The NeWA was officially founded, as an internet e-wrestling group, on June 2nd, 1997. The roots of the NeWA go back all the way to 1984. David Steele and a group of friends at school begin wresting each other behind Amon Carter Riverside High School. There was no real organization of the group at this point, it was all in fun. David’s love of championship belts led him to make belts for the group out of cardboard.

In later years David wanted to get the group more organized. They started to run the group in the likeness of Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and key member of the NWA. While it became more organized, the problem was that the "NWA World Title" would change hands almost on a weekly basis.

In March of 1987, David met Carl Todd. They both discovered that both were part of wrestling groups. Carl wrestled for me, John Fredrickson, in the LWF. I had run the LWF since 1985 and was eager to join Dave's group as well.

We soon begin to establish the NWA more in lines with the "real" NWA of the past. All of the past title changes were dropped. We decided to recognize the history of the "real" NWA World title up to Starrcade 86. At that point we begin the recognition of David's NWA group, who's champion was Ric Flair too.

David's Mid-Atlantic/WCW group became the flagship of the NWA. My group (John Fredrickson), the LWF, joined the NWA and soon became NWA Central States. Another group was split from David's group and became NWA World Class. A 4th group was formed and became NWA All Japan. Our NWA World Champion, while based in WCW, would travel (across Ft Worth, Texas) to defend the title. None of us knew that we had formed one the earliest, most organized and realistic "backyard" wrestling groups. Dave begin to make more wrestling belts for all the groups, which helped us to get more people to join.

Back in 1987, there was no internet. There was no way to get on the "inside" of wrestling. While we learned how to "sell" moves and "take" falls, we were clueless on how promoters would choose champions. So all of the matches were "shoots". Who ever could get the 3 count would be champion. With no video camera, most of the shows were taped on audio cassette.

On May 5th, 1987 Roddy Piper (fresh from leaving the WWF in the “real world“) won the NWA World Title from Ric Flair. Moments later Barry Windham attacked Piper, setting off the most famous feud in "our world". It also marked one of the first time we started to brake away from "real wrestling" stories and begin our own storylines. Our Windham joined The Four Horseman and turned bad. Over a year later in 1988, the "real" NWA would use the same storyline. It soon seemed that we were thinking up storylines and angles, only to see the "real" promoters "copy" from us, as we called it.

On June 2nd, 1987 Barry Windham beat Roddy Piper to win the NWA World Title. This is always considered a key date in our history since Windham would be one of our biggest superstars. November 26th, 1987-Starrcade 87, the day that Piper won the title back from Windham, would the most successful and the crowning achievement of the NWA, as a "backyard fed".

In 1988, the LWF/Central States promotion was renamed the WWA. While still a member of the NWA in name only, the WWA crowned it's own World Champion of April. The WCW group had become the only member promotion. By the end of 1988 the number of wrestlers had decreased, but Starrcade 88 was the first event to be video taped.

On 8/15/90 Owen Hart won the NWA, (as well as the WWF and AWA) World Titles and retained the WWA Worlds Title to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion. Hart defended the belt in the NWA several times early on, but the NWA stripped Hart of the NWA title on 9/1/91, due to a lack of defenses in the previous months. The WWF (which was only run on paper) was closed and merged into the NWA on 1/1/92. At that point, Hart was only the WWA Worlds Champion.

As the years moved on Donald Lovett took over ownership of the WWA. The WWA North America was renamed the PWA and was run strictly as a fantasy wrestling group while the other WWA Promotions used a live action dice role-playing game system. The NWA was still ran a few times a month and moved into real wrestling/boxing rings. It was last part of "the world" that still had live action matches. By 1993 David Steele finally joined the PWA and WWA and begin running the NWA on a video game system. He soon lost interest in the concept. In 1994 Donald Lovett took control of the NWA. His plain was to merge the NWA into the WWA. Carl Todd, who still controlled Barry Windham, back out at the last moment of the WWA/NWA World title unification match and “retired“ Windham as NWA World Champion on 4/1/95. With no NWA Champion Lovett simply dropped the use of the NWA name. It looked like the NWA was gone for good.

David Steele learned that Lovett has gave up on the NWA and decided to reform the group. On 7/1/95 the revived NWA crowned Pete Jackson as its new World Champion and begin the long climb back to respect. Late 1995-1996 saw a renewed interest in the NWA, as a fantasy wrestling group. The use of "shoot" wrestlers, Dan Severn, Royce Gracie and others brought back some "name" recognition to the title.

A “real life” feud between the PWA and WWA Front Offices led to NWA World Champion Dan Severn defeating Barry Windham to win the WWA Worlds Title to be Undisputed World Champion as an attempt to make peace bn “the world“. For the first time since 1990, “our world” had one World Champion, but it would not last long. Less than one month later ,the handler of Dan Severn announced he was quitting and that Severn had “died” in Japan. The sudden announcement surprised the NWA, WWA and PWA Front Offices. The PWA had already signed Shawn Michaels to face Severn in one the first defense of the Undisputed title. PWA Vice President Chris Champion talked to Lovett and ask if the WWA would recognize the winner of Shane Michaels vs. PWA Heavyweight Champion Robert Bayley as Undisputed World Champion. Lovett and the WWA refused. This led to the PWA pulling out of the WWA. NWA President David Steele also refused to recognize the winner of the match and held a one match tournament for the NWA World Title. While relations were very bad in real life, the WWA, NWA and PWA did remain in the same “world” out of respect for the past.

In early 1997 David started running a wrestling club at a local recreation center in hopes of reviving the live action version of the NWA. He called it Turnbuckle University (long before the real Dusty Rhode’s Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling). They trained and held a few events in boxing rings, but it not last but a few months due to some of the people that Steele was training would follow his instructions. He ended the club so no one would get inured.

Frustrated over Turnbuckle University, David got the idea of closing the NWA for good and restarting a new wrestling group on the internet. He talked it over with Carl and I. The idea soon changed. They decided to move the NWA and it's history to the internet. WWA owner Donald Lovett hated the idea. He said it would make it impossible for the NWA to remain in "the world". PWA President Chris Champion vowed to build the PWA a web page and post PWA events weekly. The WWA finally agreed to the idea, as long as the NWA would not allow members to "steal" wrestlers. The PWA even hosted the WWA web page for them. A roster page, for the WWA promotions that used "real" wrestlers, was posted, but Lovett said had no plains to have any other dealing with the Internet

On June 2nd, 1997, ten years after the historical Windham vs. Piper match, "Our" NWA was officially moved to the internet, as the National Fantasy-Wrestling Alliance. (see the first webpage here) The name was soon changed to the National e-Wrestling Alliance, the NeWA. The IPW, one the key members of the WWA, headed by Charles "Fritz" Kaiser decided to the leave the WWA after 7 years and joined the NeWA. IPW quickly became the flagship promotion of the NeWA. A tournament was held for the vacant NeWA World Title on 9/1/97. IPW Heavyweight Champion (and a former NWA World Champion in 1996 ) Krusher Frans Joule defeated legend Roddy Piper to win the title.

The first two e-wrestlers hired by IPW were Maniac Mike, handled by Mike Pompizzi and Fear, handled by BJ Edwards. The IPW had no trouble fitting the e-wrestlers in with their current fantasy wrestlers. All of the handlers of the e-wrestlers were very impressed with the history of IPW, its wrestlers and the great role-playing of Phil Baker and Jon Parker and the rest of the IPW staff. It was far better than Kaiser could have imagined.

The first promotion to join the NeWA from outside "our world" was Empire State Wrestling, which later became ACWA, led by promoter Peter Piro. Pete was curious about the history of the NeWA. He helped convert the title histories to HTML. David Steele soon named Pete Vice President of the NeWA. Around the same time the PWA changed formats, moved to the internet full time and begin hiring roleplayers. Unlike the NeWA's e-wrestling, the PWA used a "fantasy wrestling" type of rules, pushes were based and decided by the PWA Booking Committee, not strictly by good role-playing.

More promotions soon joined NeWA, including the DCWL. The Monday Night Chat room would be full of NeWA handlers, PWA roleplayers and even a few WWA promoters. Many more great role-players soon joined the NeWA’s promotions. A stand out was IPW’s Chris Worrall, who role-played under the same name. Following a dispute with the NeWA, the handler of Frans Joule left the NeWA and returned to the WWA. It was decided to reward Worrall's excellent role-plays with a run as the NeWA World Champion. The only problem, after winning the title, Worrall had quit role-playing. The applications to join IPW became so numerous and the number of role-players all ready hired, that Fritz Kaiser and his staff could no longer handle it. Chris Champion and the PWA staff started to help them run IPW.

DCWL had a dispute with President Steele and the NeWA front office and attempted to pull a "shoot" on the NeWA title. Soon after the famous "Flicky Mouse" appeared. PWA President Chris Champion returned with his own "Flicky Mouse" for DCWL. DCWL was then kicked out of the NeWA and it's owner Joe Clapp was the first person blacklisted. ACWA was turned over to Scott Tester, handler of IPW's Siva, after Pete Piro decided NeWA Vice President was a full time job.

One of the crowning achievement came on Oct 1997 when the "real" NWA and President Howard T Brody endorsed the NeWA as "the official e-wrestling group of the NWA". The hard work that David Steele had put into the group had paid off. But now the NeWA would have to continue with out it's founder. Dave announced due to some personal business he would be stepping down as the President of the NeWA. Peter Piro took over as President. With the problems from DCWL and the disappearance of Chris Worrall, the NeWA was entering an uncertain future. Unaware of the hours Dave spent as President, Pete soon learned he could not dedicate to the NeWA the time needed to effectively run the group. On 12/11/97, he resigned. Two days later, IPW pulled out of the NeWA and begin the recognition of the PWA World Title. This left ACWA as the top promotion.

Myself (John Fredrickson), Carl Todd, Chris Champion and Fritz Kaiser met on the future of the NeWA. Fredrickson Sports Promotions took control of the NeWA on 12-14-97 and soon moved the NeWA World Title and US Title to the PWA, leaving the NeWA World Tag Team title vacant. The booking of the belts would go threw the PWA Front Office. Any NeWA member could also request the PWA World Title and World Tag Titles. Full time control of IPW was also given to Fredrickson Sports Promotions, and the IPW rejoined the NeWA. PWA Fantasy Wrestler Richard Barron won the title on 12/18/97. Barron was well role-played by members of the PWA.

In March of 1998, David Steele, Pete Piro and Scott Tester reformed the NeWA Board of Governors. The PWA and NeWA kept a close relationship. Siva won the NeWA World Title from John Raddison on the PWA on FOX TV show, thus returning the title back to the NeWA full time.

At that point the NeWA entered a new era. More promotions and role-players begin to join. In two months of returning, the NeWA was already larger than it had been in its first 6 months. By mid-98 there were over 20 member promotions. Some changes were made to the NeWA Front Office as Scott Tester left as Head Booker and was replaced by Nolan Gerencser .

Roddy Piper won the NeWA World Title from Siva on 6/7/98 at The Battle at Busch 11. David Steele and members of the NeWA board wanted to honor Piper by allowing him to win his 8th World Title and then retire as NeWA World Champion. A small dispute over Piper soon occurred. Some of the handlers felt it was not fair to over look e-wrestlers for Piper. Roddy Piper's last match was against current WWA World Champion Barry Windham. The event was held in WCW, the new flagship of the WWA, and one the first events the WWA held on the Internet. Adam Riggs won the vacant NeWA World Title on 9/13/98 over Dan Jesser, which brought the title back to an e-wrestler.

With Piper retired, questions about the use of "real" wrestlers in the NeWA was brought up again. The majority were in the PWA and WCW anyway. David and PWA President Chris Champion felt that the "real" wrestlers were needed to keep the NeWA in line with the PWA and WWA. The NeWA, while a major e-wrestling promotion, was falling behind with the lack of "star" talent. The decision was made to allow handlers to still use "real" wrestlers (as long as they were not currently used in another promotion). Everyone seem happy with the rule. Most of the NeWA's handlers already respected the PWA and enjoyed the occasional co-promoted shows. Some handlers found the fantasy and real wrestlers could help get newer e-wrestler “over”.

In late 1988, a few problems started occurring. A few of the promotions were not staying “realistic” by running events in large stadiums. The NeWA World Champion was being booked on the same day in some promotions. To combat this a Championship Calendar and a list of arenas was created. A smaller problem was that the PWA begin offering many of the NeWA handlers contracts to move their e-wrestler to the PWA. They still role-played the character, but used the PWA rules of fantasy wrestling. Some felt the PWA was more realistic, run more like a real promotion, while other saw the NeWA as place to be more creative with both role-plays and wrestlers.

Trying to keep pace (storyline wise) with the PWA and WCW, the NeWA placed the World Title on Dan Severn, after current champion Adam Riggs jumped to the PWA. The person who handled Severn was not doing a good job of role-playing. Many of the handlers of e-wrestlers were not happy by the choice. The NeWA Board decided to place the title on an e-wrestler that had a very creative handler. Nightmare won the title 12/18/98. The NeWA begin to rid its promotions of all “real” wrestlers, leaving them all for the PWA, WWA member promotions and the newly created ECW Fantasy Wrestling.

In early 1999 David Steele stepped down as President, but remained on The Board as Owner and C.E.O. Don Owens became the new President with Peter Piro remaining Vice President. Also in 1999 WWA Owner Donald Lovett and WWA President Mike Fargo, after failing in an attempt to merge the WWA promotions that still used the old dice game onto the internet, threw in the towel. They gave control of the WWA back to Fredrickson Sports Promotion. It was announced that the PWA would rejoin the WWA.

Barry Windham faced NeWA World Champion Nightmare for Windham’s Lord of Ring championship at the NeWA PPV Lord of the Ring ‘99. Everyone enjoyed the event. Again it showed the NeWA, PWA and WWA could still function and live in the same “world of wrestling”. Sadly this would be the last co-promoted event.

On March 20 1999, Stephen Greer won the NeWA World Title from Nightmare. Greer was one of the most deserving champions and truly earned the title. He started at the bottom of Central States and worked his way up the ranks, all the way to the top.

May 23, 1999. One of the darkest days in wrestling. It was the day that Owen Hart died. It was also the beginning of the end of road for the PWA and WWA “living” in the same world with the NeWA. In “our world”, Owen Hart was a true legend. He was WWA World Champion almost 4 years. He was a former Undisputed World champion. During the mid-90’s, Owen became more popular than Hulk Hogan was in his prime. “Our” Owen Hart was less than two weeks away from facing Barry Windham in the Main Event of The Battle at Busch 12 to crown the “Wrestler of the Decade“. The PWA Front Office along with NeWA Owner David Steele were working on solution. But before anything was decided all hell broke lose. Many of the NeWA promoters along with NeWA President Don Owens had posted announcements about the death of Owen Hart. They figured since the real Owen has died that “our” Owen had died. Everyone seemed to lose their cool at once . In a NeWA chat room, David Steele lost control. David made some very unkind comments about Owen Hart and begin a heated argument with many of the NeWA promoters, who demanded that Owen Hart be removed from “our world”.

The PWA and WWA boards voted to run the Windham vs. Hart match as scheduled as a “living memory” to the real Owen Hart, and then retire the character. The NeWA board was in shambles following the fight between David Steele and the promoters. The PWA and NeWA were close to war. On May 26, 1999, David Steele resigned as the owner of the NeWA. On that same day the NeWA “left” the PWA/WWA world for good. At that point the NeWA and newly formed NWA Fantasy League (which joined the PWA/WWA world to replace the NeWA) would share the same history up to May 26th. I personally felt it would be in everyone’s best interest. It would give the NeWA a chance to live and grow on it’s own and give “our world” a chance to continue the history of “our” NWA.

Some time later the NeWA board voted to no longer recognize it’s past history. Siva was listed as the first NeWA World Champion. The reason for this seemed to give the NeWA it’s own history and not live off the “backyard days“ anymore. Since May 29, 1999, with the help from Presidents like Don Owens, JT Banks and Chris Catalano, the NeWA continued to grow into THE primer e-wrestling group on the internet whcih Dave Steel had started.

In July 2001, John Fredrickson and new NeWA President Steve Talbot begin talking over e-mail about the history of the NeWA. The NeWA has proven it can “stand on it’s own”. I think that the time is right for the NeWA to be “given” back its true "heritage and history". I hope this history page will help achieve this.

As for David Steele today? Soon after leaving the NeWA in for good he and Scott Ewing wrestled each for the first time since late 1988. This took our NWA full circle as David and Scott were the first to wrestle back in 1984 . In 2000 David and Scott started to train at the WWA Main Event Gym in Crowley , Texas. They wrestled on the 1-27-01 show. (Here are some images from that match) Dave told Scott he would “do the job” to him since Scott’s wife would be at the show and it was her birthday. Scott did win the match. A rematch was scheduled, but Scott soon left Texas and David “retired” thinking he would never wrestled again...but Dave soon started looking for local sparring partners. He plains to start working out at the world famous Doug’s Gym in Downtown Dallas and enroll at the NWA Southwest wrestling school and use the name “Bad Attitude” Brandon Myers.

As for myself these days? I am still the owner of the Pro Wrestling Alliance, 13 years later. After breaking away from the NeWA, the PWA kept running as a fantasy fed, with many roleplayers/handlers, until late 2000. At that time we once again ran as a simulation with monthly webpage updates, no longer posting weekly shows on the internet. The PWA fell into a “down period” in early to mid 2001 which led to the resignation of Chris Champion as President. We have been in down modes before, but have always came back stronger than ever. Carl Todd and Fredrickson began rebuilding the PWA in July with a re-grand opening on Sept 1, 2001, as a simulation/fantasy fed mix. We are a still a strong member of the World Wrestling Alliance. The WWA would then have over 8 fantasy fed member promotions, with no e-wrestling used. The WWA's promotions were stillll ran in the most realistic fashion that was possible. Soon after the WWA/PWA/NWA Fantasy World would shut down. It wasn't until 2009 when Greg Gagne on behalf of his father along with Dale Gagner decided to reopen the AWA and hire Chris Champion and Don West II. Soon after this the WWA/PWA/NWA/WCW would merge with the AWA creating a NEW AWA which would then rejoin the world of the NeWA once again. NeWa not necessarily recognizing the AWA but the federations like Great Lakes, WCCW, and AW would consider the AWA now part of the world. Bringing the PWA/WWA/WCW/NWA picture together decades later. The AWA has over 5 World Wide Promotions and recently merged the WWA, NWA, and PWA World Titles with the AWA's! The AWA is Owned by Verne/Greg Gagne, Chris Champion, Dale Gagner , and John Fredrickson! The AWA recognizes the AWA World Title, the WFWA World Title, the NeWA World Title, and the TNA World Title.

1. TNA

Currently TNA rules the wrestling world. We consider the TNA Roster everybody from TNA and anybody from the WWE not in the AWA. TNA is the largest promotion and a decent amount of money.

2. WFWA

Currently the WFWA is competing with TNA pretty well, the two feds fued for ratings and the WFWA is the NEW NWA!

3. NeWA and AWA

The NeWA is trying to rebuild and has the longest tradition. WFWA and TNA Histories are new, the AWA has merged with the WWA, PWA, and NWA and now is more powerful than ever being the richest promotion in the world. The AWA has the most money and much potential and in two months has caught up with the NeWA. The NeWA is right behind the WFWA though and with recent inductions of GLWA and AW back into the alliance it will  be no time and the NeWA will be the  2nd best in the our world.

The NeWA Today by Steve Talbot

The modern day NeWA has changed and evolved several times over since the day David Steele retired as NeWA President. The NeWA has moved with the times, the game no longer includes non-role-played, real-life characters, indeed the NeWA currently boasts some of the most talented role-players and creative writers around on the net today.

The order of the day in the modern NeWA involves almost impeccable role-playing. Becoming the best, becoming the NeWA World Champion demands consistency never before expected in ewrestling with many handlers competing several months at full steam ahead before earning an NeWA Title. Match strategies have also become increasingly important, with modern day handlers becoming sharper and more angle driven than ever before.

Gone too are the majority of the political problems the NeWA suffered from in the past. The NeWA of today is more open and is almost an online community in itself, with the NeWA's many handlers converging on the Out of Character forums daily, discussing both ewrestling and general real life topics.  These political problems would start after Don Owens, Dave Steele, and Owens would both continue the same rich tradition as the NWA.

The first President to take the NeWA to a new level was Don Owens. Owens who was also the President of the PNW, the NeWA's flagship promotion based in the Pacific North West, took over from Steele in 1999 and slowly began to create a series of new superstars. Mike Bell, Apollo, Stephen Greer, The Crazy Ones, Unbeatable, Karl Fletcher, Jason Ramsey, Hyuk Suh Kim, Byron Tanis and Adam Fierce where just some of the names who established themselves in the Alliance during this period. Indeed the PNW was often the hottest promotion in the Alliance, even after Don Owens passed over the PNW's reigns over to to Sandy Barr. Some believe the PNW was at it's best under Owens, and it's legacy together with Owen's legacy as NeWA President was of respect and tradition.

When Don Owens vanished from sight, former Head Booker JT Banks stepped up to become the new NeWA President. With a solid backroom staff that included Boaz Sity, Mikey Marchand, Don West II, and Chris Catalano the NeWA produced some solid Pay-Per-View events. Bank's time in office will be remembered as being a whirlwind experience. No one could question his skills as President, but his reign will be remembered for a score of out of character disputes and fed cutting as during this period the amount of regional members in the NeWA where dramatically reduced. Bar the odd exception, this sliming down of the fat greatly increased the organization of the NeWA and insured the regional members where of a standard necessary to be an NeWA regional promotion. By this time the PNW was just a shell of it's former self and was about to go under. The IWA which featured such NeWA stars as Byron Tanis, Venom and other notables was now the premier regional federation in the NeWA. The IWA later closed, only to reopen in August of 2001. However this was the golden era in the IWA's history which might best be remembered by the famous mystery of Venom's death at the IWA Winter Meltdown PPV. Banks best moment in office came with the 'Future of the NeWA Battle Royal' in which each regional promotion sent a representative, with the knowledge that the first man who was thrown out of the ring and eliminated, would not only lose the match but lose his region's place in the Alliance. As fate would have it Mike Bell was the first eliminated and thus the PNW was gone from the Alliance. Bell would later defeat JT Fringe on a later NeWA PPV to win the PNW's place back, but the PNW was never the same again and soon closed it's doors despite several attempts at resurrection.

Amid an out of character dispute, Banks handed over the reigns to the aspiring Chris Catalano. Although initially not expected to succeed by his peers, Catalano proved them all wrong as he registered a stellar almost year long reign as President. With Stephen Greer taking over Mikey Marchand's duties of Head Booker, the NeWA enjoyed a renascence of sorts, with top stars Kurt Swagger and London Freemantle paving the way. In early March 2001 Brian P stepped down as Vice President. Catalano appointed Steve Talbot as his successor. Later Greer stepped down as Head Booker and following a reshuffle, Talbot was promoted to Head Booker. This period was one of the most stable in recent memory as Catalano and Talbot kept the ship water tight.

In July of 2001, Catalano stepped down and Steve Talbot assumed the role of President. Mike Steele, the President of regional member the HCWF took up the Vice President's role. Talbot as he had done so previously as Head booker, immediately began to usher forward new talent. Diablo, Adam Knight, Darrel Besolve, Lance Panzer, Cheshire and Ozmodious amongst others began to rise to the top of the NeWA. ESPN European Onslaught and International Incident proved to be solid PPV events. Of particular note was the 'Million Pound Royal Rumble' event at European Onslaught when the OWC's number one heel Outkast outlasted 19 other top stars to win a million pounds. Michael Lennox became the first ever 4 time NeWA World Champion and we also saw the best Lou Thez Tournament in the history of the NeWA. Talbot has committed himself to giving the NeWA it's history back, particularly after a hacker during Catalano's reign cost the NeWA almost every old PPV link. Together with Stephen Greer he is working on restoring the NeWA's PPV History.

Every federation has it's very own lineage which it must pride itself on and the NeWA is no different. The NeWA of today is probably as far away from the NeWA of old as you can get, but nobody can change history to suite their own purposes. The NeWA of today was born out of the NeWA of old. The NeWA gladly accepts and prides itself on 'Our History'.

John H. Fredrickson, David W. Steele, Don West II, and Steve Talbot

Thanks to Carl Todd and Peter Piro for all their help with this page.

PS: It was pointed out that on a few early PWA on FOX shows, some NeWA wrestlers and titles appeared. Here is the link to the PWA on FOX archives. A few people might enjoy viewing that, while the search for past NeWA PPV's and events continue.