The promotion was founded in 1978 as a rival to
Ron Fuller's
Southeastern Championship Wrestling and
Nick Gulas's NWA Mid-American territory, extending into
Verne Gagne's
American Wrestling Association and
Dick Afflis'
World Wrestling Association territories by 1981. Later on they'd come in direct competition with
Jerry Lawler and
Jerry Jarrett's
Continental Wrestling Association This, among other issues, would result in a series of lawsuits between Poffo and NWA-affiliated organizations during the late 1970s and early 80s. The main stars of ICW were Poffo's sons
Randy (better known as "Macho Man" Randy Savage) and
Lanny (better known as "Leaping" Lanny Poffo) who frequently traded the promotion's heavyweight title between each other; in fact only two other men (
Ronnie Garvin and Paul Christy) held the
ICW Heavyweight Championship in the 6 years the title existed. While Randy and Lanny were the focus of the federation, it did feature many other stars such as The Original Sheik (Ed Farhat),
Ronnie Garvin,
Crusher Broomfield (later known as One Man Gang and Akeem),
Bob Orton Jr.,
Bob Roop,
Rip Rogers,
"Pistol" Pez Whatley,
Ox Baker,
George Weingeroff, and the
Devil's Duo (Jeff Sword and Doug Vines) with their manager
Izzy Slapawitz. Elizabeth Hulette, who would later gain fame in the
WWF and
WCW as
Miss Elizabeth, got her start in professional wrestling as an on-camera host (using the name "Liz Hulette", as she was known to her friends while growing up) of ICW's weekly TV show where she also started her romance with Randy Savage. They were later married. In 1984 the promotion closed down due to dwindling attendance and its assets were bought by Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler. Due to the fans' knowledge of the extremely bitter rivalry between ICW and CWA, Randy Savage was able to migrate to the CWA and begin a memorable feud with Jerry Lawler that established Randy Savage as a world-class superstar.
Same name, different promotions Paul Christy, the wrestler who had ended Randy Savage's final reign as ICW World Champion, started a new ICW when Poffo's promotion folded. He ran the promotion for a few years with little publicity or success before closing it down in the late 1980s. Another promotion called
International Championship Wrestling operated out of Boston in the late 1980s, promoted by
Angelo and Mario Savoldi, and Mario's son
Joe Savoldi. After forming a working agreement with
World Class Championship Wrestling, the Boston-based ICW was renamed
International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW). It included such stars as: The Russian Brute,
Tom Brandi, Mike Kahula,
Tony Rumble, and
Nikolai Volkoff.
International Championship Wrestling (ICW) is also a lesser known promotion based in
Cloverdale, BC. Past wrestlers include
Buddy Wayne and
Chico Alvarez. ==Tournaments==