Misplaced Pages

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106-603: He also wrestled for Atlantic States Wrestling Association, David Leehy's Virginia Wrestling Association, Dick Caricofe's National Wrestling League , Universal Independent Wrestling, the Wrestling Independent Network, NWA New Jersey , Atlantic Wrestling Federation in Pennsylvania, Larry Sharpe 's World Wrestling Association, and for Doug Flex and Brick Bronsky in International Pro Wrestling. He

212-626: A World Title tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship . Unbeknownst to any one, the event was staged for ECW's public withdrawal from the NWA, with tournament winner Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title belt and instead picking up the ECW Heavyweight Championship belt, proclaiming himself to be the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. ECW founder Tod Gordon would subsequently announce ECW's secession from

318-506: A controversial segment from that month's Samhain PPV event, in which Father James Mitchell along with several women and wrestlers were seen consuming cocaine , drew negative reactions online. The following month, The CW signed a deal with WWE for its weekly NXT program. Though it was rumored to be in-response to the Samhain segment, Corgan later revealed in a 2024 interview with Fightful that

424-505: A "fast count" to give them the win. Hebner then got into a fight with another referee who put him in a sharpshooter and made him "tap out". The Slackers were given another chance to win back the titles at the March 26th "The Phenomenal Four" show but lost to Danny Doring & Danny Jax in another 4 Way Dance with The Holy Rollers and The James Gang. Unable to regain the titles, The Slackers turned towards The Holy Rollers with whom they feuded for

530-453: A 3-month feud over the title. At an October 28 show in Glen Burnie, Creed was briefly awarded the title after using a chain brought by Slivenski to pin the champion. When the referee spotted the chain, it was assumed it belonged to Creed and he was disqualified. A local disc jockey who had been invited to the event, and had been attacked by Total Quality Management earlier in the show, informed

636-533: A 6-man tag team match against King Kong Bundy and The Ghetto Mafia (2-Dope & Sydeswype) in Lusby, Maryland on April 29. Over the next seven months, Slivenski successfully defended his title against Mikey Whipreck, Qenaan Creed and Black Dragon. He also defeated former champion Adam Flash at a special MCW show near Ocean City, Maryland on June 10 and Ronnie Zukko at the 2000 Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup on July 19. That summer, he and Qenaan Creed became involved in

742-459: A cracked orbital bone during an altercation with Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas. According to New Jack, as with the Mass Transit incident , he "didn't like his attitude" and had particularly taken offense when Slivenski approached him to discuss the match beforehand. At the end of the match, New Jack dove off the top rope with a steel chair and onto Slivenski injuring his face. Afterwards, he took

848-449: A decade where, as Chad Austin, he participated in a 5-team Royal Rumble-style tables elimination match at IWA Mid-South 's "Something to Prove" show on June 11. Substituting for Silas Young, he and Eric Priest were the first entrants and were met by ROH students Davey Andrews and Shane Hagadorn. Both Slivenski and Hagadorn's teams were simultaneously eliminated when Eddie Kingston powerbombed Hagadorn onto an already prone Slivenski though

954-572: A decade, Blues formally returned to MCW at a special ceremony called Night of the Legends, held at the New Green Room in Dundalk. Later that night, he defeated his old rival Agent Orange at "Legends of Maryland" on November 7, 2009. Blues made several appearances on MCW events in 2010 and 2011, teaming with his son, R K Blues JR in a series of matches against Agent Orange, and then later, old foe Rip Sawyer, of

1060-570: A fundraising event for wrestler Adam Helsley, who was severely injured in a car accident the previous year, where he wrestled The Dynamic Sensation at Paw Paw High School in Paw Paw, West Virginia on May 8. Also appearing on the card was Morgus the Maniac , John Rambo and former WWF World Tag Team Champion Headshrinker Samu . Two months later, he regained the NWL Cruiserweight title from Hyjinx in

1166-575: A grudge match at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie on December 28, 2006. On February 25, 2007, The Slackers defeated the Rehoboth Beach Crew (Stevie Riggs & LK) at MCW's 9th Anniversary Show at the MCW Arena in Dundalk. The following month, he and Devine faced two of the three members of the RBC at "March Madness: When Monsters Collide"; while Devine lost to L.K., Slivenski beat Tyler Hilton to win

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1272-427: A holding company run by Houston, Texas-based attorney and wrestling promoter R. Bruce Tharpe, sued Trobich, Baucom, the NWA, and its then-parent company, Trobich's Pro Wrestling Organization LLC, claiming insurance fraud regarding the NWA's liability insurance policy. A settlement was negotiated that transferred the rights to the NWA name and trademarks from Trobich's company to Tharpe's. The new organization moved from

1378-496: A larger audience than ever before. Rising demand and national expansion made wrestling a much more lucrative form of entertainment than in decades previous. This era would go on to be known as the "Golden Age" of professional wrestling. From 1948 to 1955, each of the three major television networks broadcast wrestling shows; the largest supporter being the DuMont Television Network . In 1956, allegations were made that

1484-652: A local high school in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania , where he and Shawn Summers took on The Big New Yorkers (Jerkface & Jackpot Jimmy Jessup) but lost via disqualification when their valet, Katravina, was caught trying to stop Jessup from pinning Slivenski. On November 15, 2003, he lost to Hyjinx in a Four Corners match with OGB and Brandon Mercury for the NWL Cruiserweight Championship in Newville, Pennsylvania . On January 11, 2004, Slivenski and Divine captured

1590-814: A match for the then vacant MCW Tag Team Championship and lost to The Holy Rollers (Earl the Pearl & Rich Myers) in a 3 Way Dance with The Badstreet Boys ( Joey Matthews & Christian York ) in Glen Burnie, Maryland . On April 14, he became the MCW Cruiserweight Champion in Annapolis by defeating Adam Flash and Quinn Nash in an elimination match. Around this time, he and kayfabe brother Chip Bowman joined Cicero's "heel" stable Total Quality Management with MCW Tag Team Champions Cueball Carmichael & Dino Devine. Two weeks later, he and Chip joined Cicero in

1696-452: A match for the vacant MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship . In 1998 Blues and tag team partner Flexx Wheeler, under the tutelage of manager Jim Cornette, unsuccessfully chased after the MEWF tag team championships held by Max Thrasher and Dino Casanova , and their manager Wolfman Baker collectively known as Good, Bad and Ugly. A year later, Blues and The New Patriot defeated Thrasher and Casanova for

1802-459: A membership model to a licensing model and significantly reduced the amount of territory some of the members held, which caused many promotions to immediately cut ties with the NWA. On September 9, 2012, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood (CWFH) announced it had left the NWA. CWFH was the unofficial home promotion of both the then-current NWA champion ( Adam Pearce ) and the most recent previous champion ( Colt Cabana ), both of whom publicly left

1908-456: A new distribution agreement with FITE TV . As part of this agreement, the NWA would remove content from their YouTube channel. On January 5, 2022, the NWA announced the launch of the NWA All Access subscription package on FITE TV, including past and upcoming pay-per-view events (PPV), new episodes of Powerrr on Tuesdays, and the newly announced NWA USA weekly series. In addition, it

2014-657: A new promotion called NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA). NWA:TNA was given creative control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships through an agreement with the NWA. This would last until March 2007, when the NWA terminated its agreement with TNA. TNA would lose control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships by the morning of the 2007 Sacrifice pay-per-view event on May 13. On September 17, 2010, KDOC-TV Los Angeles premiered NWA: Championship Wrestling from Hollywood . In August 2012, International Wrestling Corp.,

2120-612: A no-disqualification match in Martinsburg, West Virginia on July 17. Slivenski would hold the title for over eight months, the second-longest reign in the title's history, until losing it to Fumar in Hagerstown, Maryland on April 2, 2005. The previous month, he had wrestled Morgus the Maniac at a Maryland Wrestling Alliance card in Glen Bernie. He also returned to the ECW Arena after nearly

2226-520: A non-title match. At Holiday Homecoming '07, Slivenski lost to Ruckus at Michael's 8th Avenue in Glen Burnie. In early 2008, Slivenski made several appearances for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance in Baltimore . On March 16, he defeated Jimmy Starz at its "Fight The Power" supercard. After the match, he was attacked by The Varsity (Zach Matthews & Bruce Chan). He made another appearance

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2332-646: A number of issues. At the time Quinn walked out, a wrestler of his named Édouard Carpentier was involved in an angle where he and Lou Thesz were both being presented around the NWA as world champion after Carpentier had a disputed win over Thesz on June 14, 1957. As the 1950s came to a close, professional wrestling was losing television ratings, and soon TV stations dropped most wrestling shows from their lineups. The remaining televised wrestling promoters had small, local syndicated shows, which aired as late-night filler programming. Promoters started using localized television by purchasing airtime from rival territories, at

2438-450: A singles match on March 12 and, with Devine, in a tag team match with Romeo Valentine on May 15. Slivenski and Devine remained tag team champions until MCW's final show, the 5th annual 2003 Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup in Glen Burnie on July 16, 2003. In a special interpromotional match, they lost to The Ghetto Mafia in a 3 Way Dance with MEWF Tag Team Champions Team Punishment (Derek Wayne & Buzz Stryker) to unify both titles. After

2544-611: A successful tag team during his early career and together won both the MEWF and WWA Tag Team titles in 1993. Blues influenced a number of future high-flying cruiserweights and, as an instructor at the Brainbusters Wrestling School, helped train future Ring of Honor star Ruckus . He was an instructor for the Baltimore Monster Factory, the MCW school Bone Breakers, and Gillberg's Academy of Pro Wrestling. In 2011, he

2650-606: A table. The match was eventually won by The Iron Saints (Vito and Sal Thomaselli) becoming 5-time IWA Mid-South Tag Team Champions . Later that year, Slivenski reunited with Dino Devine in Fort Meade Wrestling to defeat their old MCW rivals The Holy Rollers at the Fort Meade Army Base in Odenton, Maryland on October 1, 2005. When Maryland Championship Wrestling resumed operations in late 2006, The Slackers were among

2756-500: A tag team match between himself and The Broad Street Bully against Dino Sendoff and Don E. Allen ended in a no contest when 911, as he did the previous year, entered the ring and choke slammed all four men. He and Don E. Allen also lost to Dances with Dudley & Dudley Dudley at Gangsta's Paradise on August 16. Slivenski also defeated Raven for the MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship on October 1, 1995. He lost

2862-471: A week later. Five days later in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania , he teamed with Rockin' Rebel and Jason Knight in a six-man tag team match to defeat Don E. Allen, Dino Sendoff and Hack Meyers . On August 13, he defeated "Ironman" Tommy Cairo at Hardcore Heaven 1994 . He also wrestled Mr. Hughes, Sabu , Damien Stone , Steve Richards , Rockin' Rebel and Chris Benoit on Hardcore TV over

2968-1019: A year of ringtime before eventually returning to the ring in early 1997. In one of his first matches back, he was scheduled to headline a National Wrestling League show in Boonsboro, Maryland with Devon Storm on April 22, 1997, but the match was cancelled when Storm was unable to appear. A year later, he lost to The Cat Burglar in a 3 Way Dance with Steve Corino for the MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship on September 18, 1998. On October 1, 1999, he wrestled Jake Daniels for The Bad Crew 's Hardway Wrestling in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania . He also wrestled for Atlantic Terror Championship Wrestling and Cueball Carmichael 's Independent Pro Wrestling Alliance . In early 2000, Slivenski started wrestling for Maryland Championship Wrestling (MCW). On January 19, 2000, he teamed with "Wiseguy" Jimmy Cicero in

3074-458: Is a documentary series chronicling the journey and career of the current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion as well as others in the division. Debuting on October 20, 2017, on the NWA's YouTube channel, it was the first series to be produced after the organization's acquisition. NWA Shockwave was a web television program that aired on the NWA's YouTube channel and Facebook page. The series debuted on December 1, 2020. On August 10, 2020, it

3180-641: Is the flagship program of the NWA which currently streams on Tuesday nights on The CW 's app. The series debuted on October 8, 2019, originally airing on the NWA's YouTube channel. From 2021 to the end of 2022, the show had a first airing on Tuesday at 6:05 pm ET on FITE TV , with the episode debuting on the NWA's YouTube channel later in the same week in Friday at 6:05 pm ET. A companion series, titled NWA Power Surge (stylized as NWA Powerrr Surge ), premiered on April 13, 2021, and features wrestler interviews, unseen matches, and Powerrr recaps. Ten Pounds of Gold

3286-893: The East Coast and Mid-Atlantic " indy circuit ", as well as stints in the United States Wrestling Association and Smokey Mountain Wrestling , prior to joining Tod Gordon and Eastern Championship Wrestling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in late 1993. Slivenski made his ECW debut as Chad Austin on its third major show, the two-day NWA Bloodfest , at the ECW Arena on October 1, 1993. On both nights, he wrestled The Bad Breed ( Ian and Axl Rotten ) with Todd Shaw and Don E. Allen respectively, as well as losing to Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka . These matches were later broadcast on

Ricky Blues - Misplaced Pages Continue

3392-756: The Jerry Springer Show at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie a month later. In his pro wrestling debut, Wilkos put both men in the sleeperhold to get the victory. The Slackers bounced back by winning the MCW Tag Team Championship from The Badstreet Boys on the May 22nd edition of Rage TV. The team defended the titles against The S.A.T. (Jose & Joel Maximo) at the 2002 Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup as well as Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark Briscoe) and The Holy Rollers (Earl The Pearl & Ramblin Rich) during

3498-730: The Lightning Kid for WIN and WWA, where they battled over Blues' WIN Atlantic State Light Heavyweight Championship. In the mid-1990s he briefly donned the Watsumi mantle again, which the Japanese wrestling press called Akuma Bushido, and had a brief feud in NWA New Jersey with Abuddah Singh, who later became Balls Mahoney in ECW. Later, on November 14, 1998, Blues lost to Adam Flash in Hampstead, Maryland in

3604-654: The MCW Rage Television Championship . On April 21, The Slackers teamed with Doink the Clown in a 6-man tag team match to defeat the Rehoboth Beach Crew (Tyler Hilton, Stevie Riggs & LK) at Aggravated Assault '07. The event was held at the Arena Club in Bel Air, Maryland with over 1,000 in attendance. After six weeks as champion, Slivenski re-lost the title to Hilton at Xtreme Measures II in Dundalk. That fall, he

3710-670: The MEWF Tag Team Championship from Suicide & Bruiser and held the titles for the next three months. Two weeks later, he lost to Chris Nightmare in Smyrna, Delaware for Maximum Championship Wrestling on January 24. He also made another NWL/HoPWF appearance on February 14 where he unexpectedly won the NWL Cruiserweight Championship from OGB in a lumberjack match in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania . Prior to

3816-633: The Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation 's Kenwood Khaos in Essex. That summer, he appeared on three major ECW shows. On June 24, his match against Don E. Allen at Hostile City Showdown 1994 ended in a no-contest when 911 interfered and incapacitated both men with a chokeslam . A month later at Heat Wave 1994 , Slivenski was disqualified in his match against ECW Television Champion Mikey Whipwreck as well as their rematch in Wildwood, New Jersey

3922-507: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship . The match took place on November 12 and saw Storm retain the title. This was the first title match under the new NWA regime headed by Corgan. On December 9, Aldis defeated Storm in a rematch at Cage of Death 19 to become the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion, making him the second British-born champion after Gary Steele . In 2018, the NWA briefly allied with Impact Wrestling ,

4028-509: The "heel" stable Total Quality Management with MCW Heavyweight Champion "Wiseguy" Jimmy Cicero and MCW Tag Team Champions Cueball Carmichael & Dino Devine from 2000 until their breakup in 2002. He and Devine later began teaming together as The Slackers and won both the MEWF and MCW Tag Team titles. Born in Red Bank, New Jersey , Chad Slivenski trained under Don Owens and made his wrestling debut on September 11, 1991. He spent two years on

4134-568: The 1960s, it acted as the sole governing body for professional wrestling in the United States . It remained the largest and most influential body in wrestling until the mid-1980s by which time most of the original member promotions went out of business as a result of the World Wrestling Federation 's (WWF, now WWE) national expansion . In September 1993, the largest remaining member promotion, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), left

4240-581: The 1970s, the NWA once again took over as the top promotion and gained huge dominance with their program, Georgia Championship Wrestling , which would become the first nationally broadcast wrestling program on cable television through then-superstation TBS in 1979. They brought in Gordon Solie , dubbed "The Walter Cronkite of Professional Wrestling," from former NWA President Eddie Graham's Championship Wrestling from Florida territory to be lead commentator and host. Videotape trading and cable television paved

4346-810: The 1970s. They changed their name from the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. At some point during the decade, Muchnick reportedly declared Atlanta, Georgia as the "leading wrestling city" for its "drawing capacity and near-capacity crowds at the City Auditorium or the Omni every Friday." While the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation (WWWF/WWF) both faltered during

Ricky Blues - Misplaced Pages Continue

4452-618: The 2000 Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup in Glen Burnie . Over the summer, Blues also had a series of matches against Adam Flash . One of these, a No-DQ match in Ocean City, was later featured on The Indies: The Best Of 1997 - 2000 video series. On August 25, a rematch against The Bruiser in Odenton saw Blues pin the Bruiser, but he did not win the MCW title because of interference by Cpl. Punishment. The next month in Glen Burnie, he wrestled Gillberg at Micheal's Eighth Avenue on September 27, 2000. After

4558-853: The CW executives didn't have a problem with the spot, and that "it was a completely invented story by either a troll inside the company, a leaker or something.” Following Samhain, episodes of Powerrr were later added to The CW's app in November. In January 2024, NWA announced that new episodes of Powerrr would be available on The CW app from February 6. The same year, NWA included new territories: NWA Chicago in Chicago , Illinois , Kross Fire Wrestling (KFW) in Sevierville, Tennessee , World League Wrestling in Missouri as NWA's developmental system, and NWA Texas. Powerrr

4664-655: The Cream Team. At the MCW "Xtreme Rules" supercard he was defeated by his son Ricky Blues Jr. on April 4, 2010, after a long feud that began on MCW Rage TV webisode program that was filmed at Gillberg's Academy of Pro Wrestling. In 2011 Ricky Blues was inducted into the Maryland Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, at a special event in Dundalk, Maryland, alongside fellow inductees Tom Brandi (Johnny Gunn/the Patriot), Pro Wrestling Illustrated luminary Bill Apter,

4770-577: The Holy Rollers tag team Earl the Pearl Hart and Ramblin' Rich Myers, and Dan McDevitt (Corporal Punishment). In 2010 Ricky Blues, under his given name, became a published author with the novel To Kill The Town . It is the story of independent professional wrestling in Baltimore, Maryland from the mid-1980s through 2000. The story gives the insider's view of all the triumphs and tragedies of those that blazed

4876-523: The MEWF Tag Team titles on November 13, 1999. Around this time, creative differences and salary disputes with the MEWF caused Corporal Punishment and Mark Shrader to leave the promotion and took half its roster with them to form Maryland Championship Wrestling (MCW). By early-2000, Blues began wrestling for MCW facing Christian York and Joey Matthews in singles matches in April. In both these matches, Blues

4982-426: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship was featured at All In , with Cody defeating Aldis for the title, becoming the first second-generation NWA World heavyweight champion. After All In, the NWA would return to hosting its own events. The NWA 70th Anniversary Show , which took place on October 21, 2018, was the first to be produced directly under Lightning One, and was co-produced with Global Force Entertainment ;

5088-420: The NWA World Heavyweight, World Tag Team and World Junior Heavyweight Championships all changed hands at NJPW events. In September 2016, NWA signed a deal with the new Japanese Diamond Stars Wrestling (DSW) promotion to promote shows in not only Japan, but also other parts of Asia. As part of the deal, DSW chairman Hideo Shimada was appointed the NWA Vice President of the Asian Pacific region while Jimmy Suzuki

5194-549: The NWA and ROH. This would be the last event to be co-promoted with ROH; on July 24, 2019, the NWA announced that had ended their partnership. Subsequently, it was announced the following month that the NWA would host tapings in Atlanta on September 30 and October 1 for a new television series, later revealed to be titled NWA Powerrr . In January 2020, Marty Scurll , and other Ring of Honor characters, began to appear at NWA events once again as part of an inter-promotional angle. In addition to re-signing with ROH, Scurll would join

5300-426: The NWA began as the governing body for a group of regional promotions, the heads of which made up the board of directors. The group operated a territory system which sanctioned their own company championships while recognizing a singular world champion who defended his title across all the territories, participated in talent exchanges, and collectively protected the territorial integrity of member promotions. Prior to

5406-422: The NWA had transitioned into a stand-alone, singular promotion. In October 2023, the NWA re-established its territory system, with Michael Hutter's NWA Exodus Pro Midwest being the first promotion sanctioned. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s In 1948, Paul "Pinkie" George , a professional wrestling promoter from the U.S. Midwest , founded

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5512-408: The NWA reestablished itself as a governing body, with EC3 's NWA Exodus Pro Midwest being the first territory to be sanctioned. On December 4, NWA welcomed Joe Cazana Promotions (JCP) to their territory system. On October 18, it was reported by news blog Haus of Wrestling that NWA had signed a deal with The CW to air Powerrr and a reality show documenting behind the scenes footage. However,

5618-454: The NWA was an illegal monopoly blocking competition. An investigation led by the US Department of Justice resulted in the NWA Consent Decree of 1956 ( United States v. National Wrestling Alliance ). Several promoters would leave the organization during this time, with some managing to find niches in the United States. In 1957, Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn walked out of the August NWA meeting in St. Louis, having fallen out with Muchnick over

5724-400: The NWA's Bunkhouse Stampede . The NWA responded by creating Clash of the Champions on TBS to counterprogram WrestleMania IV . By 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions was facing bankruptcy. On October 11, under the direction of owner Ted Turner , TBS bought the assets of JCP and renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after the TV show of the same name. Originally incorporated by TBS as

5830-490: The NWA, Corgan would also purchase Tharpe's stake in the NWA's "On Demand" VOD service and licensing of the Paul Boesch wrestling library. Corgan's ownership of the NWA took effect on October 1, 2017. All licenses granted by Tharpe to use the NWA branding expired the previous day, putting Corgan in complete control of both the brand and its championships. On September 23, 2017, Nick Aldis made his debut for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and challenged Tim Storm for

5936-480: The NWA, rechristening the promotion as Extreme Championship Wrestling. In 1998, the World Wrestling Federation reached an agreement to use the likeness of the NWA titles, branding, and its history, to create a storyline. It would be later claimed that WWE still owned the rights. Despite the NWA receiving international television publicity during the angle, it was considered a failure due to low viewer interests. In June 2002, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett launched

6042-412: The NWA, with Pearce vacating the NWA World Title while exiting. Other major NWA territories like NWA Pro/NWA Pro West , NWA Georgia , NWA Pro East , NWA Southwest and NWA Midwest folded. In 2013, the NWA re-established a relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where Bruce Tharpe became an on-screen character, portraying a villainous manager of wrestlers representing the NWA. Over the next two years,

6148-445: The NWA. The NWA would continue as a loose coalition of independent promotions, with NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA) given exclusivity over its World Heavyweight and Tag Team championships from June 2002 to May 2007. In August 2012, the NWA discontinued its memberships and started licensing its brand to wrestling promotions. In 2017, it was purchased by Billy Corgan through his Lightning One, Inc. company. By late 2019–2023,

6254-424: The NWA. On September 5, 2020, Rosa unsuccessfully challenged AEW Women's World Championship Hikaru Shida at All Out . On October 27, 2020, Serena Deeb defeated Rosa during the United Wrestling Network's Primetime Live event to become the new NWA World Women's Champion. On March 2, 2021, the NWA announced their return to promoting events, with the Back For The Attack and new Powerrr episodes as part of

6360-427: The National Wrestling Alliance with the backing of six other promoters: Al Haft , Tony Stecher , Harry Light , Orville Brown , Don Owen , and Sam Muchnick . The concept of the NWA was to consolidate the championships of these regional companies into one true world championship of professional wrestling, whose holder would be recognized worldwide. The newly formed NWA Board of Directors decided that Brown would become

6466-610: The Ricky Blues character, and began wrestling for the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation and, on October 11, 1991, appeared on its debut show in Pasadena, Maryland where he defeated Adrian Hall to become the first Light Heavyweight Champion . Though he was stripped of the title within a few months, he beat Agent Orange in Odenton on January 18, 1992, to be crowned the first MEWF Heavyweight Champion . Later that year, Blues began teaming with Nick Tarentino as Sonic Express. On October 23, they unsuccessfully challenged Leather & Lace (Rich Carlisle and Adrian Hall) in Essex, Maryland for

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6572-585: The United States. That same year, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and the NWA created its primary supercard , Starrcade , the first to be broadcast via closed-circuit networks and was regarded as their flagship event. On Saturday, July 14, 1984, in what would become known as Black Saturday , McMahon bought NWA member Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and merged it into the WWF. The WWF would take over GCW's TV slot on TBS , which had been home to GCW's World Championship Wrestling program for 12 years. This move proved disastrous as ratings would plummet, and

6678-453: The Universal Independent Wrestling organization earned a television program on Maryland local channel 13 WJZTV, and Blues performed as a masked wrestler called Watsumi The Rising Sun, where he displayed his aerial wrestling style combined with martial arts to become a company and fan favorite. His early feud, as Watsumi, against The Insatiable Adrian Hall was one of the defining feuds of that era. The following year, as UIW folded, he returned to

6784-412: The Universal Wrestling Corporation, Turner promised fans that WCW would retain the athlete-oriented style of the NWA. The sale was completed on November 2, 1988, with a television taping of NWA World Championship Wrestling that very same date in WCW's hometown of Atlanta. By September 1993, WCW would withdraw completely from the NWA. On August 27, 1994, NWA: Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) held

6890-404: The WWF would end up losing money on the deal. Then-NWA President Jim Crockett, Jr. , the owner of JCP, would buy the World Championship Wrestling program from McMahon for $ 1 million and returned NWA programming to TBS. By 1985, JCP would become the flagship territory of the NWA by acquiring more time slots on TBS and merging with other NWA territories in an attempt to compete with the WWF. With

6996-442: The chair and hit him five times breaking his leg as well. He later began using the move, referred to as the 187 , as his finisher and has credited Slivenski, albeit sarcastically, for its creation. Leaving ECW shortly after this incident, Slivenski began competing in the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation (MEWF). A month before his run-in with New Jack, he had wrestled Steve Corino in Baltimore . His injuries caused him to miss

7102-406: The close of MCW, Slivenski competed for various independent promotions in the Mid-Atlantic area. In the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation , he lost to "Hollywood" Bob Starr in a match for the vacant MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship in North Point, Maryland on September 7. On October 18, he appeared at "UnCivil War" for the National Wrestling League and House of Pain Wrestling Federation , held at

7208-468: The company's booking team, enabling him to appear for both the NWA and ROH. However, in the fallout of the Speaking Out Movement , Scurll was accused of having intercourse with a 16-year-old female who was inebriated. After an investigation, Scurll would be removed from his position as booker, and by the following January in 2021, would be no longer under contract. Nick Aldis was scheduled to face PCO at Supercard of Honor XIV on April 4, 2020, before

7314-409: The consequence of putting some of them out of business. On January 24, 1963, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Lou Thesz defeated Buddy Rogers in a one-fall match and was declared NWA World Heavyweight Champion for the third and final time. However, after the event, Vincent J. McMahon and Toots Mondt of the Capital Wrestling Corporation (CWC) refused to recognize the title change since Thesz

7420-492: The end of the year, he and Dino Devine lost to Van Hammer & The Cowboy, a local WZBH disc jockey, in Laurel on December 16, 2001. On January 30, 2002, he appeared with Total Quality Management in their final match together in front of an estimated 1,200 fans at an MCW Rage TV taping in Glen Burnie. He had been scheduled to take part in a 6-man tag team match with Dino Divine and Kelly Bell against Jimmy Cicero and The Badstreet Boys (Joey Matthews & Christian York) but

7526-670: The event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 18, 2020, Dave Lagana resigned as Vice President of the NWA after allegations of sexual assault were made public. The promotion would go into hiatus as a result of this and the pandemic. During this time, several wrestlers would also leave the NWA, including former Tag Team Champions James Storm , Eli Drake , Marti Belle , and Royce Isaacs , former Women's Champion Allysin Kay , former Television Champion Ricky Starks , former Television Champion Zicky Dice . NWA World Women's Champion Thunder Rosa would make appearances for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) while under contract with

7632-529: The event was streamed live on FITE TV . The main event saw Aldis defeat Cody to recapture the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and Willie Mack winning a tournament for the vacant NWA National Championship , which became the main secondary title. The Fourth Crockett Cup , an eight-team, single-elimination tournament that was revived to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions , took place on April 27, 2019, as another collaboration between

7738-479: The first alumni to return to the promotion. On February 26, 2006, The Slackers briefly won the MCW Tag Team titles in a 4 Way Dance with The Holy Rollers and Jason Static & Judas Young at MCW's "Resurrection" in Dundalk, Maryland. Later that night, however, they lost the titles to The James Gang ( BG James & Kip James ) in a 3 Way Dance with The Holy Rollers when referee Earl Hebner turned heel and made

7844-567: The first episodes of ECW Hardcore TV during the next few weeks. On November 14, 1993, Austin was the sole survivor of a six-man elimination tag team match with Watsumi the Rising Sun and Joe College against the American Ninja, Johnny Paradise and The Comet at Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland . Slivenski was part of two other memorable Hardcore TV moments that year. On December 13, he

7950-462: The first ever NWA World Heavyweight Champion . In 1950, Sam Muchnick , one of the original promoters of the NWA and Lou Thesz 's booker, was named the governing body's President, a position to which he was unanimously re-elected and held until 1960, making him one of the longest-tenured presidents in the organization's history. Following the advent of television , professional wrestling matches began to be aired nationally during this time, reaching

8056-589: The former NWA:TNA, to hold an Empty Arena match at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida. It was contested by Tim Storm and Jocephus and served as a qualifier to challenge then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. The match was recorded on January 14, 2018, and uploaded to YouTube the next day. Starting in 2018, NWA allied with Ring of Honor (ROH). NWA wrestlers such as Aldis, James Storm , and Eli Drake appeared at several ROH events, with ROH-contracted talent even winning NWA titles. On September 1, 2018,

8162-574: The match after Pierce hit him with a light tube . A few months later, The Slackers teamed with Tito Santana in a 6-man tag team match to defeat Buck and Phat Blues Security at MCW's "Tribute To The Legends" show in Dundalk on September 10, and beat Buck Chyld & Doyle Day at "Monster Mash" on October 29. On November 11, they lost to Bruiser & Genesis in a 4 Way Dance against the Rehoboth Beach Crew and Phat Blues Security at North Carroll High School in Hampstead, Maryland . At MCW's Holiday Homecoming, Slivenski and Devine lost to The Ghetto Mafia in

8268-554: The match, The Sandman came to his rescue. This match aired on Hardcore TV three days later. Slivenski continued to be a regular at the ECW Arena during the next year. On February 5, 1994, he lost to 911 in the opening match of ECW's The Night the Line Was Crossed . In the first half of 1994, he also faced The Public Enemy ( Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge ), Johnny Hotbody , The Sandman, Hack Meyers and Shane Douglas . On April 9, he challenged Ricky Blues at

8374-399: The match, Blues was approached by manager Platinum Nat who offered his services to "guide [Blues] to the next level". Blues accepted and was welcomed into the manager's "heel" stable , The Congregation, with The Holy Rollers ( Earl the Pearl & Rich Myers). However, Blues did not remain with The Congregation for very long as he soon went into retirement by the end of the year After nearly

8480-572: The match, he introduced the 6'8" 330-pound Dorian DeVille as his new manager and had helped Slivenski win the title with outside interference. He was stripped of the belt the next month after failing to make a scheduled title defense in Newville on March 6. Three weeks later, he showed up at an MEWF show at the Northpoint Flea Market in Dundalk, Maryland. Slivenski returned to the NWL to participate in

8586-565: The mid 1980s through the heyday of the early 2000s. It is maintained as part of the Facebook and Youtube communities. Blues and his wife live in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania with their three children. National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA ) is an American professional wrestling promotion and governing body owned by Billy Corgan and operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948,

8692-551: The mid-1990s, and made occasional appearances as a preliminary wrestler in World Wrestling Entertainment . Slivenski also wrestles under the name "Stone Cold" Chad Austin , an in-ring persona he originally used in Extreme Championship Wrestling , and continued in other Philadelphia -based "hardcore" wrestling promotions such as Combat Zone Wrestling and IWA Mid-South . While in ECW, Austin

8798-486: The next few months. On August 16, Slivenski made a one-time appearance for Beautiful Babes of Wrestling to wrestle Alexis Laree in an intergender match in Martinsburg, West Virginia . In early 2003, The Slackers became involved in a feud with The Bruiser when, on January 29, they interfered in his match against Danny Doring costing him the MCW Heavyweight Championship . Slivenski managed to beat him in

8904-728: The next three months. Although they lost to them in a lumberjack match at Guerrilla Warfare on April 22, they defeated them in an Evening Gown match at Xtreme Measures a month later. The feud ended at Red, White, Black & Bruised when they defeated The Holy Rollers at the Fort Meade Army Base on July 22. As a result of their victory, The Holy Rollers were forced to break up and Earl The Pearl had to leave MCW. One week later, Slivenski appeared as Chad Austin at Combat Zone Wrestling 's Tournament Of Death V in Smyrna, Delaware where he wrestled Kylie Pierce in an intergender match. Slivenski lost

9010-456: The promotion's tag team titles. They dropped the titles to The Super Jocks (Ed Atlas & Chris Weider) in Clementon on June 4, 1993. Over the next few years, Blues would have memorable bouts against some of the region's top stars including "Stone Cold" Chad Austin , Corporal Punishment , Georgia Lightning Jimmy Jannetty and Steve Corino . In the early 1990s he had career defining matches with

9116-558: The referee what had taken place and the decision was again reversed giving Creed the win via disqualification but not the belt. He finally lost the title to Creed a month later in Odenton . On December 6, 2000, he and Chip Bowman took on Qenaan Creed and Kelly Bell in Glen Burnie. During the next year, Slivenski cut down on his ring schedule to recuperate from an injury. On July 28, 2001, Slivenski lost to Julio Dinero in Bel Air, Maryland . At

9222-646: The ring under Royal Rumble -style rules. The event was later included as part of ECW Extreme Warfare, Vol. 1 . On January 7, 1995, Slivenski lost to JT Smith at the ECW Arena and to The Tazmaniac at the Big Apple Dinner Theater in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on February 24. The following night at ECW's Return of the Funker , he and Joel Hartgood lost to The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 and Pitbull #2 ) in front of 1,150 fans. At Hardcore Heaven 1995 ,

9328-573: The success of WrestleMania III in 1987, the WWF would schedule another pay-per-view, Survivor Series , on Thanksgiving night to compete directly with NWA's Starrcade event, and demanded exclusivity from cable providers on carriage of the event. As a result, Starrcade was moved to December the following year, with the show now held around Christmas Day beginning in 1988. The WWF then scheduled their first Royal Rumble event in January 1988 to counterprogram against

9434-541: The summer. On November 22, he and Hack Meyers lost to Stevie Richards and JT Smith in a tag team match and, the following week, wrestled Shane Douglas for the ECW Heavyweight Championship . On December 24, 1994, Slivenski participated in a battle royal at the ECW Arena. He was the event's first entrant and, upon entering the ring, announced he was quitting ECW and had bought a house in Atlanta claiming he

9540-685: The then vacant MEWF Tag Team Championship , however, they won the titles a month later in Gaithersburg . They had faced Rich Carlisle and Ricki Lane who substituted for an injured Adrian Hall. After a near 4-month reign, they lost the titles to The Outrageous Ones (Ricki Lane and Quinn Nash) in Dundalk on March 6, 1993. Two months later in Larry Sharpe 's World Wrestling Association, they defeated Chris Evans & Chris Candido in Williamstown, New Jersey for

9646-500: The title to Corporal Punishment on November 12, and after it was declared vacant the next month, lost to Devon Storm in a match to determine the new champion. On April 1, 1996, Slivenski was involved in a real-life " shoot " with New Jack when he took part in a tag team "double tables" match with The Blue Meanie against The Gangstas at an April Fool's Day television taping for ECW Hardcore TV. Slivenski had replaced Meanie's original partner, Stevie Richards, who had suffered

9752-519: The trail of the Mid Atlantic hotbed. In 2013 Ricky Blues founded the organization called PIN, or Pioneers of the Independent Networks. It is a video-webisode series published weekly that is the living embodiment of the novel, To Kill The Town, and is specifically dedicated to archiving and reliving the magic of the promotions, wrestlers and stories of the mid-Atlantic Indies from their birth in

9858-456: The way for the decline of the NWA's inter-regional business model, as viewers could now see plot holes and inconsistencies between each territories' storylines. The presence of stars like Ric Flair on TV every week made their special appearances in each region less of a draw. The WWF left the NWA for good in 1983, as Vincent K. McMahon , who bought the WWF from his father in 1982, worked to get WWF programming on syndicated television all across

9964-509: Was announced that Powerrr would return to YouTube, airing on Fridays after the FITE premiere, and that NWA USA would air on Saturdays on the platform before moving to Sundays on FITE. Finally, it was announced that the NWA would expand their PPV schedule to six events per year, as part of a new deal with FITE TV. Though the partnership ended in 2023, with NWA's programming returning to YouTube, FITE still carries NWA PPV events. On October 9, 2023,

10070-546: Was announced that the NWA will partner with the United Wrestling Network (UWN) to produce a live, weekly pay-per-view (PPV) series named UWN Primetime Live . Matches from this series would also be featured as part of Shockwave . NWA USA is a weekly program that debuted on January 8, 2022, on YouTube and focuses on the NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship division. The last episode

10176-557: Was appointed senior NWA consultant. On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Billy Corgan , lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins , had agreed to purchase the NWA, including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. The report was confirmed by Tharpe that same day. Over the following weeks, the NWA trademarks were moved from Tharpe's International Wrestling Corp. over to Corgan's Lightning One, Inc. production company. According to multiple sources, as part of his acquisition of

10282-622: Was inducted into the Maryland Wrestling Hall of Fame . Trained at the Baltimore Monster Factory beginning in February 1990 by Barry Hardy , Duane Gill , Axl Rotten , Rip Sawyer and Dave Casanova , Ricky Blues made his professional debut on August 3, 1990 in promoter Jim Kettner's Delaware based East Coast Wrestling Association as part of the tag team The Chicago Hitmen with Steve Valentino. He spent his first year in various East Coast and Mid-Atlantic independent promotions . In 1991

10388-630: Was not a strong draw in their Northeastern territory. They then withdrew the CWC from the NWA. As a result, McMahon and Mondt formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, later to be known as WWE ) with Rogers as its first world champion in April 1963. Although both Gagne and McMahon promoted their own world champions, their promotions continued to have representatives on the NWA Board of Directors and regularly exchanged talent with NWA promotions during this time. Wrestling's popularity continued to decline in

10494-575: Was noticeably distracted by fans and, in his April 15 match against Matthews, he left the ring in mid-match to argue with hecklers at ringside. Blues took on MCW Heavyweight Champion The Bruiser two months later at a special MCW show near Ocean City, Maryland on June 10, 2000. Though Blues and The Bruiser headlined the show, WWF legends George "the Animal" Steele , Mae Young and The Fabulous Moolah made an appearance as did Xtreme Pro Wrestling valet Chastity. On July 19, Blues wrestled Balls Mahoney at

10600-596: Was one of several wrestlers nominated by fans in an online vote to challenge Hilton for the title at the upcoming "Kickoff Chaos" supercard on September 9. The other nominees included his tag team partner Dino Divine, Stevie Riggs and LK of the Rehoboth Beach Crew, Buck Chyld, Ramblin Rich and Patrick Brink. On December 8, he wrestled at a Maximum Championship Wrestling supercard, "The Road to Full Access 4", in Blue Ridge Summit and lost to MCW Heavyweight Champion Matt Turner in

10706-532: Was released May 8, 2023. Singles Tag Team Chad Austin Chad Slivenski (born September 15, 1972) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler , known by his ringname Chad Bowman , who competed in East Coast and Mid-Atlantic independent promotions during the 1990s and 2000s. Early in his career, Slivenski spent time in regional promotions such as the United States Wrestling Association and Smoky Mountain Wrestling before their close in

10812-544: Was replaced by ex-member Cueball Carmichael. Slivenski's team lost when Carmichael was pinned and, according to the pre-match stipulations, TQM was forced to disband. Soon after the TQM's breakup, Slivenski formed a tag team with former stablemate Dino Divine called The Slackers. On February 16, they defeated Van Hammer & The Cowboy in a rematch on MCW Rage TV in Harrington, Delaware but lost to Gillberg & Steve Wilkos of

10918-573: Was scheduled to face Mr. Hughes but the lights unexpectedly went out, and when they came back on again, the entire ECW locker room was engaged in a brawl in the ring. A week later, Slivenski was brought out by Terry Funk as a mock Sabu impersonator and attacked by Funk. When Sabu's then manager Paul E. Dangerously confronted Funk, he was chased off. In front of a sold-out crowd at the ECW Arena, Slivenski scored an upset victory over Pitbull #1 in his ECW debut at Holiday Hell 1993 on December 26, 1993. When his opponent continued attacking him after

11024-491: Was soon heading to World Championship Wrestling adding that "ECW was small time". Upon hearing this, everyone in the battle royal immediately entered the ring to go after Slivenski and threw him out. Led by Shane Douglas, the wrestlers forced him to say "ECW is number one!" in the house microphone. This resulted in Tod Gordon coming out and ordering everyone to the back, with the exception of Axl Rotten and Pitbull #2, and reenter

11130-460: Was subject to a real-life " shoot " when New Jack allegedly broke his leg with a steel chair. In later shoot interviews , New Jack has credited Austin for inadvertently inspiring his 187 finishing move, a top rope dive onto an opponent with a steel chair, which he had first used to injure him. A mainstay of the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation (MEWF) and Maryland Championship Wrestling (MCW), he and kayfabe brother Chip Bowman were members of

11236-731: Was the first MEWF Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion . He defeated Rich Myers in 1992 in Parkville, Maryland to win the UIW Light Heavyweight championship, and at one time held three light heavyweight/cruiser championship's for three separate promotions simultaneously. In 1995 he defeated Mark Shrader for his second reign as the MEWF Light Heavyweight Champion. He was also a 3-time MEWF Tag Team Champion with Nick Tarentino, Flexx Wheeler (1997) and The New Patriot (1999). He and Nick Tarentino, as Sonic Express, were

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