Hardcore contrasts with traditional mat-based wrestling, where solid technical skills are preferred over hardcore's stuntworks, blood, sweat, gore, and severe shock value . As professional wrestling entered the mid 20th century, promoters and performers looked for ways to heighten audience excitement. Blood , while initially taboo , was found to be a significant draw, and
3933-483: The spirit of its former competitor, Extreme Championship Wrestling . Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) dubs the Hardcore match as " Ultraviolent Rules " match, the hardcore-style matches that could involve and emphasize ladders, tables, chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, light tubes, glass boards, fire, staple guns, and the spirits of Combat Zone Wrestling . In Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW), " Juggalo Rules " match,
4002-532: The success of WrestleMania III in 1987, the WWF would schedule another pay-per-view, Survivor Series , on Thanksgiving night to compete directly with NWA's Starrcade event, and demanded exclusivity from cable providers on carriage of the event. As a result, Starrcade was moved to December the following year, with the show now held around Christmas Day beginning in 1988. The WWF then scheduled their first Royal Rumble event in January 1988 to counterprogram against
4071-596: The use of numerous items, including ladders, tables, chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, light tubes, shovels, glass, baseball bats (sometimes wrapped in barbed wire) and other improvised weapons used as foreign objects . Although hardcore wrestling is a staple of most wrestling promotions, where they are often used at the climaxes of feuds , some promotions (such as Big Japan Pro Wrestling , International Wrestling Syndicate , IWA-MS , Game Changer Wrestling , Combat Zone Wrestling ) specialize in hardcore wrestling, with many matches performed in this manner. Hardcore wrestling
4140-456: The way for the decline of the NWA's inter-regional business model, as viewers could now see plot holes and inconsistencies between each territories' storylines. The presence of stars like Ric Flair on TV every week made their special appearances in each region less of a draw. The WWF left the NWA for good in 1983, as Vincent K. McMahon , who bought the WWF from his father in 1982, worked to get WWF programming on syndicated television all across
4209-569: The wrestlers who competed in these deathmatches, including some non-FMW rosters such as Shinobu Kandori , Lioness Asuka , and Mayumi Ozaki , were sent to the hospital afterwards. ECW's popularity led to the major American promotions of the 1990s, World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation , creating divisions devoted exclusively to "hardcore" wrestling (which mostly amounted to no-disqualification weapons matches). The divisions were at first largely centered around ECW alumni such as Mick Foley , Terry Funk, Raven and Sandman . In
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#17327936211414278-513: Was announced that Powerrr would return to YouTube, airing on Fridays after the FITE premiere, and that NWA USA would air on Saturdays on the platform before moving to Sundays on FITE. Finally, it was announced that the NWA would expand their PPV schedule to six events per year, as part of a new deal with FITE TV. Though the partnership ended in 2023, with NWA's programming returning to YouTube, FITE still carries NWA PPV events. On October 9, 2023,
4347-494: Was announced that the NWA will partner with the United Wrestling Network (UWN) to produce a live, weekly pay-per-view (PPV) series named UWN Primetime Live . Matches from this series would also be featured as part of Shockwave . NWA USA is a weekly program that debuted on January 8, 2022, on YouTube and focuses on the NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship division. The last episode
4416-565: Was appointed senior NWA consultant. On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Billy Corgan , lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins , had agreed to purchase the NWA, including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The report was confirmed by Tharpe that same day. Over the following weeks, the NWA trademarks were moved from Tharpe's International Wrestling Corp. over to Corgan's Lightning One, Inc. production company. According to multiple sources, as part of his acquisition of
4485-471: Was based in New York state. Both TWA and NWF featured Larry Winters and D. C. Drake , who engaged in a long blood feud. The two promotions ended about the same time, and National Wrestling Alliance Eastern Championship Wrestling took their place, with many of the same wrestlers and venues. Eddie Gilbert was the initial booker, and was replaced a few months later by Paul Heyman . After splitting off from
4554-542: Was first acknowledged as a major wrestling style in Japan with promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and W*ING . It then became successful in America with Extreme Championship Wrestling . The World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment capitalized on the success and introduced the WWF Hardcore Championship in the 1990s. The WWF soon began to turn the matches into comedy skits, illustrating
4623-564: Was founded in Japan, the first promotion dedicated largely to the wild brawling style. In the early 1990s, the Puerto Rican promoter Víctor Quiñones arrived in Japan, being invited to FMW as the special manager. FMW escalated the violence to legitimately dangerous new levels, with barbed wire ropes, timed C4 explosives , exploding wire ropes, and " land mines ", known as "deathmatch". The federation featured many future North American stars, and became very popular worldwide. Soon after, in
4692-690: Was not a strong draw in their Northeastern territory. They then withdrew the CWC from the NWA. As a result, McMahon and Mondt formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, later to be known as WWE ) with Rogers as its first world champion in April 1963. Although both Gagne and McMahon promoted their own world champions, their promotions continued to have representatives on the NWA Board of Directors and regularly exchanged talent with NWA promotions during this time. Wrestling's popularity continued to decline in
4761-534: Was popularized in the United States by ECW and is now a specialty in CZW. Below is a list of some common weapons. In promotions where Hardcore wrestling is present, a Hardcore title may come into existence. This form of title is defended under hardcore rules, and title changes are frequent. Some hardcore titles may have their own unique rules. For example, the WWE Hardcore Championship was defended under 24/7 rules, meaning it could be defended and won at any time, provided
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