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NWL Moves Forward in 2017 with a New Direction

NWL Moves Forward in 2017 with a New Direction

Posted: Jul 10th 2017 By: Brian Hoops

The National Wrasslin League (NWL), which was formed in 2016 by Major Baisden; and debuted in Missouri in January, 2017; has changed its business plan. Originally, the company business model was to run every other Saturday night in Kansas City and every other Thursday night in St. Louis. In May, 2017; St. Louis was moved from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon. Now, in August, St. Louis is again undergoing a change and will now run once a month, but in the suburb of St. Peter, about a 45 minute drive from St. Louis.

Kansas City will continue to run every other Saturday night, but now at two different locations, one show per month on the Kansas side and one on the Missouri side.

When Baisden looked to establish his own wrestling company, one of Baisden’s first and most important hires was former WWE Monday Night Raw writer and Kansas City native Chris Gough. Gough who grew up in Kansas City watching Central States wrestling headquartered in Kansas City; ventured to Connecticut to work on Monday Night Raw in 1997, but returned to his native Kansas City in 2003. Gough began working at local television station, and promoted Metro Pro Wrestling. In his free time, Gough produced the excellent documentary on the history of Kansas City wrestling called “KC On the Mat.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzy5_4_GLjE

Gough closed down Metro Pro in 2016 and quit his job at the TV station to work full time for Baisden as the key man behind the scenes for NWL.

Gough has been one of the key building blocks in the growth of the NWL as he is the behind the scenes booker, match maker and the key in acquiring talent. Gough signed Metro Pro favorites such as The Royal Blood, Jeremy Wyatt, Michael Strider, Blaine Meeks and Derek Stone to exclusive NWL contracts; and also acquired fresh talent such as NWL Kansas City Champion Dak Draper (former NXT wrestler Sam Udell), Niles Plonk and Texas based wrestler and NWL St. Louis Champion Maverick.

Gough explained that “moving wrestling to St. Peter, just outside of St. Louis and running on the more popular Saturday night will be a great move for us. The venue is a really cool building, similar to Memorial Hall that was home to Thursday night wrestling in Kansas City for many years. If things go well, we may run twice a month in St. Peter. The original plan was to have a St. Louis champion as well as a Kansas City Champion. That is still the plan, although we are having tag team belts and a NWL championship belt made.”

A touring house show circuit will also be setup. The plan is to run about 100 dates per year, but move into new markets like Joplin, St. Joseph and Springfield, Missouri; Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska, Topeka and Salina, Kansas and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Some of the cities are in the old Central States territory such as St. Joseph, Salina, Des Moines and Topeka. Joplin and Springfield were part of the old Tri-States territory while Omaha was for years was its own market, until becoming part of the AWA.

The WWE is a national touring promotion, but only hits small markets like Omaha or Springfield once every 18 months and even larger markets like St. Louis and Kansas City only two or three times a year. ROH only runs towns it has television clearance in and TNA/GFW doesn’t run house shows currently. NWL looks to fill the void of a local touring promotion by running these once great wrestling towns more frequently. Dates for upcoming shows have already been announced with St. Joseph at the National Guard Armory, with a debut show on August 11 and additional shows October 6 and December 15. Springfield is set to debut at the Shrine Mosque on September 22, with additional dates of October 29 and January 7. The promotion plans to run 8-10 dates per month with Kansas City as its home base.

One of the key promotional tools used by NWL has been the “Fight Club” membership that allows members to have access to all NWL KC events for 12 months and discounted merchandise, as well as VIP access to meet and greet with NWL performers. Fans can continue with this plan on an annual or a monthly basis, or individual tickets can be purchased at a reduced rate. “The NWL currently has 10 full time wrestlers on the roster and 15-20 students at the training center. We will utilize our roster as well as some of the students and maybe some local wrestlers to round out our wrestling cards,” Gough explained.

The NWL only has television clearance in St. Joseph and Kansas City, so local advertising and promotion will be needed to successfully promote the shows. “We will have guys on the ground developing relationships with TV and radio stations and local sports bars and restaurants to get our name out to the public,” Gough stated.

 

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  • 1965 Bull Curry def. Karl Kox for the WCCW Texas Brass Knuckles Champion
  • 1986 Bruiser Brody def. Rick Rude for the WCCW Television Champion
  • 1987 The Lightning Express (Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner) def. Rick Steiner & Sting for the UWF Tag Team Champions
  • 1996 The Bad Boyz (Krull Danzig & Brett Knight) def. The Texas Outlaws (Bobby Burns & Dan Wilder) for the WWEmp Tag Team Champions
  • 2008 El Super Colibri def. Tim Rockwell for the ComPro Oklahoma X Division Champion
  • 2008 Michael York def. Brett Taylor for the SECW Light Heavyweight Champion
  • 2008 Michael York became the SECW Eastern Oklahoma Title Champion
  • 2008 Michael York became the SECW Eastern Oklahoma Champion
  • 2009 Kevin Morgan became the AWFUL Heavyweight Champion
  • 2014 The Sexy Camachos (Angel Camacho & Roberto Camacho & Vinnie Camacho) def. Team Bull (The Bronze Bull & Bobby Starr) for the IZW Tag Team Champions

Week of Sun 05-12 to Sat: 05-18

  • 05-12 2002 Rocco Valentino became the OCW Oklahoma Television Champion
  • 05-12 2012 The New Era [2nd] (Richie Adams & Goldeneye) def. The Dramatic Athletes (Jake McCoy & X-Cal) for the ComPro Tag Team Champions
  • 05-12 2012 Venus became the IZW Queens Champion
  • 05-12 2013 The Canadian Red Devil def. Bobby Starr for the MSWA Oklahoma Champion
  • 05-12 2013 Impact, Inc. (Jermaine Johnson & Jordan Jacobs) def. Shawn Sanders & Tyson Jaymes for the MSWA Mid-South Tag Team Champion
  • 05-12 2018 Garrett Murphy became the NAW Lightweight Champion
  • 05-12 2018 Big Smooth def. Dusty Gold for the NAW Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-12 2018 Brayden def. Kareem Sadat for the BCW Independent Hardcore Champion
  • 05-12 2018 Gavin Dixon def. Mikey [2nd] for the BCW Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-12 2023 Ronnie Morton def. Red James for the RDW Brass Knucks Champion
  • 05-13 1979 Wahoo McDaniel def. The Spoiler for the WCCW American Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-13 1984 Magnum T. A. def. Mr. Wrestling II for the MSW North American Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-13 2006 Justin Lee def. Gary Gram for the NWA-U X Division Champion
  • 05-13 2012 Les Mayne became the MSWA Oklahoma Champion
  • 05-13 2016 Terry Montana & Mighty Mouse def. Dynamic Shields (Justin Dynamic & Shawn Shields) for the ComPro Tag Team Champions
  • 05-13 2017 Sam Stackhouse def. Drake Gallows for the BCW Buzzsaw Champion
  • 05-13 2017 Garrett Murphy def. Anarchy [2nd] for the NAW Lightweight Champion
  • 05-13 2023 Lunchador def. Dr. Corvus for the WAH Hunger Dojo Champion
  • 05-13 2023 Rush Freeman became the WAH Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-13 2023 The Psychotic Messengers (Tank Bryson & Malachi) def. Dark Forces (San La Muerte & Reese) for the WAH Tag Team Champions
  • 05-14 1975 John Tolos def. Al Madril for the WCCW Texas Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-14 1975 Danny Miller def. Skandor Akbar for the TSW North American Champion
  • 05-14 2004 Butch Dalton def. Jon Davis for the TPW Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-14 2004 Devon Monroe def. Mitch Carter for the TPW Light Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-14 2005 John O'Malley became the IZW Hardcore Champion
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  • 05-15 1959 Mike DiBiase def. Dory Funk for the TSW Oklahoma Junior Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-15 1962 Bull Curry def. Jack Dalton [1st] for the WCCW Texas Brass Knuckles Champion
  • 05-15 2010 X-Rated (Kevin James Sanchez & Bobby Star) def. Rick Russo for the SWCW Tag Team Champions
  • 05-15 2010 Jonathan Cross def. Anarchy [2nd] for the UWE Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-15 2015 Charlie Haas def. Jerome Daniels for the NWA-TXO Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-15 2021 Killbane def. The Canadian Red Devil for the NCWO Oklahoma Champion
  • 05-16 1981 Eddie Gilbert & Ricky Morton def. Akbar Army (Jerry Brown & Ron McFarlane) for the TSW Tag Team Champions
  • 05-16 1983 Chris Adams def. Terry Gordy for the WCCW Texas Brass Knuckles Champion
  • 05-16 2009 Impact, Inc. (Johnny Z & Bernie D) became the IZW Tag Team Champions
  • 05-16 2015 The K. C. Wolves (Graham Bell & Luke Langley) def. Team Bull (Aaron Neil & Bobby Starr) for the IZW Tag Team Champions
  • 05-16 2015 Clint Cassidy def. Mr. Nasty for the UWE United States Champion
  • 05-16 2015 Brett Stopp def. Fuel for the UWE Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-16 2015 Anarchy [2nd] def. Brett Stopp for the UWE Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-17 1965 Bull Curry def. Karl Kox for the WCCW Texas Brass Knuckles Champion
  • 05-17 1986 Bruiser Brody def. Rick Rude for the WCCW Television Champion
  • 05-17 1987 The Lightning Express (Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner) def. Rick Steiner & Sting for the UWF Tag Team Champions
  • 05-17 1996 The Bad Boyz (Krull Danzig & Brett Knight) def. The Texas Outlaws (Bobby Burns & Dan Wilder) for the WWEmp Tag Team Champions
  • 05-17 2008 El Super Colibri def. Tim Rockwell for the ComPro Oklahoma X Division Champion
  • 05-17 2008 Michael York def. Brett Taylor for the SECW Light Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-17 2008 Michael York became the SECW Eastern Oklahoma Title Champion
  • 05-17 2008 Michael York became the SECW Eastern Oklahoma Champion
  • 05-17 2009 Kevin Morgan became the AWFUL Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-17 2014 The Sexy Camachos (Angel Camacho & Roberto Camacho & Vinnie Camacho) def. Team Bull (The Bronze Bull & Bobby Starr) for the IZW Tag Team Champions
  • 05-18 1970 Boris Malenko def. Mil Mascaras for the WCCW American Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-18 1973 Jose Lothario def. Blackjack Mulligan for the WCCW Texas Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-18 1979 Mark Lewin became the WCCW Texas Brass Knuckles Champion
  • 05-18 1984 Gino Hernandez def. Jimmy Garvin for the WCCW American Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-18 2007 Lonnie Valdez & Epic became the ACW Tag Team Champions
  • 05-18 2013 The P.I.N.K. Nation (Ray Martinez & Tommy Toops) def. Bobby Burns & Sam Stackhouse (substituting for Psycho Sawyer) for the SRPW Tag Team Champions
  • 05-18 2013 B-Arthur became the SRPW Womens Champion
  • 05-18 2013 Anarchy [2nd] def. The Mercenary for the UWE Heavyweight Champion
  • 05-18 2014 Striker def. Robert Lee for the WFC Hometown Heroes Champion
  • 05-18 2019 Skylar Slice def. Erica for the MSWA Ladies Champion
05-17
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