NWA pre-48

[Dan Poutsma]

I was combing the Lou Thesz Forum over on the Wrestling Classics site, when I came across a thread containing some interesting info pertaining to the history of the National Wrestling Alliance.

Various articles and results taken from the Des Moines, IA Register list Orville Brown as defending the NWA heavyweight title as early as January 1947. It was even said at one point that he had held the title for seven consecutive years before finally dropping it to Sonny Myers in November 1947. He would subsequently regain it two months later.

All of this seems to indicate that P.L. "Pinkie" George, who was the promoter in Des Moines and the first President of the NWA, had been running shows under the National Wrestling Alliance banner with Brown as his champion long before the cooperative that we are all familiar with today was officially formed. In July 1948, it appears that all of the other promoters like Sam Muchnick, Max Clayton, Tony Stecher, etc. decided to join up with him and turn the organization into an actual coalition of territories as opposed to just a single promotion. If this is indeed the case, it certainly puts a whole new spin on things.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

I still think those two are different organizations under the same name, but it's very interesting to find out there's a possiblity that they MAY share the title lineage.

Here's the thread from WrestlingClassics.com:
<a href='http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000962' target='_blank'>http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbc...c;f=10;t=000962</a>

[Dan Poutsma]

Hisa,

That wasn't the thread I was referring to. Check out the topic entitled "Howard Cantonwine".

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Thanks to Payton, I've been getting more info on this issue. Please check the NWA section on wrestling-titles.com .

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Please read the whole thread AND another thread mentioned.

We're talking about the pre-48 National Wrestling Alliance, not Association.