#2 Lou Thesz becomes NWA Champion – 27th November 1949
The 1940s saw professional wrestling in the United States widely scattered among various promotions and there had been no Undisputed Heavyweight Champion since the days of Frank Gotch and Georg Hackenschmidt.
In 1949, National Wrestling Alliance was formed in order to create one world champion for all wrestling territories throughout North America.
NWA named Orville Brown, the MidWest Heavyweight Champion as the first NWA Champion and he would defend the title against the National Wrestling Association World Champion Lou Thesz. Unfortunately, the match never happened as Brown was involved in an automobile accident that ended his career.
So on November 27, Thesz was handed the NWA Championship.
Thesz would bring credibility to the NWA Heavyweight Championship by uniting all major World Heavyweight Championships with the NWA title and by 1952, he was recognised as the Undisputed Champion.
Thesz would make Pro-wrestling popular in Japan by defending the NWA title in that country against Rikidozan and was a legitimate tough guy which meant that shooters who tried to deviate from the planned finish were put in their place.
This was never more apparent than in 1963 when Buddy Rogers was said to have second thoughts about dropping the title to Thesz. Thesz looked Rogers in the eye and said – ‘We could do this the easy way or the hard way’. The match went ahead without a scratch.
