Hello, and welcome to nostalgia central, or this Week in History. This is an idea I had when I saw a post by a friend of mine on Instagram. If you’ve been reading my articles for a while, you’ll probably recognize the name awrestlinghistorian. In his stories (similar to Facebook’s since they’re owned by the same company), he had an image posted that got me thinking. Given all of the WWE history of the past week, this seemed like a great time to do an article of the independent birth of the WWE.
A territory
Originally founded January 7,1952 as the CWC (Capital Wrestling Corporation) by Jess McMahon (Vince McMahon’s grandfather) and Toots Mondt. The CWC was the northeaster territory of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance). At the time, the NWA was a collection of territories, run by a Board of Directors made up of various regional promoters and operated as the governing body for the territory system that ceased to exist thanks to the WWE’s global expansion.
A confederacy of sorts, the NWA was centered mainly in the Midwest, and recognized the undisputed NWA Heavyweight Championship (The one touted as the last Undisputed Championship until Chris Jericho won the WWE’s version in 2001). To ensure their Heavyweight Champion would honor his commitments, they required a $25,000 deposit by the future champion and returned it when the champion dropped the belt. The champion was determined by a vote by the Board of Directors.
“Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers and Lou Thesz
The concept of the NWA meant that the promoters would allow their regional talent to travel to the other territories to spread the wealth, so to speak. But the Board of Directors weren’t happy when after giving the Heavyweight Championship to Rogers, McMahon and Mondt reportedly didn’t allow Rogers to wrestle outside their northeaster territory very often, and even encouraged Roger to keep the belt. Rogers refused, citing that he didn’t want to lose the $25,000 deposit.
To counter this, the NWA Board set it up for Lou Thesz to take the title away with a handful of methods. The first involved making the match a single fall instead of the usual two out of three falls. Another was having three individuals or “shooters” standing by to ensure Rogers didn’t leave with the championship, and the third was Lou Thesz himself, who they believed could take the championship himself if he needed to. The fact Thesz reportedly disliked Buddy Rogers on a personal level probably played into this.
Everything went off without a hitch, and because of it, McMahon and Mondt seceded from the NWA and renamed their new promotion WWWF, or World Wide Wrestling Federation on January 24, 1963.
Free and clear. Bruno Sammartino becomes torch bearer
While McMahon and Mondt were free of the NWA oversight, they had to start over, and one of the first things to do was create a new championship and name a new champion. As such, Buddy Rogers was awarded the new WWWF World Heavyweight Championship.
Unfortunately, Rogers ahd to relinquish the title a month later after he suffered a heart attack. He dropped the belt in less than a minute to Bruno Sammartino, who went on to hold the championship for a record 2803 days (seven years, eight months, and one day). This remains the longest held championship in WWE history and has put Sammartino, rightly so, at the top of most fans’ top wrestlers of all time.
The WWWF remained until 1979 when it became the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) and the rest, as they say, is history.
Possible reason for the Royal Rumble
This is strictly my opinion, but given the history of his company over the years from the change from CWC to WWWF and freedom, to Hulk Hogan winning the championship and launching the WWF into the stratosphere, this could be the reason for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
It makes sense, as well as the pay-per-view’s name, given the history that took place in January. It can be argued that from a historical point of view, this is the most important time of the year. This is when the Road to WrestleMania begins. This is where moments begin happening for the WWE superstars. There’s a reason for it all to start here, and it makes sense that this is the reason why.
Nothing like recapping the independent birth of WWE to put things in a cool perspective, isn’t it?
So remember, when we’re cheering for our favorites this Sunday, it all starts here for a reason.
Enjoy watching history being made. It only happens once.
