"Cartels and the Co-Creation of Legitimacy: The Case of the National Wrestling Alliance, 1948-88"

Professional wrestling as a public entertainment spectacle since the late 1800s has experienced continued issues with legitimacy due to perceptions of its predetermined bouts, problematic business practices and the closed nature of the industry for large parts of the 20th century. In this paper we explore the origins of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a cartel of wrestling promoters across the United States and Canada which agreed from 1948 to work together to uphold the geographical boundaries of their promotions (also known as their territory), protect the industry from outsiders, and recognise a single touring World Heavyweight Championship. All these elements of the cartel’s operations featured elements of co-creation of legitimacy to solidify their business practices and acceptance as a live entertainment practice. We also explore the legacy of the NWA’s World Heavyweight Championship and its holders as a touring spectacle, visiting every NWA promotion year-round, to add legitimacy to the sport of wrestling and to enhance the profile of local wrestlers chosen to take on the visiting World Heavyweight Champion. Finally we examine the end of the NWA, the collapse of the territory system and the purchase of the remnants of the cartel by Ted Turner and Turner Broadcasting in 1988, viewed as an attempt to obtain and capitalise on the legitimacy and legacy of the NWA as wrestling migrated from a live entertainment form to a televised one at the close of the 1980s.