The NWA World Championship is one of the oldest titles in professional wrestling history. The title started its lineage in 1948 and is still around today, defended in NWA territories, but mostly seen in Billy Corgan's NWA promotion on YouTube. However, other world titles spun-off of the NWA World Title, including the WWE Championship, which was created in 1963 when Lou Thesz beat the champion, Buddy Rogers. The NWA disallowed the title change, causing both men to claim different titles.
The NWA World Title was also the one that Shane Douglas won and then threw in the trash, to create the new ECW Championship in the '90s. On the other hand, two other wrestling companies used the NWA title in a partnership before creating their world titles and returning the NWA World Championship. For a period of time, the NWA World Title was defended in promotions such as TNA and WCW, creating legendary feuds that are still talked about to this day.
10 WCW: RIC FLAIR VS. DUSTY RHODES
WCW is what Jim Crockett Promotions changed its name to when the company went nationwide, and there wasn't a bigger feud for the NWA Championship in that company than the one between "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. Flair was a 10-time champion for 3,116 days, and Rhodes was a three-time champion for only 107 days. Despite that, these two men signified everything great about the NWA World Title
9 TNA: JEFF JARRETT VS. SEX
When TNA formed, it was a weekly pay-per-view wrestling company that worked under the umbrella of the NWA. It created an X-Division Championship but used the NWA world and tag team titles. The man who dominated the title in TNA was Jeff Jarrett, and one of his early feuds was against a group called Sports Entertainment Xtreme, which was led by Vince Russo. It was the first dominant TNA faction, and Jarrett was on the front lines as champion, defending his promotion.
8 WCW: RIC FLAIR VS. BARRY WINDHAM
When Ric Flair formed The Four Horsemen, it was always meant to be a faction that protected him as the world champion, while also fighting for the mid-card titles and tag team titles. However, for some men, it led to a world title feud when they became tired of working for Flair and challenged him. It happened with Lex Luger, Sting, and Barry Windham, and it was Windham who turned in some of the best matches in early WCW against Flair, a great feud between two of the best of all-time.
7 TNA: RAVEN VS. RHINO
In recent years, many fans have argued that Impact Wrestling was doing too much with the former ECW wrestlers, but this is nothing new. The ECW stars were a significant part of TNA from its early days, although at least in that era, they were still young enough to turn in great matches.
One of the greatest superstars in ECW history was Raven, and the last ever ECW Champion was Rhino. These two men ended up in a feud for the NWA Title, which Raven won from AJ Styles in 2005, and Rhino won from Jarrett later in the year. The two men had several ultraviolent matches, including Raven's Clockwork Orange Match, with the title on the line.
6 WCW: RIC FLAIR VS. STING
If you remove the nWo from the picture, the best feud in WCW history and the one that defined the company for a decade was "Nature Boy" Ric Flair vs. Sting. It was a perfect feud, often with the NWA title on the line. Flair was the cheating champion, holding the title more times than anyone. Sting was the biggest babyface in the world, and the two men remain connected to each other to this very day.
5 TNA: STING VS. JEFF JARRETT
Sting also had a strong connection to the NWA title when he joined TNA. Instead of moving to WWE like most other major WCW stars from the Monday Night Wars, Sting moved to TNA and was a major star there. He won his first title in 2006 from Jeff Jarrett at Bound for Glory, and these two men had a brutal feud, with the control of TNA at stake throughout their battles. Jarrett's loss to Sting in 2006 marked both men's final title reigns with the NWA title.
4 WCW: RIC FLAIR VS. TERRY FUNK
In 1989, Ric Flair battled Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at WrestleWar in Nashville, Tennessee, and Flair won his seventh NWA World Championship from Steamboat in a match that had three judges sitting at ringside. The judges were never needed, as Flair won the title from Steamboat cleanly.
However, one of the judges came into the ring to congratulate Flair for the win. This man was Terry Funk, who challenged Flair for the title. Flair rejected the challenge, so Funk attacked him and delivered a piledriver through a table that took Flair out for a long time. The two finally had an I-Quit Match that Flair won, but this was a feud that pulled in all wrestling fans, one of the best in wrestling history.
3 TNA: CHRISTIAN CAGE VS. STING
Christian Cage showed up in TNA after several years in WWE and was an instant star. Christian feuded with Jeff Jarrett and won the NWA World Championship quickly at Against All Odds 2006. However, when he lost the title, he experienced an attitude change and took it out on Sting, who he betrayed. Now working as a heel, Christian wanted the title back from the new champion, Abyss.
Cage battled Sting for the right to the title and eventually beat Sting in a three-way match with Abyss to win the title at Final Resolution 2007. He and Sting feuded for the title through the first half of 2007 before Christian lost his NWA Title to Angle in the match that created the new TNA World Championship. That saw Christian lose in a three-way match at Sacrifice 2007, with Sting as the third man.
2 WCW: RIC FLAIR VS. RICKY STEAMBOAT
The feud between Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Nature Boy Ric Flair in 1989 might not just be the best feud for the NWA World Championship in WCW, but it might be the three best matches for the NWA Title in history. The trilogy took place at the Chi-Town Rumble, where Steamboat pinned Flair to win his first-ever world title. Steamboat then won again at Clash of Champions VI in a two-out-of-three-falls match. Then, at WrestleWar, Flair won the title back.
1 TNA: JEFF JARRETT VS. AJ STYLES
When TNA launched, the company used the NWA World and Tag Team titles, but also created its own title known as the X-Division Championship. The idea was that the world title was a title for the big names in the business, and the X-Division title was for the younger guys who were ultra-athletic.
However, TNA made sure that fans knew that both champions, at least in the start, were equal. That meant when AJ Styles battled Jeff Jarrett, it was the two top guys in the company battling for the NWA World Title. It was Styles who ended both Jarrett's first and third title reigns.