If you follow independent wrestling at all, I’m sure you’ve at least heard of the ongoing feud between NWA Champion Adam Pearce & Colt Cabana. Before last night’s cage match finale in Melbourne, Australia, the National Wrestling Alliance refused to sanction the match as a NWA World Title Match. Here is their press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“The safety and well-being of our fighting athletes is of paramount importance to the National Wrestling Alliance™. No wrestling organization can thrive when the level of violence goes entirely past the accepted rule of sport, and we as a sanctioning body cannot willingly sanction a contest that is sure to push those levels past a point of no return.
As a result, due to the excessive and progressively violent nature of the ‘Seven Levels of Hate’ series between Adam Pearce and Colt Cabana, in particular the Stage Six match in Salem, Oregon which saw Pearce set Colt Cabana on fire, the National Wrestling Alliance™ Board of Governors simply has no choice other than to withdraw the NWA’s™ sanctioning from the Stage Seven steel cage match taking place on October 27 in Australia.
Settling scores and decisively ending vendettas are important in professional wrestling and quite apart from a title defense. Wrestler safety and health is far more important.”
R. Bruce Tharpe, President
National Wrestling Alliance™
Houston, Texas
Needless to say, Pearce and Cabana were not happy with the decision. Adam Pearce had pledged to retire from the NWA if he lost the “Seven Levels Of Hate” feud but when Colt Cabana pinned Pearce in what is being reported as a fantastic match, Pearce lost the feud to Cabana but not the NWA title as per the NWA’s decision. What follows is a video taken after the match featuring Pearce, Cabana and the controversy that has left the NWA without a World champion.
Original Link: http://youtu.be/0c-SxzA3dCI
