Just recently I was reading about the upcoming match between NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett and his challenger, Diamond Dallas Page. Being totally aware that most of the information found on websites are rumors, I still found a bit of information that disturbed me. In this article, I found one of the main reasons that wrestling title belts don't mean as much as they used to. Back in the Kayfabe era, the titles meant more because we let ourselves believe it. There was no Internet for spreading rumors. Insiders didn't leak out information or spoilers. Promoters would do everything they could to sell their product as the real thing. Even though many of us knew it was fixed, we were allowed to not let that influence our view of pro wrestling. Therefore, whenever a wrestler won or defended a title, it meant something. It meant something because we let ourselves think that the belt was actually decided in a wrestling match.

So, when I was scanning this article about TNA, I came across the alarming news that Dusty Rhodes (head booker of TNA) wants Diamond Dallas Page to win the NWA World Title. I wasn't too worried about that at first because I was under the impression that Jerry Jarrett was the one who made these decisions. Unfortunately, it seems like the choice is left to Rhodes, though.

Why does this bother me" Well, for the major reason, TNA is a credible alternative to the WWE. While I watch and enjoy WWE, I felt TNA was a better product because of the NWA affiliation. Regardless of what some people think, the NWA World Title is an extremely coveted belt. It always has been. The last thing pro-wrestling needs right now is for this belt to lose any of its prestige.

In the old days, there were three major promotions: WWWF, NWA and the AWA. WWWF and AWA were more territorial, while the NWA was a combination of many smaller promotions. In fact, the WWF was once a member of the NWA. The NWA World Title could change hands to any wrestler in the smaller promotions, and whomever was the World Champ would be required to wrestle throughout the smaller promotions.

Ric Flair, in his best selling book, stated why the NWA title meant more to him as a wrestler than the AWA or WWWF belts. The AWA and WWWF title changes were always decided by the promoter. One person made the choice. In the WWWF, it was Vince McMahon SR. And in AWA it was Verne Gagne. Therefore, the title changes were basically the opinion of one person and favorites could be played. This in fact happened many times when wrestlers were given titles not because they deserved them, but because the promoters liked them better.

The NWA title was decided by a council of six members. There would be members from different promotions on the board, and the promoters would have to argue their case as to why their wrestler deserves the belt. This was a double edged sword, however. Having the NWA Champion in your organization could increase ratings and house show gates. However, the champ would have to work more and wrestle a lot of his time in other promotions within the NWA.

These things created some problems with the title. Whenever the NWA Champion visited another area, the local promoter were happy to have the champ there, but were unhappy that their wrestlers would have to lose. Therefore, the belt was coveted even more because a wrestler who held it could go into any other NWA promotion and beat any wrestler they were put up against. If a promoter had the belt, it signified that there promotion was the dominant one in the National Wrestling Alliance.

In the 70's, it was Harley Race. Race was a fighting champion. More than that, he was a wrestler. Jim Crockett always made an argument for Ric Flair in the 80's. And Flair, to his credit, worked hard as a champion. He defended the belt sometimes more than there were days in the year. It was because of champions like these, that the NWA Title remained the most coveted belt.

I recently was told by someone that it didn't matter how long a wrestler held a belt. Since it is predetermined when they will win and lose, it's meaningless. I have to totally disagree. In the Kayfabe era, the wrestler was the top draw in their respective promotions. It was up to that wrestler to work hardest and sometimes even carry their promotions. Every day is another chance to prove you deserve it, or prove you should lose it.

Promotions nowadays say that wrestlers have heavier schedules, and that is why the belts change hands much more frequently than before. Truthfully though, wrestlers today do not wrestle anywhere near as many matches as their predecessors. So we have more frequent title changes and much less matches nowadays. This has tarnished the value of the championships.

The only belt which had avoided this was the NWA World Title. While WWE had wrestlers like Yokozuna and Diesel, the NWA had Chris Candido and Dan Severn. While WCW had their title in the hands of Booker T and David Arquette, with 18 title reigns in 2000 and NWA had three.

Now, it seems, that if Dusty Rhodes is given the option of deciding who the NWA Champion is, it's a shot to the belt. Dusty is the TNA booker, and shouldn't have say as to who the NWA championship is. The belt has been safe in the hands of Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles. For some of us old timers, this title still has a lot of meaning. The NWA council should be the one who decides the champ, not Dusty. Rhodes always did whatever he could to influence the NWA council that he was their rightful champion. If he is given too much control, then we may be seeing Dustin Rhodes as World Champion soon and see our last great belt lose all meaning.

by Jacob Kuhn ..