The Evolution of Pro Wrestling is a series for our Premium Subscribers designed to track the historical changes and paradigms in the art form and creative aspects of the sport through Professional Wrestling’s History.
The Decade of the 1940s in Professional Wrestling
In the early 1940s, professional wrestling featured multiple competing “world” titles due to regional promotions. The National Wrestling Association (NWA, not to be confused with the later National Wrestling Alliance formed in 1948) sanctioned a widely recognized World Heavyweight Championship. “Wild” Bill Longson, a rugged and aggressive wrestler from Utah, won this title on February 19, 1942, from Sandor Szabo in St. Louis, Missouri. Meanwhile, in Montreal, the Montreal Athletic Commission (MAC) recognized its own World Heavyweight Championship, which had evolved from the AWA title and was primarily defended in Quebec after 1938.
