International World Class Championship Wrestling
Encyclopedia
International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW) was an independent professional wrestling promotion
based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was promoted by Angelo Savoldi
and his sons Mario, Tom, and Joseph Savoldi
.
An independent wrestling promotion in the 1980s, International World Class Championship Wrestling held interpromotional events with the Puerto Rican-based World Wrestling Council
, the American Wrestling Association
and World Class Championship Wrestling
. Many of its former roster would later find success in the World Wrestling Federation
, World Championship Wrestling
, Extreme Championship Wrestling
and elsewhere during the 1990s.
promotion run by Angelo Poffo between 1978 and 1984), the promotion started holding events the Boston area sometime around 1984 or 1985. Initially ICW was affiliated with the Puerto Rico
-based World Wrestling Council
, recognizing the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship
and the WWC Tag Team Championship as the top championships in the promotion. The titles were never clearly named as “WWC” titles on ICW television, nor were they presented as being owned by ICW. On February 27, 1985, Dory Funk, Jr.
defeated Carlos Colón
for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Title in Bangor, Maine
. It marked the first time that the WWC Universal Title changed hands outside of Puerto Rico. During the time WWC and ICW had a working relationship talent from both federations travelled to the other federation to compete. The working relationship brought such superstars as Abdullah the Butcher
, the Invaders and Hercules Ayala
to the New England Area. Angelo Savoldi’s grandson ”Jumping” Joe Savoldi
won the WWC Tag-Team Championship alongside Al Perez
(known as the New York Rockers) on January 6, 1985 when they beat Super Medico I and Black Gorman.
Sometime in 1985 the working relation between ICW and WWC ended, which lead to ICW creating both a Heavyweight and a tag-team title with their own names on them in 1985-86. ICW next worked out another working relationship with Championship Wrestling from Florida which saw several Florida stars come to ICW such as Kevin Sullivan
(who also acted as a booker for ICW) as well as top stars Blackjack Mulligan
, Mark Lewin
, Austin Idol
and The Russian Brute, George Petraski and Bruiser Brody
. ICW also had a history of working with the American Wrestling Association
, promoting joint cards in New England as well as AWA talent appearing on ICW shows from time to time.
The ICW would expand beyond New England and produced cards in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York State. In the late 80's and early 90's, ICW cards occurred in towns like Harrisburgh, Middletown and Monticello, NY. This model was differentiated ICW from other regional federations, in that ICW was a very large territory that didn't have one town or city to act as its local base. So while the company had a presence in a wide area, it never got that strong local following of World Class, the PNW or the USWA.
Over the years ICW established a kind of “open door” policy, working with any federation or any individual competitor who was interested in working in the federation; this open door policy even saw the Japanese Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Brass Knuckles Champion
Atsushi Onita
challenge the ICW Heavyweight champion Tony Atlas
to a Title Vs Title Match. Onita lost the match by Disqualification to keep the titles separate.
Around 1989-90 ICW began using more “kid oriented” gimmicks like “Super Duper Mario” (a wrestling version of Super Mario
) as well as Curly Moe, the Equalizers: Zip, Zap and Zoom and even had a “Teen Report” segment hosted by kids.
to use the World Class Championship Wrestling
name. Von Erich had sold the WCCW territory to Jerry Jarrett
and Jerry Lawler
in 1989 but retained the rights to the World Class name (which is why Jarrett and Lawler created the United States Wrestling Association
). Since there was no real “home promotion” of WCCW the “merger” was only really felt in ICW and mainly as a way to re-brand the federation so that it did not have the same name as Angelo Poffo’s old ICW territory. Due to this working agreement, ICW changed the name of the promotion to International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW), using the same opening sequence as WCCW did in the 1980s, with Earth from the Apollo 16 mission in the background.
Kevin Von Erich
had won the WCCW Texas Title
and appeared in several promos with the belt to announce the merger of the two federations. Kevin was billed as the “World Class” champion. The idea was that down the road the two champions (Tony Atlas and Kevin Von Erich) would meet to create an IWCCW title. Kevin appeared a couple of times in New England, wrestling at 2 or 3 TV tapings. He participated in a memorable interview with wrestler Tony Rumble
, aka The Boston Bad Boy. During that interview, Rumble berated the Von Erichs, and Kevin in return ran Rumble out of the studio when he signalled for the iron claw. Another World Class mainstay, Chris Adams, was to have been a part of IWCCW, but was not able to join the federation due to his legal troubles. After a short while Kevin Von Erich returned to Texas, effectively ending any plans to merge the two titles, but the name was kept. The IWCCW name lasted until the promotion closed down in 1995.
A video series, All Star American Wrestling was released during 1992 and 1993 which featured matches from IWCCW. In early 1993 however, many of its longtime veterans left the promotion to join the newly formed Century Wrestling Alliance
(the present day NWA Cold Front) promoted by former manager and booker Tony Rumble. Among those jumping to Rumble's promotion included then Heavyweight Champion Tony Atlas, Light heavyweight champion Joe Savoldi and Tag Team champions the Billion Dollar Babies, leaving many of its titles vacant. IWCCW began to decline as its events were held irregularly throughout 1994 and early 1995. Despite a short lived revival in 1995 that saw former WWF stars such as Tito Santana
and Koko B. Ware
hold the IWCCW title, the promotion folded in the latter part of 1995.
Mario Savoldi kept promoting cards in the New England area after the demise of ICW/IWCCW. In 1999 Savoldi was involved in a promotion called Ultimate Professional Wrestling (not to be mistaken for Ultimate Pro Wrestling) which continued IWCCW’s tradition of mixing current wrestling with classic matches on their TV shows. UPW's website claims to be a direct continuation of ICW.
. The ICW shows usually featured a combination of original ICW/IWCCW footage and repeats of footage from other territories such as WWC, Florida Wrestling, Memphis
, the National Wrestling Alliance
and vintage footage of the World Wrestling Federation
. From around 1990 and on ICW Television often repeated old ICW matches, sometimes presenting them as brand new, other times repeating the same match for weeks in a row – Vic Steamboat’s title victory over Tony Atlas and Joe Savoldi beating the Tasmaniac for the IWCCW Lightheavyweight title were two of the matches that were shown repeatedly.
IWCCW’s “Revolving door” policy often meant that events would be hyped on Television but never actually happened in real life, the best example of this was an angle between ”Ravishing” Rick Rude
and the Honky Tonk Man
over who was the best Intercontinental champion
of all time. Vignettes were aired for months on end but neither Rude nor the Honky Tonk Man ever worked in an ICW ring to settle the issue.
In addition to its television series, IWCCW owns the rights to WCCW footage produced following its buyout by promoter Jerry Jarrett
in 1988 and includes the video libraries of USWA Dallas, Wild West Wrestling and the Global Wrestling Federation
, and IWCCW remains one of the few North American regional promotions whose collection is not owned by the World Wrestling Entertainment video library
. During the late 1990s, the Savoldi family released several low cost DVD series including Classic Superstars of Wrestling which includes early matches from Steve Austin
, Mick Foley
and Booker T.
(later “Extreme Championship Wrestling”) performers due to the fact that Paul Heyman
worked for the company as head booker in late 1989 and early 1990 and got to know quite a few of the people involved, such as Rocco Rock
and Johnny Grunge
who both competed in IWCCW under different gimmicks. Rocco Rock was a masked high flier known as “The Cheetah Kid” while Johnny Grunge worked both as “Johnny Rotten” and “Equalizer Zap”. Heyman would repackage both men as The Public Enemy
.
Peter Senerchia
, a former IWCCW Light Heavyweight Champion who had been wrestling in the promotion as The Tasmaniac, agreed to appear at an IWCCW taping in Worcester, Massachusetts
in 1990. However, after a disagreement between him and promoters Mario and Tom Savoldi, he left the promotion and eventually began competing in Eastern Championship Wrestling during the early 1990s.
Val Puccio
had a brief run in ECW as “Big” Val Puccio. Dudley Family member Dances with Dudley
worked in IWCCW as a member of the “Sioux War Party” known as Dancing Wolf. Another Dudley Family member, Big Dick Dudley
, also worked in IWCCW under the gimmick “Alexander the Great”
IWCCW mainstay Mondo Kleen
is one of the few stars to be signed by the World Wrestling Federation
directly. Mondo was repackaged as "Damien Demento” in the WWF.
Professional wrestling promotion
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. Promotion also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event...
based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was promoted by Angelo Savoldi
Angelo Savoldi
Angelo Savoldi is an Italian-American former professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. He is currently the world's oldest wrestler at the age of 97.-Professional wrestling career:...
and his sons Mario, Tom, and Joseph Savoldi
Joseph Savoldi
Joseph Fornini, known by his ring name "Jumping" Joe Savoldi is an American professional wrestler and the son of wrestler Angelo Savoldi...
.
An independent wrestling promotion in the 1980s, International World Class Championship Wrestling held interpromotional events with the Puerto Rican-based World Wrestling Council
World Wrestling Council
The World Wrestling Council is one of Puerto Rico's two main professional wrestling promotions, the other one being the International Wrestling Association....
, the American Wrestling Association
American Wrestling Association
The American Wrestling Association was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo...
and World Class Championship Wrestling
World Class Championship Wrestling
World Class Championship Wrestling ' was a regional professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter Ed McLemore, by 1966 it was run by Southwest Sports, Inc., whose president, Jack Adkisson, was better known as wrestler Fritz Von Erich...
. Many of its former roster would later find success in the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
, World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...
, Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
and elsewhere during the 1990s.
ICW: 1984-1991
Originally known as International Championship Wrestling (not to be confused with the similarly named ICWInternational Championship Wrestling
International Championship Wrestling was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Lexington, Kentucky that operated from 1978 until 1984. It was run by WCW Hall of Famer Angelo Poffo, the father of Randy Savage and "The Genius" Lanny Poffo...
promotion run by Angelo Poffo between 1978 and 1984), the promotion started holding events the Boston area sometime around 1984 or 1985. Initially ICW was affiliated with the Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
-based World Wrestling Council
World Wrestling Council
The World Wrestling Council is one of Puerto Rico's two main professional wrestling promotions, the other one being the International Wrestling Association....
, recognizing the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship
WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship
The WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship and the top title contested for in the Puerto Rican professional wrestling promotion, the World Wrestling Council. The championship was established in July 1982, as the WWC World Heavyweight...
and the WWC Tag Team Championship as the top championships in the promotion. The titles were never clearly named as “WWC” titles on ICW television, nor were they presented as being owned by ICW. On February 27, 1985, Dory Funk, Jr.
Dory Funk, Jr.
Dory Ernest Funk Jr. known professionally as Dory Funk, Jr. is a professional wrestler and wrestling trainer. He is the son of Dory Funk Sr. and brother of Terry Funk. He is credited with the invention of the Texas cloverleaf submission hold and runs the Funking Conservatory, a professional...
defeated Carlos Colón
Carlos Colón
Carlos Colón may refer to:*Carlos Colón, Sr., wrestler*Carly Colón, wrestler whose real name is Carlos Colón, son of the above*The Deadlines' lead guitarist, Carlos Colón...
for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Title in Bangor, Maine
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
. It marked the first time that the WWC Universal Title changed hands outside of Puerto Rico. During the time WWC and ICW had a working relationship talent from both federations travelled to the other federation to compete. The working relationship brought such superstars as Abdullah the Butcher
Abdullah the Butcher
Lawrence Robert "Larry" Shreve best known as Abdullah the Butcher, and also at times The Madman from the Sudan, is a semi-retired Canadian professional wrestler known as one of the most brutal or "hardcore" professional wrestlers of all-time...
, the Invaders and Hercules Ayala
Ruben Cruz
Ruben Cruz , known by his ringname Hercules Ayala, is a retired Puerto Rican professional wrestler who has competed in Canadian and international wrestling promotions including the eastern Canadian Grand Prix Wrestling, the Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling and the World Wrestling...
to the New England Area. Angelo Savoldi’s grandson ”Jumping” Joe Savoldi
Joe Savoldi
Joseph Anthony Savoldi Jr., more commonly known as Jumping Joe Savoldi was an Italian-born, American football player and professional wrestler....
won the WWC Tag-Team Championship alongside Al Perez
Al Perez
Al Perez is a retired American professional wrestler.-Professional wrestling career:Perez began wrestling as an amateur in high school and was one of the top athletes in his home state of Florida. He started professional wrestling in 1982.He formed a team in ICW with Joe Savoldi known as the "New...
(known as the New York Rockers) on January 6, 1985 when they beat Super Medico I and Black Gorman.
Sometime in 1985 the working relation between ICW and WWC ended, which lead to ICW creating both a Heavyweight and a tag-team title with their own names on them in 1985-86. ICW next worked out another working relationship with Championship Wrestling from Florida which saw several Florida stars come to ICW such as Kevin Sullivan
Kevin Sullivan (wrestler)
Kevin Francis Sullivan is an American professional wrestler and booker, perhaps best known for his role in WCW as "The Taskmaster" and his leading of the "Dungeon of Doom".-Early career:...
(who also acted as a booker for ICW) as well as top stars Blackjack Mulligan
Blackjack Mulligan
Robert Jack Windham , better known by his ring name Blackjack Mulligan is a former professional wrestler and a former American football player...
, Mark Lewin
Mark Lewin
-Career:Mark Lewin broke into wrestling in the early '50s and had great early success in a matinee-idol babyface tag team with Don Curtis, headlining in major territories like New York and Chicago. The team's brief heel turn was a shock to its many fans...
, Austin Idol
Austin Idol
Mike McCord is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name the "Universal Heartthrob" Austin Idol.-Professional wrestling career:McCord graduated from Robinson High School in Tampa, Florida...
and The Russian Brute, George Petraski and Bruiser Brody
Frank Goodish
Frank Donald Goodish was an American professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the name Bruiser Brody. Goodish was an All-State football and basketball player at Warren High School, Michigan, and played football at West Texas A&M University...
. ICW also had a history of working with the American Wrestling Association
American Wrestling Association
The American Wrestling Association was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo...
, promoting joint cards in New England as well as AWA talent appearing on ICW shows from time to time.
The ICW would expand beyond New England and produced cards in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York State. In the late 80's and early 90's, ICW cards occurred in towns like Harrisburgh, Middletown and Monticello, NY. This model was differentiated ICW from other regional federations, in that ICW was a very large territory that didn't have one town or city to act as its local base. So while the company had a presence in a wide area, it never got that strong local following of World Class, the PNW or the USWA.
Over the years ICW established a kind of “open door” policy, working with any federation or any individual competitor who was interested in working in the federation; this open door policy even saw the Japanese Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989 by Atsushi Onita that specialized in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their first show on October 6, 1989...
Brass Knuckles Champion
FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship
The FMW World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship was a premiere championship in the wrestling promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, or FMW....
Atsushi Onita
Atsushi Onita
Atsushi Onita is a Japanese former politician and active professional wrestler best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling...
challenge the ICW Heavyweight champion Tony Atlas
Tony Atlas
Anthony White better known by his ring name "Tony Atlas" is an American bodybuilder, powerlifter, and professional wrestler who has held multiple titles and championships in each sport. He is also known by his bodybuilding title, "Mr...
to a Title Vs Title Match. Onita lost the match by Disqualification to keep the titles separate.
Around 1989-90 ICW began using more “kid oriented” gimmicks like “Super Duper Mario” (a wrestling version of Super Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
) as well as Curly Moe, the Equalizers: Zip, Zap and Zoom and even had a “Teen Report” segment hosted by kids.
IWCCW: 1991-1995
In 1991, the promotion entered into a working agreement with Kevin Von ErichKevin Von Erich
Kevin Ross Adkisson is a retired professional wrestler under the ring name Kevin Von Erich of the Von Erich Family. He is the last surviving son of wrestler Fritz Von Erich and had four brothers that wrestled, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris, as well as an older brother, Jack, Jr., who died in...
to use the World Class Championship Wrestling
World Class Championship Wrestling
World Class Championship Wrestling ' was a regional professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter Ed McLemore, by 1966 it was run by Southwest Sports, Inc., whose president, Jack Adkisson, was better known as wrestler Fritz Von Erich...
name. Von Erich had sold the WCCW territory to Jerry Jarrett
Jerry Jarrett
Jerry W. Jarrett is an American promoter and former professional wrestler, and the father of wrestler Jeff Jarrett. He is the co-founder and former part-owner of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
and Jerry Lawler
Jerry Lawler
Jerry O'Neil Lawler is an American professional wrestler, wrestling commentator, musician, businessman, commercial artist and film actor, known throughout the wrestling world as Jerry "The King" Lawler. He is currently signed to WWE, working on its Raw brand as the color commentator and occasional...
in 1989 but retained the rights to the World Class name (which is why Jarrett and Lawler created the United States Wrestling Association
United States Wrestling Association
The United States Wrestling Association or USWA was a professional wrestling promotion based in Memphis, Tennessee. It was founded by former CWA owner Jerry Jarrett.-Foundation:...
). Since there was no real “home promotion” of WCCW the “merger” was only really felt in ICW and mainly as a way to re-brand the federation so that it did not have the same name as Angelo Poffo’s old ICW territory. Due to this working agreement, ICW changed the name of the promotion to International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW), using the same opening sequence as WCCW did in the 1980s, with Earth from the Apollo 16 mission in the background.
Kevin Von Erich
Kevin Von Erich
Kevin Ross Adkisson is a retired professional wrestler under the ring name Kevin Von Erich of the Von Erich Family. He is the last surviving son of wrestler Fritz Von Erich and had four brothers that wrestled, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris, as well as an older brother, Jack, Jr., who died in...
had won the WCCW Texas Title
NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship
The NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling title that has existed since the 1930s. Though its exact date of creation isn't known, it is among the oldest championships used in professional wrestling today...
and appeared in several promos with the belt to announce the merger of the two federations. Kevin was billed as the “World Class” champion. The idea was that down the road the two champions (Tony Atlas and Kevin Von Erich) would meet to create an IWCCW title. Kevin appeared a couple of times in New England, wrestling at 2 or 3 TV tapings. He participated in a memorable interview with wrestler Tony Rumble
Tony Rumble
Anthony David Magliaro was an American professional wrestler and manager, known by the ring name "Boston Bad Boy" Tony Rumble. He competed on the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic independent circuit during the 1980s and 90s...
, aka The Boston Bad Boy. During that interview, Rumble berated the Von Erichs, and Kevin in return ran Rumble out of the studio when he signalled for the iron claw. Another World Class mainstay, Chris Adams, was to have been a part of IWCCW, but was not able to join the federation due to his legal troubles. After a short while Kevin Von Erich returned to Texas, effectively ending any plans to merge the two titles, but the name was kept. The IWCCW name lasted until the promotion closed down in 1995.
A video series, All Star American Wrestling was released during 1992 and 1993 which featured matches from IWCCW. In early 1993 however, many of its longtime veterans left the promotion to join the newly formed Century Wrestling Alliance
Century Wrestling Alliance
The Century Wrestling Alliance, formerly known as NWA Cold Front and NWA New England, is a New England-based American independent wrestling promotion located in Boston, Massachusetts...
(the present day NWA Cold Front) promoted by former manager and booker Tony Rumble. Among those jumping to Rumble's promotion included then Heavyweight Champion Tony Atlas, Light heavyweight champion Joe Savoldi and Tag Team champions the Billion Dollar Babies, leaving many of its titles vacant. IWCCW began to decline as its events were held irregularly throughout 1994 and early 1995. Despite a short lived revival in 1995 that saw former WWF stars such as Tito Santana
Tito Santana
Merced Solis better known by his ring name Tito Santana, is an American professional wrestler whose heyday spanned from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, though he continues to appear on the independent circuit. He is best known from his time in the World Wrestling Federation...
and Koko B. Ware
James Ware (wrestler)
James Ware , better known by his ring name Koko B. Ware, is a retired American professional wrestler who made his professional wrestling debut in 1978. He gained most of his popularity in the World Wrestling Federation when he was known as the Birdman...
hold the IWCCW title, the promotion folded in the latter part of 1995.
Mario Savoldi kept promoting cards in the New England area after the demise of ICW/IWCCW. In 1999 Savoldi was involved in a promotion called Ultimate Professional Wrestling (not to be mistaken for Ultimate Pro Wrestling) which continued IWCCW’s tradition of mixing current wrestling with classic matches on their TV shows. UPW's website claims to be a direct continuation of ICW.
ICW/IWCCW Television
Despite being a small promotion that mainly toured in the New England area ICW/IWCCW had a nationally syndicated show from its inception. The show, simply called International Championship Wrestling was even seen on Satellite channels in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The ICW shows usually featured a combination of original ICW/IWCCW footage and repeats of footage from other territories such as WWC, Florida Wrestling, Memphis
Continental Wrestling Association
The Continental Wrestling Association was a wrestling promotion managed by Jerry Jarrett. The CWA was the name of the "governing body" for the Championship Wrestling, Inc. promotion which was usually referred to as Mid-Southern Wrestling...
, the National Wrestling Alliance
National Wrestling Alliance
The National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
and vintage footage of the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
. From around 1990 and on ICW Television often repeated old ICW matches, sometimes presenting them as brand new, other times repeating the same match for weeks in a row – Vic Steamboat’s title victory over Tony Atlas and Joe Savoldi beating the Tasmaniac for the IWCCW Lightheavyweight title were two of the matches that were shown repeatedly.
IWCCW’s “Revolving door” policy often meant that events would be hyped on Television but never actually happened in real life, the best example of this was an angle between ”Ravishing” Rick Rude
Richard Rood
Richard Erwin Rood , better known by his ring name "Ravishing" Rick Rude, was an American professional wrestler who performed for many promotions, including World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation , in the 1980s and 1990s.Among other accolades, Rude was a four-time world...
and the Honky Tonk Man
The Honky Tonk Man
Roy Wayne Farris , better known by his ring name The Honky Tonk Man, is an American professional wrestler. A 1975 graduate from University of Memphis with a B.S. degree in Education. Coached high school football 2 seasons at Munford High School in Munford, Tennessee...
over who was the best Intercontinental champion
WWE Intercontinental Championship
The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It is the original secondary title of the promotion. Currently, it is the secondary championship exclusive to the SmackDown brand...
of all time. Vignettes were aired for months on end but neither Rude nor the Honky Tonk Man ever worked in an ICW ring to settle the issue.
In addition to its television series, IWCCW owns the rights to WCCW footage produced following its buyout by promoter Jerry Jarrett
Jerry Jarrett
Jerry W. Jarrett is an American promoter and former professional wrestler, and the father of wrestler Jeff Jarrett. He is the co-founder and former part-owner of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
in 1988 and includes the video libraries of USWA Dallas, Wild West Wrestling and the Global Wrestling Federation
Global Wrestling Federation
Global Wrestling Federation was a professional wrestling promotion based in Dallas, Texas. It started in June 1991 and folded in September 1994. At one time its shows were presented on the ESPN television network. On many weeks, the promotion provided programming five days a week airing at 4 p.m...
, and IWCCW remains one of the few North American regional promotions whose collection is not owned by the World Wrestling Entertainment video library
WWE Video Library
The WWE video library is currently the largest collection of professional wrestling videos and copyrights in the world. It is comprised not only of past and current works by WWE but the works of now defunct professional wrestling promotions dating back to the 1940s...
. During the late 1990s, the Savoldi family released several low cost DVD series including Classic Superstars of Wrestling which includes early matches from Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin , better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler...
, Mick Foley
Mick Foley
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...
and Booker T.
Stars of the future
IWCCW gave many future superstars their first breaks in wrestling and their first television exposure. The federation was in many ways the breeding ground for future Eastern Championship WrestlingExtreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
(later “Extreme Championship Wrestling”) performers due to the fact that Paul Heyman
Paul Heyman
Paul Heyman is an American entertainment producer, best known for his career in professional wrestling as a promoter, manager, commentator and journalist. He is also an occasional actor in film....
worked for the company as head booker in late 1989 and early 1990 and got to know quite a few of the people involved, such as Rocco Rock
Rocco Rock
Theodore James Petty was an American professional wrestler better known as "Flyboy" Rocco Rock, one half of The Public Enemy.-Career:...
and Johnny Grunge
Johnny Grunge
Michael "Mike" Durham was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Johnny Grunge...
who both competed in IWCCW under different gimmicks. Rocco Rock was a masked high flier known as “The Cheetah Kid” while Johnny Grunge worked both as “Johnny Rotten” and “Equalizer Zap”. Heyman would repackage both men as The Public Enemy
The Public Enemy (professional wrestling)
The Public Enemy was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge. The duo competed in many promotions, including Extreme Championship Wrestling , World Championship Wrestling , National Wrestling Alliance , and the World Wrestling Federation...
.
Peter Senerchia
Tazz
Peter Senerchia is a retired American professional wrestler and current color commentator best known by his ring name Tazz, originally Tazmaniac and later shortened to simply Taz...
, a former IWCCW Light Heavyweight Champion who had been wrestling in the promotion as The Tasmaniac, agreed to appear at an IWCCW taping in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
in 1990. However, after a disagreement between him and promoters Mario and Tom Savoldi, he left the promotion and eventually began competing in Eastern Championship Wrestling during the early 1990s.
Val Puccio
Val Puccio
Valentino "Val" Puccio was a professional wrestler.-Wrestling career:Trained by Johnny Rodz, Puccio began his wrestling career in 1989 and worked for various northeast U.S. independent promotions for virtually his entire career. He frequently teamed with his brother, Tony...
had a brief run in ECW as “Big” Val Puccio. Dudley Family member Dances with Dudley
Adolfo Bermudez
Adolfo Bermudez is an American professional wrestler, known by his ring name Dances with Dudley, who competed in North American independent promotions including the American Wrestling Federation, International World Class Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling, most notably as an...
worked in IWCCW as a member of the “Sioux War Party” known as Dancing Wolf. Another Dudley Family member, Big Dick Dudley
Alex Rizzo
Alex Rizzo was a professional wrestler, best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling as Big Dick Dudley, the eldest of the Dudley Family.-Professional wrestling career:...
, also worked in IWCCW under the gimmick “Alexander the Great”
IWCCW mainstay Mondo Kleen
Phil Theis
Phillip "Phil" Theis is an American former professional wrestler. He is best known for his stint in the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Damien Demento.-Early career:...
is one of the few stars to be signed by the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
directly. Mondo was repackaged as "Damien Demento” in the WWF.
Championships
- WWC Universal Heavyweight ChampionshipWWC Universal Heavyweight ChampionshipThe WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship and the top title contested for in the Puerto Rican professional wrestling promotion, the World Wrestling Council. The championship was established in July 1982, as the WWC World Heavyweight...
(1984–1985) - WWC World Tag Team ChampionshipWWC World Tag Team ChampionshipThe WWC World Tag Team Championship is the tag team title contested for in the Puerto Rican professional wrestling promotion, the World Wrestling Council.-Title history:-External links:***...
(1984–1985) - IWCCW Heavyweight ChampionshipIWCCW Heavyweight ChampionshipThe ICW / IWCCW Heavyweight Championship was the top singles championship of International World Class Championship Wrestling between 1984 and 1995 where IWCCW closed down operations...
- IWCCW Light Heavyweight ChampionshipIWCCW Light Heavyweight ChampionshipThe ICW / IWCCW Light Heavyweight Championship was the championship for Light heavyweights at a maximum weight of 220 lbs. in International World Class Championship Wrestling. The title existed from 1987 until the federation closed its doors in 1995...
- IWCCW Tag Team ChampionshipIWCCW Tag Team ChampionshipThe ICW / IWCCW Tag-Team Championship was the top tag-team championship of International World Class Championship Wrestling between 1984 and 1995 where IWCCW closed down operations...
- IWCCW Women's ChampionshipIWCCW Women's ChampionshipThe ICW / IWCCW Women’s Championship was a championship in International World Class Championship Wrestling that existed from 1985 until the federation closed it’s doors in 1995...
- IWCCW Television ChampionshipIWCCW Television ChampionshipThe IWCCW Television Championship was the short lived secondary championship of International World Class Championship Wrestling. The Title existed for a little over a year before being abandoned by the promotion...