International World Class Championship Wrestling International World Class Championship Wrestling ( IWCCW ) was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Boston , Massachusetts . It was promoted by Angelo Savoldi and his sons Mario , Tom , and Joseph Savoldi . An independent wrestling promotion in the 1980s , International World Class Championship Wrestling held interpromotional events with the Puerto Rican - based World Wrestling Council , the American Wrestling Association and World Class Championship Wrestling . Many of its former roster would later find success in the World Wrestling Federation , World Championship Wrestling , Extreme Championship Wrestling and elsewhere during the 1990s . History . ICW : 1984 - 1991 . Originally known as International Championship Wrestling ( not to be confused with the similarly - named ICW promotion run by Angelo Poffo between 1978 and 1984 ) , the promotion started holding events the Boston area sometime around 1984 or 1985 . Initially ICW was affiliated with the Puerto Rico - based World Wrestling Council , recognizing the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship and the WWC Tag Team Championship as the top championships in the promotion . The titles were never clearly named as “ WWC ” titles on ICW television , nor were they presented as being owned by ICW . On February 27 , 1985 , Dory Funk , Jr . defeated Carlos Colón for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Title in Bangor , Maine . It marked the first time that the WWC Universal Title changed hands outside of Puerto Rico . During the time WWC and ICW had a working relationship talent from both federations travelled to the other federation to compete . The working relationship brought such superstars as Abdullah the Butcher , the Invaders and Hercules Ayala to the New England Area . Angelo Savoldi ’ s grandson ” Jumping ” Joe Savoldi won the WWC Tag - Team Championship alongside Al Perez ( known as the New York Rockers ) on January 6 , 1985 when they beat Super Medico I and Black Gorman . Sometime in 1985 the working relation between ICW and WWC ended , which lead to ICW creating both a Heavyweight and a tag - team title with their own names on them in 1985 - 86 . ICW next worked out another working relationship with Championship Wrestling from Florida which saw several Florida stars come to ICW such as Kevin Sullivan ( who also acted as a booker for ICW ) as well as top stars Blackjack Mulligan , Mark Lewin , Austin Idol and The Russian Brute , George Petraski and Bruiser Brody . ICW also had a history of working with the American Wrestling Association , promoting joint cards in New England as well as AWA talent appearing on ICW shows from time to time . The ICW would expand beyond New England and produced cards in New Jersey , Pennsylvania and New York State . In the late 80 ' s and early 90 ' s , ICW cards occurred in towns like Harrisburgh , Middletown and Monticello , NY . This model was differentiated ICW from other regional federations , in that ICW was a very large territory that didn ' t have one town or city to act as its local base . So while the company had a presence in a wide area , it never got that strong local following of World Class , the PNW or the USWA . Over the years ICW established a kind of “ open door ” policy , working with any federation or any individual competitor who was interested in working in the federation ; this open door policy even saw the Japanese Frontier Martial - Arts Wrestling Brass Knuckles Champion Atsushi Onita challenge the ICW Heavyweight champion Tony Atlas to a Title Vs Title Match . Onita lost the match by Disqualification to keep the titles separate . Around 1989 - 90 ICW began using more “ kid oriented ” gimmicks like “ Super Duper Mario ” ( a wrestling version of Super Mario ) as well as Curly Moe , the Equalizers : Zip , Zap and Zoom and even had a “ Teen Report ” segment hosted by kids . IWCCW : 1991 - 1995 . In 1991 , the promotion entered into a working agreement with Kevin Von Erich to use the World Class Championship Wrestling name . Von Erich had sold the WCCW territory to Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler in 1989 but retained the rights to the World Class name ( which is why Jarrett and Lawler created the United States Wrestling Association ) . Since there was no real “ home promotion ” of WCCW the “ merger ” was only really felt in ICW and mainly as a way to re - brand the federation so that it did not have the same name as Angelo Poffo ’ s old ICW territory . Due to this working agreement , ICW changed the name of the promotion to International World Class Championship Wrestling ( IWCCW ) , using the same opening sequence as WCCW did in the 1980s , with Earth from the Apollo 16 mission in the background . Kevin Von Erich had won the WCCW Texas Title and appeared in several promos with the belt to announce the merger of the two federations . Kevin was billed as the “ World Class ” champion . The idea was that down the road the two champions ( Tony Atlas and Kevin Von Erich ) would meet to create an IWCCW title . Kevin appeared a couple of times in New England , wrestling at 2 or 3 TV tapings . He participated in a memorable interview with wrestler Tony Rumble , aka " The Boston Bad Boy " . During that interview , Rumble berated the Von Erichs , and Kevin in return ran Rumble out of the studio when he signalled for the iron claw . Another World Class mainstay , Chris Adams , was to have been a part of IWCCW , but was not able to join the federation due to his legal troubles . After a short while Kevin Von Erich returned to Texas , effectively ending any plans to merge the two titles , but the name was kept . The IWCCW name lasted until the promotion closed down in 1995 . A video series , " All Star American Wrestling " ' was released during 1992 and 1993 which featured matches from IWCCW . In early 1993 however , many of its longtime veterans left the promotion to join the newly formed Century Wrestling Alliance ( the present day NWA Cold Front ) promoted by former manager and booker Tony Rumble . Among those jumping to Rumble ' s promotion included then Heavyweight Champion Tony Atlas , Light heavyweight champion Joe Savoldi and Tag Team champions the Billion Dollar Babies , leaving many of its titles vacant . IWCCW began to decline as its events were held irregularly throughout 1994 and early 1995 . Despite a short lived revival in 1995 that saw former WWF stars such as Tito Santana and Koko B . Ware hold the IWCCW title , the promotion folded in the latter part of 1995 . Mario Savoldi kept promoting cards in the New England area after the demise of ICW / IWCCW . In 1999 Savoldi was involved in a promotion called Ultimate Professional Wrestling ( not to be mistaken for Ultimate Pro Wrestling ) which continued IWCCW ’ s tradition of mixing current wrestling with classic matches on their TV shows . UPW ' s website claims to be a direct continuation of ICW . ICW / IWCCW Television . Despite being a small promotion that mainly toured in the New England area ICW / IWCCW had a nationally syndicated show from its inception . The show , simply called " International Championship Wrestling " was even seen on Satellite channels in the United Kingdom . The ICW shows usually featured a combination of original ICW / IWCCW footage and repeats of footage from other territories such as WWC , Florida Wrestling , Memphis , the National Wrestling Alliance and vintage footage of the World Wrestling Federation . From around 1990 and on ICW Television often repeated old ICW matches , sometimes presenting them as brand new , other times repeating the same match for weeks in a row – Vic Steamboat ’ s title victory over Tony Atlas and Joe Savoldi beating the Tasmaniac for the IWCCW Lightheavyweight title were two of the matches that were shown repeatedly . IWCCW ’ s “ Revolving door ” policy often meant that events would be hyped on Television but never actually happened in real life , the best example of this was an angle between ” Ravishing ” Rick Rude and the Honky Tonk Man over who was the best Intercontinental champion of all times . Vignettes were aired for months on end but neither Rude nor the Honky Tonk Man ever worked in an ICW ring to settle the issue . In addition to its television series , IWCCW owns the rights to WCCW footage produced following its buyout by promoter Jerry Jarrett in 1988 and includes the video libraries of USWA Dallas , Wild West Wrestling and the Global Wrestling Federation , and IWCCW remains one of the few North American regional promotions whose collection is not owned by the World Wrestling Entertainment video library . During the late 1990s , the Savoldi family released several low cost DVD series including " Classic Superstars of Wrestling " which includes early matches from Steve Austin , Mick Foley and Booker T . Stars of the future . IWCCW gave many future superstars their first breaks in wrestling and their first television exposure . The federation was in many ways the breeding ground for future Eastern Championship Wrestling ( later “ Extreme Championship Wrestling ” ) performers due to the fact that Paul Heyman worked for the company as head booker in late 1989 and early 1990 and got to know quite a few of the people involved , such as Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge who both competed in IWCCW under different gimmicks . Rocco Rock was a masked high flier known as “ the Cheeta Kid ” while Johnny Grunge worked both as “ Johnny Rotten ” and “ Equalizer Zap ” . Heyman would repackage both men as The Public Enemy . Peter Senerchia , a former IWCCW Light Heavyweight Champion who had been wrestling in the promotion as The Tasmaniac , agreed to appear at an IWCCW taping in Worcester , Massachusetts in 1990 . However , after a disagreement between him and promoters Mario and Tom Savoldi , he left the promotion and eventually began competing in Eastern Championship Wrestling during the early 1990s . Val Puccio had a brief run in ECW as “ Big ” Val Puccio . Dudley Family member Dances with Dudley worked in IWCCW as a member of the “ Sioux War Party ” known as Dancing Wolf . Another Dudley Family member , Big Dick Dudley , also worked in IWCCW under the gimmick “ Alexander the Great ” IWCCW mainstay Mondo Kleen is one of the few stars to be signed by the World Wrestling Federation directly . Mondo was repackaged as " Damien Demento ” in the WWF .