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37-670: The NWA's bylaws allowed any NWA member, also known as NWA territories , to create and control their own version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship. The most well known version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship was the Jim Crockett Promotions version that later became known as the WCW United States Tag Team Championship . As it is a professional wrestling championship, it

74-462: A staphylococcal infection after scraping his leg the day before the storm hit. He was not able to get medical attention and almost lost his leg as a result. Smith died of Alzheimer's disease on June 12, 2010, in Amarillo, Texas . Smith had a strained relationship with his son Aurelian Jr. (Jake Roberts), which Roberts stated was partially the result of his father not informing his children of

111-478: A daughter, Jo Lynn (who was kidnapped in 1979). He later had two more children, Michael and Robin, with his second wife Marsha. Three of his children went on to become professional wrestlers: Aurelian Jr. as Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Michael as Sam Houston, and Robin as Rockin' Robin. Smith briefly married again on June 22, 1992, this time to a woman named Michelle D. Hyde who was 34 years his junior. Smith retired from wrestling and moved to Louisiana, where he shared

148-500: A house with his son Michael (Sam Houston) in Metairie . Smith and Houston took on jobs performing maintenance in a cemetery near New Orleans ' French Quarter . The pair lost most of their possessions in the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They were able to salvage some footwear and canned food, but flooding destroyed the remainder of their belongings. Smith's health had been deteriorating for several years, and he developed

185-846: A pair of hillbillies . Together, they won the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship in 1962 and held them until dropping them to Lenny Montana and Gypsy Joe on November 23 of that year. In 1964, the Kentuckians made a brief stop in the WWWF in the Northeast. There they feuded with Gorilla Monsoon & Klondike Bill and the Graham Brothers. The team never won the tag titles and went back south. The Kentuckians' biggest rivals were

222-534: A system which saw promotions (referred to as "territories") recognize one world heavyweight champion, participate in talent exchanges, and collectively protect the territorial integrity of NWA members. Unlike modern independent promotions , the territories were regarded as major promotions and often collaborated with other NWA members. In 1993, the NWA was reorganized following the withdrawals of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), with

259-407: Is not won or lost competitively but instead by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The title is awarded after the chosen team wins a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport. The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was founded in 1948 after six professional wrestling promoters decided to join together and form a governing body to oversee

296-550: The A&;E documentary on his son's life, Aurelian Jr., again stated that his father sexually abused minors during his childhood. The documentary also claimed that Aurelian Jr. was conceived by the rape of his mother. Smith's daughter stated that he had sexually abused her as well. In the DVD documentary, Old School with Rockin' Robin , Robin details how she was sexually abused by her father, beginning at age 8. These allegations were also

333-811: The Assassins , with whom they feuded in matches across the United States. In many of these matches, The Assassins were joined by the Missouri Mauler and The Kentuckians teamed with Haystacks Calhoun . The Kentuckians biggest win over The Assassins came while competing in the Los Angeles-based World Wrestling Association on August 8, 1965, when they defeated their rivals to win the WWA World Tag Team Championship. They held

370-551: The Florida version of the U.S. tag team championship . The Fabulous Kangaroos ( Al Costello and Roy Heffernan ) were the first Florida based U.S. tag team champions as they were awarded the championship prior to their debut in the territory. The Florida version of the championship was the longest promoted U.S. championship as it was actively promoted from 1961 until 1986 where the CWF promotion closed. In 1962 two additional versions of

407-547: The Mid-South territory until being fired during a disagreement over wages. From there, he went to Mississippi to work with promoter George Culkin. In the 1990s, Smith worked as a road agent for World Championship Wrestling . Smith was born in Houston, Texas in 1932, and grew up with a brother, who died at age nine, and two sisters. He had three children from his first marriage: two sons, Aurelian Jr. and Richard, and

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444-814: The NWA American Tag Team Championship . Smith and The Spoiler continued to feud, however, and The Spoiler regained the Heavyweight Championship in August and the Tag Team Championship in September. The Kentuckians reunited in the NWA Tri-State territory. In an April 1971 match that was scheduled to see Bill Watts and Billy Red Lyons challenge Waldo Von Erich and Karl Von Brauner for

481-672: The American Tag Team Championship, only to later bill the same championship as both the National Tag Team Championship and the United States Tag Team Championship between 1950 and 1963 where the promotion closed. In 1958, Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) out of New York introduced their own NWA United States Tag Team Championship when Mark Lewin and Don Curtis defeated Hans Schmidt and Dick

518-745: The Bruiser in the finals of a tournament to determine the first champions. In 1963, the CWC version was renamed the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship when CWC seceded from the NWA and was rebranded as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now known as WWE ). A third U.S. tag team championship was introduced in Florida in 1961 as Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) introduced

555-590: The Gulf Coast version to the then-reigning NWA Tri-State United States Tag Team Champions Bob Sweetan and Siegfried Stanke to unify the two championships. the following year the Dallas, Texas-based Big Time Wrestling introduced the Texas version of the championship as Al Costello and Karl Von Brauner (known as "The Internationals") won a tournament to become the first Texas based U.S. Tag Team Champions. In 1967

592-516: The NWA Georgia World Heavyweight Championship but was unable to win the title belt. While wrestling in Texas, Smith met Luke Brown , who he followed to Oklahoma. Smith, who had wrestled under the ring names Jake Smith and Tiny Anderson, began competing as Grizzly Smith, although he also wrestled as Tiny Smith. Smith and Brown formed a tag team known as The Kentuckians, and the pair used the gimmick of

629-674: The NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. List of National Wrestling Alliance territories Formed in 1948, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was the largest governing body in professional wrestling until the 1980s Rock 'n' Wrestling Era . Under the control of the NWA Board of Directors (consisting of various prominent, regional promoters), the governing body oversaw wrestling's national territory system,

666-647: The NWA between its founding in 1948 and the organization's acquisition by Lightning One in 2017. † indicates a founding member of the NWA Michigan Mississippi New Jersey Connecticut Nevada Frisco, Texas Grizzly Smith Aurelian " Grizzly " Smith (August 1, 1932 – June 12, 2010) was an American professional wrestler . He was the father of professional wrestlers Jake "The Snake" Roberts , Rockin' Robin , and Sam Houston . Smith began wrestling in 1958. After retiring in

703-528: The NWA is reviving the United States Tag Team Championship after nearly five years of inactivity. The Fixers won a twelve-team battle royal to become the new champions on August 28, 2022. The first set of NWA United States Tag Team Championship belts were similar to the old belts from Championship Wrestling from Florida but in October 2022 Corgan introduced a new design which is similar to the Detroit version of

740-696: The Tri-State version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship , Smith and Brown took the place of the challengers. They won the match and the title belts but were stripped of the championship later that month. They continued to pursue the belts and regained them later that month, holding them until a loss to The Spoilers later that year. After retiring as a competitor, Smith promoted wrestling events in Louisiana alongside Jack Curtis. He then worked for Bill Watts in

777-451: The U.S. Tag Team Championship , holding a 10-team tag team tournament. Krusher Kruschev and Ivan Koloff defeated The Kansas Jayhawks ( Dutch Mantell and Bobby Jaggers ) to become the inaugural champions. Later JCP would be sold to Ted Turner and become known as World Championship Wrestling , which led to the championship being given the WCW prefix. By the late 1980s the NWA was no longer

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814-692: The belts for several months before dropping them to Gorilla Monsoon and Luke Graham the following January. Later in 1966, Smith and Brown won the American Wrestling Association 's Midwest Tag Team Championship . In January 1967, the Kentuckians showed up in Japan 's International Wrestling Enterprise . They challenged Antonio Inoki and Hiro Matsuda for the NWA World Tag Team Championship twice but lost by disqualification both times, although Inoki

851-599: The championship was renamed the "NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship" and then abandoned in 1981 when McGuirk sold his promotion to Bill Watts, becoming Mid-South Wrestling. The Dirty Daltons (Jack Dalton and Jim Dalton) were the first Gulf Coast U.S. Tag Team Champions when Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling (GCCW) introduced it as a secondary championship in the promotion after the NWA Gulf Coast Tag Team Championship . On April 15, 1974 then-reigning champions Bob Kelly and Rocket Monroe lost

888-681: The championship was renamed the NWA American Tag Team Championship instead and would later become the World Class Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Championship. In 1986 the Charlotte, North Carolina based Jim Crockett Promotions began expanding their territory as it absorbed several NWA territories that had been struggling financially. As part of the expansion JCP introduced their version of

925-661: The championship were introduced, the NWA Mid-America version and the NWA Tri-State version. The Mid-America version was created by promoter Nick Gulas and defended in the Tennessee/Alabama promotion NWA Mid-America , starting with the Japanese duo of Yoshinosato and Taru Sakuro being billed as champions when they arrived in NWA Mid-America. There were at least 34 different reigns in the history of

962-537: The championship, ending with The Bicentennial Kings ( Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condrey ) as champions in 1976 where the championship was abandoned. The Tri-Star version was created by promoters Leroy McGuirk , Jack Curtis and Aurelian Smith and promoted in the NWA Tri-State territory that covered Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Jan Madrid and Louie Tillet are credited with being the first champions, but records are unclear on how they became champions. In 1980

999-694: The late-1970s, he held various backstage positions with promotions including Mid-South Wrestling , the World Wrestling Federation , and World Championship Wrestling . Smith has been the subject of allegations of repeated sexual abuse of minors, including several of his own children. His son, WWE Hall of Famer Jake the Snake, was the result of Smith's rape of his mother. Smith began competing in professional wrestling in Texas, but he worked on an oilfield part-time as well. Smith also competed in Georgia, where he challenged Freddie Blassie for

1036-457: The majority of new NWA territories being small independent promotions. As other territories withdrew from the governing body, the NWA would discontinue its memberships in August 2012 and adopted a licensing model. In 2017, the NWA was purchased by Billy Corgan 's Lightning One, Inc., which abandoned the licensing model and gradually transformed the NWA from a governing body to a stand-alone wrestling promotion. In October 2023, while still under

1073-513: The most recent NWA U.S. Tag Team Championship that was defended in and around the Tennessee area. It would later also be promoted by NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling . The first champions were The Lords of KAOS ( Damien Wayne and Lance Erickson) who won the championship by defeating Jason Kinkaid and Charles Alexander in the finals of a tournament. On July 19, 2022, Billy Corgan announced that

1110-439: The ownership of Billy Corgan's Lightning One, Inc., the NWA reintroduced the territory system. The first NWA-affiliated promotion introduced under the new system was NWA Exodus Pro Midwest , owned by then NWA World's Heavyweight Champion Michael "EC3" Hutter . The following promotions joined the NWA after the re-establishment of the territory system in October 2023. The following promotions were members/licensees of

1147-474: The powerful organization it had been between 1948 and the mid-1980s, becoming a conglomerate of smaller promotions. In 1996 NWA Jersey introduced their NWA United States Tag Team Championship when Yar and Wolf (also known as The Lost Boys ) won a three-way match for the new championship. The last recorded defense of the New Jersey version happened in 2000. In 2014 NWA Southern All-Star Wrestling introduced

NWA United States Tag Team Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-464: The scripted nature of professional wrestling. In an interview on Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Pick Your Poison , a video released by World Wrestling Entertainment , Roberts stated that his father convinced the family that his injuries in the ring were real and wore a neck brace at home to sell a storyline. On the same video, Roberts also stated that he was conceived when his father, who was dating Roberts' grandmother, raped her 14-year-old daughter (this

1221-524: The various members, later referred to as the NWA territories . The NWA Board of Directors agreed to all recognize one over all NWA World Heavyweight Championship and one NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship across all promotions. Beyond those two championships the Board allowed each promotion to create and promote whatever championship they wanted to. In 1949 the first of many NWA World Tag Team Championships

1258-597: Was able to pin Smith in the second fall of the second match. (Matsuda later recommended Smith's daughter Rockin' Robin to work for All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling in the 1990s). Smith's feud with The Assassins also took him to Western Canada , where he teamed with Don Leo Jonathan to defeat The Assassins for the Vancouver version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship . Smith, who

1295-456: Was also stated in the documentary Beyond the Mat , in which Roberts was also featured). He said that Grizzly forced her to marry him against her will, seeing as a possibly pregnant 14-year-old daughter of the woman he was dating could bring unwanted attention. They both contend that the resulting emotional trauma is responsible for Roberts' substance abuse and his sister's mental health problems. In

1332-608: Was created in the Los Angeles territory . In the 1950s tag team wrestling became more popular across the US, which lead to the introduction of various "second tier" championships promoted locally as the "American Tag Team Championship" or the "National Tag Team Championship". In 1950 the Midwest Wrestling Association, the NWA member promoting in and around Ohio, introducing Jack Kennedy and Lucky Simunovich as

1369-662: Was wrestling under the ring name Ski Hi Jones, and Jonathan held the title from March 25, 1968, until the following month, when The Assassins regained the championship in a rematch. Smith then returned to Texas, where he was involved in a rivalry with The Spoiler . The two wrestlers feuded over the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship , which Smith won from The Spoiler in June 1968. The following month, Smith gained another title when he teamed with Fritz Von Erich to defeat The Spoiler and Gary Hart to win

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