Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling
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| Acronym | CCW |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1954 |
| Defunct | 1990 |
| Style | Rasslin' |
| Headquarters | Knoxville, Tennessee; Dothan, Alabama |
| Founder(s) | Roy Welch and Buddy Fuller |
| Owner(s) | Roy Welch and Buddy Fuller (1954-1959) Lee Fields (1960-1978) Ron Fuller Knoxville (1974-1980, 1985-1988) Dothan (1978-1990) David Woods (1988-1990) |
Continental Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion based in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1974 until 1988 and Dothan, Alabama, from 1978 to 1990, managed by Ron Fuller. When Fuller sold the promotion to David Woods, it changed name to the Continental Wrestling Federation. The territory had also promoted under the previous name of Southeastern Championship Wrestling prior to 1985. Promoters Leroy McGuirk, Roy Welch, and Buddy Fuller had runs operating the territory starting in 1954 until Lee Fields bought it five years later and reformed it into Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling in the 1960s and 1970s.
Nashville promoter Roy Welch had purchased the Mobile-Pensacola end of Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State Wrestling. Unlike McGuirk, who only promoted in the Mobile-Pensacola area on special occasions called spot shows, Welch decided to make promoting in Mobile-Pensacola a frequent attraction in the summer. However, due to his obligations in Nashville, his son Buddy Fuller (Edward Welch) was made booker for Mobile-Pensacola, and Fuller eventually expanded the territory into Mississippi-Louisiana as well.
At this point, the territory didn't even have a name, its own belts, or even its own wrestlers (aside from members of The Welch Family of course). They often relied on wrestlers and champions from Buddy's and their Uncle Lester Welch's territory. He ran in places like Tampa, Florida, and Atlanta, Georgia (which would eventually become Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling), as well getting help from his father in Nashville, Tennessee, and some occasional help from his Uncles Herb and Jack. These early attempts would start to unravel when Buddy Fuller failed to make payments to the territory from his father Roy Welch. Buddy's cousin Lee Fields (Albert Lee Hatfield) would save the territory and gave it the name "Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling".
Lee Fields would eventually buy the territory from Roy Welch and Buddy Fuller, and run shows in the area for almost two decades with Rocky McGuire booking Dothan-Panama City and Bob Kelly booking Mobile-Pensacola and Mississippi after a falling out with promoters in Louisiana with Mobile-Pensacola only running in the summer months. Kelly turned the promotion around from holding monthly and seasonal shows in a few towns which only drew a few hundred people to holding weekly shows in a different town night after night with local television exposure in each market, which led to each arena drawing thousands. Bob Kelly left the wrestling business in 1976 to enter real estate and spend more time with family, and Lee Fields found it more difficult to operate both his wrestling promotion and Mobile International Speedway at the same time.. So he sold it to his cousin Ron Fuller around 1977-1978.
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