The NWA United States Tag Team Championship is a name used for several secondary tag team championship used by various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) members since 1958. There are eleven different versions of the NWA United States Tag Team Championships have been promoted in various regions across the United States, starting with the Midwest Wrestling Association version in 1950, to the NWA Lightning One version that is active today.
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 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. [1]
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 the various members, later referred to as the NWA territories. [2] 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 was created in the Los Angeles territory. [3] [4] 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 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. [5] [6]
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 the Bruiser in the finals of a tournament to determine the first champions. [7] [8] 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). [7] [8] A third U.S. tag team championship was introduced in Florida in 1961 as Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) introduced 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. [9] [10] 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. [9] [10]
In 1962 two additional versions of the championship were introduced, the NWA Mid-America version and the NWA Tri-State version. [11] [12] [13] 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 the championship, ending with The Bicentennial Kings (Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condrey) as champions in 1976 where the championship was abandoned. [11] [12] 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. [13] Jan Madrid and Louie Tillet are credited with being the first champions, but records are unclear on how they became champions. In 1980 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. [13]
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. [14] [15] On April 15, 1974 then-reigning champions Bob Kelly and Rocket Monroe lost 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. [13] [14] [15] 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. [16] [17] In 1967 the championship was renamed the NWA American Tag Team Championship instead and would later become the World Class Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Championship. [16] [17]
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 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. [18] [19] 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. [18] [19]
By the late 1980s the NWA was no longer 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. [20] [21] The last recorded defense of the New Jersey version happened in 2000. [20] In 2014 NWA Southern All-Star Wrestling introduced 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. [22]
On July 19, 2022, Billy Corgan announced that 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 the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship.
| Created | Ended | Promotion | Fate | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 1963 | Midwest Wrestling Association | Retired when the promotion folded | [5] [6] |
| 1958 | 1967 | Capitol Wrestling Corporation | Became the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship in 1963, vacancy left unfilled 1967 | [7] [8] |
| 1961 | 1986 | Championship Wrestling from Florida | Retired when the promotion folded | [9] [10] |
| 1962 | 1976 | NWA Mid-America | Retired when the promotion folded | [11] [12] |
| 1962 | 1980 | NWA Tri-State | Renamed NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship | [13] [23] |
| 1965 | 1974 | Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling | Merged with the Tri-State version | [14] [15] |
| 1966 | 1967 | Big Time Wrestling | Renamed NWA American Tag Team Championship | [16] [17] |
| 1986 | 1992 | Jim Crockett Promotions | Became the WCW United States Tag Team Championship in 1991, decommisioned by WCW vice president Bill Watts July 1992 | [18] [19] |
| 1996 | 2000 | NWA Jersey | Abandoned | [20] [21] |
| 2014 | 2017 | NWA Smokey Mountain Wrestling | renamed the Innovate Wrestling United States Tag Team Championship | [22] |
| 2022 | National Wrestling Alliance | Revived under the Lightning One version with The Fixers (Jay Bradley and Wrecking Ball Legursky) becoming the new champions | [24] |
The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA World Tag Team Championship" without oversight from the board of directors. The first of these NWA World Tag Team Championships was created in 1950 in the San Francisco territory, which while billed as a "World" title was essentially restricted to the specific NWA territory. In 1957 as many as 13 versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship were confirmed to be in existence. In 1982 Big Time Wrestling, based in Los Angeles, closed and abandoned their version of the championship. The following year, the World Wrestling Federation, an NWA member at the time and which had its own World Tag Team Championship, split from the NWA in acrimony. This meant that only the Jim Crockett Promotions' NWA World Tag Team Championship was active within the NWA, but still being controlled by JCP, not the NWA board of directors. In 1991 that championship was renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
Adnan bin Abdul Kareem Ahmed Alkaissy El Farthie, better known professionally as Adnan Al-Kaissie, was an Iraqi-American professional wrestler and manager best known as Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissey, Billy White Wolf, or General Adnan. In 1971 he defeated André the Giant in Al-Shaab Stadium in Baghdad, under the auspices of his high school classmate, Ba'ath Party leader Saddam Hussein. He competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). On December 7, 1976, he won the WWWF World Tag Team Championship with Chief Jay Strongbow.
The Los Angeles version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was the main tag team professional wrestling championship of the North American Wrestling Alliance, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), which promoted shows in and around Los Angeles. The championship was the first of at least 17 championships to use that name between 1949 and 1992, as the NWA Board of Directors allowed each territory to create its own version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship if it so desired. In 1957 there were at least 13 different versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship recognized in the United States.[Championships] Since it was a professional wrestling championship, it was not won through legitimate competitive matches, but instead determined by the decisions of the booker(s) of a wrestling promotion.
The Texas version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was the main tag team professional wrestling championship in the Dallas/Houston-based Southwest Sports territory of the National Wrestling Alliance. While the name indicates that it was defended worldwide, this version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was mainly defended in the eastern part of Texas. The championship was created in 1957 and actively promoted by Southwest Sports until 1968, when it was abandoned. The championship was later brought back by the Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) promotion in 1981, and was used until 1982 when WCCW decided to use the NWA American Tag Team Championship as their top tag team championship. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is won not by actual competition, but by a scripted ending to a match.
The Chicago version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling championship promoted by the Chicago-based Fred Kohler Enterprises, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The championship was for two-man tag teams only. While the NWA Board of Directors mandated that there would only be one NWA World Heavyweight Championship, they did not regulate the use of championships labeled "NWA World Tag Team Championship", allowing any member that so desired to create their own local version. As a result, as many as 13 different, regional versions were active in 1957, the highest number of active NWA World Tag Team Championships in existence at the same time.[Championships]
Between May 1955 and 1969 the professional wrestling promotion ABC Booking promoted their own regional version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, a professional wrestling championship for teams of two wrestlers. When the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was founded in 1948, its board of directors decided to allow any NWA member, referred to as an NWA territory, to use an NWA World Tag Team Championship within their region, essentially making it a regional championship despite the "World" label applied to it. Since the NWA World Tag Team Championships were professional wrestling championships, they were not won or lost in legitimate competitive matches but decided by booker(s) of a wrestling promotion instead.
From January 8, 1957, through August 1960 the NWA Minneapolis Wrestling and Boxing Club promoted the Minneapolis version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship as the main professional wrestling championship for tag teams on their shows held in and around Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Wrestling and Boxing Club was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from its formation in 1948, but left the group in 1960 to help form the American Wrestling Association (AWA). The NWA Board of Directors allowed each member, referred to as a NWA territory, to create and control its own individual "NWA World Tag Team Championship" to be defended within its territory. At one point in 1957, no less than 13 different versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship were recognized across the United States.[Championships] As with all professional wrestling championships, this championship was not contested for in competitive matches, but in matches with predetermined outcomes to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.
The Central States version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was the main professional wrestling championship for tag teams in Heart of America Sports Attractions, later known as Central States Wrestling (CSW) from 1951 to 1959, then again from 1962 to 1963 and then finally from 1973 to 1979. CSW was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), whose bylaws allowed any of their members, referred to as NWA territories, to create their own version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship that would be promoted within their territory. The Central States version was primarily defended in CSW's home town of Kansas City and during their shows across Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. As it was a professional wrestling championship, it was not won or lost competitively but instead by the decision of the bookers. The title was awarded after the chosen team "wins" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport. In 1957 there were at least 13 different versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship being promoted in various NWA territories across the United States.[Championships]
John Tolos, nicknamed "The Golden Greek", was a Canadian professional wrestler, and professional wrestling manager.
The National Wrestling Association (NWA) was an early professional wrestling sanctioning body created in 1930 by the National Boxing Association as an attempt to create a governing body for professional wrestling in the United States. The group created a number of "World" level championships as an attempt to clear up the professional wrestling rankings which at the time saw a number of different championships promoted as the "true world champion". The National Wrestling Association's NWA World Heavyweight Championship was later considered part of the historical lineage of the National Wrestling Alliance's NWA World Heavyweight Championship when then National Wrestling Association champion Lou Thesz won the National Wrestling Alliance championship, folding the original championship into one title in 1949.
Ray Canty, better known by the ring name Ray Candy, was an American professional wrestler who worked for a variety of different wrestling promotions in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico such as Jim Crockett Promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling, World Wrestling Council and others. He also competed as Blackstud Williams, Super Mario Man, Commando Ray, Masked Superfly and Kareem Muhammad.
McRonald Kamaka was an American-Canadian professional wrestler known by the ring name Tor Kamata. He won several heavyweight and tag team championships, most notably the PWF World Heavyweight Championship in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the AWA World Tag Team Championship in the American Wrestling Association. He was a classic heel, reviled for dirty tricks in the ring, included rubbing salt in his opponent's eyes.
Laurence Roy Heffernan was an Australian professional wrestler. Roy Heffernan toured all over the world, but is most famous for being one half of the original version of the tag team the Fabulous Kangaroos. The Kangaroos used an "Ultra Australian" gimmick complete with Boomerangs, bush hats and "Waltzing Matilda" as their entrance music. The first incarnation of the Kangaroos is the most famous of all the Kangaroo versions and is often credited with popularizing tag team wrestling in the late 1950s and 1960s. Costello and Heffernan are also regarded as one of the top tag teams to ever compete in professional wrestling.
Henry Mittlestadt (1911–1987), best known by his ring name, Tiny Mills, was a Canadian professional wrestler born in Camrose, Alberta. He often teamed with his brother Al Mills as the tag team Murder Incorporated. Later on Stan "Krusher" Kowalski would replace Al Mills as part of Murder Incorporated.
The New Jersey version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team championship contested for in the New Jersey-based National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promotion. The title was only contestable by tag teams in tag team matches. The title was established on February 3, 1996 by NWA Jersey, in which The Lost Boys won a Triangle tag team match against The Greek Connection and Bad Attitude. This title is one of at least five championships that share the same name under the NWA's supervision. On April 7, 2000, the final champions The Pitbulls lost the titles to Chris Candido and Tommy Cairo; however, the NWA reversed the decision and instead of returning the titles to The Pitbulls, the promotion retired the championship for unknown reasons.
The Amarillo version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was the main tag team professional wrestling championship for the Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion, a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Promoters Doc Sarpolis and Dory Funk introduced the championship in 1955 and continued to use it as their main tag team championship until 1969. The NWA Board of Directors dictated that there would be only one NWA World Heavyweight Champion but allowed any NWA member, also known as a NWA territory, to create its own local version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship. In 1957 no less than 13 different versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship were promoted across the United States.[Championships] This even included another version in East Texas, which was used mainly in Houston and Fort Worth at the time.
The Buffalo Athletic Club version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was a regional professional wrestling championship for tag teams that existed from 1956 until 1970. The championship was promoted by National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) member the Buffalo Athletic Club under promoters Ed Don George and Bobby Bruins, whose territory covered most of Ohio and portions of upstate New York. Many NWA territories used a version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship as the NWA bylaws allowed each territory to use the name. In 1957 no less than 13 different NWA World Tag Team Championships were promoted across the United States.[Championships] In 1970 the Buffalo Athletic Club left the NWA to form an independent wrestling promotion known as the National Wrestling Federation, at which point they replaced the NWA World Tag Team Championship with the NWF World Tag Team Championship. Like all professional wrestling championships, this version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was not won or lost competitively but instead determined by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The title was awarded after the chosen team "won" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.
The Indianapolis version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which was actively used between 1951 and 1960, was a professional wrestling championship exclusively for two-man tag teams. As a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the NWA Indianapolis territory was entitled to create an NWA World Tag Team Championship that they could promote within the boundaries of their territory, in this case Indiana, making it a "regional" championship despite being labeled a "world championship". Because the use of the championship was not restricted to one overall championship, a large number of different, regional championships bore the name "NWA World Tag Team Championship" between 1949 and 1992. In 1957 as many as 13 different versions were promoted across the United States.[Championships] As it is a professional wrestling championship, it 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 Salt Lake Wrestling Club version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling championship for tag teams that was promoted between 1955 and 1959 in the Salt Lake Wrestling Club territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Local promoter Dave Reynolds promoted the championship primarily in Utah, but would occasionally runs shows in Idaho and Washington state. Since the promotion was a member of the NWA, the Salt Lake Wrestling Club was entitled to promote their local version of the championship, as the NWA bylaws did not restrict the use of that championship in the same way they restricted the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to one nationally recognized championship. In 1957 there were no less than 13 distinct versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship promoted across the United States.[Championships] Because the championship was a professional wrestling championship, it was not contested for in legitimate sporting events, but instead determined by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion.
The Iowa/Nebraska version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship was a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) professional wrestling tag team championship that was active between 1953 and 1958. The championship was controlled by the NWA's Iowa booking office under Pinkie George and the Nebraska booking office under Max Clayton. Both George and Clayton were founding members of the NWA in 1948 and served on the Board of Directors that decided to let any NWA member, known as a NWA territory to create a local version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship. The Iowa/Nebraska version was one of at least 13 championships bearing that name in 1957.[Championships] As with all professional wrestling championships, this championship was not won or lost competitively but instead based on the decisions of the bookers of a wrestling promotion which determines the outcome of the matches.
