A house show is a professional wrestling event produced by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as to test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and gimmicks that are being considered for the main televised programming and upcoming pay-per-views . As house shows are not televised, all matches are technically dark matches , though that term is usually reserved for non-televised matches at otherwise televised events.
39-671: (Redirected from NWA Southeast Continental Heavyweight Championship ) Professional wrestling championship NWA Southeast Continental Heavyweight Championship Details Promotion Southeastern Championship Wrestling Date established May 21, 1984 Date retired December 1989 Other name(s) CWF Heavyweight Championship Statistics First champion(s) Ron Fuller Final champion(s) Tom Prichard Most reigns Bob Armstrong (5 reigns) Shortest reign Boomer H. Lynch (0 days) The NWA Continental Heavyweight Championship
78-656: A mask 24 Kevin Sullivan December 15, 1986 House show Birmingham, Alabama 2 51 25 Ron Fuller February 4, 1987 House show Houston, Texas 2 24 26 Buddy Landell February 28, 1987 House show Chattanooga, Tennessee 1 58 27 Wendell Cooley April 27, 1987 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 vacant October 1987 N/A N/A Cooley vacated due to
117-635: A 1999 house show in Toronto . If there is a title change, the title usually changes back during the same show or at another show on the loop before another televised event, like several titles changes of the WWE Hardcore Championship or when Booker T and Chris Benoit traded the WCW World Television Championship back-and-forth on several house shows, with Booker (the official champion) always having
156-651: 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
195-1244: A knee injury. 28 Dutch Mantel October 30, 1987 House show Knoxville, Tennessee 1 Defeated Wendell Cooley. — April 1988 — — CCW changed its name to the CWF on April 30, 1988. Mantel turned the championship belt over to general manager Jack Curtis on May 7, 1988 episode of CWF. CWF Heavyweight Championship 29 Tom Prichard October 3, 1988 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 186 Defeated Tony Anthony in tournament final. 30 Wendell Cooley April 7, 1989 House show Knoxville, Tennessee 1 77 31 Tom Prichard June 23, 1989 House show Knoxville, Tennessee 2 149 32 Dennis Condrey July 22, 1989 House show Dothan, Alabama 1 137 33 Tom Prichard December 6, 1989 House show N/A 3 — Deactivated December 1989 — — — — The CWF closed. Footnotes [ edit ] ^ The exact date that
234-399: A live audience, and with the increase in number of pay-per-view events held by promotions, angles are now typically developed during weekly shows, and resolved during the next pay-per-view (or, on occasion, a special episode of the series), rendering house shows to be mostly minor events with no long-term story significance. Since house shows are not televised, promotions do not usually deploy
273-710: A new stage was introduced that closer-resembles the stages used by televised events at the time. During the first brand extension , each WWE tour was exclusive to either the Raw or SmackDown brand. This remained the case through 2012, even after the first brand extension ended in 2011 on televised programming. In 2013, the shows were rebranded as "WWE Live", with NXT house shows subsequently branded as "NXT Live". After WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, WWE began to brand house shows held on weekends as "Saturday Night's Main Event" (reviving
312-561: 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
351-821: Is injured 18 Jerry Stubbs May 12, 1986 House show Mobile, Alabama 1 42 19 Brad Armstrong June 23, 1986 House show Birmingham, Alabama 2 21 20 Jerry Stubbs July 14, 1986 House show Birmingham, Alabama 2 56 21 Brad Armstrong September 8, 1986 House show Birmingham, Alabama 3 4 22 Kevin Sullivan September 11, 1986 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 88 23 The Bullet December 8, 1986 House show Birmingham, Alabama 5 7 Bob Armstrong wearing
390-775: 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. Despite many huge angles over the years, this territory often has the status as "the lost promotion". Such obscurity was due to the lack of media coverage during the Gulf Coast and Southeastern years since both Lee Fields and Ron Fuller believed that their promotions should not be covered by wrestling magazines and often did not allow reporters in
429-786: The WCW Cruiserweight Championship on an unspecified house show (thereby giving the title to Psychosis), after WCW management was forced to drop Lane's gimmick that was perceived as offensive by the GLAAD . The phrase has been used to pejoratively describe WWE pay-per-views intended primarily for specific markets, including UK-only pay-per-views such as Insurrextion and Rebellion , and WWE's events in Saudi Arabia . In 2019, Shawn Michaels defended his one-off return at WWE's 2018 Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia (reuniting D-Generation X to participate in
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#1732793117662468-474: The face wrestlers win most matches, largely to send the crowd home happy. If a heel defends a title, the face may win by disqualification, preventing the title from changing hands. Until the 1990s, most televised professional wrestling programs were taped weeks in advance in small studios and featured primarily matches with lesser-known wrestlers while interviews revolved around feuds between upper level talent that were to be settled at an upcoming major show at
507-501: The home video boom of the 1980s, much of the footage from the Gulf Coast era and the Knoxville portion of Southeastern no longer exists, despite a few bits of rare footage turning up here and there. However, almost all of the Dothan portion of Southeastern along with the majority of Continental footage still exists. They are still owned by David Woods and Woods Communications. House show House shows are also often scripted to make
546-3037: The CWF ceased to operate is uncertain, which means that the championship reign lasted between 1 day and 25 days. See also [ edit ] National Wrestling Alliance Southeast Championship Wrestling References [ edit ] ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "(Alabama) Birmingham: NWA Continental Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4 . ^ Hoops, Brian (February 28, 2017). "Daily pro wrestling history (02/28): Andersen & Hansen win NWA Tag Titles" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online . Retrieved February 28, 2017 . v t e Gulf Coast / Southeastern Championship / Continental Championship / Continental Wrestling Federation championships GCCW NWA World Heavyweight Championship NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship NWA World Tag Team Championship NWA United States Tag Team Championship NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship NWA Southern Tag Team Championship NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Championship NWA Gulf Coast Tag Team Championship NWA Southeast Alabama Heavyweight Championship NWA Louisiana Heavyweight Championship NWA Mississippi Heavyweight Championship NWA Mississippi Tag Team Championship NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship SCW CCW NWA World Heavyweight Championship AWA World Heavyweight Championship NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship NWA Southeastern Continental Heavyweight Championship NWA Southeastern Television Championship NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship NWA Southeastern Continental Tag Team Championship NWA Southern Tag Team Championship NWA Southeastern United States Junior Heavyweight Championship NWA Southeastern Alabama Heavyweight Championship NWA Southeastern Tennessee Heavyweight Championship NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship CWF AWA World Heavyweight Championship CWF Heavyweight Championship CWF Tag Team Championship United States Junior Heavyweight Championship Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=CWF_Heavyweight_Championship&oldid=1088215350 " Categories : National Wrestling Alliance championships Continental Championship Wrestling championships Heavyweight wrestling championships Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Articles with hCards Southeastern Championship Wrestling Continental Championship Wrestling
585-614: 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
624-418: 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,
663-568: The Rougeau's home town of Montreal. This change (and the eventual "decision reversal") was only ever mentioned during segments taped specifically for and shown in the Montreal market. A fictional house show can be used to explain a sudden vacation or change of a title caused due to backstage issues on television. For example, on October 4, 1999 edition of WCW Monday Nitro , the commentators stated that Psychosis had defeated Lenny Lane for
702-632: The WWF Championship from Bob Backlund in 1994 at a live event in Madison Square Garden . There have also been occasions when title changes occur but are not recognized by the promotion. Some notable house show title changes include an August 10, 1987 match where The Rougeau Brothers ( Raymond and Jacques ) won over the champion Hart Foundation ( Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart ) to take the WWF Tag Team championship in
741-419: The advent of WWE Network , WWE has televised portions of what are otherwise house shows as hour-long specials on the service, such as Starrcade —an event that shares the name with the flagship pay-per-view of the now-defunct WCW (whose assets were acquired by WWE), and The Shield's Final Chapter —a special which featured Dean Ambrose 's final WWE appearance with his stable The Shield before his departure from
780-595: The branding of a former WWE television series ) and "Sunday Night Stunner". Because house shows are not televised, sometimes controversial things occur during them (although this is rare) which might not happen on a televised show. For example, on May 19, 1996, the MSG "Curtain Call" , which was also a rare example of a shoot , occurred at a house show taped at Madison Square Garden . At the same show, The Bodydonnas lost their WWF Tag Team Championship to The Godwinns . With
819-431: The championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between 1 day and 29 days. ^ The exact date that the championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between 1 day and 29 days. ^ The exact date the championship was lost is uncertain, which means that the championship reign lasted between 1 day and 58 days. ^ The exact date
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#1732793117662858-441: The championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between 1 day and 29 days. ^ The exact date the championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between −1,003 and −974 days. ^ The exact date that the championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between −943 and −913 days. ^ The exact date that
897-440: The championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between 1 day and 69 days. ^ The exact date that the championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between 1 day and 68 days. ^ The exact date that the championship was won and lost is unknown, which means that the title reign lasted between 1 day and 67 days. ^ The exact date that
936-450: The championship was won is uncertain, which means that the championship reign lasted between 1 day and 58 days. ^ The exact date that Cooley retired is uncertain, which means that his reign lasted between 157 and 159 days. ^ The exact date that the CCW became the CWF is uncertain, which means that his reign lasted between 63 and 339 days. ^ The exact date that
975-491: The locker room to interview the wrestlers. This was to prevent the exposure to kayfabe and preserve the illusion of wrestling as a sport in the area. However, Fuller relented with the changeover to Continental in order to get national exposure for the promotion from the magazines. Such exposure was at an all-time high during the Eddie Gilbert period. Due to the expensive nature of archiving at television stations before
1014-497: The name Continental gave fans the impression they toured all over the country, except Alaska and Hawaii. 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
1053-607: The promotion to David Woods in 1988, the name was changed to Continental Wrestling Federation . 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)
1092-411: The promotion's flagship venues. Prior to the 1980s, these were house shows, though with the advent of closed-circuit television , and later pay-per-view , these became televised events as well. Later on in the 1990s, the advent of weekly shows such as WWF's Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro , where competitive matches between upper level talent and storylines play out as they happen in front of
1131-587: The promotion. Starting in March 2023, All Elite Wrestling launched a series of house shows under the "House Rules" brand. Most major promotions try to develop their angles only during televised shows and will rarely book a major development (such as a title change) for house shows. House show title changes can occur both to gauge how fans would react to a certain outcome, and allow for outcomes that would appeal to local fans—such as Edge winning his first WWF Intercontinental Championship over Jeff Jarrett at
1170-481: The same setup for staging or pyrotechnics used for their television counterparts. In the past, a WWE house show would consist mainly of a ring, essential lighting, and a crowd. In late 2011, WWE invested US$ 1.5 million in production improvements, which included three LED -lit entrance stages (one each for Raw and SmackDown , and one backup) featuring a ramp and video display, and leveraging venues' existing AV equipment for multimedia such as entrances . As of 2021,
1209-564: The same time.. So he sold it to his cousin Ron Fuller around 1977-1978. 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
CWF Heavyweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
1248-506: The talent roster and behind the scenes personnel left SECW over frustrationd 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
1287-467: 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
1326-646: 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. Five years later, Fuller decided that it was time to reach beyond the Southern Alabama/Northern Florida area and re-purchased
1365-543: The title back in time for Nitro . Edge similarly lost the aforementioned Intercontinental Championship back to Jarrett at Fully Loaded the next evening in Buffalo . Even rarer is the top title of a promotion changing hands. This has occurred relatively few times, notable occurrences include Bret Hart winning the then- WWF Championship from Ric Flair in 1992 at a live event in Saskatchewan and Diesel winning
1404-1517: Was a major title in the National Wrestling Alliance 's Alabama territory called Southeastern Championship Wrestling . It existed from 1984 until 1988 when SECW became the Continental Wrestling Federation. The title continued on as the CWF Heavyweight Championship from 1988 until 1989 when the CWF closed. Key No. Overall reign number Reign Reign number for the specific champion Days Number of days held No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref. Date Event Location Reign Days 1 Ron Fuller May 21, 1984 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 63 Defeated Michael Hayes 2 Bob Armstrong July 23, 1984 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 3 Mr. Wrestling II August 1984 House show N/A 1 4 Bob Armstrong November 1984 House show N/A 2 5 Boomer H. Lynch May 1985 House show N/A 1 0 6 Bob Armstrong May 1985 House show N/A 3 Title returned because Lynch
1443-646: Was a professional wrestling promotion based in Knoxville, Tennessee , and Dothan, Alabama , from 1985 until 1989, owned by Ron Fuller . The promotion evolved out of the NWA-affiliated Southeastern Championship Wrestling and Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling territories owned by Fuller, who purchased the Knoxville territory from John Cazana in 1974 and the Alabama/Florida territory in 1977. When Fuller sold
1482-737: 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
1521-1297: Was not the scheduled opponent. 7 The Flame June 17, 1985 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 8 Bob Armstrong June 24, 1985 NLT House show Dothan, Alabama 4 9 The Flame July 9, 1985 House show Mobile, Alabama 2 10 Lord Humongous July 1985 House show N/A 1 11 The Flame July 29, 1985 House show Birmingham, Alabama 3 4 12 Tommy Rich August 2, 1985 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 52 13 The Flame September 23, 1985 House show Birmingham, Alabama 4 70 14 Roberto Soto December 2, 1985 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 21 15 Robert Fuller December 23, 1985 House show Birmingham, Alabama 1 81 16 Brad Armstrong March 14, 1986 House show Mobile, Alabama 1 17 Robert Fuller 1986 House show N/A 2 Title returned when Armstrong
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