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Continental Championship Wrestling

"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 and Dothan, Alabama, managed by Ron Fuller between 1985 until 1988 where Fuller sold the promotion and it changed name to the Continental Wrestling Federation.

History

The roots of CCW stretches back as far as the late 1950s where Ron Fuller’s father Buddy Fuller began promoting wrestling in the Gulf Coast region of Alabama and North East Florida under the name Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling. In the 1960s, GCCW expanded its territory to include Mississippi and became an National Wrestling Alliance Territory officially known as “NWA Gulf Coast”. During the 1970s, the Alabama area became divided into 3 parts under different promoters:

Northern Alabama area of Birmingham, Birmingham, Huntsville, Florence, and Gadsden: Promoted by Nick Gulas as part of the NWA Mid-America promotion that also ran Memphis (see CWA for more).
The area around Montgomery, Al: Promoted by Billy Golden (Father of Jimmy Golden, a relative of the Fuller/Welch family)
The Dothan – Mobile area, Southeast Alabama to Southwest Alabama and Northwest Florida from Panama City to Pensacola: Booked by Lee Fields under the GCCW banner.

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 father had originally founded when GCCW folded and Fuller expanded the SECW to run in the Southern Alabama, Northern Florida area as well as the Eastern Tennessee territory, this was initially labelled ”the Southern Division” of the SECW treating them as two separate entities. In 1980, Fuller sold off the east Tennessee area to focus on developing his father’s old territory. In 1985, Fuller decided that it was time to reach beyond the Southern Alabama/Northern Florida area and began to run cards in Tennessee again, with the expansion came a name change to Continental Championship Wrestling. The area that CCW was a part of was the area not exposed to World Class Championship Wrestling. In May of 1987, the organization ended it's affiliation with the NWA and became affiliated with Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA).

In 1988, local TV station owner David Woods bought the controlling interest in the promotion from Ron Fuller, and he renamed it Continental Wrestling Federation. Woods began to employ money saving methods that eventually cost the company a chance at success. Woods also stopped working with the NWA and instead began working with the American Wrestling Association instead. With their main business partner (AWA) closing its doors in 1990 and the expansion of both the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling, by 1990 the CWF closed down as well, putting an end to a promotion that had history since the 1950s.