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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 22, 2020 6:36:37 GMT -5
I was reading an old AMA anything with R. Bruce Tharpe because apparently there are too many hours in the day.
He mentions wanting to build upon their relationship with NJPW. This was in 2015 and I fully remember at the time how weird it was. NJPW was on fire and NWA was in the toilet in the states. NWA affiliates woulda even shows with like a few dozen people then a few of their wrestlers would go over to Japan and wrestle in front of thousands. Heck Tharpe himself even popped up on the NJPW YouTube channel.
I know after that relationship crumbled the NWA partnered with Diamond Star Wrestling in Japan which next to no one has heard of.
So what was the breaking point? Did one of the ROH guys just tell the Gedo that NWA doesn’t mean shit in the US anymore unless it’s the rap group?
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Crappler El 0 M
Dalek
Never Forgets an Octagon
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Posts: 58,479
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Post by Crappler El 0 M on Oct 22, 2020 8:01:18 GMT -5
The partnership never officially ended before Billy Corgan bought the assets, which is what really ended it. NJPW was still listing Tharpe's NWA as a partner until that point, even if they were not doing much with them for the past several months before the sale of NWA to Corgan.
The last trace of the NWA/NJPW relationship is Chase Owens who got a fairly regular gig with NJPW out of it.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 22, 2020 8:33:31 GMT -5
The partnership never officially ended before Billy Corgan bought the assets, which is what really ended it. NJPW was still listing Tharpe's NWA as a partner until that point, even if they were not doing much with them for the past several months before the sale of NWA to Corgan. The last trace of the NWA/NJPW relationship is Chase Owens who got a fairly regular gig with NJPW out of it. Corgan didn’t buy the NWA until 2017, but it seemed like NJPW had done literally nothing with them for months maybe even a full year or more before this. Unless Chase Owens was still technically representing them. As far as I know Owens has been signed to NJPW proper for years now though. Also, good on him for getting signed out of it. He always stuck out among the NWA talent of that time. |
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Crappler El 0 M
Dalek
Never Forgets an Octagon
I'm a good R-Truth.
Posts: 58,479
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Post by Crappler El 0 M on Oct 22, 2020 8:57:51 GMT -5
They worked with each other as late as spring 2016. I am saying I don't think was ever an official ending of the relationship before the sell to Billy Corgan. But the sale the next year did effectively end it.
You could see it like with ROH. There were times where they went long stretches without doing anything and people wondered how much longer it would last. The ROH and NJPW of USA shows post-pandemic show they have renewed the relationship.
It is also kind of similar to NJPW working with Global Force. They really only worked with each other for a couple of months. They planned of keeping a relationship for the future, but they never ended up doing anything with each other before Jarrett was working with Impact again. It is not like they decided immediately after Wrestle Kingdom that they were done working with each other, even though they never did.
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Post by timelimitdraw on Oct 22, 2020 12:42:34 GMT -5
New Japan had maintained some ties to the NWA all the way through Tharpe's group taking over. Supposedly, the reason Zero-One partnered up with Dale Gagner's AWA was because Inoki had let Hashimoto use their NWA membership, but decided to take it back for New Japan. After the NWA went from members to licensees in 2012, Tharpe tried to keep the ties going since the NWA meant more outside the States than it did under his leadership.
Corgan buying the NWA and not even having licensees was the end of it, although that relationship had long since outlived its usefulness. Like a lesser version of WCW reviving their relationship with the NWA in 1992-1993 before realizing there was no need for it.
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