The National Wrestling Alliance World heavyweight championship is synonymous with some of the greatest names in the sport of professional wrestling. Names like Ric Flair, Lou Thesz, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes and Ricky Steamboat have held this prestigious title over the course of the last 60 years. The NWA World Heavyweight championship has the longest title lineage of any belt in professional wrestling today.

Five years ago, the National Wrestling Alliance struck a deal with an emerging group named Total Nonstop Action. TNA, as it would come to be known, were provided with the NWA World Heavyweight championship and Tag Team championships to use on its programming. The use of these established belts helped add immediate credibility to the TNA product.

But that all changed on Sunday May 13th 2007. On that day NWA Executive Director, Bob Trobich, stripped Christian Cage & Team 3D of the NWA world heavyweight championship and the NWA world tag team championships respectively. With the ending of the NWA’s business relationship with TNA, these prestigious belts have come home to the National Wrestling Alliance and it’s members worldwide.

Trobich then went on to announce a 16 man tournament to be held all over North America within various NWA territories. The tournament will feature the best wrestlers from within the NWA to represent the various NWA branches across the world. Names like former ring of Honour champion Brian Danielson, Aaron (Jesus) Aguilera, Claudio Castagnoli and the NWA Heritage Champion ‘Scrap Iron’ Adam Pearce will be featured in this tournament.

As a proud associate member of the National Wrestling Alliance, EPW is extremely proud to announce that we will be represented in the tournament by none other than Mikey Nicholls.

But Mikey’s first round opponent will be New Japan Pro Wrestling’s, Fergal Devitt. Devitt is one of the fastest rising stars in professional wrestling and Mikey will need to be at his absolute best to defeat Devitt.

EPWPerth.com caught up with Mikey to ask him about this monumental honour.

EPWPERTH: Mikey, first of all, how are you settling into life in California?
MIKEY: Please, who you talking to, I’m a superhero man, I’m a superstar, California is like my second home. So to answer your question, I’m settling in quite nicely,

EPWPERTH: EPW has had an association with NWA Pro Wrestling for over 18 months now. What do you feel EPW, and yourself personally, have gained from this partnership?
MIKEY: It has really opened up the door for more talent exchange between Australia and the USA. If you run down the list of talented wrestlers, specifically from EPW alone, that have done tours and seeing where they are at now, it’s really quite remarkable. From a personal standpoint it has given me the opportunity to wrestle all over the world against all kinds of opponents. It has made me the International Wrestling superstar that I am today.

EPWPERTH: What were your thoughts when you heard that the NWA was reclaiming the World Heavyweight championship, the famed 10 pounds of gold, from TNA wrestling?
MIKEY: I thought it as going to be a great opportunity for all the wrestlers involved in the NWA to make a name for themselves. It has given everyone the chance to hold the most prestigious prize in all of wrestling.

EPWPERTH: How did you feel when you heard that you would be one of the 16 men competing for the championship?
MIKEY: Of course I felt extremely honoured to be invited to participate in the tournament. It made me feel like all my hard work over the past few years has started to pay off, and on top of that made me want to work twice as hard to prove that I deserve to be included in the tournament. I want to prove that I deserve the chance to fight for the NWA world heavyweight title.

EPWPERTH: What does it mean to you to be able to wrestle for a championship made famous by greats like Ric Flair, Harley Race and Lou Thesz?
MIKEY: I could not even begin to try and explain how much it means to me to be wrestling for the NWA World Heavyweight Title, a title with such a rich history. Running through the list of former champs is just incredible; it is quite literally a who’s who of the legends that made professional wrestling what it is today. So just having the chance to be apart of this tournament the chance of winning and having my name mentioned in the same breath as the men that will be remebered forever, well it gives me goosebumps.

EPWPERTH: A tough first round match no doubt as you face your friend and former training partner, Fergal Devitt. How confident do you go in and how will you approach this match?
MIKEY: Like you said, Fergal and I go back a little bit. I consider him to be one of the best friends I have made in this business. We lived and trained together for a while and have wrestled together in both the USA and Japan. But when it comes down to it and the bell rings, I will take the match like I take every match. I will do whatever is necessary to get the win. But either way, when its all over im still going to share a cider or two with the Prince.

EPWPERTH: Who do you view as the three favourites to take home the gold?
MIKEY: You know what. How about I just say that I’m going win. No doubt. So I guess my 3 favourites are The Inernational Wrestling Superstar, The Comic Book Superhero Brought to Life, and of course, Mikey Nicholls

EPWPERTH: And finally, here at home we have a massive EPW championship match coming up as Jimmy Payne will defend the belt against Shane Haste. You’ve faced both men a number of times. How can Shane defeat Jimmy and who do you think will win?
MIKEY: You know what? In all honesty, I don’t think Shane Haste can beat Jimmy Payne. Besides the fact that he (Haste) is a world class douche-bag, Jimmy has just been too good over the last few months. Hell, even over the past year. And I don’t see Jimmy losing that title for a while yet, well at least until a certain superhero flies back through those parts.

Mikey Nicholls, thank you for your time.

Keep up-to-date with the NWA World Championship Tournament here