Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW) was a
professional wrestling promotion
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails man ...
run by Terry Golden, based in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...
.
The promotion's first event was on February 20, 2000, and it remained active until mid-2001. It was employed as a
World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and va ...
(WWF) developmental territory.
History
Terry Golden originally opened his Memphis-based promotion as Kick-Ass Wrestling, and it was later renamed to Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW).
During June 2001 after the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Natio ...
(WCW), the WWF dropped MCW as their developmental territory.
Wrestlers were either sent to other developmental territories or fired, but they had to perform in the remaining scheduled MCW shows per their contracts.[
]
''Unleashed''
MCW's television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
show ''Unleashed!'' aired on WLMT-TV
WLMT (channel 30) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside ABC affiliate WATN-TV (channel 24). Both stations share studios at the Shelby Oaks Corpor ...
every Saturday morning at 11:00 am and early Sunday morning at 1:30 am. The show was hosted by Lance Russell, David Webb, David Jett, with Kevin Kelly also later hosting.
After the promotion closed, the MCW television show was made up of candid interviews with many of the departing talents.[ Later, these television shows were made up of old replays before it was eventually dropped by the television station.
]
Championships
* MCW Southern Heavyweight Championship
*MCW Southern Tag Team Championship
The MCW Southern Tag Team Championship was the tag team title
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic quali ...
* MCW Hardcore Championship
* MCW Southern Light Heavyweight Championship
Alumni
*Joey Abs
Jason Arhndt (born October 15, 1971) is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Joey Abs as part of the Mean Street ...
[
* American Dragon][
* The Blue Meanie
* Steve Bradley
* Bradshaw
*]Lance Cade
Lance Kurtis McNaught (March 2, 1981 – August 13, 2010) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where he performed under the ring names Garrison Cade and Lance Cade.
After be ...
* Bo Dupp
* Jack Dupp
* Ekmo
* Faarooq
* Pete Gas[
*]Charlie Haas
Charles Doyle Haas II (born March 27, 1972) is an American professional and former amateur wrestler. He is best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2000-2009 and Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2010-2013. In WWE he was a me ...
*Russ Haas
Thomas Russell Haas (March 11, 1974 – December 15, 2001) was an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his work alongside his older brother Charlie in Memphis Championship Wrestling and Jersey All Pro Wrestling.
Haas was a coll ...
* Kevin Kelly
* Kimo
* K-Krush[
* ]Jerry Lawler
Jerry O'Neil Lawler (born November 29, 1949), better known as Jerry "The King" Lawler, is an American color commentator and professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, although he has not performed as a full-time commentator since Ap ...
* Joey Matthews
Adam Birch (born July 18, 1979), better known by the ring names Joey Mercury and Joey Matthews, is an American professional wrestler who is best known for his two tenures in WWE. Birch was most recently signed to Ring of Honor, where he worke ...
*Jim Neidhart
James Henry Neidhart (February 8, 1955 – August 13, 2018) was an American professional wrestler known for his appearances in the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation as Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, where he was a two-time WWF Tag ...
* Bull Pain
* Lord Steven Regal[
* Rodrageous
* Lance Russell
* ]Seven
7 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
7 or seven may also refer to:
* AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era
* 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era
* The month of
July
Music Artists
* Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...
* Spanky
George McFarland (October 2, 1928 – June 30, 1993) was an American actor most famous for starring as a child as Spanky in the ''Our Gang'' series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The ''Our Gang'' shorts were later syndicated ...
* Victoria
*Christian York
Jason Spence (born April 13, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Christian York. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling and Impact Wrestling. C ...
* The Kat
* Thrasher
* Scott Vick
*Tracy Smothers
Tracy Stanton Smothers (September 2, 1962 – October 28, 2020) was an American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and Extreme Champ ...
*Viscera
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a ...
*Bobby Eaton
Bobby Lee Eaton (August 14, 1958 – August 4, 2021) was an American professional wrestler best known as "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton. He was most famous for his work in tag teams, especially as one-half of The Midnight Express. Under the manage ...
* Faarooq
*Molly Holly
Nora Kristina Benshoof (''née'' Greenwald; born on September 7, 1977) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler signed to WWE as a producer, she is best known for her appearances with the said company from 2000 to 2005 under the ring ...
*Stevie Richards
Michael Stephen Manna (born October 9, 1971), better known by his ring name Stevie Richards, is an American professional wrestler. Over the course of his career, Richards has performed for major professional wrestling promotions including Easte ...
*Spike Dudley
Matthew Jonathan Hyson (born August 13, 1970) is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as Spike Dudley. Prior to WWE, Hyson began performing as Spike Dudley in the 1990s with E ...
* Scotty 2 Hotty
*Brian Christopher
Brian Christopher Lawler (January 10, 1972 – July 29, 2018) was an American professional wrestler. He is best remembered for his career in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), where he performed as "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher and Grand ...
*Raven
A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned ...
*Jerry Lynn
Jeremy Lynn (born June 12, 1963), better known by the ring name Jerry Lynn, is an American retired professional wrestler currently signed with All Elite Wrestling as a producer and coach. He has worked for promotions such as World Championship ...
*Ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals ...
*Dustin Diamond
Dustin Neil Diamond (January 7, 1977 – February 1, 2021) was an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his role as Samuel "Screech" Powers throughout the ''Saved by the Bell'' franchise.
Early life and family
Diamond was born in ...
*Sid Vicious
John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an icon of the ...
*Motley Cruz
*Doctor Bud
*Seven
*Ken Giddens
*Jeff Droke
*Ron Rage
*Randall Collins
*Tyler Gates
*Chris Rocker
*Hollywood Little
*Bitty Little
*Ref. Mike Darby
Tag Teams
* The APA (Faarooq & Bradshaw)
* The Dupps (Bo & Jack Dupp)
*Haas Brothers
The Haas Brothers was a Professional wrestling Tag team consisting of real life brothers Charlie and Russ Haas. The team was very successful in the independent wrestling circuit, but Russ's death on December 15, 2001 led to the end of the tag ...
(Russ & Charlie)
* The Island Boyz (Ekmo & Kimo)
* Joey Matthews & Christian York
* The Mean Street Posse (Joey Abs, Pete Gas & Rodney)[
* The New Foundation (Blue Meanie & Jim Neidhart)
]
See also
*List of independent wrestling promotions in the United States
This is a list of independent wrestling promotions in the United States, sorted by regional area, and lists both active and defunct " indy promotions" from the 1990s and 2000s. This list does not include the regional territories or promotions a ...
References
External links
Memphis Wrestling
Memphis Wrestling History
Memphis Wrestling Yahoo Group
{{Professional wrestling in the United States
Independent professional wrestling promotions based in Tennessee
2000 establishments in Tennessee