The promotion was founded in 1978 as a rival to Ron Fuller's Southeastern Championship Wrestling and Nick GulasNWA 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 as well, operating in their territories and even managed to get several wrestlers to leave Southeastern and the CWA to join ICW. This, among other issues, would result in a series of lawsuits between Poffo and other NWA-affiliated organizations during the late 1970s and early 80s. The main stars of ICW were Poffo's sons Randy and Lanny who frequently traded the promotion's heavyweight title between each other; in fact only two other men 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, Ronnie Garvin, Crusher Broomfield, Bob Orton, Jr., Bob Roop, Rip Rogers, "Pistol" Pez Whatley, Ox Baker, George Weingeroff, and the Devil's Duo 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 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
, 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. It included such stars as: The Russian Brute, Tom Brandi, Mike Kahula, Tony Rumble, and Nikolai Volkoff. International Championship Wrestling is also a lesser known promotion based in Cloverdale, BC. Past wrestlers include Buddy Wayne, and Chico Alvarez.
Tournaments
International Championship Wrestling held a variety of professional wrestling tournaments between 1980 and 1982 that were competed for by wrestlers that were a part of their roster.
The ICW Television Championship Tournament was a single-elimination tournament to crown the first-ever ICW Television Champion. It was held in the fall, with the finals occurring on September 9, 1980.
