World Championship Wrestling
AcronymWCW
Founded1964
Defunct1978
HeadquartersMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
Owner(s)Jim Barnett

World Championship Wrestling was an Australian professional wrestling promotion that ran from 1964 until 1978.

History

The promotion gained publicity through television programs on the Nine Network, which were presented at noon on Saturdays and Sundays.

An average of 6,500 people attended in the first three months of the promotion's existence, a crowd of 8,000 attended a show on 7 November in Melbourne when the first title change in the new promotion took place as Dominic De Nucci defeated Killer Kowalski. WCW also promoted throughout Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore and Hong Kong.

When WCW began operations in 1964, the promotion created the International Wrestling Alliance as a sanctioning body for WCW's original championships, the IWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships. WCW joined the National Wrestling Alliance in August 1969, but they continued to recognise the IWA World championships until 1971, when they were abandoned in favor of new NWA-sanctioned titles (see below).

In 1978, the Nine Network ceased coverage of WCW; with no TV coverage, promoters were facing financial ruin, leading to the decline of professional wrestling in Australia. The "World Championship Wrestling" name was reused in 1982 by Georgia Championship Wrestling in the United States for its own TV program, which became the roots of the American promotion of the same name. At the time, the promotion's former owner, Jim Barnett, was one of the owners of Georgia Championship Wrestling.

Documentaries about the promotion were released in 2007 called Ruff, Tuff N Real[1] and Over the Top Rope in 2017.[2]

Roster

Championships

Championship: Final champion(s): Active From: Active Till: Notes:
IWA-sanctioned championships
IWA World Heavyweight Championship King Curtis Iaukea October 1964 1971 WCW joined the NWA in August 1969, but continued recognizing its own world champion until 1971.[6]
IWA World Tag Team Championship Kurt and Karl Von Steiger June 1966 1971 [6]
NWA-sanctioned championships
NWA Austra-Asian Heavyweight Championship Ron Miller 28 April 1972 December 1978 [6]
NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Championship André the Giant and Ron Miller 2 December 1972 December 1978 [6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Ruff Tuff and Real: Legends of Australian Wrestling (Video 2007) - IMDb". IMDb.
  2. ↑ "Over The Top Rope".
  3. ↑ "Con Tolios - Online World of Wrestling". Archived from the original on 22 November 2012.
  4. ↑ "John Tolios - Online World of Wrestling". Archived from the original on 22 November 2012.
  5. ↑ "Ken Medlin - Online World of Wrestling". Archived from the original on 20 November 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
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