The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. For two years the promotion was in limbo as Gunkel's wife took all the GCW wrestlers to make her own promotion, but when that failed they went back to Georgia under the tutelage of promoter Jim Barnett. In the 1980's, the WWA was home to a young Scott Rechsteiner who would go on to achieve fame as Scott Steiner. He had aspirations of stepping away from the old territorial system and going national which happened in the mid 80's due to Hulk Hogan, WrestleMania and holding events all over the country. WWE owns all GCW video archives. Continental Championship Wrestling (CCW) was an Alabama promotion founded by Roy Welch and Buddy Fuller in 1954 when they purchased part of Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State Wrestling (TSW) promotion. This website uses cookies. After Herb Owen died in 1942, his son Don took over and was one of the first promoters to showcase women's wrestling. Their show was one the most popular wrestling shows in the world until 1989 when they closed down.

Andre the Giant was also a big star in Stampede where he wrestled for much of the 1970's. CWF became a major promotion in the NWA because of Eddie Grahams 2 terms as the NWA president. In 1939, he stepped down and handed the promotion over to John and Frank Tunney. It was home to many top NWA stars like Dusty Rhodes, Jack Brisco, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Boris Malenko, Eddie Graham and Kevin Sullivan as well as other NWA stars who wrestled their on a frequent basis. All-Star Wrestling (ASW) was founded in 1960 by Rod Fenton as a successor to his Big Time Wrestling (BTW) promotion in Vancouver. In 1976 GCW made it's debut on satellite TV and was the first National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promotion to be broadcast nationwide, it was one of the main shows keeping WTBS (the station it was on) alive. Controversy arose in 1961 when Mondt booked Buddy Rogers as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion but rarely let him leave the CWC. Would you like to suggest this photo as the cover photo for this article?

They taped there weekly shows at the Sportatorium in Dallas, the night they taped their shows would change over the years. In 1952 he sold part of it to Wally Karbo before he died in 1954, Karbo then took over the promotion with wrestling star Verne Gagne. Poor attendance, lack of talent and sub-par venues led to Lawler buying out Jarrett and selling the company to a businessman who shut down the company in late 1997. The last wrestling territory ever created. Please click the "Downloads" icon in the Safari toolbar, open the first download in the list. In the early 1970's, Lutteroth left the company to his son Chavo. Maple Leaf Wrestling (MLW) was founded in 1930 as the Queensbury Athletic Club (QAC) by boxing promoter Jack Cocoran in the Toronto-area. If you're using HTTPS Everywhere or you're unable to access any article on Wikiwand, please consider switching to HTTPS (https://www.wikiwand.com). The end drew near when Frank's son Eddie and John's son Jack took over the promotion in 1983. Throughout the article you will see a lot of the acronyms for the promotions. WWF stars who often competed in the USWA were Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels and Lex Luger. The promotion went national and revolutionized the business with their hardcore style before shutting down in 2001. In 1962, they earned a TV deal when future NWA World Heavyweight champion and Canada's most popular wrestler, Gene Kiniski, became a regular on the roster. But UWF was unable to compete with JCP and the WWF and Watts ended up selling to Crockett in 1987. The Jerry Lawler and Jimmy Hart feud was probably the biggest feud in the promotion throughout the 1980's, the feud consisted of Hart bringing in numerous heels to face Lawler over the years before he signed for the WWF. Kevin Sullivan was an icon down there with his heel stable Army of Darkness. The WWE owns the SMW video archive.

In the 1960's, they hit their stride when they headlined Lou Thez and NWA World Heavyweight champion Gene Kiniski which drew 16,000 people. Actor Andy Kaufman was a big part of the promotion in the early 1980's where he also had a memorable feud with Lawler that went mainstream. MLW finally closed in 1986. They had a talent exchange with World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in Texas, and two of Portland's wrestlers, Chris Adams and King Parsons became big stars for Von Erich in the WCWA. In 1972, legendary Japanese wrestler Giant Baba left the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JPWA) and created his own promotionAll Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in Tokyo. They joined forces again with the NWA without becoming a member to form Pro Wrestling USA with a couple of promotions to compete with Vince McMahon but when that failed it was only a matter of time that the promotion was going to call it a day. In 1983, Kiniski left the promotion and sold his share to Tomko after which Tomko withdrew ASW from the NWA and created his own wrestling alliance called Universal Wrestling Alliance (UWA).

Paul Jones ran the company for the best part of 30 years before falling ill and handing it over to his booker Ray Gunkel in 1970 who ran it for 2 years before he died of a heart attack after a match with the legendary Ox Baker. Prior to the younger Crockett's taking over the company, it was more of a Tag Team promotion but they steered it away from that while still having some Tag Team wrestling.

They lost their TV deal in 1967 but were still doing well and in the 1970's brought in Roddy Piper, Jesse Ventura, Dutch Savage, Lonnie Mayne, Billy Jack Haynes, Buddy Rose and Jimmy Snuka to the promotion.

In 1982, they were forced to change their TV shows name to World Championship Wrestling to make it more appealing to fans.

But low attendances and lost talent to the WWF caused them to fold in 1989. Wrestlers will portray heroes or villains as they follow a series of events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series matches. They joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1952 and promoted shows in the Carolina's and Virginia.

When Jerry Lawler signed with the WWF, many of the WWF's stars wrestled in the USWA and kept it alive. This promotion was short-lived because of poor attendance and the national expansion of the WWF and Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP).

They had success as Leaping Lanny Poffo and, of course, Macho Man Randy Savage. JCP was seen as the main promotion of the NWA and many of the top stars like Ric Flair, The Anderson brothers (Gene, Lars and Ole), Wahoo McDaniel, Johnny Valentina and Paul Jones mainly wrestled there. The American Wrestling Association's (AWA) roots go back to 1933 when it was known as the Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club (MBWC) founded by Anton Stecher. Andre the Giant, Abdullah the Butcher, Killer Kowalski, Haystacks Calhoun and Ox Baker were big stars there. World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) was founded in 1960 by Fritz Von Erich as NWA Big Time Wrestling (NWA:BTW). AJPW became the NWA's main Japanese territory as JPWA folded that same year. Crockett saw what Vince McMahon was doing and was the only territory able to keep up with him, especially after purchasing the Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) rights from him and airing their product on the WTBS. The WWF began using the MLW name when they toured Canada to draw local crowds as Jack Tunney became an on-air personality in the WWF. They aired fights Sunday mornings at 11 am on the USA Network starting in 1982. All wrestlers are required to be registered for each tournament by Thrusday at 10 PM.

But a bloody match between Blanchard's son Tully and Bob Sweetan was too much for USA Network. Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) was founded in 1933 by Salvador Lutteroth as Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). Over the years, independent promotions have opened in Tennessee and have used the acronym of the CWA but will never reach the popularity of the original CWA.

Each promotion or territory will get at most a paragraph with the most well known name it went by and the area of the country they promoted in as the header. In 1963 after Rogers lost the title to Lou Thez the CWC left the NWA and renamed it the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) bringing Rogers with them and making him the World Champion but due to a heart attack he lost the belt to Bruno Sammartino who became the promotions top star. Buddy Rose was their main draw throughout the late 70's and early 80's, even wrestling there on his days off from the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Apart from those two, only one other man held the ICW World Heavyweight Championship, a little-known wrestler, Paul Christy. I want to do a Q&A piece so any questions on anything from wrestling, MMA or soccer inbox me and I'll answer them in a future article. Fritz Von Erich was the main star in the early years until his sons started to debut in the mid to late 70's as well as the Fabulous Freebirds, Chris Adams, King Parsons, Jose Lothario, Bruiser Brody, Gino Hernandez, the Midnight Express and it was where a young Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin and Scott Hall got there start. After 4 attempts I finally got an opportunity to write for this site, all because I've just recently began writing for another site NoDQ.com under the Celtic Corner name. They formed Northwest Wrestling Promotions (NWP) as a parent company for both promotions. Fields got the promotion a television deal before selling it to Buddy Fuller's grandson and Roy Welch's son Ron in 1978 who renamed the promotion Southeastern Championship Wrestling (SCW) and extended it to run shows in Alabama and Florida where GCCW ran. Some of the top Japanese wrestlers to come out of AJPW were Jumbo Tsurata, Genrichiro Tenryu, Matsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi. Geigel served as the NWA president, and in 1973 NWA World Heavyweight champion Harley Race bought into the promotion. They were one of the best in the country and in 1953 made their TV debut. Tommy Rich, Bobby Shane, The Masked Superstar (Ax) and The Assasins were popular stars of GCW, with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair also making regular stops as well as the Brisco's, Ole Anderson and the Funk's. It floundered for the rest of the 1980's and even thought they hosted one pay per view, their 30 year old TV show was cancelled in 1990 and a year later they closed.

They merged it with their Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) where Randy Savage went on to become a star.

Due to the national expansion of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the early 1980's, they soon withdrew from the NWA and changed their name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. In 1985 Eddie Graham committed suicide leaving the promotion to Hiro Matsuda and Duke Keomuka who bought into the promotion in the 1960's. Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Jim Neidhart, Dynamite Kid, Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman were a couple of stars who honed their skills there and started out in Stampede. CMLL is still around today as the world's oldest wrestling promotion. I hope you enjoyed the article, any feedback positive or negative feel free to leave it below or in my inbox in here. Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) was founded in 1944 by local promoter Paul Jones, originally known as ABC Booking. Your input will affect cover photo selection, along with input from other users.

They had a weekly show called Wrestling at the Chase, considered one of the best wrestling programs. International Championship Wrestling (ICW) promotion was founded in 1978 by Angelo Poffo in the Kentucky area. The AWA became one of the biggest promotions in the United States and because they grew the territory to Illinois, California and Colorado among other states they were question marks on whether to consider them a territory or not. The promotion was at it's prime between the years 1981 and 1986. The biggest stars in MSW were Junkyard Dog, The Fabulous Freebirds, The Midnight Express, Sting, Shane Douglas, Rick Steiner, Eddie Gilbert, Steve Williams, The Rock 'n' Roll Express, Bill Watts, Danny Hodge, Irish Mike Clancy and Ted DiBiase. In 1977, Kovacs sold his share of the promotion to Canadian wrestler Al Tomko.

Originally, their governing body was Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) which was established by Baba, but in 1973, they joined the NWA with the PWF titles becoming regional titles. It is also where the legendary Four Horsemen began. Other notable wrestlers in St. Louis were Bulldog Bob Brown, Dick Murdoch, Dick the Bruiser, Bob Orton Jr., Pat O'Connor, Mike George and Rufus. Following the deaths of Hernandez as well as the deaths of 2 of the Von Erich brothers and the national expansion of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) the WCWA began to lose their popularity. He ended up, however, selling the territory to David Woods who owned a TV station.

They had a working relationship with St. Louis Wrestling Club and Harley Race considered both promotions home. In 1991, Jim Cornette founded Smokey Mountain Wrestling (SMW) in Tennessee. They aired their TV shows on Monday nights in Memphis which drew full houses often headlined by co-owner Jerry Lawler who was a 52 time Memphis Wrestling Southern Heavyweight Champion while in the promotion (57 time overall) . Cover photo is available under {{::mainImage.info.license.name || 'Unknown'}} license. 10-time NWA World Heavyweight champion Harley Race had a minority share in the promotion. To compete with McMahon he moved the television shows to big arenas. Since ECW was part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Jim Crockett asked Gordon to hold a tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

It was sold to Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) owner Jerry Jarrett in 1989 in his attempt to go national as the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) which lasted 8 years and failed at going national. After years of bickering by co-owners Jerry Jarrett and Nick Gulas, they decided to split the promotion in two. American professional wrestling and entertainment company, American professional wrestling promotion, Defunct American professional wrestling company, Professional wrestling promotion and online streaming website, Professional wrestling promotion, active from 1954 to 1990, Disambiguation page providing links to topics that could be referred to by the same search term, Entertainment companies of the United States, Professional wrestling in the United States, Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager at Sea, Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, Battle of Los Angeles (professional wrestling), SCW Tag Team Championship (Steel City Wrestling), SCW Television Championship (Steel City Wrestling), SCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (Steel City Wrestling), Steel City Wrestling Heavyweight Championship, International World Class Championship Wrestling, Entertainment companies established in 1986, American professional wrestling television series, Professional wrestling in the Las Vegas Valley, Independent professional wrestling promotions based in the Midwestern United States, Professional wrestling in Nashville, Tennessee, Entertainment companies established in 2002, Entertainment companies disestablished in 2017, Entertainment companies established in 1988, Professional wrestling streaming services, Women's professional wrestling promotions, Entertainment companies disestablished in 1991, Entertainment companies established in 1960, Corporate governance in the United States.