National Wrestling Federation (American wf) Contents

National Wrestling Federation (American WF)


Contents

1. 
   Warriors of Wrestling
   
2. 
   Championships
   
3. 
   AWF Heavyweight Championship
   
4. 
   AWF Tag Team Championship Northstar Promotions and WCCW alumni arrive
   

References



The American Wrestling Federation (AWF) was a professional wrestling federation founded by Paul Alperstein active from 1994 to 1996. The promotion was based in Chicago, Illinois, but held shows in many other eastern states of the United States. The AWF used the European wrestling format of timed rounds, 4 minute rounds with judges and points, in the vein of boxing matches.
The company had two championships, the AWF Heavyweight Championship, and the AWF Tag Team Championship. The last AWF Heavyweight Champion, Tito Santana, actually defended the championship after the AWF closed in 1996. The company closed for financial reasons, producing a syndicated show but failing to gain a following.
Paul Alperstein, a promoter from Chicago, founded the AWF in 1994 and was on-air president of the company.
He intended to reintroduce rules as a significant part of professional wrestling. This was carried out by the use of timed rounds and judges in every match, which is similar to the rules of professional wrestling in Europe and as well as boxing.
Each round was four minutes long with a one-minute rest period between rounds. Title bouts were scheduled for twelve rounds while all other fights were scheduled for three. One referee and two judges were assigned to each match. The winner of each round was decided by both the judges' scorecards and the referee's scorecard. If a match lasted the full amount of scheduled rounds, the winner was declared as whoever had the majority of points on each of the three scorecards.
Another rule implemented was that throwing opponents over the top rope resulted in an automatic disqualification.
Only a few wrestlers in this organization had experience in European wrestling, most notably England's Chris Adams and "Mr. Ambassador" Steve Casey (not to be confused with the World Class wrestler of the same name). Wrestlers such as Tito Santana, Bob Orton, Jr., Jim Powers, Koko. B Ware, Johnny Gunn and Greg Valentine, headlined AWF's events between the mid-1990s.
Tito Santana and Bob Orton, Jr. were seemingly considered the top wrestlers in the company, with Santana being the top babyface and Orton the top heel.
The AWF used tournaments for its titles, each wrestler would advance in the tournament by defeating the respective opponent, like in a normal match. Points scored in a card during a tournament.
AWF World Heavyweight Championship

October 31, 2009 - December 21, 2009: Great White Legend
December 21, 2009 - March 22, 2010: "Trauma" Edward (Eddie) North
March 22, 2010 – Present: Reign "Supreme" Buxton
AWF Universal Championship
September 22, 2009 - October 5, 2009: Jake Masterson
October 5, 2009 - October 12, 2009: Alexander Cage
November 9, 2009 - November 16, 2009: Izaac Kroll
November 9, 209 - January 4, 2010: Jack Marshall
January 4, 2010 - February 8, 2010: The Flaming Red
February 8, 2010 - March 15, 2010: Reign "Supreme" Buxton
March 15, 2010 - June 27, 2010: The Wicked Ringmaster
June 27, 2010 – Present: Chris Michaels
AWF North American Championship
September 22, 2009 - November 9, 2009: "Awesome" Alex Scott (x1)
November 9, 2009 - January 4, 2009: "Relief" Walter South (x1)
January 4, 2010 - January 19,2010t: 'The All American Hero' Bobby Cale (x1)
January 18, 2010 - February 1,2010: "The Cardiac Animal" Ryan Magnus (x1)
February 1, 2010 - February 8, 2010: "That Opportunistic Son of a..." Colin Bale (x1)
February 8, 2010 - February 28, 2010: "The Cardiac Animal" Ryan Magnus (x2)
February 28, 2010 - Current: "That Opportunistic Son of a..." Colin Bale (x2)

AWF Tag Team Championships

November 29, 2009 - March 22, 2010: D & G
March 22, 2010 - Current: Jack Frost and Kriminal
Jim Brunzell was named AWF commissioner by Alperstein in hopes that he would make sure the above rules were enforced. Brunzell even refereed the first match for the AWF Championship in 1994, between Bob Orton, Jr. and Tito Santana.
The promotion held several house shows and was building towards a pay per view event, but closed in December 1996 for financial reasons.
Tito Santana defended the AWF Championship belt on a National Championship Wrestling event in York, Pennsylvania, against former AWF wrestler Salvatore Sincere. The storyline was that Santana had dodged Sincere during their AWF days in the mid-1990s and Santana agreed to put the belt on the line against Sincere. Santana won the match for his last title defense, albeit unofficial.
Alumni
Main article: List of American Wrestling Federation alumni
Warriors of Wrestling
In 1995, the company introduced a program called Warriors of Wrestling for syndication. The initial run consisted of footage shot from 1994 to 1995. The program resurfaced throughout the United States in late 1996 with new episodes. The announce team consisted of Mick Karch as announcer and Terry Taylor as color commentator. Taylor was replaced by Lord Alfred Hayes in 1996. Ken Resnick handled interview segments. Resnick was eventually replaced by Missy Hyatt in 1996.
In 2005, the entire run of 1995 episodes was released as a 4-disc DVD set by Highland Entertainment. It is unknown when or if a second volume will be released with the remaining episodes as there were many not in the DVD set.
As of January 2006, reruns can be seen on Europe's Clear Television via the cluster of Astra satellites at 19.2° east.Global Wrestling Federation was an American 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. Often the promotion provided programming five days a week, airing at 4 p.m. Eastern.
The GWF was the last pro wrestling promotion to be seen on ESPN regularly. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the network began to emphasize talk shows in the mid-afternoon hours, supplanting pro wrestling.
It was announced that ESPN Classic would start showing re-runs on August 5, 2013.[1] Episodes are available on the WWE Network.
History
Max Andrews and Joe Pedicino were the original GWF promoters. The organization was a mix of established names and newcomers, many of whom would launch their national careers after appearances on the daily ESPN show. The original stars included the Patriot (Del Wilkes), Scott Levy (Raven of ECW, WCW, WWE and TNA), the Handsome Stranger (Marcus Bagwell of WCW) and Cactus Jack. In late 1991, "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert entered the promotion and took over much of the creative direction of the show introducing The Dark Patriot (an evil version of the Patriot played by his brother, Doug Gilbert), John Hawk (John Bradshaw Layfield), Jerry Lynn, and the Winner Barry Horowitz (a character created by Gilbert and announcer Craig Johnson.) Booker T and Stevie Ray also wrestled in the promotion as did the Lightning Kid (later known as the 1-2-3 Kid, Syxx, and X-Pac in WCW and WWE)
Weekly shows from "The GlobalDome"
The GWF began airing weekly shows in the local Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex television market from the Dallas Sportatorium, which was billed for a short time as The GlobalDome. Although the weekly show's name was Major League Wrestling (not to be confused with the future promotion of the same name), as it was often referred to as, the GWF used other names for it, such as Supercard (also used by the USWA at one point) and Main Events. The promotion's announcers were Jon Horton (as Craig Johnson), Scott Hudson, Steven Prazak (as "Steven DeTruth"), and Joe Pedicino, with Boni Blackstone as ringside interviewer. Scott Hudson left the announcer's table and in his place was "The Expert" Bruce Prichard (Brother Love of WWF/WWE). In one storyline, Prichard and Horton argued in an expletive filled exchange only to reveal that Prichard was orchestrating many of the nefarious activities of the heels.
The Cartel
The Cartel was the first stable formed in the GWF and was the top heel stable in 1991. It consisted of Mick Foley as Cactus Jack, Raven as Scotty Anthony, Rip Rogers and Makhan Singh. They feuded with the top baby-faces at the time in Steve Simpson, Chris Walker and the Patriot. They never won any titles but their presence was always felt at each event. Rogers was the spokesperson for the group and did most of their interviews, but Foley and Levy were allowed to shine occasionally on the mic. They talked of having a "boss" but would not name him. After a few months of this, they named the boss as GWF Commissioner Max Andrews and then the stable disbanded.
Broadcast innovations
The original GWF was notable for many of its wrestling broadcast innovations, most importantly, the acknowledgement of other promotions within the broadcast (including past promotions such as World Class Championship Wrestling). Competitors' former championships were mentioned, as were departures of wrestlers to other promotions. The promotion also aired behind-the-scenes footage and news segments with features from around the sport.
Massive cutbacks in budget
Following a massive cutback of budget, Pedicino and Johnson left the promotion.
Due to a pay dispute, booker Eddie Gilbert and his brother Doug (working under a mask as the Dark Patriot), left the GWF in 1992. Eddie Gilbert took with him the GWF North American Heavyweight Championship belt. He made a few defenses of the title in the United States Wrestling Association as the GWF World Heavyweight champion, despite being stripped of the belt and not being recognized as such by the GWF.
Northstar Promotions and WCCW alumni arrive
In the wake of this temporary fold, the promotional rights to the GWF were purchased by Northstar Promotions, which was formed by Grey Pierson, Robert Keeler, and Wayne Whitworth.[2] Soon after, many former World Class Championship Wrestling stars began appearing, including Chris Adams, Kerry Von Erich and Iceman Parsons, among others. Doyle King, David Webb, and other guest announcers (including former World Class announcers Bill Mercer and Marc Lowrance) were brought in as the show became more of a theatrical presentation. Mercer, a veteran of Sportatorium wrestling since the 1950s, hosted a weekly segment on many memorable events that took place in the venerable Dallas arena. In late 1991, shortly after the Bungee Match, Keeler and Whitworth left Northstar and Pierson took the reins.
The local television shows boasted that it was also being aired over a fictitious global television network as Northstar introduced many interesting and bizarre characters. In one of its more interesting angles, GWF hired a "psychiatrist" for the wrestlers who was actually Dr. Allan Saxe, a political science professor at the nearby University of Texas at Arlington.
One angle at that time included the world's first "Bungee" match in which Steven Dane wrestled against Chaz Taylor 150 feet in the air in a cage. The winner was Chaz Taylor who knocked Steven Dane out of the cage. After the match, "Maniac" Mike Davis attached himself to the bungee cord and was launched into the night sky. When he landed back on the ground, he claimed he had launched himself to the Moon and had returned to Earth with a "moon rock." Another angle in which announcer David Webb, having "amnesia" following an attack by Manny Fernandez, believed that he was Elvis Presley (who performed at the Sportatorium in the late-1950s during the Big D Jamboree days). Another storyline involved Cecil Fielder, who was billed as the first two sport athlete in baseball and wrestling. He didn't wrestle, he was "observing" other wrestlers.
The GWF was shown weekdays on ESPN as well as a one-hour weekly syndicated show presented in 130 markets. One of the main reasons Northstar was successful was the separately edited and broadcast weekly syndicated show for the Dallas market which eliminated the two-week lag time between taping and airing. This allowed the Dallas audience to see the matches live on Friday night and view them 24 hours later on the local Dallas station. The local attendance rose from a low of 94 people to a packed house of over 5,000 within 6 weeks.
1992 lawsuit by the World Wrestling Federation
In 1992, the Global Wrestling Federation was sued by then World Wrestling Federation (WWF), because they felt the use of the word "Global" was too close to the word "World."[3]
Kerry Von Erich tribute show
In February 1993, a memorial wrestling card was held in memory of Kerry Von Erich, who committed suicide on February 18. Von Erich was to have faced the Angel of Death, David Sheldon, that day. Instead, a memorial service was held at the Sportatorium prior to the matches, with former World Class announcer Marc Lowrance making a special appearance to pay his tributes to Kerry (Lowrance was the ring announcer who called Von Erich's NWA World title victory over Ric Flair in 1984). The following April, a memorial tribute card was held at the Dallas Sportatorium, featuring many former World Class wrestlers, referees and other officials. In that card, the main event was the official last match between the Freebirds and the Von Erichs. Kevin Von Erich and Chris Adams (who wore Kerry's ring jacket in his memory) faced Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts, with Skandor Akbar in Hayes and Roberts' corner, and Fritz Von Erich in Chris and Kevin's corner (his last appearance in a professional wrestling match). The match ended with Kevin applying the claw on Roberts for the win, while Fritz applied the iron claw on Skandor Akbar. Adams meanwhile was ganged up by Hayes and Rod Price when David Sheldon came in to save Adams. Sid Vicious and Booker T also competed on the memorial card. The Ultimate Warrior, who competed in Dallas as The Dingo Warrior, was scheduled to wrestle, but no-showed.
Bill Mercer, Marc Lowrance, David Manning and Bronco Lubich were among the many WCCW officials and personalities who appeared on the memorial card. Manning officiated Kerry's 1984 NWA World title-clinching match against Ric Flair at Texas Stadium nearly 9 years earlier.
Proceeds of this card went to a trust fund established for Kerry's daughters Hollie Adkisson and Lacey Adkisson (who is now a model and third-generation pro wrestler known for her time in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling). In 1994, the GWF paid tribute to Kerry again in a month-long series of past matches Kerry was involved in, including some from World Class.
Chris Adams as the focus
Chris Adams not only played big part in GWF he was also in WCCW as a performer and a trainer. His most known student now a WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin. There was many others he trained over the years two in particular was a masked tag team that looked identical and was only known as Unknown Wrestler 1 & 2. One of the two was hurt in the ring ending his wrestling career late in 91 and the other quit not long after never revealing their identity's. Chris had commented about the injured wrestler, that's its great loss to the wrestling world the young man had more heart and love for the business that he as seen in a long time.

Afterwards, the federation centered mostly on Adams, who again ran his wrestling school and was working a feud with both Price and Iceman Parsons; as well as assist in booking various matches. During one 1993 match, Adams accidentally tore the hair weave off the hair of Price, resulting in stitches on his head. Chris' former second wife Toni Adams, whom he brought in to the storyline, was also involved, siding with Price and Parsons; and during one match, she attempted to rub Freebird Hair Cream into Chris' eyes. The former couple also was wrestling in Memphis' United States Wrestling Association promotion, where Toni was billed as Nanny Simpson. Chris and Toni's son Chris Jr., then about 5, also made a few appearances in the ring.

A renewed feud between Adams and Jimmy Garvin took place, but the closing of the GWF on September 21, 1994, ended any prospects of a long angle between the two former rivals, and Garvin retired shortly thereafter.
Despite all of these angles, Adams won the GWF North American title twice, defeating King Parsons on December 25, 1993; then beating Rod Price on July 1, 1994, to regain the title he lost three months earlier to Price. It would be Adams' last championship glory, as he would never win another major title again.
In 1994, however, the company would fold.[4] Their last show aired on September 25.
Life after the GWF
After the GWF folded, promoter Jim Crockett Jr. brought the NWA back to the Sportatorium for a tenure lasting less than a year. After several other attempts to keep wrestling going, the Sportatorium was demolished in 2003.

ESPN still holds the rights to the GWF library and airs episodes on ESPN Classic. The WWE Video Library also gained access to GWF content in 2013.[5]

Former personnel
Main article: List of former Global Wrestling Federation personnel
Championships
GWF North American Heavyweight Championship
GWF Television Championship
GWF Texas Heavyweight Championship
GWF Brass Knuckles Championship
GWF Light Heavyweight Championship
GWF Tag Team Championship
GWF World Heavyweight Championship
In 1991, the GWF announced a fictitious world champion named 'Baron Von Steiger'
GWF Commonwealth Championship
When the GWF launched, Axl Rotten was announced as being the GWF Commonwealth Champion. He was said on the first episode of GWF television to have held the belt for nearly a year.

References

1. 
   MANIA | ESPN Classic to Start Airing Global Wrestling Federation Episodes". ESPN Classic to Start Airing Global Wrestling Federation Episodes. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
   
2. 
   Global Wrestling Federation
   
3. 
   WWF sues GWF
   
4. 
   "Global Wrestling Federation Tapes". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
   
5. 
   "Report: WWE Acquires New Video Library – TPWW". www.tpww.net. Retrieved 2017-04-08.