World Wrestling Association

The World Wrestling Association (WWA) was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Woodbury, New Jersey. It is unrelated to the earlier World Wrestling Association promotions of the same name, including Dick the Bruiser’s Indianapolis-based WWA and the Los Angeles WWA of the 1960s. The New Jersey WWA was a regional independent promotion that operated from 1988 to 1998.

Larry Sharpe and Dennis Coralluzzo started the promotion in 1988. WWA held shows throughout South Jersey and the Philadelphia area, with occasional events in Delaware and Maryland.

The promotion mainly served as the live-event branch of Sharpe’s Monster Factory, a training school in Paulsboro he opened with Buddy Rogers in 1983. This school gave trainees regular ring experience, while well-known wrestlers appeared on bigger shows.

WWA followed a traditional American style with clear heel-face programs, fundamentals-based matches, and championship-driven cards. The WWA Tag Team Championship started in March 1989, followed by the Heavyweight Championship in September and the Junior Heavyweight Championship in November. A Welterweight Championship was also used during the promotion’s early years.

Wrestlers like Boy Gone Bad, Spider, Golden Phoenix, Johnny Hotbody, Tony Stetson, Ray Odyssey, Duane Gill, Barry Hardy, and Chris Candido became regular names across its divisions.

The promotion’s busiest period came between 1990 and 1993. Its three annual Rumble events became the biggest draws, with Rumble III attracting about 2,000 fans to Williamstown High School’s football field on August 29, 1992.

Larger WWA events featured Terry Funk, Stan Hansen, Bob Backlund, Jerry Lawler, Bob Orton Jr., Cactus Jack, Eddie Gilbert, Nikolai Volkoff, Sabu, Chris Benoit, and the Lightning Kid. A Terry Funk versus Eddie Gilbert match in 1992 was among its most notable bouts. Paul Wight (Big Show) also made his professional wrestling debut for WWA in Clementon on December 3, 1994, before his later careers in WCW, WWE, and AEW.

Coralluzzo left the ownership group in 1993 as he moved into NWA leadership and operated NWA New Jersey, leaving Sharpe as WWA’s sole owner.

WWA continued running regular cards in Clementon and other South Jersey towns, but its schedule slowed after 1994 as ECW became the leading Philadelphia-area independent and the WWF and WCW held most national television exposure.

WWA presented only occasional events in its final years and ceased operations in 1998. Its surviving footage remains scattered across independent archive uploads, including matches from the Rumble events and regular Monster Factory cards.