Continental Wrestling Association

The Continental Wrestling Association (later on “Championship 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 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its sister wrestling magazines. This promotion was a chief NWA territory during the 1970s and early 1980s while operating out of Tennessee and Kentucky. The CWA was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance until 1986 and affiliated with the American Wrestling Association until 1989. In 1989, the CWA merged with the World Class Wrestling Association to form the United States Wrestling Association thus ceasing to exist as a separate entity.

History

The split

The pro wrestling territory commonly referred to as the “Memphis Area” was originally part of the NWA Mid-America promotion that was founded in the 1940s which primarily operated in Memphis, Tennessee, but also made regular stops in Nashville, TN, Chattanooga, TN, Jackson, TN, Louisville, KY, Lexington, KY, Bowling Green, KY, Evansville, IN, Birmingham, AL, Huntsville, AL, Tupelo, MS, Jonesboro, AR, Dayton, OH, Wheeling, WV and even small towns in southeastern Missouri, northern Georgia and eastern North Carolina.

In the latter half of the 1970s, the territory split in two with separate promoters for each half. Jerry Jarrett ended up as the promoter in charge of Memphis, Louisville, Lexington and Evansville while still part of NWA Mid-America. After a dispute with the promoter of the other half of the territory, Nick Gulas, over booking Nick’s son George Gulas in the extremely profitable Memphis half of the territory, Jerry Jarrett (backed by wrestlers such as Jerry “The King” Lawler) split the territory between them and created the Continental Wrestling Association as a totally separate promotion. In 1980 the Gulas territory folded when Nick Gulas retired and the CWA took over some of the more profitable locations.

NWA affiliate

After the split from Nick Gulas, the CWA became a National Wrestling Alliance affiliate, which entitled the CWA to NWA World Heavyweight Championship defenses. The champion would regularly tour through the territory defending the title against top contenders. With the World champion being a “traveling champion” the main title of the CWA was the Southern Heavyweight Title, which was nominally sanctioned by the NWA (into 1978) or the AWA (beginning in 1978).

The cornerstone of the CWA was the weekly Monday night shows from the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, where the cards regularly drew full houses. These shows showcased a series of legendary wrestlers as they made their way through the Memphis territory; future superstars such as Hulk Hogan performed there before the birth of Hulkamania, as well as NWA headliners such as Harley Race and Ric Flair.

The Mid-South Coliseum also played host to one of the most famous angles not only in the CWA but in all of wrestling, an angle that would get nation wide exposure on Late Night with David Letterman.

Andy Kaufman comes to Memphis

In the early 1980s, Andy Kaufman would routinely wrestle women during his shows, soon proclaiming himself the “Intergender Wrestling Champion” where he would offer women $1000 if they could beat him. As part of this performance, Kaufman would imply that these matches were “real” and thus also imply that professional wrestling was not “real”, which countered the sacrosanct belief of fans in that era that wrestling was "real".

Kaufman even started appearing on the Mid-South Coliseum shows wrestling women in the undercard matches, and after winning Kaufman would berate the Memphis crowd and proclaim his own greatness in the sport. He even went so far as to claim that no woman could beat him and if they did – he would marry that woman. Enter Jerry Lawler, proud defender of wrestling and angry at Andy Kaufman for mocking the sport that made him a star, so he decided to coach one of Kaufman’s opponents. Kaufman still won despite Lawler’s coaching and gloated like it was going out of style, until Lawler had enough and pushed Kaufman, sending the comedian on a tirade.

The fans loved every second of it, watching the local star defend the sport against the arrogant actor from Hollywood. When the inevitable Lawler/Kaufman match was finally held, the Mid-South Coliseum was packed to the rafters. The delighted fans saw Lawler execute two Piledrivers (a move that was "banned" in Memphis) after which Kaufman was carried out of the arena on a stretcher (kayfabe). The following day several newspapers reported that Kaufman had in fact broken his neck.

Several weeks later, Kaufman returned to the Mid-South Coliseum wearing a neckbrace, and the skinny comedian vowed to get even with Lawler no matter what. The feud got national exposure in several newspapers after Kaufman’s supposed injury, and it would get even more press after Kaufman discussed it on Saturday Night Live. But that was just a preview of things to come.

On July 27, 1982, Kaufman and Lawler were guests of David Letterman on Late Night with David Letterman. Kaufman still wore the neck collar to indicate that he still had not gotten over the brutal match five months earlier. After the two argued back and forth, Lawler got fed up, stood up and then slapped the comedian out of his chair and off the stage. Kaufman responded by throwing a cup of coffee on Lawler and then storming off while cursing up a storm.

The wild antics of Lawler and Kaufman made the NBC network executives uneasy, believing that the hatred between the two was real and that mayhem could break out at any time. Kaufman and Lawler would keep claiming that their hatred was real, that their actions were real and that they would maim one another if they got the chance. Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches were later revealed to have been a staged "work", as the two were actually friends. The truth about it being a work was kept secret for more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, until the Emmy nominated documentary A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman aired on NBC in 1995. Coincidentally, Jim Carrey is the one who reveals the secret, and would later go on to play Kaufman in the 1999 film Man on the Moon. In a 1997 interview with the Memphis Flyer, Lawler claimed he had improvised during their first match and the Letterman incident. Although officials at St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography "It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes," Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet. He also said that Kaufman's explosion on Letterman was the comedian's own idea.

AWA affiliation

At the end of 1982, Jerry Lawler had seemingly won the American Wrestling Association World Title from Nick Bockwinkel, but due to the match's controversial ending, the title was returned to Bockwinkel with a rematch scheduled for January 1983. On the night of the match, manager Jimmy Hart showed up in Bockwinkel’s corner, face bandaged after being beaten up by Lawler in December. Near the end of the match a familiar face showed up – Jimmy Hart. In the confusion Bockwinkel managed to win the match after which Andy Kaufman unwrapped the bandages to reveal the ploy, thus reigniting Lawler’s feud with Kaufman. The Lawler/Kaufman feud would end in the early part of 1983 after Jerry Lawler threw a fireball at Kaufman, ending his run with the CWA. After Kaufman left, Lawler refocused his efforts on Jimmy Hart and his First Family stable.

Lawler challenging for the World title and almost winning it was a recurring theme throughout the mid-1980s, with neither the AWA nor the NWA being willing to actually put their main title on Lawler. The NWA World title was not defended very often in the Memphis area, usually touring with companies that had more political clout in the Alliance, which meant that the CWA actually featured the AWA World champion more regularly than the group of which they were actually dues-paying members. In 1986, Jarrett broke off from the NWA with their titles either being renamed “AWA” and/or the "NWA" prefix was simply dropped (i.e. the NWA/AWA Southern title became solely the AWA Southern title) and the AWA World Champion was the only really recognized World champion in the federation. In 1988, plans were set in motion to actually merge the AWA and the CWA into one federation in an attempt to counter the World Wrestling Federation’s national expansion. The federation was renamed the Championship Wrestling Association in late-1987 when Jerry Lawler began co-promoting with Jarrett. Subsequently, all singles titles in the CWA (AWA Southern, CWA/AWA International and NWA Mid-America Heavyweight) were merged in order to recognize one CWA Heavyweight Champion.

On May 9, 1988 in Memphis, Jerry Lawler took on the reigning AWA World Champion Curt Hennig and won the title. As the year went on the AWA/CWA alliance was expanded to include the World Class Wrestling Association out of Texas, with a title unification match set for the AWA’s first (and only) pay-per-view, AWA SuperClash III. Lawler won both titles in controversial fashion-- the match was stopped due to excessive blood loss from Kerry Von Erich -- and was declared the “Unified World Champion”, cementing his claim by carrying the AWA, CWA and WCCW titles with him.

Due to controversies following the PPV, the CWA (and WCCW) broke off their relationship with the AWA and Lawler was stripped of the AWA World title. In retaliation, Lawler kept the physical AWA World Heavyweight championship belt for not getting the payoff for SuperClash III.

The end of an era

After the Pro Wrestling USA experiment failed, Jerry Jarrett bought WCCW from the Von Erichs and unified the two promotions as the United States Wrestling Association in 1989, thus ending the era of Continental Wrestling Association.

CWA alumni

The list of wrestlers that had short stints in the CWA is too extensive to list. The list below is a partial list of CWA regulars, guys who stayed around for a good period of time, made a name for themselves or got reestablished in Memphis.

Singles wrestlers

* Bob Armstrong * Brad Armstrong * Scott Armstrong * Steve Armstrong * Don Bass * Ron Bass * Big Bubba “The Belt Collector”

* Bam Bam Bigelow * King Kong Bundy * Bill Dundee * Robert Fuller * Ron Fuller * Eddie Gilbert * Jimmy Hart

* Austin Idol * Jeff Jarrett * Kamala * Andy Kaufman * Buddy Landel * Jerry Lawler * Dutch Mantel

* Jim Neidhart * Max Pain * Tommy Rich * Jerry Roberts * Rick Rude * Randy Savage * Toru Tanaka

* Terry Taylor * Jimmy Valiant * Jesse Ventura * Sid Vicious

Tag teams

• Badd Company (Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka)
• The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn and Stan Lane)
• The Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty)
• The Moondogs (Rex and Spot)
• The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson)
• The Midnight Express (Norvell Austin, Dennis Condrey, Randy Rose)
• Pretty Young Things (Koko B. Ware & Norvell Austin)
• The Rock 'n' Roll RPMs (Mike Davis and Tommy Lane)
• The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers)
• The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags)
• The Zambuie Express (Elijah Akeem and Kareem Muhammad)
• The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn and Stan Lane)

CWA titles

AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship AWA Southern Tag Team Championship CWA Heavyweight Championship CWA Tag Team Championship CWA Southwestern Heavyweight Championship CWA Super Heavyweight Championship CWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship

CWA World Heavyweight Championship CWA World Tag Team Championship CWA/AWA International Heavyweight Championship CWA/AWA International Tag Team Championship NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship

Literary references

The CWA has been referred to in several wrestling biographies, most prominently in co-owner Jerry Lawler's It's Good to Be the King... Sometimes ((2003) ISBN 0-7434-5767-6 Autobiography)

Notes

External links and references

• Continental Wrestling Association Online World of Wrestling Entry
• Championship/Continental Wrestling Association Title Histories
• Wrestling Titles & Supercards
• Memphis Wrestling History
• CWA commentator Lance Russell’s official website
• Jerry Lawler’s official website