NWA United States Tag Team Championship

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The NWA United States Tag Team Championship is a name used for several secondary

championship used by various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) members since 1958. There are eleven different versions of the NWA United States Tag Team Championships have been promoted in various regions across the United States, starting with the Midwest Wrestling Association version in 1950, to the NWA Lightning One version
that is active today.

The NWA's bylaws allowed any NWA member, also known as

illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport.[1]

Championship history

The

NWA World Heavyweight Championship and one NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship across all promotions. Beyond those two championships the Board allowed each promotion to create and promote whatever championship they wanted to. In 1949 the first of many NWA World Tag Team Championships was created in the Los Angeles territory.[3][4] In the 1950s tag team wrestling became more popular across the US, which lead to the introduction of various "second tier" championships promoted locally as the "American Tag Team Championship" or the "National Tag Team Championship". In 1950 the Midwest Wrestling Association, the NWA member promoting in and around Ohio, introducing Jack Kennedy and Lucky Simunovich as the American Tag Team Championship, only to later bill the same championship as both the National Tag Team Championship and the United States Tag Team Championship between 1950 and 1963 where the promotion closed.[5][6]

In 1958,

The Fabulous Kangaroos (Al Costello and Roy Heffernan) were the first Florida based U.S. tag team champions as they were awarded the championship prior to their debut in the territory.[9][10] The Florida version of the championship was the longest promoted U.S. championship as it was actively promoted from 1961 until 1986 where the CWF promotion closed.[9][10]

In 1962 two additional versions of the championship were introduced, the NWA Mid-America version and the NWA Tri-State version.[11][12][13] The Mid-America version was created by promoter Nick Gulas and defended in the Tennessee/Alabama promotion NWA Mid-America, starting with the Japanese duo of Yoshinosato and Taru Sakuro being billed as champions when they arrived in NWA Mid-America. There were at least 34 different reigns in the history of the championship, ending with The Bicentennial Kings (Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condrey) as champions in 1976 where the championship was abandoned.[11][12] The Tri-Star version was created by promoters Leroy McGuirk, Jack Curtis and Aurelian Smith and promoted in the NWA Tri-State territory that covered Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.[13] Jan Madrid and Louie Tillet are credited with being the first champions, but records are unclear on how they became champions. In 1980 the championship was renamed the "NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship" and then abandoned in 1981 when McGuirk sold his promotion to Bill Watts, becoming Mid-South Wrestling.[13]

The Dirty Daltons (Jack Dalton and Jim Dalton) were the first

Karl Von Brauner (known as "The Internationals") won a tournament to become the first Texas based U.S. Tag Team Champions.[16][17] In 1967 the championship was renamed the NWA American Tag Team Championship instead and would later become the World Class Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Championship.[16][17]

In 1986 the Charlotte, North Carolina based

Dutch Mantell and Bobby Jaggers) to become the inaugural champions.[18][19] Later JCP would be sold to Ted Turner and become known as World Championship Wrestling, which led to the championship being given the WCW prefix.[18][19]

By the late 1980s the NWA was no longer the powerful organization it had been between 1948 and the mid-1980s, becoming a conglomerate of smaller promotions. In 1996 NWA Jersey introduced their

NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling. The first champions were The Lords of KAOS (Damien Wayne and Lance Erickson) who won the championship by defeating Jason Kinkaid and Charles Alexander in the finals of a tournament.[22]

On July 19, 2022, Billy Corgan announced that the NWA is reviving the United States Tag Team Championship after nearly five years of inactivity. The Fixers won a twelve-team battle royal to become the new champions on August 28, 2022. The first set of NWA United States Tag Team Championship belts were similar to the old belts from Championship Wrestling from Florida but in October 2022 Corgan introduced a new design which is similar to the Detroit version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship.

List of NWA United States Tag Team Championships

Created Ended Promotion Fate Ref
1950 1963 Midwest Wrestling Association Retired when the promotion folded [5][6]
1958 1967 Capitol Wrestling Corporation Became the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship in 1963, vacancy left unfilled 1967 [7][8]
1961 1986 Championship Wrestling from Florida Retired when the promotion folded [9][10]
1962 1976 NWA Mid-America Retired when the promotion folded [11][12]
1962 1980 NWA Tri-State Renamed NWA Tri-State Tag Team Championship [13][23]
1965 1974 Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling Merged with the Tri-State version [14][15]
1966 1967
Big Time Wrestling
 Renamed NWA American Tag Team Championship [16][17]
1986 1992
Jim Crockett Promotions
 Became the
WCW United States Tag Team Championship in 1991, decommisioned by WCW vice president Bill Watts
July 1992		 [18][19]
1996 2000 NWA Jersey Abandoned [20][21]
2014 2017 NWA Smokey Mountain Wrestling renamed the Innovate Wrestling United States Tag Team Championship [22]
2022 National Wrestling Alliance Revived under the Lightning One version with The Fixers (Jay Bradley and Wrecking Ball Legursky) becoming the new champions [24]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 1-57806-021-4
    . Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  2. ISBN 1-55022-741-6
    .
  3. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  4. ^ "National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Title [Los Angeles - 1950s". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  5. ^ a b "American Tag Team Title [Ohio]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  7. ^ a b c "United States Tag Team Title [Capitol / WWWF]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  9. ^ a b c "United States Tag Team Title [Florida]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  11. ^ a b c "NWA United States Tag Team Title [Mid-America]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  12. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  13. ^ a b c d e "NWA United States Tag Team Title [Mid-South/Tri-State]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  14. ^ a b c "NWA United States Tag Team Title [Gulf Coast]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  15. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  16. ^ a b c "NWA United States Tag Team Title (1966 - 1968/05) American Tag Team Title (1968/05 - 1986/02)". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  17. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  18. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  19. ^ a b c "United States Tag Team Title". wrestling-titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  20. ^ a b c "NWA United States Tag Team Title [New Jersey]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  21. ^
    ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  22. ^ a b "NWA United States Tag Team Title Post-2012 Version". Wrestling-Titles. September 9, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  23. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4
    .
  24. ^ "NWA Announces the Revival of NWA United States Tag Titles for NWA 74". E Wrestling News. July 19, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
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