For years the NWA languished outside the public eye on the independents as champions were crowned that most fans aren’t aware of and didn’t care as the WWF vs WCW vs ECW war consumed the fans attentions in the 90s. As the WWF would go on to purchase WCW and eventually ECW out of bankruptcy court, the industry had a void and the NWA was still there.
As WCW closed it’s doors and a 35 year old Jeff Jarrett, who was essentially blackballed by the WWF needed a new place to wrestle and along with his legendary promoter father, Jerry Jarrett, would launch TNA. Jeff wanted to get the rights to the NWA name and the rights to their world and tag team titles. He had to convince his father that this was a good idea because in 2002, Jerry even said the NWA was worthless and dead but Jeff argued that the name and legacy of the NWA wasn’t dead and would give credibility to their new promotion. Jerry finally said yes but he wasn’t convinced that his son was right. Jeff went to the NWA and was granted a license for full creative control of the NWA World and Tag Team titles but TNA was never officially an Alliance member. From 2002 to 2007, the NWA World and Tag Titles were prominently on TV and PPV for the first time since its brief appearance on WWF TV and WCW TV in the 1990s. Of course, just like before egos got in the way and members complained that they weren’t being given access to the champions and it was worse because TNA wasn’t even an official alliance member.
So it would eventually lead to a split as NWA Executive Director, Robert K. Trobich, made the decision to strip Christian Cage and Team 3D, the reigning NWA World and Tag Team Champions and TNA would go on to rename their titles TNA. The problem with this is the NWA really had no place to go and again went into obscurity as TNA continued to have TV and PPV presence. The NWA would continue to have their championships change hands at independent shows and again most fans didn’t even know about it. However, one man would come to its rescue but it wouldn’t be until October 2017.
