Global Wrestling Federation

Global Wrestling Federation was a professional wrestling promotion based in Dallas, Texas. It started in June 1991 and folded in September 1994. At one time its shows were presented on the ESPN television network.

Brief history

Max Andrews & Texas attorney Grey Pierson were the promoters and automobile dealer Joe Pedicino (locally known as "Joe Greed", the advertising mascot of Pedicino's Westway Ford in Irving) was the booker. Grey Pierson is the son of Don Pierson, the founder of Wonderful Radio London, Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio and two freeport ventures, one in Haiti and the other in Dominica in which his son also participated.

The GWF began airing weekly shows in the local Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex television market from the Dallas Sportatorium, which was billed for a short time as The GlobalDome. The promotion's announcers were Craig Johnson, Scott Hudson and Joe Pedicino, with Boni Blackstone as ringside interviewer. By 1992, the GWF began promoting exclusively under Pierson, and many former World Class Championship Wrestling stars began appearing, including Chris Adams, Kerry Von Erich and Iceman Parsons, among others. Doyle King, David Webb and other guest announcers (including former World Class announcers Bill Mercer and Marc Lowrance) were brought introduced as the show became more of a theatrical presentation.

The local television shows boasted that it was also being aired over a fictitious global television network as Pierson persuaded many of his friends and associates to don the garb of equally fictitious and bizarre characters. In one of its more interesting angles, GWF hired a "psychiatrist" as a valet. The "psychiatrist" was actually Dr. Allan Saxe, a political science professor at the nearby University of Texas at Arlington.

Other strange angles at that time included a "moon rock" match in which Steven Dane wrestled against Mike Davis in a scaffold match outside the Sportatorium; and another weird angle in which announcer David Webb, having "amnesia" following an attack by Manny Fernandez, believed that he was Elvis Presley (who performed at the Sportatorium in the late-1950s).

The shows were also presented in an abbreviated and more serious format for a brief time over the ESPN television network.

Kerry Von Erich

In 1993, a memorial wrestling card was held in memory of Kerry Von Erich, who committed suicide on February 18th. Von Erich previously was to have faced the Angel of Death that day. Instead, a memorial service was held at the Sportatorium prior to the matches, with former World Class announcer Marc Lowrance making a special appearance to pay his tributes to Kerry (Lowrance was the ring announcer who called Von Erich's NWA World title victory over Ric Flair in 1984). The following April, a memorial tribute card was held, featuring many former World Class wrestlers, referees and other officials. In that card, the main event was the official last match between the Freebirds and the Von Erichs. Kevin Von Erich and Chris Adams faced Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts, with Skandor Akbar in Hayes and Roberts' corner, and Fritz Von Erich in Chris and Kevin's corner (his last appearance in a professional wrestling match). The match ended with Kevin applying the claw on Roberts for the win, while Fritz applied the iron claw on Skandor Akbar. Adams meanwhile was ganged up by Hayes and Rod Price when The Angel of Death came in to save Adams. Sid Vicious also competed on the memorial card. Proceeds of this card went to a trust fund established for Kerry's daughters Hollie Adkisson and Lacey Adkisson.

Afterwards, the federation centered mostly on Adams, who again ran his wrestling school and was working a feud with both Price and Iceman Parsons. During one match, Adams accidentally tore the hair weave off the hair of Price, resulting in stitches on his head. A renewed feud between Adams and Jimmy Garvin took place, but the closing of the GWF on September 21, 1994, ended any prospects of a long angle between the two former rivals.

After the GWF folded, promoter Jim Crockett brought the NWA back to the Sportatorium for a tenure lasting less than a year. After several other attempts to keep wrestling going, the Sportatorium was demolished in 2003.

GWF Wrestlers and Personalities

GWF Titles

Trivia

The GWF was the last pro wrestling promotion to be seen on ESPN regularly. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the network would begin to emphasize talk shows in the mid-afternoon hours, supplanting pro wrestling. The sale of 80 percent of ESPN to the Walt Disney Company in 1995 (Hearst owns the other 20 percent) may also have been a factor.

External links

GWF Title Histories: http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tx/gwf/
GWF Info Page: http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/promotions/gwf.html
Solie.org GWF Title Histories: http://solie.org/titlehistories/gwf.html

Professional wrestling promotions | 1991 establishments | 1994 disestablishments