The Triple Crown

So what is the Triple Crown? It is the unification of three All Japan recognized championships: the NWA International Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National Championship and the PWF World Heavyweight Championship.

Many won't believe it, but Vince McMahon is indirectly responsible for the creation of the Triple Crown. Here is how:

By the mid 1980's Vince and the WWF were expanding nationally and putting almost all of the old NWA territories out of business. In response, Jim Crockett attempted his own national expansion. He used his Mid Atlantic territory as the basis of his national expansion and began to absorb many of the resources of the existing NWA territories as they went out of business, no longer able to compete with McMahon. And in doing so, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion stopped being a touring champion, as almost all of the old territories where he would travel to were gone.

Now Giant Baba (All Japan owner and promotor) and All Japan had been long time members of the NWA. The Champion often traveled to Japan and would defend the belt, often as one of the main events at All Japans quarterly shows at Budaken Hall. In fact, as a condition of joining the NWA, Baba had for a time downgraded the PWF World Heavyweight Championship to just the PWF Heavyweight Championship, and recognized the NWA Champion as the only World Champion. Yes, semantics mean a great deal within the world of professional wrestling.

By the late 1980's, Baba and All Japan were one of the few remaining NWA members. And with Jim Crockett fighting McMahon and the WWF, the NWA Champion was traveling and defending the title less and less. Crockett canceled a few scheduled Ric Flair (NWA Champion at the time) tours of Japan and Baba had had enough. Unable to get dates on the world champion, Baba decided to create his own, and thus with the merging of his three singles championships into a unified title, the greatest wrestling championship, the Triple Crown was born.