End of 1989 Awards Issued

Being that it's the end of 1989, the wrestling community gave out the "End of Year Awards" at a banquet in Fort Worth Texas. The banquet was attended by many wrestlers and promoters from all over the world including some NWA wrestlers along with NWA head booker, Greg Moe.

The NWA/WCW's October PPV, Halloween Havoc was voted as the years "Show of the Year." The attendance of the show was posted as just over 33,000, so it wasn't the NWA's highest attended PPV, but it did receive the highest rating, posting a A* for the overall show by wrestling writers. The main event for Havoc was Ric Flair defeating Bret Hart in a cage for the NWA Heavyweight Championship.

According to the votes counted, the "Match of the Year" belonged to All Japan's Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada back in one of their October matches that were receiving big pops from crowds in Japan all fall long.

The "Veteran of the Year" was none other than Andre the Giant who has been splitting time between the WWF and AJPW. He's been a huge draw for both promotions and some of his matches with WWF superstar Hulk Hogan have made a lot of covers for many wrestling publications. Greg Moe is hoping that with his working agreement he has with AJPW, he can talk them into letting Andre come over and do a few shows for the NWA.

The big news on the night other than winning the "Show of the Year" award was Ric Flair winning the "Wrestler of the Year" award. It was said the voting wasn't even close. His two matches with Bret Hart toward the end of the year were said to be instant classics and Greg Moe knows that there will be at least one more at "SlamBoree" in the middle of this month.

As they listed "The Power 100" to the banquet, Greg Moe's face beamed with pride as the NWA has 4 of the top 5 wrestlers in Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Jerry Lawler and Tully Blanchard. With Lawler recently signing on for 2 years, things should only get better in 1990. There were reports that out in the lobby of the banquet after the Top 100 were read, that WWF owner, Vince McMahon and NWA's head booker, Greg Moe got into a shoving match that had to be broken up by hotel security.

On a side note for this same week, Greg Moe did receive one set back as Davey Boy Smith and the Dynamite Kid both turned him down when offered what would have been huge contracts. Both wrestlers have been tearing up Canada with Calgary Stampede Wrestling, working for Stu Hart. Greg was hoping that since both Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart already worked for the NWA, they could talk the two "British Bulldogs" to come work for the NWA. However, it looks like they are going to stay loyal to Stu Hart, with Davey working some shows for the WWF.

Up to Date Title Holders (Always Current)

National Wrestling Alliance Champions  

NWA World Heavyweight: Bret Hart (2)
NWA United States: Tully Blanchard (2) (Horsemen)
NWA Tag Team: Hart Foundation (Dynamite Kid & Jim Neidhart)
NWA North American:Vacant
NWA Television:  Steve Williams


MACW Heavyweight: Bret Hart (Hart Foundation)
(MACW Title Fought For Every Starrcade)

World Championship Wrestling Champions

WCW World Heavyweight: Terry Funk (2)
WCW United States: Super Zenith 
WCW World Tag Team: Midnight Express (Beautiful Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) (2)
WCW Television: The Great Muta



Number in (#) indicates number of times title was won.

NWA World Heavyweight 

 Champion: Bret Hart

 WCW World Heavyweight

 Champion: Terry Funk

MACW Heavyweight

 Champion: Bret Hart

 Pictured Below:

NWA World Heavyweight
WCW World Heavyweight
MACW Heavyweight  (Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling)

Major New Signing

Week 4, December, 1989:

Big news this week was the signing of Jerry "The King" Lawler to a two year written contract that will make him a major player in the NWA. He was assigned a position on the WCW brand as a upper midcarder and should soon become a main event draw. Two of his best friends are already on the WCW roster and they are "Hotstuff" Eddie Gilbert and Terry Funk. Gilbert was just turned babyface during the last WCW Saturday Night show and there may be plans to place Lawler and Gilbert up into a face tag team to go up against teams such as the Midnight Express and the Fabulous Freebirds. Jerry Lawler is a former AWA, USWA and WCCW Champion.

During this weeks shows, the NWA was pleased to see on the WCW show, that Eddie Gilbert and Terry Funk drew good heat from the crowd as they paired up in the WCW Saturday Night main event after Gilbert's turn to a babyface. Having Gilbert competing against Funk and the other top heels should bolster WCW ratings, and now with Jerry Lawler there too, things look really good. The brand could use one more good heel however, and Greg Moe may be thinking of sending Bam Bam Bigelow to the WCW off the NWA brand. The move should be smooth, as Bigelow hasn't really been in many matches so far because of his earlier knee injury.

On the NWA Worldwide show, Bret Hart agreed to drop his NWA United States title to Horseman Tully Blanchard. The match went nice and smooth and fans still love watching these two do their masterful, technical works. The plan still remains to have the SlamBoree main event be Bret Hart against Ric Flair once more for the NWA World Heavyweight title. Insiders say that Flair will be asked to drop the title to Hart to boost the heat between the two. Some say Flair may put up a fight about dropping the title though, so Greg Moe is a tad nervous heading into January's pay-per-view.

The begining of plans to give The Wild Somoans, managed by newly signed Captain Lou Albano, have started to peek it's head this week as they were given another "dark match" on Worldwide. Now that they have Albano managing them, plans are to give them a match on the main show and work them to a point of going up against the Varsity Club, made up of Steve Williams and Mike Rotundo who hold the NWA Television Tag Team titles. They won the titles against The Wild Somoans back in October and if a rematch is setup, look for Williams and Rotundo to drop the belts.

In other news this week, Greg Moe was unable to come to an agreement with Woman, who has been managing WCW Television Champion Kevin Sullivan. She was asking for more than what Greg was wanting to pay her, and neither side would give an inch. So look for Woman to be leaving sometime in early January. Odds are she will latch on with the WWF who are always looking to sign NWA talent, as the NWA is always looking to steal away WWF talent.

The Road to SlamBoree Starts

With Starrcade over, both NWA brands, NWA and WCW are on the way to January's PPV, SlamBoree. Wrestlers are scrambling to set themselves up in the right position to make the card and the big paycheck.




 Week 3, December 1989
NWA Worldwide: B+
There were problems with the main event when Bret Hart gave late word that though he would do it, he would rather not drop the NWA North American Title to Arn Anderson, so the match was made to be a non-title match with Hart the winner. The promotion has to find a way to work with Hart to get him to drop either the NWA North American or NWA United States title before SlamBoree so a match with Ric Flair can be setup for the NWA World Heavyweight title. The pairing should bring in a lot of fans once more.

The other notable match on the card was a 3 on 3 tag match pitting Sting and the Road Warriors against Horsemen Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard and Ole Anderson. The match ended as a draw after Arn Anderson and Bret Hart interfered in the match.

                                             WCW Saturday Night: C+
The Main Event saw Cowboy Bob Orton defend his WCW United States title against Lex Luger. It was a good match with Orton coming out on top. After the match, fans got excited when the two came together after the match and shook hands.

Terry Funk and Sid Vicious went up against Rick Steiner and Junk Yard Dog and the match ended with a double DQ after all hell broke out between the four. This meant that Steiner and JYD held on to the WCW Tag Team titles after winning them at Starrcade when they beat the Fabulous Freebirds, Michael "P.S" Hayes and Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin.

In the Beginning

I was hired in the first week of September, 1989, and I will be picking things up here in the diary in the 3rd week of December. The main things you should know so far is that I have created a brand split in the company, breaking it into a established NWA and a takeoff called WCW, World Championship Wrestling. As of right now, I have two television shows, with one being “NWA Worldwide” and the other “WCW Saturday Night.” I’ve also up to this point held four PPV shows, “Fall Brawl,” “Halloween Havoc,” “Clash of Champions,” and the biggest the company will run, “Starrcade.”

There have been some titles changing hands over most of the companies titles, but the main one being the NWA World Heavyweight Title, it has yet to leave Ric Flair’s hands. He’s held the title twice against Bret Hart, once against Jim Neidhart and finally at Starrcade against Sting. For the WCW World Heavyweight Title, Terry Funk won it first, dropped it to Lex Luger and just won it back again at Starrcade. The promotion also bought the “Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling” belt, which most of the wrestlers recognize as being a very prestigious belt, and it was won at Starrcade by Bret Hart. I’ll be picking the diary up at this point, just past Starrcade and will go on from here.

NWA Owner, Ted Turner

NWA Head Booker,
     Greg Moe

 Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling Belt

Tournament Belt Won at "Starrcade" Each Year