We're celebrating @TheArnShow’s World TV title episode:
Many folks may not know that the NWA World TV title, which later became the WCW World TV title, traces its origins back to the Mid-Atlantic TV title in 1974.
- Mid-Atlantic TV Title (1974): Danny Miller became the first champion, defeating Ole Anderson in a tournament that took place on TV.
- NWA TV Title (1978): Jim Crockett Promotions renamed the championship in 1978 during the reign of Baron Von Raschke. The story was that a tournament was held featuring all of the regional/territorial TV champions to crown one NWA TV Champion.
- NWA World TV Title (1985): After Dusty Rhodes defeated Tully Blanchard for the NWA title, Jim Crockett announced that the title would now be classified as a "World" title. Funny how that happened when Dusty won the title!
- WCW World TV Title (1990): Ted Turner's new wrestling company which he had just bought from Jim Crockett a little over a year earlier renamed the championship to reflect the companies new name. Arn was in the middle of his second TV title reign.
Some other TV title history tidbits we recently included on our twitter feed:
- Early TV champions (1974-1975) included Danny Miller, Ivan Koloff, Paul Jones, and a young Ric Flair!
- In fact, Ric Flair's first singles title was the Mid-Atlantic TV championship in early 1975, defeating No. 1 Paul Jones. It was Arn's first singles title for JCP in 1986.
- OK, we know Arn Anderson officially won the World TV title from Wahoo McDaniel in a tournament in Greensboro NC on 1/4/86. But we all also know he REALLY won it when he and Tully Blanchard kicked the crutches out from under Dusty Rhodes months earlier on WTBS and Arn walked away with the belt.
- Tully Blanchard brought the TV title back into main event prominence in 1984, but Arn Anderson took it to a whole new level in 1986 as Jim Crockett Promotions expanded nationwide and the TV title had tremendous exposure on Superstation WTBS, defended regularly on TV by Arn Anderson.
Don't miss the TV title episode of the the Arn Anderson podcast, available at thearnshow.com or wherever you get your podcasts.