NWA Mid-America
| Founded | 1940s |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 1981 |
| Style | Rasslin' / Southern Style |
| Headquarters |
Dyersburg, Tennessee Memphis, Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee Birmingham, Alabama |
| Founder(s) |
Nick Gulas Roy Welch |
| Owner(s) | Nick Gulas (1940s–1981) Roy Welch (1940s–1977) John Cazana (1953–1974) Joe Gunther (1940–1970s) |
| Parent | Gulas Wrestling Enterprises Inc. |
| Formerly | Gulas-Welch Enterprisees Inc. |
The NWA Mid-America was a professional wrestling promotion territory under the umbrella of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) that promoted shows in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama from the 1940s until 1981. The company was founded in the 1940s by Nick Gulas and Roy Welch and was one of the first promotions to join the NWA after it was founded in 1948. From 1953 until late 1974 John Cazana promoted the Knoxville area and Joe Gunther promoted the Birmingham area from around 1940 until some point in the 1970s. In 1977 promoter Jerry Jarrett and wrestler Jerry Lawler broke away from NWA Mid-America, breaking the Memphis area off to start on the own under the name the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA). Mid-America stopped promoting in 1981 and the CWA took over most of their territory as well as some of the championships promoted by NWA Mid-America
In the 1940s wrestling promoter Roy Welch started promoting shows on a regular basis in and around Memphis, Tennessee and would later be joined by Nick Gulas who had been promoting shows in Florida between 1945 and 1947 before joining with Welch to create the Gulas Welch Enterprises Inc. company in the mid 1940s as they began promoting shows primarily in Memphis and Nashville with occasional shows in Chattanooga, Jackson, Louisville, Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, Bowling Green, Kentucky. They also worked with Joe Gunther, a promoter working out of Birmingham, Alabama to expand their promotion into Alabama as well as occasional shows in Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina. In 1949 The group joined the National Wrestling Alliance, a national sanctioning body that divided the US into territories. The promotion became known as the NWA Mid-America. In 1953 they added Knoxville, Tennessee to their territory as promoter John Cazana joined the group. The group recognized a number of NWA "World" Championships that were shared across the territories as well as promoting their own NWA branded championships that were mainly defended in the Mid-America territory.
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