Their business succeeded quickly, gaining popularity for its freshness and unique approach to wrestling; a traveling stable of wrestlers. The Trio gained great popularity nationwide during their best years, roughly 1920 to 1925, when they performed in the Eastern territory, acquiring fans from the highly exposed big cities. The Trio was dealt a severe blow by Stanislaus Zbyszko, when he beat the rookie Wayne Munn for their world heavyweight championship, against the original booking. Munn, who had been recruited to wrestling and pushed to the level of champion in only a few months, was the Trio's new star and main attraction. Zbyszko was supposed to lose to Munn, but refused to follow along, beating Munn so decisively and thoroughly that the referee awarded him the title to prevent a riot. In addition, Zbyszko quickly dropped the title to Joe Stecher, a rival of Ed Lewis, making the situation worse for the Trio. Stecher, although an able booker, was afraid of losing his championship, refusing to wrestle many contenders as a result. This made it impossible for the Trio to retrieve it. They responded by calling the Munn-Zbyszko match illegitimate, and reinstated Munn as champion, but quickly had him drop it to Lewis. This left two champions, Ed Lewis and Joe Stecher, who were regarded as the dominant wrestlers of the period. Stecher and Lewis agreed to a unification match years later, in 1928, when Stecher gave in and lost the title to Lewis. By this time, the Zbyszko double-cross had already caused irreparable damage, detracting from the Trio's dominance over the wrestling industry. In addition, the build-up of Munn followed by such a humiliating loss had devalued his title and credibility as a major wrestling superstar permanently. In March 1887, Evan Lewis defeated Joe Acton for the American Catch-as-Catch-Can championship in Chicago. Soon, every wrestling promotion had created its own championship, which was considered each company's pride and glory. As promotions were attempting to become nationally renowned, acquiring rival championships marked victory. In the 1930s and 1940s, small wrestling promotions had fierce competition with each other, often stealing talents and "invading" enemy companies to win over fans. With inter-promotional matches occurring nationwide, the promotions were vying for dominance. In 1948, wrestling reached new heights after a loose confederation was formed between independent wrestling companies. This was known as the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).