Post by blackHEART on Jan 14, 2024 20:41:58 GMT -5
In 2019, AEW emerged on the scene and felt like it finally gave some competition to the WWE and the wrestling business was never hotter.
In 2020, the pandemic hit and the entire business world was trying to survive.
Now there's 4 companies to monitor that did things a little differently:
IMPACT WRESTLING ~ Impact continued to run shows safely with no crowds, struggling to attract viewers with their roster. They saw a small spike when WWE's pandemic releases came to the Impact Zone but not much more. Don Callis kept the ship afloat until he went to AEW full-time, leaving the company with Scott D'Amore, someone committed to growing the brand.
THE NWA ~ Billy Corgan operated the NWA with no crowds, but that was the NWA style. Dedicated to giving that same feel the old NWA television episodes had, it was the launch of the likes of Eli Drake and more.
MAJOR LEAGUE WRESTLING ~ MLW caught fire with MJF, Matt Riddle and company helping the promotion in the early days, but after they left and the pandemic happened, it was rough. MLW paused tapings for nearly a year, working on their YouTube library, before collaborating with Lucha Underground's Dario Cueto to almost consolidate the defunct brand as the company needed more drama-based storytelling to compensate.
RING OF HONOR ~ ROH was struggling because of the mass exodus from the company that AEW and an indie style NXT would provide. Once the pandemic hit, they opted to pause tapings. After struggling to get back into the game with smaller crowds, many would try to get Cary Silkin to sell the company for its video library. Silkin refused.
Two years passed and we enter the spring of 2022. These four brands were struggling, one way or another, as the world is beginning to become normalized in a post-pandemic world. AEW is coming off the heels of their biggest year and Vince McMahon is still running things his way. Which leads to the biggest fallout in pro wrestling.
There was a huge fallout in the WWE between Paul Levesque, Stephanie McMahon, and Vince McMahon. The three biggest heads in WWE were at odds, resulting in Stephanie resigning from the WWE. Issues blurred the lines of personal and professional with Nick Khan in the middle of the drama. Many were demanding Vince to retire and let Triple H take over the day-to-day operations, but Vince was adamant he would not let the company go until he's dead. Rather than waiting it out, Nick Khan approached Paul Levesque about an idea. Long story short, Khan was able to help Vince and Paul reach a compromise:
- Vince would main in control of the WWE
- Levesque would resign from all WWE duties
- Levesque would have the "WCW" name, image, and likenesses all signed over to him
As SummerSlam goes on the air, Paul Levesque drops a Twitter video saying the "The World is Changing" leading to speculation.
Follow it up 48 hours after AEW's All Out PPV, known among the dirt sheets as "Brawl Out" now, a HUGE announcement was made.
NWA CREATES THE POWERS UNITED
The NWA, formerly owned by Billy Corgan, is returning in 2023 with a huge alliance amongst the wrestling promotions creating the LARGEST partnership in sometime. How will this work?
The National Wrestling Alliance will be the overall banner of the wrestling industry once again. Purchased by its new owners, the NWA will act as not a weekly show, but as the governing body of the following promotions.
Impact Wrestling is going back to their roots. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, in short TNA, was a NWA youtube series before it branched out and was once the second-biggest promotion in the United States. With Scott D'Amore still in control, TNA will join the NWA once more and dismiss the Impact Wrestling primary name.
Court Bauer has agreed to bring Major League Wrestling into the NWA "Powers United" era and remain apart of the team.
After dismissing selling the company for the longest time, Cary Silkin has agreed that Ring Of Honor will join the NWA in these efforts. This is not for the video library, but to keep the brand alive and well.
And last but not least, the addition to the National Wrestling Alliance answers the long-standing rumor. Why did Triple H obtain the rights of WCW on his WWE exit?
It's official. WCW is joining the NWA and Triple H is bringing the beloved WCW brand back to wrestling!
So how does all come to be? When Paul Levesque left the WWE and obtained WCW rights, he had two goals. He wanted to build a viable brand and he didn't want to do it at the expense of the rest of the industry.
After a long martial discussion between the Levesque couple, they decided to reach out to Billy Corgan about purchasing the NWA. Money was no object for them and seeing Corgan lost some money in the pandemic, he decided to sell the brand to the Levesque family with the handshake principal the NWA would never be Vince McMahon's.
After the NWA banner was obtained, we set in motion with the social media announcements that would buzz the entire world... and then onto the official press conference to answer all the questions.
In the NWA press conference, Levesque said he has always had the vision of the entire industry working together. Yet when asked if AEW was involved, Levesque declined to comment if Tony Khan was in conversation about including AEW in the new National Wrestling Alliance era, being dubbed "The Powers United."
The NWA committee was simple and an official press release involved:
- Paul Levesque
- Stephanie McMahon-Levesque
- Scott D'Amore
- Court Bauer
- Cary Silkin
Once the committee was established, they all agreed on a working relationship with one another. And in 2023 they intend on doing this with a big splash.
The NWA will hold 5 PPVs in the 2023 calendar year: February, April, June, August, and December.
In anticipation to these big PPV events, how would each company decide to advance in the meantime?
- TNA Wrestling would continue with weekly programming in conjunction with their network deal with AXS TV
- MLW would record content for their YouTube channel and wrap up at the end of 2022 in anticipation for the big NWA PPV months
- ROH would focus on developing their talent in-house and travel to different areas for exposure, while using some TNA and MLW competitors to help in their development
And WCW? Well, we haven't got there yet. But Levesque promises that WCW would be coming back.
Is Vince scared? Did Nick Khan make the right decision? Should Tony Khan have joined the NWA resurgence?
One thing's for sure, Paul Levesque will have something to prove in 2023.
In 2020, the pandemic hit and the entire business world was trying to survive.
Now there's 4 companies to monitor that did things a little differently:
IMPACT WRESTLING ~ Impact continued to run shows safely with no crowds, struggling to attract viewers with their roster. They saw a small spike when WWE's pandemic releases came to the Impact Zone but not much more. Don Callis kept the ship afloat until he went to AEW full-time, leaving the company with Scott D'Amore, someone committed to growing the brand.
THE NWA ~ Billy Corgan operated the NWA with no crowds, but that was the NWA style. Dedicated to giving that same feel the old NWA television episodes had, it was the launch of the likes of Eli Drake and more.
MAJOR LEAGUE WRESTLING ~ MLW caught fire with MJF, Matt Riddle and company helping the promotion in the early days, but after they left and the pandemic happened, it was rough. MLW paused tapings for nearly a year, working on their YouTube library, before collaborating with Lucha Underground's Dario Cueto to almost consolidate the defunct brand as the company needed more drama-based storytelling to compensate.
RING OF HONOR ~ ROH was struggling because of the mass exodus from the company that AEW and an indie style NXT would provide. Once the pandemic hit, they opted to pause tapings. After struggling to get back into the game with smaller crowds, many would try to get Cary Silkin to sell the company for its video library. Silkin refused.
Two years passed and we enter the spring of 2022. These four brands were struggling, one way or another, as the world is beginning to become normalized in a post-pandemic world. AEW is coming off the heels of their biggest year and Vince McMahon is still running things his way. Which leads to the biggest fallout in pro wrestling.
There was a huge fallout in the WWE between Paul Levesque, Stephanie McMahon, and Vince McMahon. The three biggest heads in WWE were at odds, resulting in Stephanie resigning from the WWE. Issues blurred the lines of personal and professional with Nick Khan in the middle of the drama. Many were demanding Vince to retire and let Triple H take over the day-to-day operations, but Vince was adamant he would not let the company go until he's dead. Rather than waiting it out, Nick Khan approached Paul Levesque about an idea. Long story short, Khan was able to help Vince and Paul reach a compromise:
- Vince would main in control of the WWE
- Levesque would resign from all WWE duties
- Levesque would have the "WCW" name, image, and likenesses all signed over to him
As SummerSlam goes on the air, Paul Levesque drops a Twitter video saying the "The World is Changing" leading to speculation.
Follow it up 48 hours after AEW's All Out PPV, known among the dirt sheets as "Brawl Out" now, a HUGE announcement was made.
NWA CREATES THE POWERS UNITED
The NWA, formerly owned by Billy Corgan, is returning in 2023 with a huge alliance amongst the wrestling promotions creating the LARGEST partnership in sometime. How will this work?
The National Wrestling Alliance will be the overall banner of the wrestling industry once again. Purchased by its new owners, the NWA will act as not a weekly show, but as the governing body of the following promotions.
Impact Wrestling is going back to their roots. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, in short TNA, was a NWA youtube series before it branched out and was once the second-biggest promotion in the United States. With Scott D'Amore still in control, TNA will join the NWA once more and dismiss the Impact Wrestling primary name.
Court Bauer has agreed to bring Major League Wrestling into the NWA "Powers United" era and remain apart of the team.
After dismissing selling the company for the longest time, Cary Silkin has agreed that Ring Of Honor will join the NWA in these efforts. This is not for the video library, but to keep the brand alive and well.
And last but not least, the addition to the National Wrestling Alliance answers the long-standing rumor. Why did Triple H obtain the rights of WCW on his WWE exit?
It's official. WCW is joining the NWA and Triple H is bringing the beloved WCW brand back to wrestling!
So how does all come to be? When Paul Levesque left the WWE and obtained WCW rights, he had two goals. He wanted to build a viable brand and he didn't want to do it at the expense of the rest of the industry.
After a long martial discussion between the Levesque couple, they decided to reach out to Billy Corgan about purchasing the NWA. Money was no object for them and seeing Corgan lost some money in the pandemic, he decided to sell the brand to the Levesque family with the handshake principal the NWA would never be Vince McMahon's.
After the NWA banner was obtained, we set in motion with the social media announcements that would buzz the entire world... and then onto the official press conference to answer all the questions.
In the NWA press conference, Levesque said he has always had the vision of the entire industry working together. Yet when asked if AEW was involved, Levesque declined to comment if Tony Khan was in conversation about including AEW in the new National Wrestling Alliance era, being dubbed "The Powers United."
The NWA committee was simple and an official press release involved:
- Paul Levesque
- Stephanie McMahon-Levesque
- Scott D'Amore
- Court Bauer
- Cary Silkin
Once the committee was established, they all agreed on a working relationship with one another. And in 2023 they intend on doing this with a big splash.
The NWA will hold 5 PPVs in the 2023 calendar year: February, April, June, August, and December.
In anticipation to these big PPV events, how would each company decide to advance in the meantime?
- TNA Wrestling would continue with weekly programming in conjunction with their network deal with AXS TV
- MLW would record content for their YouTube channel and wrap up at the end of 2022 in anticipation for the big NWA PPV months
- ROH would focus on developing their talent in-house and travel to different areas for exposure, while using some TNA and MLW competitors to help in their development
And WCW? Well, we haven't got there yet. But Levesque promises that WCW would be coming back.
Is Vince scared? Did Nick Khan make the right decision? Should Tony Khan have joined the NWA resurgence?
One thing's for sure, Paul Levesque will have something to prove in 2023.
