NWA Title Switches

Scott,

As the WON reviews are getting ready to review the mess that was Pro Wrestling USA and dysfunction between promoters, have you ever seen anything about the logistics that were involved in order to book an NWA World title switch for a territory (from the standpoint of booking fees, who had to sign off on them, or booking/deciding how cleanly the champion loses)? I realize that there were some unrecognized switches that went on for various reasons in the early 80’s, but having read about the personalities involved, a switch like Kerry Von Erich dropping the title back to Flair in Japan (potentially involving Fritz, Crockett, and Baba) seems like it would be a nightmare to put together.

​Basically the NWA President is the one who decides who and where the champion went. Not to keep going back to this, but Gary Hart dedicates a chapter in his book to his time in the 70s when he was Fritz’s booker and thus got to book Terry Funk as champion. In theory, the champion worked for the NWA and went where they said. The fees were a standard 13% of the gate for shows that he appeared on, and it was typically up to the local booker how the match went and what the finish was. If you send the champion to a dumbfuck promoter and the guy gets basically squashed by a local hick, the promoter’s not getting any more dates with the champion so it’s in everyone’s best interests to play along. Besides, someone with the title was trusted to be able to take care of himself in case a promoter got cute and wanted to try to "book his own title change". ​And yes, Gary details how painstaking it could be to work out the logistics of someone travelling all over the US and Japan, and since promoters can be a bunch of children it was frequently a nightmare.