Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2015 16:19:37 GMT -5
The story so far...
In the wake of John Hennigan's successful lawsuit against the WWE in 2012, invalidating his non-compete clause and breaking the idea of contracts that heavily favored the promotion over the rights of the wrestler, independent wrestling went into a boom period. Bryan Danielson's upstart promotion Heritage Championship Wrestling (HCW) rose to prominence quickly, thanks to its tremendous roster of talent (some poached from the WWE and TNA) and its timely blood feud with Mike Quackenbush's CHIKARA organization. Chikara itself benefitted greatly from the exposure, and began drawing record attendance numbers and selling an unprecedented number of DVD's of its monthly shows.
In time, the rivalry abated, and HCW grew too large for one man (even one as cagey as the American Dragon) to manage, and he met with the Board of Directors of the National Wrestling Alliance--a loose organization of promoters that had been struggling to return to national prominence for several years. The HCW was rechristened as Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and folded into the NWA's territory system. Some of Danielson's talent took advantage of the NWA's extremely lax rules regarding crossing promotional lines to join another rising promotion under the NWA banner: Western States Heritage Wrestling. For the first time in a long time, the NWA had unified World Heavyweight and Tag Team Champions that were recognized as true World Titles by wrestling journalists and podcasters.
Danielson himself worked his way into contention for the World Title, winning the big gold belt from Satoshi Kojima on September 13th, 2014 and holding it until January 28th, 2015, when Christopher Daniels exploited Danielson's nagging neck injury to dethrone the champion. Danielson immediately announced an indefinite leave of absence from the sport, and his territory soon began to struggle due to a lack of leadership. At the same time, the Western States Territory began to fall apart as a coalition of personalities from the Midwest embezzled a large amount of money from the promotion and fled to the underground.
Meanwhile, Chikara was faring little better. In the absence of a heated rivalry with HCW, national interest in the company began to wane, and the organization inexplicably shut its doors after running a card in its home base of Philadelphia. Fans waited expectantly for word of a relaunch, but Quackenbush remained silent (except to dispel some of the more scandalous rumors that surfaced in the wake of the shutdown).
In 2015, in a desperate attempt to recapture national attention, the NWA held a quasi-reality competition called Training Day II, the sequel to a wildly popular concept introduced by HCW at the beginning of their rise to prominence. The plan worked beyond the promoters' wildest dreams: fans sought out the product in record numbers to get a look at the crop of potential new stars, while the "reality" aspect of two dozen professional wrestlers living collectively in a college dormitory captured the interest of non-fans, as well. When the tournament was won by the virtually unknown Michael Kai Rayne, fans once again began to believe that anything could happen in the world of professional wrestling.
Riding on the NWA's success, ladies' wrestling saw a resurgence, and Chikara resumed operations, with the wildly popular duo of Los Ice Creams winning the Campeonatos de Parejas on the very first card of the new era. The NWA had a thriving fan base, but they suffered from a lack of leadership and working capital. Ironically, just as the NWA was nearing the height of its popularity, it seemed that they would be forced to close down operations and send dozens of gifted wrestlers who had burned their bridges with the WWE to the unemployment line.
Four men decided they weren't going to let that happen.
David Marquez, DJ Hyde, Nigel McGuinness, and--of all people--Mike Quackenbush pooled their resources (and their investors' money) to buy a controlling interest in the National Wrestling Alliance. Many of the smaller territories were absorbed into new supergroups, each led by one of the four promoters.
NWA: Evolution, operated by David Marquez and based out of Hollywood, California.
NWA: Purity, operated by Nigel McGuinness and based out of Orlando, Florida.
NWA: Intensity, operated by DJ Hyde and based out of Cleveland, Ohio.
NWA: Chikara, operated, of course, by Mike Quackenbush and based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rosters were adjusted and talent was drafted (this almost caused the alliance to break down when the Purity promotion signed Chikara'a Grand Champion Brodie Lee, though cooler heads eventually prevailed). Contracts were renewed or, in some cases, allowed to expire. House shows were booked and television and internet streaming contracts were negotiated. There was no grand announcement or nation-spanning angle; one day the NWA as it was simply ran its last show, and the very next day NWA E.P.I.C. took over.
As of July 1st, 2015, here are your NWA E.P.I.C. Champions:
NWA World Champion: Colt Cabana
NWA World Tag Team Champions: The Future (Jon Moxley & Tyler Black)
NWA United States Champion: Kevin Steen
NWA United States Tag Team Champions: The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards)
NWA World Television Champion: Shelton Benjamin
Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas: Los Ice Creams (El Hijo del Ice Cream & Ice Cream Jr.)
More to follow...
