quoms:

The first break within the organization occurred in 1957, when Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn walked out of the August NWA meeting in St. Louis. Quinn had fallen out with Muchnick over a number of issues. Quinn was a partner in the St. Louis territory and disagreed with how it was being run, and was also angry that Muchnick had business dealings with rogue promoter (and Quinn rival) Jack Pfefer. At the time Quinn walked out, a wrestler of his named Édouard Carpentier was involved in an angle where he and Lou Thesz were both being presented around the NWA as champion. This occurred after Carpentier had a disputed win over Thesz on June 14, 1957, and some of the NWA promoters considered it a legitimate title change, while others did not.^[4] The original idea was to build the idea of the “disputed” NWA title into a high-profile rematch. When Quinn left the NWA, Muchnick announced that Carpentier had never been an official champion and had no claim on the title.

Afterward, Quinn saw the financial possibilities in the Carpentier situation and began to negotiate with factions within the NWA, as some territories such as Boston (AAC/Big Time Wrestling), Nebraska, and Los Angeles (NAWA/WWA) continued to recognize Carpentier as champion. He offered to have Carpentier lose a title match to their prospective champion thus giving them, if they decided to break away, a legitimate claim on the world title. The AAC recognized Killer Kowalski as world champion when he defeated Carpentier in Boston, and Nebraska recognized Verne Gagne as champion when he defeated Carpentier in Omaha (after winning the belt, Gagne tried for two years to work things out with the NWA, but finally left the organization in 1960 forming the American Wrestling Association.^[4] Gagne’s win over Carpentier was used to legitimize the world championship status of the AWA title). The NAWA/WWA recognized Freddie Blassie as world champion when he defeated Carpentier in 1961. The promotion then left the NWA officially and became Worldwide Wrestling Associates (WWA) until it returned to the NWA in 1968.

professional wrestling history literally indistinguishable from church history