- "CWF" redirects here. For the other American
professional wrestling promotion which used the
CWF acronym, see Championship Wrestling from
Florida.
Continental Championship
Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion
based out of Knoxville,
Tennessee
from 1974 until 1988 and Dothan, Alabama
from 1978 to 1990, managed by Ron Fuller. When Fuller sold
the promotion to David Woods, it changed name to the
Continental Wrestling Federation. The territory
had also promoted under the previous name of
Southeastern
Championship Wrestling prior to 1985. Promoters Leroy
McGuirk, Roy Welch, and Buddy Fuller had runs operating the
territory until Lee Fields reformed it into
Gulf Coast
Championship Wrestling in the 1960's and 1970's.
History
The Gulf Coast Years
Nashville promoter Roy Welch had purchased theMobile-Pensacola end
of Leroy McGuirk'sTri-State Wrestling. Unlike McGuirk, who only
promotedin the Mobile-Pensacola area on special occasionscalled
spot shows. Welch decided to makepromoting in Mobile-Pensacola a
frequentattraction in the summer. However, due to his obligations
inNashville, his son Buddy Fuller (Edward Welch) wasmade booker for
Mobile-Pensacola, and Fullereventually expanded the territory
intoMississippi-Louisiana as well.
At this point, the territory didn't even have aname, its own belts,
or even its own wrestlers (asidefrom members of The Welch Family of
course). Theyoften relied wrestlers and champions from Buddy'sUncle
Lester Welch's territory that he ran in placeslike Tampa, Florida
and Atlanta, Georgia (which wouldeventually become Championship
Wrestling from Floridaand Georgia Championship Wrestling), as well
gettinghelp from his father in Nashville, Tennessee, and
someoccasional help from his Uncles Herb and Jack. These early
attempts would start to unravel when Buddy Fuller failed to make
payments to by the territory from his father Roy Welch. Buddy's
cousin Lee Fields (Albert Lee Hatfield) would save the territory
and gave it the name
Gulf Coast Championship
Wrestling
Lee Fields would eventually buy the territory from Roy Welch and
Buddy Fuller, and run shows in the area for almost two decades with
Rocky McGuire booking the Dothan-Panama City and Bob Kelly booking
Mobile-Pensacola and Mississippi after a falling out promoters in
Louisiana with Mobile-Pensacola only running in the summer months.
Kelly turned the promotion around from holding monthly and seasonal
shows in a few towns which only drew a few hundred people to
holding weekly shows in a different town night after night with
local television exposure in each market, which led to each arena
drawing thousands.
Bob Kelly left the wrestling business in 1976
to enter real estate and spend more time with family, and Lee
Fields found it more difficult to operate both his wrestling
promotion and Mobile International Speedway
at the same. So he sold it to his cousin Ron
Fuller around 1977-1978.
The Southeastern Years
In 1974,
Ron Fuller opened up Southeastern Championship
Wrestling based out of Knoxville, Tennessee where he focused mainly on the east Tennessee
area. In 1977, Ron Fuller took over the territory his
grandfather and father had originally founded when GCCW folded and
Fuller expanded the SECW to run in the Southern Alabama, Northern
Florida area in addition the Eastern Tennessee territory he already
established. This was initially labelled ”the Southern Division” of
the SECW treating them as two separate entities despite the
original plan to run a talent exchange between the two involving
talent spending sixteen months in one end of the territory and then
spend eight months in another to regain momentum after losing steam
in the previous one.
In 1980, several members of the talent roster and behind the scenes
personnel left the territory out frustration involving backstage
politics with Ron's brother
Robert
Fuller who was considered lazy in terms of booking the
terrirory, and spent many nights partying and felt his spot in
Southeastern was owed to him since he was a member of The
Welch/Fuller family. As a result, many of these defectors joined
the Knoxville based outlaw promotion
International Championship
Wrestling owned and operated by
Angelo
Poffo.
After this, the Knoxville end of Southeastern experienced financial
losses, and sold to promotions such as
Jim Crockett Promotions and
Georgia Championship
Wrestling for the next five years. Fuller then made Birmingham
his main end of the territory with the Dothan end continuing to
flourish, giving early exposure to future stars such as
The Fabulous Freebirds, rising stars
in the territory along the lines of
Austin
Idol, and appearances by
Ric Flair who
would defend the
NWA World
Heavyweight Title in the area each year.
The Continental Years
Five years later, Fuller decided that it was time to reach beyond
the Southern Alabama/Northern Florida area and re-purchased the
Knoxville end of the territory, with this expansion came a name
change to
Continental Championship Wrestling. This
was an attempt on Ron Fuller's part to compete with
Vince McMahon. After a failed negotiation with
CBS, he settled on moving the television show
out of the small television studio and into the big arenas where
they did house shows in order to give the promotion a national look
and feel. While the name
Southeastern restricted the
promotion to a more regional feel, the name
Continental
gave fans the impression they toured all over North America.
In 1988,
WCOV-TV
owner David Woods bought the controlling interest
in the promotion from Ron Fuller, and he renamed it
Continental Wrestling Federation in a further
attempt to compete with Vince McMahon and appear to resemble a
nationwide promotion, even to the point of getting an odd national
TV deal with Financial News
Network. Woods began to employ money saving methods that
eventually cost the company a chance at success, such as taking the
promotion out of the big expensive arenas which made the promotions
thousands of dollars, and putting them in high school gyms and
local fairgounds where the promotion had no history at all.
Woods also ran into problems with wrestler and booker
Eddie Gilbert who was making the territory
lots of money as a top draw in the main event and for the angles he
booked for the promotion. It is now widely believed he was
micromanaging the storylines Gilbert developed and planned for
Continental, and would interfere with how Gilbert produced its TV
show, screwing up what its upcoming event
The Road To
Birmingham had at any chance of making money and putting
Continental on the map. Eddie Gilbert eventually left the
promotion, causing it's actual downfall. After Continental employee
Jack Curtis booked the remaining dates, the promotion closed in
December 1989.
Legacy
Despite many huge angles over the years, this territory often has
status as the
lost promotion. Such obscurity was due lack
of media coverage during the Gulf Coast and Southeastern years
since neither Lee Fields nor Ron Fuller believed their promotions
should be covered by wrestling magazines and often did not allow
reporters in the locker room to interview the wrestlers. However,
Fuller relented with the changeover to Continental in order to get
national exposure for the promotion through said magazine, such
exposure was at an all time high during the Eddie Gilbert
period.
Due to the expensive nature of archiving at television stations
before the
home video boom of the 1980's,
much of the footage from the Gulf Coast era and the Knoxville
portion of Southeastern no longer exists, despite a few bits of
rare footage turning up here and there. However, almost all of the
Dothan portion of Southeastern along with the majority of
Continental footage still exists. They are still owned by David
Woods and Woods Communications, and has managed to be one of the
few archives not to be acquired by the
WWE Tape Library
Possible Forerunner To ECW?
It is well known that the creative minds behind Continental during
its final years,
Eddie Gilbert and
Paul Heyman, were long time friends and
worked together previously in Memphis and later in
Extreme Championship
Wrestling. While some ECW angles have roots in Memphis, it is
possible early seeds were also sewn in this region as well. An
angle with Lord Humongous (a then unknown Sid Vicious) had a
similar build to the one
Tazz later had in ECW.
One that involved returning from an injury and coming back a fierce
warrior, even using the same theme music, War Machine by
KISS. The main difference was the Lord Humongous angle
was a complete work while the Tazz angle was based on a legit
injury he suffered.
The angle was also notable for showing wrestlers tending to Lord
Humoungous backstage. A more well known version of the angle would
take place several years later in ECW with
Tommy Dreamer injuring The Sandman in the
infamous Singapore Cane angle where both faces and heels ended to
The Sandman backstage. Also, Lord Humoungous was blinded with ink
thrown in his eye while The Sandman's cigarette was put out in one
eye, with his Singapore Cane putting out the other eye.
Further, the final days of Continental also involved women and
children in angles in a similar yet different way as ECW would
later do. Such at the
Tony Anthony-
Tom Prichard angle where the Dirty
White Girl a.k.a Lady Mystic had one eye bruised to give the
impression Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony had beat her. ECW later
featured male vs. female and would intergender matches at times.
Also, there was an angle where Paul Heyman (then Paul E.
Dangerously) and Eddie Gilbert attack Pez Whatley's 14 year old
son. Several years later, Paul Heyman would book an angle in ECW
between Raven and The Sandman that involved The Sandman's son Tyler
Fullington.
A few rumors persist that the Hair vs. Hair cage match between
Jerry Lawler vs.
Austin Idol would have occurred in this
territory between Idol and Eddie Gilbert. While Idol was the heel
in Memphis who cut Lawler with the assistance of Paul Heyman and
Tommy Rich, Idol was a babyface in Continental who would have had
his hair cut by Heyman and Gilbert.
Also, with the politics David Woods, Heyman and Gilbert were said
to going behind Woods back and attempting to take his TV time and
deals with the arenas. Heyman and ECW promoter
Tod Gordon also later had problems with promoter
Dennis Coraluzzo, this led to the infamous incident where former
Continental rookie
Shane Douglas threw
down the NWA World Heavyweight Title to screw over Coraluzzo and
make ECW more popular. Continental was also gearing up for The Road
To Birmingham tourney to crown Eddie Gilbert as the new champ of
Continental and a possible stunt to embarrass Woods and make
Continental more popular. This can only be speculated as rumor
since Gilbert and Heyman left over a falling out with Woods. The
Road To Birmingham later took place in a watered down form. In
addition, the Hair vs. Hair cage match in Continental never
happened due to Gilbert and Heyman's departure.
Roster
For list of wrestlers who appeared in GCCW, SECW, CCW and the
CWF please see 'CCW
roster.
Titles
GCCW
SECW and CCW
CWF
References
External links
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