International Championship Wrestling was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Lexington, Kentucky , which operated from 1978 until 1984. It was run by Angelo Poffo , the father of Randy Savage and "The Genius" Lanny Poffo . Throughout its history, ICW was considered an "outlaw" promotion, as it was not a member of the National Wrestling Alliance and promoted shows in direct competition against NWA regional territories . The rights to the ICW library are currently owned by WWE .
29-981: Professional wrestling tag team championship ICW United States Tag Team Championship Details Promotion International Championship Wrestling Date established June 14, 1979 Date retired 1984 Statistics First champion(s) Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff Most reigns (As a tag team) Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff (4 reigns) (As individual) Lanny Poffo (6 reigns) Longest reign Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff ( 681 days) Shortest reign The Convertible Blondes( Rip Rogers and Ricky Starr) (3 days) Oldest champion Tojo Yamamoto (55 years, 213 days approximately) Youngest champion Lanny Poffo (24 years, 168 days) Heaviest champion Jeff Sword (290 lb (130 kg)) Lightest champion Ricky Starr (205 lb (93 kg)) The ICW United States Tag Team Championship
58-606: 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
87-419: 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, a new stage was introduced that closer-resembles the stages used by televised events at the time. During
116-408: 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 ,
145-577: A one-night tag team tournament held in Johnson City, Tennessee on January 5, 1982, for the vacant ICW United States Tag Team Championship . House show 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
174-401: 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. The ICW U.S. Tag Team Championship Tournament was
203-1042: Is unrecorded from October 1981 to December 1981. — Vacated December 31, 1981 — — — — Championship vacated, reason undocumented Championship history is unrecorded from December 1981 to May 1982. 9 Rip Rogers and Pez Whatley May 1982 ICW show 1 10 Lanny Poffo (5) and Mike Doggendorf 1982 ICW show 1 11 Tojo Yamamoto and Gypsy Joe 1982 ICW show 1 12 Lanny Poffo (6) and Mike Doggendorf (2) 1983 ICW show 2 13 Tojo Yamamoto and Gypsy Joe 1983 ICW show 2 14 Bart Batten and Johnny Wilhoit 1983 ICW show 1 — Deactivated 1984 — — — — Championship abandoned when ICW closed in 1984. Footnotes [ edit ] ^ Due to gaps in
232-629: 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 (Ed Farhat), Ronnie Garvin , Crusher Broomfield (later known as One Man Gang and Akeem), Bob Orton Jr. , Bob Roop , Rip Rogers , "Pistol" Pez Whatley , Ox Baker , George Weingeroff , and the Devil's Duo (Jeff Sword and Doug Vines) with their manager Izzy Slapawitz . Elizabeth Hulette, who would later gain fame in
261-764: 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
290-463: The WWF and WCW as Miss Elizabeth , got her start in professional wrestling as an on-camera host (using the name "Liz Hulette", as she was known to her friends while growing up) 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
319-527: The Boston-based ICW was renamed International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW). It included such stars as: The Russian Brute, Tom Brandi , Mike Kahula, Tony Rumble , and Nikolai Volkoff . International Championship Wrestling (ICW) is also a lesser known promotion based in Cloverdale, BC . Past wrestlers include Buddy Wayne and Chico Alvarez . International Championship Wrestling held
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#1732883869625348-551: The CWA to join ICW. This, among other issues, would result in a series of lawsuits between Poffo and NWA-affiliated organizations during the late 1970s and early 80s. The main stars of ICW were Poffo's sons Randy (better known as "Macho Man" Randy Savage) and Lanny (better known as "Leaping" Lanny Poffo) who frequently traded the promotion's heavyweight title between each other; in fact only two other men ( Ronnie Garvin and Paul Christy) held
377-558: 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
406-609: 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
435-419: 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
464-490: 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 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
493-588: 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
522-781: The championship history it is impossible to determine this. ^ The location of the match was not captured as part of the championship documentation. ^ The date that the championship was lost has not been found documented which means the title reign lasted between 1 day and 199 days. ^ Neither the date the title was won or lost has been documented, making it too uncertain to determine any length for this reign. References [ edit ] ^ Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4 . ^ Ed Grabianowski. "How Pro Wrestling Works" . How Stuff Works. Archived from
551-399: 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. In 2023, it was reported that WWE had purchased the ICW video library. Paul Christy , the wrestler who had ended Randy Savage's final reign as ICW World Champion, started
580-590: 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
609-434: 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. House shows are also often scripted to make 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
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#1732883869625638-402: 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 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
667-908: The original on November 29, 2013 . Retrieved April 5, 2009 . v t e International Championship Wrestling championships ICW World Heavyweight Championship ICW United States Tag Team Championship ICW United States Heavyweight Championship ICW Television Championship ICW Southeastern Heavyweight Championship ICW Southeastern Tag Team Championship Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ICW_United_States_Tag_Team_Championship&oldid=1095023313 " Categories : International Championship Wrestling championships Tag team wrestling championships United States professional wrestling championships Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata International Championship Wrestling The promotion
696-583: 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
725-1324: The specific champion Days Number of days held No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref. Date Event Location Reign Days 1 Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff June 14, 1979 ICW show Salt Lake City, Utah 1 681 Won a tournament to become the first champions. 2 The Devil's Duo (Jeff Sword and Doug Vines) April 25, 1981 ICW show Lexington, Kentucky 1 141 3 Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff May 14, 1981 ICW show 2 5 4 The Devil's Duo (Jeff Sword and Doug Vines) May 19, 1981 ICW show 2 27 5 Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff June 15, 1981 ICW show Owenton, Kentucky 3 6 The Convertible Blondes ( Rip Rogers and Ricky Starr) July 4, 1981 ICW show 1 7 Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff July 7, 1981 ICW show 4 8 The Devil's Duo (Jeff Sword and Doug Vines) October 10, 1981 ICW show Symsonia, Kentucky 3 Championship history
754-532: 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
783-408: 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 the promotion's flagship venues. Prior to the 1980s, these were house shows, though with
812-501: Was founded in 1978 as a rival to Ron Fuller 's Southeastern Championship Wrestling and Nick Gulas 's NWA 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
841-588: Was the top tag team championship in International Championship Wrestling . Because the championship is a professional wrestling championship, it is not won or lost competitively but instead by the decision of the bookers of a wrestling promotion. The championship is awarded after the chosen team "wins" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport. Title history [ edit ] Key No. Overall reign number Reign Reign number for
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