Much like most of the wrestling world, the National Wrestling Alliance was forced to put a halt to their programming amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The company was building towards the Crockett Cup, which was set to be headlined by Nick Aldis defending the NWA World Heavyweight Title against Marty Scurll. The event was to be held at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, GA on April 19.
And the cancelation of the event cost the NWA roughly half a million dollars in revenue according to Vice President David Lagana.
"I think the projected numbers were somewhere over half a million dollars for that one day for Crockett Cup, with pay-per-view and ticket sales as far as incoming revenue. It was really hard to not do it, but we really didn't have much of a choice. The momentum was a loss. We were coming off Hard Times, which was stronger than Into The Fire. We had a very strong projection of what that would be and we had a lot of really good things," he said on Inside The NWA. "Moving forward, we've done okay merchandise-wise. We're surprised at how much our fans are supporting us because, in these hard times, we're trying not to ask everyone for money because everyone is having a hard time. But, for us, it's been an interesting time for us to get deep with our fans. Running Super Powerrr last week, we saw even a giant level of support that we hadn't seen in months. For us, as a business, it's a lot of hard choices. We had to stop being a live event company through the near future, if not the end of the year. It was a hard pivot and discussions. We'll just have to adjust as the market changes."
NWA aired past matches and storylines to fill the gap left by new episodes of NWA Powerrr every Tuesday. This past week, the company debuted Carnyland, a new show where stories and humor take center stage.
NWA President Billy Corgan said, "The most important thing is putting out the message and letting everyone know that we're going to fight like hell to not only maintain our place in the market but also find ways to be creative and entertain. In our situation, we remain a big independent run wrestling company. We have to balance the fact that we have a business plan and if we overdo it in this period, where there is a ton of uncertainty, there may not be a next year. We're having to balance our priorities."
It is unknown when NWA will resume live events. Lagana previously stated that they won't do empty arena shows as the audience is a big part of their program. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
