Were the AWA and the USWA national or regional promotions?

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Up to the early 1960's, there was the NWA (an alliance of most, but not all, promotions throughout North America), and "independent" promotions dotted here and there around the country. In 1963 Vince McMahon Senior withdrew his territory from the NWA over a dispute about the NWA's choice of World Champion. Vince Senior turned his territory into the WWWF, and named Buddy Rogers his first World Champ. Rogers was the former NWA World Champ but was "dethroned" by the NWA Board of Governors. Vince didn't like it so he created his own wrestling federation with Rogers as World Champ.

A couple of years earlier, Verne Gagne felt that he wasn't getting a "fair shot" at the NWA World Title so he, too, withdrew his territory from the NWA, created the AWA and surprise surprise became the first AWA World Champ.

If we break up North America into regions, Vince McMahon "owned" the New England territory including New York City, Verne Gagne "owned" a large territory based in Minneapolis and included Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana (for the most part; Dick The Bruiser's territory based in Indianapolis was affiliated with Gagne's AWA), and Las Vegas. The rest of North America "belonged" to the NWA.

The USWA was based in Memphis and was size-wise pretty small compared to what Gagne and McMahon "owned". The USWA had ties to Texas via Fritz Von Erich's WCCW. The USWA was more an AWA affiliate than NWA though Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett (owners) worked with any promoter who wanted to establish ties (including Vince McMahon Senior and Junior).

Thus, the AWA was a very large territory and regional promotion; the WWWF was a large territory and regional promotion; the USWA was a small territory and regional promotion. The NWA wasn't a "promotion" itself but an alliance of promotions across North America that, for the most part, cooperated and worked together. The largest NWA promotion was Jim Crockett's territory based in North Carolina and included most of the southern states (but not Florida which belonged to Eddie Graham), including Georgia Championship Wrestling which had a national TV show via Ted Turner's cable network, giving the impression that Crockett's territory was national, but in fact, was not.

There were no national pro wrestling promotions until around 1990 when Vince McMahon Junior succeeded in putting just about everybody else out of business in order to claim the whole country as his own. His only opposition left was Crockett. Crockett merged his territories with a few others, notably Bill Watts' large Mid-South territory (based in Oklahoma City), to become World Championship Wrestling. WCW nearly succeeded in becoming a national promotion but couldn't successfully penetrate the New England territory (Vince's home turf) and had little success in the western states.

The WWF/E is the only national wrestling promotion there has ever been, in North America.

BQ: Yep, in Japan. Equivalent to mid to late 90's WWF and WCW, with Antonio Inoki's New Japan being the larger of the two....Show more

The American Wrestling Association was a National Wrestling Promotion but ran shows primarily in The Midwest and Western Secitoons of The United States. Their Television Shows were seen in Markets that they did not necessarily run shows in.

The United States Wrestling Association started out as a Regional Wrestling Promotion in Tennessee and Kentucky and then they bought World Class Championship Wrestling and expanded and was seen on television in many parts of the country.

All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling are both National Wrestling Promotiions. New Japan Pro Wrestling did a tour of The United States last May and my brother and I went to the Philadelphia Show....Show more

Being on national television makes it a national promotion, right? NJPW has the biggest event of the year in the Tokyo Dome.....therefore it is the #1 promotion, right? All Japan has been around forever....it is a national promotion.

SIDENOTE: I think I shall cry now that CMLL or AAA might close down or merge.....business can't be that bad in Mexico. And it seems that Televisa just won't give either a good time slot on Galavision anymore....come on one hour on Sunday at 6 PM? Hell I remember back in 2002 there was a 4 hour block with both going back to back for 2 hours on BOTH Saturday and Sunday!

Oh and USWA buying World Class was suppose to be a big deal to challenge WWF.....but take a look at what USWA became back in say 1997-1999 ish.....it was done in the tv station with maybe 20 people in the audience....at least AWA had a decent audience for its ESPN tapings....Show more

The USWA was regional (Jerry Jarrett's and Jerry Lawler's CWA merged with the Von Erich's WCCW), while the AWA was national-ish. Verne Gagne managed to secure a time slot for the AWA on ESPN....Show more

They were regional promotions that tried become national to compete with WWF but ultimately both failed.

BQ:In Japan,yes,they are....Show more