In the 1930s and 1940s, there were several small wrestling (henceforth “wrestling” will always refer to professional wrestling) promotions all over the United States, competing with each other to get the best talent and win over the fans in different cities. Several promoters came together in 1948 to form a loose confederation called National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA was made up of numerous different regional promotions known as “territories”, each operating separately in its own area, but recognizing a single common world champion.
Orville Brown was recognized as the first NWA World Heavyweight Champion, but when he suffered a career-ending car accident in 1949, the title was awarded to Lou Thesz. The NWA chose Lou Thesz to unify the titles of various promotions over the following years, and he became the new undisputed World Heavyweight Champion in 1952. Thesz is now regarded as one of the greatest and most influential wrestlers of all time, and he was NWA World Heavyweight Champion for longer than anyone else in history, with a total of over ten years across three reigns as champion.
Lou Thesz in 1953, he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential wrestlers of all time.
Around the same time, the advent of television helped popularize wrestling across the United States. The first televised wrestling show was taped in 1942, and in the 1950s matches were broadcast both on a local and national level, sparking a new golden age for the industry. The dramatized events of wrestling shows and their colorful characters fit perfectly with the new medium, and this led to development of “gimmicks”.
In wrestling, gimmicks are artificially created in-ring characters. Good guys and heroes are known as “babyfaces” (or just “faces”), while bad guys and villains are called “heels”. Wrestlers with gimmicks that include elements of both good and bad guys are known as “tweeners”. In the 1940s and 1950s, Gorgeous George became one of the biggest stars in wrestling, thanks to his outrageous, flamboyant, and narcissistic heel character. His over-the-top style of self promotion inspired many other gimmicks, and he was one of the first wrestlers to use an entrance music. He arrived to the ring wearing an elegant robe, with a red carpet, and accompanied by a valet. During the match he tried to cheat in every possible way, effectively creating the sterotypical cowardly heel that has since been a common character in wrestling.
Gorgeous George in 1954, he became one of the biggest stars in wrestling, thanks to his narcissistic heel character.
By the late 1950s, entertainment had become dominant over competition, and this hurt the industry to the point that the popularity of wrestling decreased significantly, and broadcasters started removing wrestling shows from their lineup. During this time, the NWA was the dominant wrestling body, but some promoters decided to leave it, accusing it of blocking competition and creating a monopoly. The American Wrestling Association (AWA), based in Minnesota and led by wrestler and promoter Verne Gagne, left the NWA in 1960 and became one of the most popular promotions over the following years.
The other main territory at the time was Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) in New York. CWC had its roots in the Gold Dust Trio, as Toots Mondt took over the wrestling scene in New York City, aided by boxing promoter Jess McMahon. In 1953, McMahon (or, according to some sources, his son Vincent J. McMahon) founded CWC and joined the NWA. Over the following years, McMahon and Mondt came to dominate the NWA, and controlled the wrestling scene in the northeastern United States. This led to tension between CWC and other promotions that were active in other parts of the country, as different wrestlers were popular in different regions.
CWC wrestler “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers became NWA World Heavyweight Champion in 1961, but he rarely wrestled outside the Northeast, where he was really popular. So, in 1963 the NWA board decided to book Lou Thesz to beat Rogers for the title. On January 24, 1963, Thesz defeated Rogers, but CWC refused to recognize the title change, and immediately left the NWA in protest. CWC was rebranded as a new promotion called World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), now known as WWE.
WWWF named Buddy Rogers as the first ever WWWF World Heavyweight Champion, and presented him in kayfabe as the winner of a fictional tournament in Rio de Janeiro to determine the new champion. This title is now the WWE Championship. Soon afterwards, Rogers suffered a legitimate heart attack, and on May 17, 1963, the champion was defeated in under a minute by Bruno Sammartino, an Italian wrestler. Sammartino kept the title for seven years, eight months, and a day, for a total of 2,803 days, the longest reign of any world champion in men’s wrestling history. During this time, Sammartino was hugely popular, and became a regular headliner at events held in Madison Square Garden, in New York City.
Bruno Sammartino as WWWF World Heavyweight Champion, his first reign as champion lasted over seven years, the longest reign of any world champion in men’s wrestling history.
Sammartino lost the title to heel wrestler Ivan Koloff on January 18, 1971, in front of a shocked audience. However, Koloff lost the title just three weeks later, defeated by babyface Puerto Rican wrestler Pedro Morales. Koloff was thus the prototypical “transitional champion”, and was just used to move the title between the two fan favorites Sammartino and Morales without making them wrestle against each other. Morales lost the title in 1973 to another transitional champion, Stan Stasiak, who was defeated by Sammartino nine days later. Sammartino reigned as champion for another three and a half years, until 1977. With 4,040 total days as champion, Bruno Sammartino is to this day the wrestler that has held the WWE Championship for the longest time.
Sammartino was defeated by “Superstar” Billy Graham, who became the first heel to enjoy a long reign, retaining the title for 296 days before dropping it to babyface Bob Backlund. Another hugely popular performer, Backlund was champion (as recognized by WWF/WWE) for almost six years, between February 1978 and December 1983.
Between the late 1960s and early 1980s, the popularity of wrestling was in decline. Despite this, WWWF held several successful shows in the Northeast, especially in Madison Square Garden and Shea Stadium. WWWF rejoined the NWA in 1971, and two years later they gained a new superstar in André the Giant. For years, André the Giant was the biggest star in all of wrestling, and his huge size made him a special attraction, desired by all promoters across not only the United States, but all over the world.
André the Giant (center) in 1973, with wrestlers Édouard Carpentier (left) and Yvon Robert Jr. (right).
During this time, typical WWWF shows saw the babyface champion facing various heel challengers, with each feud usually ending at a major event with a violent blow-off such as a steel cage match. Besides the world championship, WWWF also had other titles such as the United States Heavyweight Championship, which was retired in 1976, and the World Tag Team Championship, contested between 1971 and 2010.
1979 saw the introduction of the Intercontinental Championship in WWWF. Pat Patterson was the reigning North American Heavyweight Champion, and “won a tournament in Rio de Janeiro” to obtain the South American Heavyweight Championship, creating the new Intercontinental title. Similarly to the story of Buddy Rogers sixteen years earlier, both the tournament and the South American title were entirely fictional. For most of its history, the Intercontinental Championship has been regarded as secondary only to the world championships, and a stepping stone for wrestlers toward superstardom. Also in 1979, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
However, the main wrestling promotion during the 1970s was still the NWA. After beating Buddy Rogers in 1963, Lou Thesz reigned as NWA World Heavyweight Champion until 1966, when he was defeated by Gene Kiniski, who retained the title for three years. Dory Funk Jr. then reigned as champion for four years, until 1973, when he was defeated by rising star Harley Race. The world championship was then held by some of the greatest wrestlers of the time, such as Race, Jack Brisco, Terry Funk (brother of Dory Funk Jr.), and Dusty Rhodes, among others, until the the early 1980s.
Harley Race during his first reign as NWA World Heavyweight Champion in 1973.
Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) became the first territory of the NWA to be broadcast nationally on cable television in the United States in 1979, launching it as the most popular wrestling promotion of the time. In 1982 GCW changed the name of their main program to World Championship Wrestling.
Other popular promotions in the United States around this time, apart from WWF and GCW, were Mid-South Wrestling (MSW), Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF), Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), World Wrestling Council (WWC), and AWA. It also worth mentioning Stampede Wrestling, which was based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and launched the careers of many future WWF wrestlers.
MSW withdrew from the NWA in 1979 while remaining loosely associated with it, and saw Junkyard Dog rise as the first African American wrestler to become the top star of a major promotion. Meanwhile, Dusty Rhodes became one of the most popular babyfaces in the United States while working for CWF. The CWA from Memphis, Tennessee, rose to prominence with its feud between champion Jerry Lawler and comedian Andy Kaufman, which included a segment on Late Night with David Letterman, that broadcast the altercation between the two nationally.
WCCW was based in Dallas, Texas, and enjoyed tremendous success in the early 1980s, centering around the popular Von Erich brothers and their battles against a range of heels such as the trio of The Fabulous Freebirds. AWA saw instead the rise of new popular babyface Hulk Hogan between 1982 and 1983, especially during his feud with Nick Bockwinkel. WWC, based in Puerto Rico, is the only one of these promotions that is still operating today, and during the 1980s it was dominated by local wrestling icon Carlos Colón.
Map of the NWA territories (Kyle Kusch, The Basement Geographer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0).
Meanwhile, wrestling also became really popular in Japan, where it is known as “puroresu”, from the Japanese pronunciation of “pro wrestling”. Its popularity exploded with the advent of television in the 1950s, and Korean-born wrestler Rikidōzan became the biggest wrestling star in Japan and a mainstream celebrity. In 1953, Rikidōzan established the first wrestling promotion in Japan, the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA), and he later gained worldwide popularity after defeating Lou Thesz in 1958 and capturing various titles in the NWA in the United States. However, he was stabbed to death by a member of the yakuza after an altercation in 1963.
The two main wrestling promotions in Japan today, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), were both founded in 1972. AJPW was created when Giant Baba, a pupil of Rikidōzan and one of the most popular Japanese wrestlers of all time, split from the JWA. NJPW was instead founded by Antonio Inoki, also splitting from the JWA. Inoki was another student of Rikidōzan, and went on to become the biggest star in Japanese wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s. He became renowned all over the world, especially after his 1976 fight against professional boxer Muhammad Ali. The match ended in a draw, but it was so influential that it is now regarded as a precursor of modern mixed martial arts (MMA).