American Wrestling Federation

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American Wrestling Federation
Acronym AWF
Founded 1994
Style Professional wrestling
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois, Minnesota
Founder(s) Paul Alperstein
Owner(s) Paul Alperstein

The American Wrestling Federation (AWF) was a national professional wrestling federation founded by Paul Alperstein. In 2010, Mick Karch, a former AWF commentator, bought the rights to the 'AWF' initial, and started to promote wrestling cards under the 'AWF' name and initial.

History

Paul Alperstein, a promoter from Chicago, founded the AWF in 1994 and was on-air president of the company.

He intended to reintroduce rules as a significant part of professional wrestling. This was carried out by the use of timed rounds and judges in every match, which is similar to the rules of professional wrestling in Europe and as well as Boxing.

Each round was four minutes long with a one-minute rest period between rounds. Title bouts were scheduled for twelve rounds while all other fights were scheduled for three. One referee and two judges were assigned to each match. The winner of each round was decided by both the judges' scorecards and the referee's scorecard. If a match lasted the full amount of scheduled rounds, the winner was declared as whoever had the majority of points on each of the three scorecards.

Another rule implemented was that throwing opponents over the top rope resulted in an automatic disqualification.

Only a few wrestlers in this organization had experience in European wrestling, most notably England's Chris Adams and "Mr. Ambassador" Steve Casey (not to be confused with the World Class wrestler of the same name). Wrestlers such as Tito Santana, Bob Orton, Jr., Jim Powers, Koko. B Ware, Johnny Gunn and Greg Valentine, headlined AWF's events between the mid-1990s.

Tito Santana and Bob Orton, Jr. were seemingly considered the top wrestlers in the company, with Santana being the top babyface and Orton the top heel.

The AWF used tournaments for its titles, each wrestler would advance in the tournament by defeating the respective opponent, like in a normal match. Points scored in a card during a tournament.

Jim Brunzell was named AWF commissioner by Alperstein in hopes that he would make sure the above rules were enforced. Brunzell even refereed the first match for the AWF Championship in 1994, between Bob Orton, Jr. and Tito Santana.

The promotion held several house shows and was building towards a pay per view event, but closed in December 1996 for financial reasons.

Tito Santana defended the AWF Championship belt on a National Championship Wrestling event in York, Pennsylvania against former AWF wrestler Salvatore Sincere. The storyline was that Santana had dodged Sincere during their AWF days in the mid-1990s and Santana agreed to put the belt on the line against Sincere. Santana won the match for his last title defense, albeit unofficial.

Warriors of Wrestling

In 1995, the company introduced a program called Warriors of Wrestling for syndication. The initial run consisted of footage shot from 1994 to 1995. The program resurfaced throughout the United States in late 1996 with new episodes. The announce team consisted of Mick Karch as announcer and Terry Taylor as color commentator. Taylor was replaced by Lord Alfred Hayes in 1996. Ken Resnick handled interview segments. Resnick was eventually replaced by Missy Hyatt in 1996.

In 2005, the entire run of 1995 episodes was released as a 4-disc DVD set by Highland Entertainment. It is unknown when or if a second volume will be released with the remaining episodes as there were many not in the DVD set.

As of January 2006, reruns can be seen on Europe's Clear Television via the cluster of Astra satellites at 19.2° east.

Episode Guide - 1995 episodes

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

AWF Heavyweight Championship Tournament - Quarterfinals

Episode 8

Episode 9

AWF Heavyweight Championship Tournament - Finals

Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Episode 13

Episode 14

Episode 15

  • Warlord and Jeff Gaylord vs. Sonny Rogers and Bob Bradley
  • Terry Allen vs. Steve Casey
  • Johnny Gunn and Jim Powers vs. Rick Rocket and Tony Ramone
  • Fidel Sierra vs. Firefighter Jim
  • The Samoan Swat Team (The Samoan Savage and Samu) vs. Pretty Boy Floyd and Hubert Simpson

Episode 16

Episode 17

  • Charlie Norris and Tom Zenk defeated The Southern Posse in 2 rounds
  • Super Destroyer I defeated Vern Henderson
  • Ron Powers (w/ Fidel Sierra) defeated Manny Fernandez
  • Mr. Hughes and The Mighty Hercules defeated Kenny Kendall and Butch Long

AWF Tag-Team Championship Tournament - Brackets

Episode 18

AWF Tag-Team Championship Tournament - Quarterfinals

Episode 19

  • The Renegades (Jeff Gaylord and Warlord) defeated Jon Paul and Steve Storm

AWF Tag-Team Championship Tournament - Quarterfinals

Episode Guide - 1996 episodes

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

Episode 10

Episode 11

  • Introduction: Sgt. Slaughter
  • Honky Tonk Man (w/ Angel Baby) defeated Mike Marcello in 1 round
  • Ronnie Twist defeated Lethal Weapon Slayer in 1 round, as Mr. Fuji observed Twist from ringside
  • One Man Gang (w/ Bugaloo Brown) defeated JD Lessman in 1 round
  • Chris Adams fought Fidel Sierra (w/ Kapitana Natasha) to a 3 round double disqualification

Episode 12

  • Introduction: Sgt. Slaughter
  • Konnan 2000 defeated Johnny Golden in 1 round
  • Nailz and The Super Destroyer defeated Dalton and a jobber in 1 round
  • Tito Santana defeated Terry Travis
  • The Texas Hangmen defeated Charlie Norris and Billy Two Eagles

House Shows

August 16, 1996 from the Lucky Eagle Casino in Oakville, Washington

August 17, 1996 from the Lucky Eagle Casino in Oakville, Washington

August 18, 1996 from the Lucky Eagle Casino in Oakville, Washington

AWF Titles

AWF Heavyweight Championship

Wrestler: Times: Date: Place:
Tito Santana 1 November 29, 1994 Chicago, IL (defeated Bob Orton Jr. in tournament final)
Bob Orton Jr. 1 October 5, 1996 Fort Lauderdale, FL (defeated Tito Santana to win title)
Tito Santana 2 October 5, 1996 Fort Lauderdale, FL (defeated Bob Orton Jr. to win title)

AWF Tag Team Championship

Wrestler: Times: Date: Place:
Tommy Rich and Greg Valentine 1 May 21, 1995 (defeated Koko B. Ware and Tony Atlas in tournament final)

References


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