Let's just say that Billy Corgan did buy the NWA...

[Stez]

How would you go about getting that brand off the ground?

I think the idea of booking shows every week/month or getting a TV deal and such is a slow burn and maybe a different approach is needed?

Personally, I'd try sign up a couple of guys, do a deal with say an AJPW in Japan, and book a couple of 16 or 32 man tournaments for a Heavyweight and a Lightweight title on paper. Instead of booking a show though, I'd have those matches played out on various indy shows and just put together UFC Embedded or Mayweather 24/7 type videos for Youtube to put over the talent and the tournament and the wrestlers as real life people with goals of becoming the NWA champ. Maybe even get these guys in some gyms somewhere working out and training for their matches, talking about how they're training for the ultimate tournament because they want to hold the same title once held by Flair, Steamboat, Rhodes, Rogers, Thesz.

Send Terry Funk or someone of that ilk round the indies to stand there with the strap at the beginning of each contest in the tournament and announce them as NWA sanctioned tournament matches and parade the straps out there to make the indies around the country to take notice but also gives some shine to the promoters out there too, so they're not crying about giving free publicity.

Finish off with one show, booked by the NWA itself (in the south somewhere) with two semi-finals and two finals to crown new champs. I'd treat the ring work as seriously as possible. Hopefully some buzz has generated by then and some of the guys are over as babyfaces/heels instead of just throwing guys through the curtain to zero noise.

Is it all worth it or is this brand deader than Jarrett's GFW? Thoughts?

 

[MenacingMonk]

NWA been for decades.

It's last sign of life support was when TNA used it.

 

[Vinny Lupton]

It's hopeless and there's no point in thinking about it
Without TV, you can't do shyt
Without stars your TV would be wack anyway
That's national network TV btw not some local channels

 

[hayesc0]

Oh so you want him to buy black men?

 

[Hey_zeus]

They need a credible champion to tour the Indies and Japan to build the brand back up. A real main event and credible talent that represents traditional wrestling. The closest they've been to that since the early 90s was in 2010 or when ever that tourney for the NWA belt was being held and was supposed to win it before he went back to WWE.

I like that idea of setting up deals with other promotions to feature matches to build up the brand globally. Especially a Japanese company because the NWA name still holds some weight there. Hell NJPW might still be an affiliate or was not too long ago. The issue is going to be cultivating and retaining talent. What's the target and geographic market? Somebody has to chase the southern rasslin fan. I refuse to believe they all went to UFC or stopped watching.

Edit: Tv is a problem as well like others have stated. Now that YouTube is on fukk boy shyt that's a wrap. What are the alternatives? Go right to Hulu? Need some type of PBC wrestling equivalent deal. Get rasslin back on the broadcast networks. Idk how tho when most networks see it as low brow but chase reality tv

 

[Stez]

They need a credible champion to tour the Indies and Japan to build the brand back up. A real main event and credible talent that represents traditional wrestling.

I like that idea of setting up deals with other promotions to feature matches to build up the brand globally.

Two good points. Credible guys are a tough thing to find right now but if you have a tournament of 16-32 guys, I think you could bring out a few gems through an Embedded style show over time. At least that way you get a more of a reality approach to them and their character than say a TNA debut where they toss guys out with a new gimmick name and they fall dead on arrival.

My thoughts were to try treat it more like a sport like it was in the old days. If you had 3 weight classes (Heavyweight, Middleweight, Lightweight), who would fit into those categories who are out of contract or could get locked into an NWA affiliate type deal? Here's a rough cut of what I'm talking about.

HW: Davey Boy Smith Jr, Josh Barnett, Timothy Thatcher, Keith Lee, Big Van Walter, Bully Ray, Cody Hall, Jack Swagger

MW: Cody Rhodes, Kento Miyahara, Davey Richards, Joe Coffey, Joe Hendry, Mike Bennett, David Starr, Maximo Sexy

LW: Darby Allin, Taiji Ishimori, Joey Janela

I'm not completely up to date with contracts for WWN, ROH, TNA but I reckon some of these are now free and/or have short deals that allow them to work indies so should be the sort of guys being sought out.

The thing is, folk can diss the NWA brand now and say it's dead in the water but this deal between Tharpe and Corgan seems to be going ahead, so I was just fantasy booking some shyt in my head on how they bring it back to interest. Another promotion is always a good look for pro wrestling in my book.