5 Defunct Wrestling Promotions That Could Have Been Big

#1 World Wrestling All-Stars: 2001 - 2003

Much like the XWF, the World Wrestling All-Stars was created to try take over where WCW left off. The WWA was founded by promoter Andrew McManus. There was no TV deals in place at any time, so the company would run in similar fashion that TNA Wrestling did at first, a pay-per-view only format, although no where near as frequent. The company would tour Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and all over the UK, and aired all pay-per-views in America.

The company was able to lure in almost every big name in the business who wasn't working for WWE, including Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, Eddie Guerrero, Jerry Lynn, Buff Bagwell, Road Dogg, Brian Lawler and others. Their early days would also see Bret Hart and Sid Vicious serve as WWA commissionaire. They also made initial deals with other big names to appear also, such as Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Chyna, but all those deals fell through.

While the WWA spent their big bucks on these big players, things like their quality and production values suffered for it. Jeremy Borash appeared as both announcer (with Jerry Lawler at first) and booker, although his was under allegedly influenced by Vince Russo at the time. Jeff Jarrett became the company's flagship performer, and traded title reigns with Scott Steiner and newcomer Nathan Jones.

The WWA could have been the next big thing for sure, but they were plagued by too many problems. Sting made his wrestling comeback for the WWA in 2002 and was joined by former partner Lex Luger. Sting was well received but Luger refused to compete in matches longer than 5 minutes, causing issues with the company.

There were other big problems to, including production values became worse, wrestlers would cancel their appearances but would still be advertised, and the company was made to look even more minor league when they would try elect cheap pops by claiming things like Nathan Jones was from Dublin, Ireland, while performing their.

When WWA Champion Scott Steiner re-signed with WWE, he was supposed to be replaced on a WWA tour with then WWE star The Godfather, but it never happened and WWA failed to appeal WWE's decision, making the WWA look even worse.

Jeff Jarrett defeated Sting on the final WWA show in May 2003, to unify the NWA and WWA Championships. Amazingly, after 14 years of inactivity, promoter Wade Brewer purchased the rights to the company from McManus in 2017, bu nothing has happened since.