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56-397: Professional wrestling championship Pacific Coast Middleweight Championship [REDACTED] Details Promotion Pacific Northwest Date established July 1920 Statistics First champion(s) Ted Thye Final champion(s) Pat O'Dowdy The Pacific Coast Middleweight Championship was

112-487: A professional wrestling championship that was contended for in the Pacific Northwest from the 1920s to the late 1930s. Title history [ edit ] Key Symbol Meaning No. The overall championship reign Reign The reign number for the specific wrestler listed. Event The event in which the championship changed hands N/A The specific information

168-606: 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

224-578: A bowling alley at 8725 North Chautauqua Boulevard in North Portland , which became the Portland Sports Arena and the new home of Portland Wrestling. The Portland Sports Arena building is still in use as part of a church and is located here: 45°35′09″N 122°42′30″W  /  45.58583°N 122.70833°W  / 45.58583; -122.70833  ( Portland Sports Arena ) . The 1970s continued to be good to Portland Wrestling, with

280-464: A former supermarket building next door which was used by Barr for the flea market he ran, were eventually acquired by a local church. Sandy Barr continued promoting wrestling in the Pacific Northwest under the company names of Championship Wrestling USA and IGA Wrestling. Barr created new titles for the promotion and abandoned the previous titles. As Barr faced challenges when dealing with

336-497: A honest, well-paying promoter drew a more national level of talent to the PNW territory. As the roster grew, so did the number of shows: in addition to Sports Arena tapings and regular weekly stops in Eugene, Oregon and Salem, Oregon , it was not uncommon for the territory to run spot-shows every night of the week. For several years during the 1970s and 1980s, PNW's Portland Wrestling program

392-536: A hot commodity during the 1980s. In 1982, Elton Owen, who had continued working in the family business as his brother Don's right-hand man, retired. Elton died a short time later. Don's son Barry Owen began promoting in Washington. He would then take over promoting the weekly Friday night shows in Eugene as well as spot shows, eventually promoting most of the shows which had previously been promoted by Elton. Frank Bonnema

448-399: 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

504-625: A local radio station, and created the new Portland Wrestling. They ran shows at the Aladdin Theater in Portland and later a flea market near Portland Meadows . Their biggest success came in November 1997 when former University of Oregon football player Josh Wilcox made his pro debut in front of a crowd of over 700 fans. The physical belt that was used as the NWA Pacific Northwest title

560-699: 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

616-468: A television program entitled Portland Wrestling Uncut . This program also originated on KPTV, though it would later move to another Portland television station. Pacific Northwest Wrestling started in the early 1920s when a former world middleweight and world light-heavyweight (Australian version) wrestling champion by the name of Ted Thye came to Portland with plans to promote both boxing and wrestling . Thye hired Herb Owen as his assistant. While Thye

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672-450: Is not known — Used for vacated reigns in order to not count it as an official reign [Note #] Indicates that the exact length of the title reign is unknown, with a note providing more details. # Wrestler Reign Date Days held Location Event Notes Ref. 1 Ted Thye 1 July 1920 Portland, Oregon House show Defeated Henry Irslinger to become

728-465: Is reported to have married his first wife in the ring before a match in Eugene, Oregon . In 1942, following his death, Herb's son Don took over the company. In 1944, Don Owen promoted several cards with women wrestlers, until female wrestling was outlawed in Oregon (as it would be until 1975). The National Wrestling Alliance was formed in 1948 with Don Owen as one of the founding members. This started

784-764: 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

840-474: 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

896-469: The Don Owen promotion, the new incarnation of Portland Wrestling was not an NWA member. Due to legal problems the company's owner encountered, the promotion was forced to close down in 2007 and the owner sold his ownership rights to former announcer Don Coss. Coss, in conjunction with Roddy Piper , one of Owen's biggest latter-day stars and a Portland-area resident, launched a new promotion in 2012 centered on

952-641: The East and West coasts. In 1978, Rose was the United States Champion for Roy Shire Promotions in the San Francisco Bay area . As a team, he and Ed Wiskoski became NWA World Tag Team Champions , defending title matches up and down the West Coast for Don Owen, Roy Shire and Los Angeles promoter Mike LeBell. Beginning in the late 1970s, Rose feuded with Rowdy Roddy Piper in a multi-year-long angle, with

1008-719: The Oregon state athletic commission similar to what Owen faced, he decided to move the promotion across the Columbia River to Vancouver, Washington . Barr purchased late night airtime on local television station KOIN for a couple of years, but was never given a stable timeslot. Barr would continue to run weekly shows until shortly before his death on June 2, 2007. In 1996, Matt Borne became booker of CWUSA and crowds began to rise. Sandy Barr abruptly closed Championship Wrestling USA in 1997. The remaining weeks of television that had been purchased on KOIN were filled with programs from 1993. Matt Borne joined up with Ivan Kafoury, who owned

1064-558: 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

1120-609: 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

1176-822: The World Champions of both the NWA and AWA and the World Tag Team Champions of the AWA all defending their titles. With this card, PNW accomplished something the WWF/WWE had yet to achieve: a sold-out Coliseum. Barry Owen claimed that this event had the highest attendance ever for a sporting event at the Coliseum. The show saw the final match in the Buddy Rose-Roddy Piper angle as its main event, just weeks after both men appeared at

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1232-405: The accounting department as a controller. This event came as a surprise to Don Coss who, in light of Culbertson's criminal charges, has expressed uncertainty on the future of Portland Wrestling . 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

1288-416: The addition of such superstars as Buddy Rose , Matt Borne , Ed Wiskowski , Roddy Piper , Jesse Ventura , Lonnie Mayne, Jimmy Snuka and Stan Stasiak . In 1976, Dutch Savage bought into Don Owen Sports and began promoting PNW cards in the state of Washington. The Owens' promotion faced opposition from several "outlaw promotions" throughout the 1970s, but remained strong. Eventually Owen's reputation as

1344-419: 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

1400-465: The beginning of what became known as NWA Pacific Northwest (Portland Wrestling). On July 10, 1953, Don Owen started what was the first regular professional wrestling program on television. Pacific Northwest Wrestling aired a weekly 60 minute live program originally called Heidelberg Wrestling , named for its sponsor, Heidelberg Brewing Co. of Tacoma, Washington . The show was initially broadcast on KPTV , but moved to rival KOIN-TV in 1955. Along with

1456-588: 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

1512-469: The company from the Owen family in 1992 and continued the tradition of professional wrestling in the Pacific Northwest under the name "Championship Wrestling USA." A new wrestling promotion emerged in 2000, calling itself "Portland Wrestling" and claiming to be a restart of the original Pacific Northwest/Portland Wrestling. It stressed a title lineage (through Len Denton ) to the old NWA PNW Championships . Unlike

1568-484: The company. Others such as Roddy Piper, King Parsons , Matt Borne , "Gentleman" Chris Adams , Rip Oliver , Buddy Rose, David Schultz , and others competed regularly. Owen had a working relationship with Jack Adkisson 's World Class Championship Wrestling promotion in Dallas, which produced several talent exchanges – the most famous of which was when Adams and Parsons were sent to World Class in 1983. Both men became two of

1624-452: 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. House shows are also often scripted to make

1680-456: The family business, helping set up cards and even stepping into the ring on occasion to box or wrestle. During the early years, Herb brought in boxer Jack Dempsey . According to Barry Owen, Don's son, Dempsey even refereed some wrestling matches for Owen. An unknown to many at the time, George Wagner , worked for Owen early in his career. While in the PNW, Wagner developed the character for which he would become famous, Gorgeous George. Wagner

1736-697: The first champion                     2 Harold Heibert 1 Before 1933 N/A House show     3 Thor Jenson 1 July 12, 1933 120 Eugene, Oregon House show   4 Ois Clingman 1 November 9, 1933 Eugene, Oregon House show                       5 Del Kunkel 1 August 5, 1935 Portland, Oregon House show Defeated Danny McShain to win

Pacific Coast Middleweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-553: The first-ever WrestleMania , Rose in the opening match as the Masked Executioner and Piper in the main event against Hulk Hogan . Piper received a hero's welcome from the capacity crowd and pinned Rose to end their lengthy feud. On January 21, 1986, Portland Wrestling held a followup to the supercard, called Superstar Extravaganza , also at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. The show was limited to NWA talent and

1848-475: The highlight being Rose stealing Piper's kilt and burning it in the Sports Arena's balcony/press row in 1981. Fans watching the match on TV called 911 and firefighters were dispatched to the arena, only to find the building in fine condition when they arrived. (Shows were shot "live to tape" at that time, with little editing and commercials inserted while the program was being shot.) Wrestling on television became

1904-567: The most famous non-Von Erich wrestlers in the promotion's history and became Texas mainstays throughout the rest of their careers. On May 21, 1985, in honor of the Owen family's 60 years of promoting wrestling, a supercard called 60th Anniversary Wrestling Extravaganza was held at the Portland Memorial Coliseum . The show featured representatives from the NWA, the AWA and the WWF , including

1960-411: The move came the show's new name, Portland Wrestling . The 1950s were good to Portland Wrestling, seeing wrestlers such as Ed Francis , Gory Guerrero and Tony Borne come to the territory. During this time, John Harrison "Harry" Elliott, a former Oregon State University wrestling champion, and later the school's wrestling coach, began working for Don Owen as a referee and putting on spot shows in

2016-597: The new owners dropped virtually all local programming from its lineup, due to a decline in fan base. This development occurred at the same time Portland Wrestling was having major difficulties with the Oregon state government, in particular the athletic commission and the Attorney General 's office. On May 10, 2007, Culbertson, who was still running the operations of the promotion, was arraigned on charges of aggravated theft for allegedly embezzling US$ 10,000 from Portland-based Broadway Cab Company, where he had been working in

2072-460: The non-national promotions. By 1987, Don Owen was the last remaining NWA charter member whose territory was still operating. Len Denton, working for Owen, became the first booker for PNW that same year and had a hand in developing younger talent such as Art Barr , Scotty The Body (later Raven), C.W. Bergstrom , Steve Doll and Rex King . Scotty, recognized as a good talker, was eventually used as Coss's wisecracking broadcast partner. However,

2128-705: The opening of Portland Memorial Coliseum in 1961, Don Owen occasionally promoted wrestling cards at the venue, drawing good crowds. On September 17, 1966, Harry Elliott promoted and Don Owen booked one of the biggest matches ever in Seattle, packing out the Seattle Center Coliseum with 15,500 fans to see Lou Thesz wrestle a 60-minute time limit draw against Gene Kiniski . In 1967, Portland Wrestling returned to KPTV. That year, management changed within CBS Television and PNW's regionally broadcast wrestling show

2184-411: 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

2240-583: 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

2296-1565: The reign is too uncertain to calculate. References [ edit ] ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4 . ^ Hoops, Brian (July 12, 2015). "On this day in pro wrestling history (July 12): Gagne, Bruiser & Crusher, Ladd wins Americas title, 1992 Bash with Sting vs. Vader" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online . Retrieved February 11, 2017 . v t e Pacific Northwest Wrestling Championships World Heavyweight Championship Pacific Coast Junior Heavyweight Championship Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Championship Pacific Coast Middleweight Championship NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship NWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship CWUSA Television Championship Key personnel Don Owen Sandy Barr Roddy Piper Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pacific_Coast_Middleweight_Championship&oldid=1066595821 " Categories : Pacific Northwest Wrestling championships National Wrestling Alliance championships Middleweight wrestling championships Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Articles with hCards Pacific Northwest Wrestling Portland Wrestling

Pacific Coast Middleweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-563: The same as the previous titles operated by Don Owen Sports. However, this "Portland Wrestling" was not an NWA member promotion, nor was it directly linked in any way to the original Portland Wrestling. The new Portland Wrestling initially aired on Portland's WB TV network affiliate, KWBP-TV (now KRCW-TV ). Frank Culbertson, Jr. (born ca. 1959), an advertising representative for the station, served first as ringside announcer and later as executive producer. KWBP changed hands in December 2002, and

2408-481: 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,

2464-464: The station had only one live production truck capable of broadcasting in color. Between 1976 and 1985, "Playboy" Buddy Rose became famous for drawing more money than any other wrestler in the history of Portland Wrestling. In 1982 and 1983, Rose wrestled for the WWF , but on his days off he returned to the Northwest and worked one-night stands for Don Owen. Rose was credited with sold-out venues on both

2520-399: The territory's business continued to slide. In 1991, Pacific Northwest Wrestling's main television sponsor ( Tom Peterson 's) declared bankruptcy. Though it was still the Portland television market's highest-rated locally produced show, Portland Wrestling was canceled in December 1991 after airing every week for 38 years. It was the longest-running non-news program on American television at

2576-443: The territory. In 1958, Elliott obtained a contract with CBS Television to broadcast Seattle-based wrestling matches throughout all of Washington and parts of Alaska , British Columbia , California , Colorado , Idaho , Montana , Utah and Wyoming . Elliott promoted these matches, as well as spot matches throughout Washington, Idaho and northeastern Oregon, while Don Owen continued to handle bookings for these matches. After

2632-511: The time of its cancellation and the third-longest-tenured U.S. program overall behind Meet the Press and the CBS Evening News . Don Owen continued to run wrestling shows throughout Oregon and Washington until April 30, 1992, when he retired and sold the entire company, minus the Sports Arena, to Portland Wrestling's referee and future promoter Sandy Barr. The Portland Sports Arena, as well as

2688-532: 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

2744-681: The title, unclear if McShain was the champion or if it was a tournament.                     6 George Wagner 1 1938 Eugene, Oregon House show Defeated Buck Lipscomb to win the title, unclear if Lipscomb was the champion or if it was a tournament.                     7 Pat O'Dowdy 1 Before April 1938 N/A House show     Footnotes [ edit ] ^ The length of

2800-538: Was admitted to Emanuel Hospital on September 25, 1982 after suffering a heart attack. Bonnema would not return to his Portland Wrestling hosting duties, dying ten days later. On October 9, veteran announcer Don Coss, who had filled in as host during this time, officially took over the announcing duties. Coss had previously announced televised wrestling matches in Salem, Oregon over the defunct station KVDO . Wrestlers such as Portland native Billy Jack Haynes appeared for

2856-495: Was dropped which subsequently led to Harry Elliott's retirement in 1968. Frank Bonnema, an on-air personality in KPTV's sports department, took over the announcing duties at that time, serving as the voice of Portland Wrestling until shortly before his untimely death on October 5, 1982 at age 49. Despite losing its regionally broadcast television program in 1967, Portland Wrestling was still doing well. In 1968, Owen bought and renovated

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2912-624: Was forced to close its doors in July 1992. The closure came as a result of a slowdown in professional wrestling during the early 1990s, a declaration of bankruptcy by Portland Wrestling's main television sponsor , and negative fallout from a shift in regulatory emphasis by the Oregon Athletic Commission. The telecasts, which originated on Portland station KPTV , ended in December 1991 and were replaced on KPTV by syndicated WWF programming. Portland Wrestling's referee Sandy Barr purchased

2968-621: Was not as large or as successful as the first supercard. PNW took a number of hits in the late 1980s. Changes to a centralized Oregon Boxing and Wrestling Commission began to affect the industry, through new rules and fines levied at wrestlers and promoters. Additionally, the expansion of the WWF and WCW into national promotions with nationwide television deals ran most local or regional wrestling concerns out of business. This left few territories for younger wrestlers to develop their skills, especially early in their careers, thus leaving very green talent for

3024-436: Was on a trip home to Australia, Owen had the ownership of the company put in his name. Due to rules in effect within the state of Oregon at that time, Owen now had sole rights to sponsor all boxing and wrestling within the state. Herb Owen started out just promoting boxing matches, but soon began promoting wrestling matches as well, focusing on lightweights. During this time, sons Don and Elton Owen began helping their father in

3080-409: Was syndicated to stations throughout the Pacific Northwest in an edited 60-minute version known as Big Time Wrestling . Portland Wrestling was a rather basic television production even by 1970s standards: the program did not air in color until 1972. Even after that, it would occasionally still be produced in black and white if KPTV was airing a Portland Trail Blazers home game on a Saturday night, as

3136-401: Was used at various times by its owner Len Denton before being sold on eBay in 2006. The last title claimant was local wrestling historian and part-time pro wrestler Matt Farmer, who defended the title at local lucha libre shows. In late 2000, wrestling returned to Portland with the opening of Portland Wrestling . This new promotion claimed that its heavyweight and tag team title lineage were

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