It is virtually certain that TNA will drop the NWA name from their World Heavyweight and Tag Team belts soon. The NWA called them on two apparent breaches of contract. TNA was supposed to feature the NWA name and plug NWA house shows. They used to run a crawl with the NWA live event dates during their old weekly Nashville shows but stopped doing it since getting a proper TV deal. Also, now that TNA is doing its own house shows, if they ran any in a territory with an existing NWA member they would have to pay a territorial fee to that member. The dollar amount was insignificant but TNA did not want to pay it regardless. Also, the NWA wanted control of both championships as they are trying to produce their own TV shows, or at least copy the ROH model of promoting shows with top workers and selling the DVDs. Jeff Jarrett has until the TV taping following the Sacrifice PPV in May to decide on how to make the transition. The NWA main office will now be run by Charlotte attorney Bob Trobich, who was the NWA attorney back in the Jim Crockett days. They plan on doing an eight-man tournament for the world title, with first round matches on various small shows and the semi-finals and final on one big show, which would also feature a match to determine the tag champs. Bryan Danielson is widely expected to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion, which the NWA hopes will get Pro Wrestling NOAH to recognise the belt. New Japan did have an NWA membership but it was held by Simon Inoki, who will be out of the promotion by then. They would also want Danielson to defend the belt on ROH shows but Gabe Sapolsky has yet to be consulted so it remains to be seen whether he would want to promote a title he has no control over.
Expect Team 3-D to become tag champions in TNA before May, so they can claim to have been the only team in history to have held the ECW, WWE, WCW, NWA and perhaps in the future the TNA tag team titles.
Bill Goldberg sent a note to Dave Meltzer saying “Something is in the works as we speak for a wrestling PPV including me.” The most likely scenario would be him working with TNA. Goldberg has already met with Dixie Carter but they are far apart on money as Goldberg still sees wrestling as being at a WCW 1999 level rather than TNA in 2007.
Slammiversary is tentatively scheduled to be held in Tennessee, while another PPV this year is to be held in Chicago.
Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)
