The Gulf Coast years (1954–1974) 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.
The Southeastern years (1974–1985) In 1974, Ron Fuller purchased
Southeastern Championship Wrestling based in Knoxville, Tennessee from John Cazana, where he focused mainly on the east Tennessee area. In 1977, Ron Fuller took over the territory his grandfather and father had founded when GCCW folded and Fuller expanded the SECW to run in the Southern Alabama, Northern Florida area in addition the Eastern Tennessee territory he already established. This was initially labelled ”the Southern Division” of the SECW treating them as two separate entities despite the original plan to run a talent exchange between the two involving talent spending sixteen months in one end of the territory and then spend eight months in another to regain momentum after losing steam in the previous one. In June 1979, several members of the talent roster and behind the scenes personnel left SECW over frustrations involving backstage politics with Ron's brother
Robert Fuller who was considered lazy in terms of booking the territory, and spent many nights partying and felt his spot in Southeastern was owed to him since he was a member of The Welch/Fuller family. Led by
Bob Roop,
Ronnie Garvin,
Bob Orton Jr. and
Boris Malenko,
All-Star Championship Wrestling fought a six-month promotional war over the Knoxville territory. Many of these defectors later joined the Kentucky based outlaw promotion
International Championship Wrestling owned and operated by
Angelo Poffo. After this, the Knoxville end of Southeastern experienced financial losses, and sold to promotions such as
Jim Crockett Promotions and
Georgia Championship Wrestling for the next five years. Fuller then made Birmingham his main end of the territory with the Dothan end continuing to flourish, giving early exposure to future stars such as
The Fabulous Freebirds, rising stars in the territory along the lines of
Austin Idol, and appearances by
Ric Flair who would defend the
NWA World Heavyweight Title in the area each year.
The Continental years (1985–1989) Continental Championship Wrestling (1985–1988) Five years later, Fuller decided that it was time to reach beyond the Southern Alabama/Northern Florida area and re-purchased the Knoxville end of the territory, with this expansion came a name change to
Continental Championship Wrestling. After a failed negotiation with
CBS, he settled on moving the television show out of the small television studio and into the big arenas where they did house shows in order to give the promotion a national look and feel. While the name
Southeastern restricted the promotion to a more regional feel, the name
Continental gave fans the impression they toured all over the country, except Alaska and Hawaii.
Continental Wrestling Federation (1988–1989) In 1988,
WCOV-TV owner David Woods bought the controlling interest in the promotion from Ron Fuller, and he renamed it
Continental Wrestling Federation in a further attempt to compete with Vince McMahon and appear to resemble a nationwide promotion, even to the point of getting a national TV deal with
Financial News Network. Episodes also aired every Monday at 1:30 a.m.
ET on the
Sunshine Network, a regional sports
cable channel that served the
Southeastern United States. Their last TV episode aired on November 25, 1989. The promotion closed after their final show on December 6, 1989. ==Legacy==