The NWA heavyweight and tag titles being defended in the WWF (1997)

[Vader]

Anyone else remember this crappy idea?

For the NWA, it was a last ditch effort to get their product back in the main stream viewing audience. To say the NWA was behind the ECW in terms of prominence at that time, would be generous. As a kid, I remember being confused about what was going on, why there were 2 tag team championships, and 2 heavyweight champions etc.

For the WWE, I really didn't see the benefit. This all occurred in the height of the Monday Night Wars, so I see it as Vince attempting to steal some of WCW more traditional audience? In late 97, WWF was clearly losing the ratings game.

Looking back, from the beginning the idea was put on skids when career mid-carder Jeff Jarrett was the first champion. I tend to view Jarrett in a more positive light than most after his gimmick change, but at the time he was a corny mid-card wrestler. Putting the strap on someone like Dan Severn from the beginning or Shamrock would have made more sense since they were both typically just losing tag matches and didn't have many clean losses, especially with both of them coming from the UFC.

What it turned into was akin to the WCW/ECW invasion where almost every match on the card was a title defense. With the addition of the NWA belt, you now had 3 midcard titles with the European, and IC championships.

I'm also not sure what the terms of the belt were, if the title holders had to compete in NWA regional shows as well. In which case, this would put them at odds with WWE house shows in the same area.

Like the ECW cross promotion, there was very little clear visioning for this idea. It seemed like the WWF was grasping for anything. I'm not sure if this idea could have been rebooked to be more successful.

 

[rmp0012002]

It was just a grab for WCW fans led by Cornette as the WWF was losing the war. ECW had no connection at all to Corraluzzo and the NWA as they had split when they became Extreme years before but always had a working development deal with the WWF. The problem with doing an NWA invasion angle at that time was that there really was no NWA let alone enough name talent to get it over. Corraluzzo got duped again as it was never meant to help the NWA.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This was more than anything a perk for Cornette. He pretty much as admitted as much, he was on the WWE writing staff since the mid 90's and was running SMW as a developmental type deal. SMW folded and he worked with Danny Davis in OVW and this angle was a way to play into that. OVW were using the NWA title and WWE was starting to use a lot more of the OVW talents and use them as a full on farm system. Guys like Nick Dinsmore and Doug Basham were in OVW that far back.

As part of that deal, they got the NWA title on WWE TV and it was of course a boon to Cornette, who had quit the writing team and could go back to being a talent and working with guys he knew well like the Rock 'N Roll Express and Jeff Jarrett.

As a concept it was flawed because by then even the casual fan saw the NWA title as a reject... WCW didn't want it, anyone with a remote "smart" knowledge knew that Shane Douglas had "shitcanned" it. It's presentation didn't help as well... presenting it as a "Southern" title, when WCW was going to great lengths to remove anything regional seemed like a dumb move... Jarrett as an initial champ was fine but quickly someone like a Bradshaw or even a Ken Shamrock could have made that title seem far more valuable.

It didn't last long enough to get any traction cos Attitude was kicking in in full effect and it just seemed "stale", much as today's PG product does to many... rather than being a "fun throwback" as intended, it was seen as "why WCW were kicking their ass" and "what we're trying not to do..." Harsh, no one in the NWA faction did a bad job at all, but it needed to be 3 or 4 years earlier, and Rick Rude needed to have been the guy to bring the belt over.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

It made NO sense... at all.

It made the NWA look second rate and didn't make sense to have The Rock n Roll Express managed by Jim Cornette. If anything, the older school fans tuned out because of the lack of continuity and sheer ignorance of the whole thing.

They also had the NWA North American Heavyweight title, which was won by Jeff Jarrett. The only good thing I think came out of it would be Dan Severn showing how real, old school wrestling's done. It was a refreshing thing to see a man who could impose his will on someone and it not look hokey.

But overall, it was a failure and was merely to give Jim Cornette something to do aside from going nuts on creative.

 

[rmp0012002]

When Flair originally brought the belt over during his contract dispute that was an "OMG" moment as fans were shocked but this really meant nothing to the fans. WWE fans didn't know the NWA or Smokey Mountain and once the WWE guys won the belts the angle was over. The tie in with heel manager Cornette and the Rock and Roll Express was that Cornette managed them in SMW when's they were heels.

 

[tvcolosi]

It wasn't the NWA heavyweight title, it was the NWA North American title. I think it had some legs but the pulled the plug too soon. But on the bright side it got the R and R express their one and only WrestleMania payday so it wasn't all bad.

 

[rmp0012002]

It wasn't the NWA heavyweight title, it was the NWA North American title. I think it had some legs but the pulled the plug too soon. But on the bright side it got the R and R express their one and only WrestleMania payday so it wasn't all bad.

The R and R Express are wrestling in NJ next month. I don't know if that's good or bad, been a long time.

 

[FlairFan2003]

It was confusing and poorly executed. To average fans the NWA was WCW, same company, same wrestlers, different name, just like the WWWF was the WWF and now is WWE. Most fans didn't see the NWA as a random collection of unseen promoters working in a talent sharing coalition, lead by Jim Crockett Jr, they saw Crockett as running the NWA company which was showcased every week on TBS and toured the US, later re christened WCW after it's flagship TV show name World Championship Wrestling once purchased by Turner Broadcasting.

WCW itself attempted a similar thing circa 1993 when the institution of the NWA was attempting to regroup, WCW wrestlers competed with NWA wrestlers on WCW programs and both had championships. It was confusing then, if WCW was the NWA then what was this ? By the end of the year whatever partnership existed had dissolved and most NWA wrestlers who weren't already part of Turner were gone, as were their titles, with the exception of the NWA World Title which was re-christened the WCW International Title sometime in the fall (In between being passed from Flair to Rick Rude).

The WWE version was even more confusing....the NWA was WCW, and none of these people were WCW, except for Cornette & the R&R Express, Jarrett was a Mid South, USWA guy who bounced between promotions as a mid carder journeyman, he wasn't WCW/NWA like Flair, Dusty, Arn Anderson, Sting, etc were. They were presented as a clearly "southern" group and always seemed more like a pest than a legit rival, made worse by the fact that to most fans the NWA was on TBS & TNT every weekend, it was just called WCW Sat Nite, WCW Nitro, etc. These guys weren't anymore NWA to most fans than I am.

It was something different, it brought some new talent into the company in a unique way, but it wasn't a great idea and it was executed poorly. Fact is, not everything works when you run programming full tilt 12 months a year. In 1991 Vince created three cartoon character heels with ridiculous backgrounds, one (Undertaker) became a veritable legend, the other two (Skinner & Repo Man) were short term comedy acts most fans would rather forget than remember. Kane was great - Isaac Yankem, evil dentist, not so much

 

[rmp0012002]

I can't remember what was going on in WCW at that time but they had withdrawn from the NWA in late '89 and ECW Withdrew in '95. For some odd reason Crockett was an NWA president in '93 but didn't have a promotion so that's the only tie in I can see and Watts might have been running WCW? Crockett was also involved in the NWA tournament when Douglass threw the belt in the garbage.

 

[spaldoni]

As a huge fan of 80s NWA I liked this angle. Seeing Jim C with the RnR Express was pretty cool and surreal. If memory serves I think Tommy Young officiated some of the matches. It's to bad Barry Windham didn't make his wwf return with this angle. He would of been a great choice as the NWA champ leading the group. I think somebody mentioned there weren't enough true NWA guys in the group. Tully Blanchard would of been an awesome pick up. I know the angle didn't connect with the audience but for me it was fun to watch.

 

[Vader]

I think Tully had some baggage with no passing his drug tests.

 

[Waylon Mercy]

Having watched the old NWA in its heyday, it always seemed weird to see the likes of the R&R Express on WWE programming. WWE by then was a global corporate juggernaut, with state of the art production values. NWA, or the one I knew and loved, was regional. The R&R Express simply did not translate well on a WWE screen. The other surreal moment for me was when they decided to reform the Midnight Express, but this time with "Bombastic" Bob Holley and "Bodacious" Bart Gunn. I remember thinking that this was nothing more than a stain on the legacy of a brilliant tag team (in its original incarnations with the original NWA). Naturally, the team went nowhere even though they won the tag titles and were managed by Cornette.