National Wrestling Federation

National Wrestling Federation, Inc. (NWF) is a Magisterian professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, NWF has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and various other business ventures. The company is additionally involved in licensing its intellectual property to companies to produce video games and action figures.

The promotion was founded in 1972 by Marco Rousseau II. It is the largest wrestling promotion in Magisteria, and is often compared to the WWE. The company's global headquarters is located in Mathias, Little Belgium, with offices in Stamford, New York, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Shanghai, Moscow, Singapore, Dubai, and Quezon City.

As in other professional wrestling promotions, NWF shows are not legitimate contests but entertainment-based performance theater, featuring story line-driven, scripted, and partially choreographed matches; however, matches often include moves that can put performers at risk of injury, even death, if not performed correctly. NWF brands its product as sports entertainment, acknowledging wrestling's roots in competitive sport and dramatic theater.

The company's majority owner is its president & CEO, second-generation wrestling promoter Marco Rousseau III.

Early years (1972–1980)
Prior to the NWF's opening, the Magisterian wrestling industry was dominated by Golden Canvas Grappling (GCG), who was enjoying considerable artistic and financial success back then. In 1972, Marco Rousseau II, the son of shipping magnate Marco Rousseau I, received a M$20 million trust fund payment on his 18th birthday and immediately went to work creating the National Wrestling Federation.

On 22 June 1972, the National Wrestling Federation was officially formed with its first ever show, which was attended by 25,000 fans. The show was a critical and financial success, and then signed Magisteria's most popular wrestler Master Sullivan into an exclusive contract, which was unheard of in Magisteria at the time.

Taking lessons learned from other mediums of entertainment, Rousseau devised a product that appealed to the most broad audience possible. While others scoffed at the lack of a clearly defined style of wrestling and heavy use of non-wrestling segments in weekly shows, the NWF reached levels of popularity since the revival of Magisterian wrestling in 1960.

Boom period (1980-1995)
By the beginning of the 1980s, the NWF were beginning to become the most famous wrestling promotion in Magisteria, eclipsing GCG to a close second. In 1981, the NWF heavily promoted their very first pay-per-view, named 'Night of Legends', with Master Sullivan defending the NWF World Heavyweight title against Mark Krogan as the main event. The first ever Night of Legends was held on 12 July 1981.

The match itself was solid, if unspectacular, but was boosted by an incredibly heated crowd. Sullivan took the early advantage, using his massive size advantage to manhandle his opponent, before Krogan used cheap shots to come back. The finish is probably one of the most famous in history; Korgan hit Sullivan with his DDT, but Sullivan kicked out a split second before the three count. He then fired back on the shocked Krogan, hitting three successive piledrivers to get payback on the neck injury he suffered thanks to Krogan's DDT three months earlier before the event, knocking the challenger out cold for the three count to retain the title.

The show, thanks entirely to this match, was a massive success. It drew the biggest crowd for NWF at that time (approx. 65,000), set a record for the largest pay-per-view audience for the company until 2001, and is widely regarded as the defining moment in Magisterian wrestling history. NWF used this as a springboard to massive commercial success, and the company became the undisputed number one promotion in the country.

In 1985, Master Sullivan, still the NWF World Heavyweight champion, announced his unexpected retirement and many wonder who will succeed him as a credible franchise player and champion for the company. It was when until youngster Christian Faith jumped Master Sullivan from behind after announcing his retirement, and drew probably the most sustained heel heat in the company's history. In July 1985, in the fifth annual Night of Legends event, Christian Faith defeated Master Sullivan for the NWF World Heavyweight title.

The match lasted 22 minutes, and was a major turning point for Magisterian wrestling. It was Master Sullivan's final ever match before retiring and eventually passing away in 1991 at the age of 49. Faith went on to have a 'Golden Year', in which he was the undisputed top guy of the promotion for a whole year, providing the fans sensational title defenses with the likes of Mike Kinsey, Rory McCallum, Sid Streets, and Alex Pierce before losing the belt in 1986 to Sam Keith.

In 1993, in probably the most violent fifteen minutes that the NWF had ever seen. Genghis Rahn faced Karl Jackson in a no-disqualification match. After brawling for a few minutes in the ring, the two wrestlers spilled to the outside, where they proceeded to brawl with incredible intensity up the aisle, across the sound stage, through the crowd, and back to the ring. By the time they reached the ring, both men were bleeding heavily from being hit with weapons, with Genghis Rahn in particular virtually unrecognisable thanks to the amount of blood covering his face and upper body. After smacking Jackson with a vicious chair shot to the head, Rahn ended the carnage by powerbombing the youngster through a ringside table, and dragging him back in for the win.

While the match was a superbly intense brawl, and a great match in its own right, it was the shockwaves that it caused that make it so famous. Used to seeing family-friendly entertainment, both MBC and the NWF were bombarded with complaints from irate viewers, while at the same time a large number of fans who were growing tired of the slow-paced matches that were usually presented to them were estatic, wanting NWF to present more of this new extreme style. Marco Rousseau was furious at the trouble this match had caused, especially as he had not been consulted about it beforehand, and it was long-standing company policy that matches could not have blood or excessive violence without his personal clearance.

Genghis Rahn was fired straight after the match after a huge backstage argument; he joined small East Coast promotion DAVE (known as Piledriver Wrestling before 1995) a few months later, and became the company's leading figurehead to its gradual shift into presenting a more violent style of wrestling. Karl Jackson was punished by being dropped into a bland opening match tag team with Brick Fantana; he left six months later to join NWF's major rival, GCG. As a result of the match, NWF became even more conservative, which helped them keep their lucrative TV show.

Rise of junior wrestling (1995-1997)
In 1995, Marco Rousseau began hiring previously obscure junior heavyweight wrestlers from Magisteria's independent scene. This was part of his experiment to introduce fast-paced, junior heavyweight wrestling to the Magisterian audience after seeing the success it got from Japan. The first match, held in the annual September event The Battle Beyond, that involved junior wrestlers were the clash between Optimus and Elemental.

The match was a clash of two wrestlers willing to take any risk to win, and featured some high flying top rope moves that had never been seen before. More importantly, the crowd loved this intense action, and were giving the wrestlers reactions normally reserved for the grapplers in the main event scene. After twenty five minutes, Optimus missed a moonsault, which left him stunned and wide open for an attack. Elemental took the opportunity, drilling the youngster with a Brainbuster Suplex for the victory, receiving possibly the loudest standing ovation to any wrestler in Magisterian wrestling.

Immediately after the match, Junior wrestling in Magisteria skyrocketed in popularity and led to the NWF introducing the NWF Junior Heavyweight championship and the junior heavyweight division. While the first match between Optimus and Elemental skyrocketed junior wrestling in popularity, the rematch that was held in the 1996 Night of Legends event cemented Junior wrestling as a force to be reckoned with in Magisteria.

The match itself is generally regarded as the finest Junior match at that time, and was ahead of its time that it would still be considered a classic if held now, two decades later. For 45 minutes, the two wrestlers exchanged lightning fast aerial moves, precise technical holds and counters, and daredevil dives. Elemental finally went for a Brainbuster Suplex to end the match, but Optimus slipped out the back of the move and hit a German Suplex for the three count, becoming the second-ever NWF Junior Heavyweight champion.

Rise of new stars (1997-1999)
In late 1997, top star Christian Faith is close to retiring, and suggested Rousseau to heavily push three young prospects that himself has trained; Bryan Vessey, Monty Walker, and Rico Santana. Rousseau agreed and all three were scheduled to face NWF's then-three most popular stars in match that will change the trio's careers forever. In the first of three main events in the 1998 Night of Legends event, Rico Santana pinned Sam Keith clean to help him in his run to the main event scene.

In the second of three main events, Monty Walker submit Warren Young to cement his reputation as a tough fighter. In the main event, Christian Faith lost his third world title to Bryan Vessey by clean pinfall. Since then, the trio - nicknamed as the Faith Trio - would dominate the NWF for the latter half of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s.

Continued rise in popularity (2000s)
As the NWF entered the 2000s, many changes were implemented into the company; the company introduced its first 'brand' split in 2002 due to the overabundance of talent.

First brand split (2002–present)
In December 2002, the NWF introduced their first brand split due to the overabundance of talent. Inspired by WWE's brand split of the same year, the NWF brand split began with a draft lottery with each group of wrestlers appearing on one of their main programs, Battleground and Intensity. The brand split is held nearly every year to set the rosters, with the first draft to determine the inaugural split rosters, and subsequent drafts designed to refresh the rosters of each show.

The brand split meant that a new world title was needed for the Intensity brand as the Battleground brand has the original NWF World Heavyweight title. The NWF Universal championship was created for the Intensity brand, and was won by Peter Valentine in a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament. The NWF expanded the brand split in 2008 by making its junior heavyweight division have its own brand, Lightning. It also meant that the junior heavyweight titles for Battleground (the original NWF Junior Heavyweight title, renamed to Battleground Junior Championship) and Intensity (the Intensity Junior Championship) had to be merged into the brand, which led to the creation of the NWF Unified Junior Heavyweight championship. Although the junior wrestlers have their separate brand, it is still possible for junior wrestlers to be drafted to Battleground or Intensity.

COVID-19 pandemic and return to touring (2020–2021)
In March 2020, the NWF began to be impacted by the Magisterian onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-March, three of the four major sports leagues closed locker rooms to the media as a precautionary measure. As other sports cancellations and postponements were being introduced, the NWF began to film its weekly programs at the National School Of Wrestling faculty in Santiago, West Yukon without spectators and with only essential staff present, beginning with the March 16 episode of Battleground – the March 11 episode of Lightning had been recorded at the faculty with paying fans, thus being NWF's last event to have ticketed fans in attendance before the pandemic took full effect. The Night of Legends event became a two-night event, starting with the 39th event on 11 July and 12 July, with fans in attendance, though to a limited capacity.

In April 2021, the NWF held its annual April event The World Is Watching. For the pay-per-view event, the venue was raised to full capacity, making it the first time the NWF held an event with a capacity crowd since March 2020. In May 2021, NWF announced that they would be returning to live touring, beginning with the May 10 episode of Battleground.