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It's just a matter of time, but Total Nonstop Action Wrestling will soon no longer hold the rights to the National Wrestling Alliance championship and Tag Team championship name and belts.
The NWA and TNA have been at odds over financial compensation in regard to the championships for several months. The most notable issue is said to have been been whether TNA would need to financially compensate local NWA promoters who hold territory rights when TNA live events featuring NWA championship defenses are held within their territory. Obviously, as TNA plans to run more and more live events, that would become a grander issue between the two sides. There may have been additional factors as well, but sources from both sides have confirmed the situation mainly revolved around financial issues.
TNA originally licensed the championships and usage of the NWA name when the promotion launched in June 2002 as a weekly PPV series. At the time, the company, then owned by Jerry Jarrett, used the name NWA:TNA, although in recent years they have backed off on the usage of the National Wrestling Alliance name, pushing the TNA Wrestling brand foremost.
At the time of their launch, the NWA name helped lend credibility to the fledgling company, although with TNA now holding a weekly primetime TV slot on SpikeTV, the importance of the NWA name has greatly diminished.
Attorney Steven Campbell, representing TNA and NWA lead counsel Robert Trobich have been in discussions in recent weeks about how to handle the situation and may have already come to terms on an agreement on how to handle the championship switches. Jeff Jarrett was involved with discussions at one point before Campbell and Trobich took the reigns of the negotiations. The NWA side felt at one point that Jarrett was dragging his feet in rectifying the situation, paving the way for Trobich and Campbell to work out agreements.
It is believed that TNA will continue to recognize their current champions as "TNA" champions and appear with new belts, while something will be done (a stripping or a title change that is not acknowledged on TNA's weekly television) to move the lineage of the NWA title forward towards its next champion.
The eventual successor to the NWA championship is believed to be former ROH champion "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, who returned to the ring over the weekend for NWA Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling in Vancouver, British Columbia. After the show, Danielson cut a backstage promo that has been heavily featured on the NWA's official website, challenging for a title match. Danielson was in attendance with a number of NWA officials at the PRIDE MMA event in Las Vegas several weeks back and is expected to end up with the championship once all the dust and negotiations settle.
I have no confirmation on how the NWA Tag straps will be handled at this time.
Note: I originally broke this story yesterday morning in an exclusive hotline report in the Elite section of PWInsider.com. Given that the story has been incorrectly repeated elsewhere, including a number of facts attributed to me that were never stated, I felt it only fair that the correct story be posted here.
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