GCW Wiki

## Welcome to the GCW Wiki

Welcome to the GCW wiki! Here you can learn about the history of GCW, its board, and its active performers both in the ring and out of it. GCW is a promo-based e-fed located at www.s15.zetaboards.com/GCWrestling/index/

## Global Championship Wrestling

### (1986-2001)

GCW was founded by semi-retired wrestler Jeremiah Taft in 1986, originally
the company was based out of Brooklyn, New York but Jeremiah soon realized that
there was to many competitors in the city and decided to move operations to Long Island, New York the following year. There the company would stay for the
next decade plus bringing in decent profits every year but not doing anything special.

### (2001-2007)

Everything changed in 2001 when a new rookie burst onto the scene named Johnny Evergreen. He quickly rose through the ranks and became the GCW Heavyweight Champion in 2002. He put Global Championship Wrestling on the national scene and when his contract was up in late 2003 he received many offers from all around the world, Taft knew that he couldn’t pay the same amount of money as other companies but offered Evergreen a 4 year contract, longer than the other companies were willing to offer at the time while offering to pay nearly as much money, Evergreen took the deal and with the resigning Global Championship Wrestling was able to secure a National Television Deal. While it may not have been on the best channel or time slot, it was still national television. Evergreen would hold the GCW Heavyweight Championship on two more occasions, including the longest reign in GCW history that spanned from mid-2005 until New Years Eve of 2007. Around the same time as Evergreens historic reign a new rookie joined the GCW roster straight out of college, that man’s name was Chad Bowens. Chad Bowens made his GCW debut in May of 2007 and was immediately suspected to be the heir apparent to Johnny Evergreen as Evergreens price tag was now far beyond what GCW could afford to pay him. The two men hit it off backstage however as Evergreen knew that he
would soon be passing the torch to Bowens. Evergreen taught Bowens how to carry himself as the flag bearer of the company. This culminated in a match between
the two men on New Year’s Eve in 2007 where Chad Bowens defeated Johnny Evergreen to win his first GCW Heavyweight Championship, the following day Evergreen was gone from the company for good.

### (2008-2015)

Starting in 2008 Chad took on a similar role that Evergreen had before him and played his part well, while Evergreen was a squeaky clean babyface, Chad played the role as more of a tweener and was a very polarizing figure, some people loved him for that while some hated him, but business was doing very well. By the time he left GCW officially Bowens held the GCW Heavyweight Championship a record 5 times to go along with 2 tag team championship reigns, Taft knew that Bowens would probably be leaving at the end of his initial 4-year contract so he did what he had done before and tried to build up a new star in young upstart Lafron. The two men had an all-time great GCW feud with Chad barely sneaking out wins, sometimes by DQ, sometimes by outside interference. But by the time Chads contract was up in mid-2011 it was time for a new flag bearer in GCW and Lafron beat Chad Bowens clean in a match that was set up as Lafrons last opportunity at the GCW Heavyweight Championship. The following day Chad Bowens became a free agent; however, he didn’t sign anywhere immediately, he took a break to watch the wrestling scene evolve. He saw that the ratings in GCW were down even though Lafron was at the top of his game, it’s just that there was no real challenger lined up to face Lafron. Chad saw that and agreed to resign with GCW until the end of the year for a large pay cut to help get GCW out of its rut and the planned work. Lafron threw down an open challenge in early October for his GCW Heavyweight Championship and it was answered by Chad Bowens, news spread fast and the segment was the highest of that year by far. The two had a classic match and Chad regained his championship for a record 5th reign. By the time the year was coming to a close new stars were being built and it was time to once again pass the torch, exactly 4 years to the day that Chad Bowens beat Johnny Evergreen in Evergreens last match in GCW to win the GCW Heavyweight Championship, Lafron beat Chad Bowens in Bowens last match in GCW to win the GCW Heavyweight Championship.Soon after Bowens joined his friend Evergreen in a different promotion. All eyes were now on Lafron but not many people knew what was going on behind the scenes as Evergreen was talking to the higher ups about bringing in Lafron in April of that year which they did. Lafron gave a months’ notice to Taft who was stunned. Lafron immediately dropped the championship and was taken off TV until his contract ran out. Global Championship Wrestling’s ratings soon plummeted and was quickly out of the proper funds to keep the operation going and Taft’s worsening health didn’t help this. Taft, however, was a showman and during the last real show of GCW’s first run in 2014, Taft got into the ring and wrestled in the main event, it might have been in a tag team match and only lasted 5 minutes but Taft received a standing ovation for his efforts after the match GCW would try to continue in 2014 but after Taft was assaulted by former talent Chad Bowens it was impossible for GCW to continue operating. However, many of the talent was still owed to be paid for the remainder of their contracts, with hospital bills rising Taft had no choice but to shut down the company in early 2015.

### (2017-Present)

In early 2017 Chad Bowens made his way out to Jeremiah Taft’s house to reconcile the duos relationship, being a father and accepting his flaws from the past he sincerely apologized for his past actions and Taft surprisingly accepted his apology, Bowens then offered to pay for all of his hospital bills which surprised Taft but he gladly accepted. The two stayed in contact for several months and then Chad had an idea. To buy the Global Championship Wrestling name from Taft, this so Chad could fulfill his dream of running a wrestling company while allowing Taft to retire peacefully without having any money problems. The duo worked out the numbers and Chad found the price to do all of this was a bit high, especially as a new father. Chad contacted two former GCW Heavyweight Champion who happened to be amongst his best friends in the world, John Evergreen and Lafron. The two liked the idea and agreed to split the cost of the company three ways and agreed to purchase the company. The transaction was completed on April 29th, 2017. The deal stated that Jeremiah Taft would stay on board as the Chairman of the Board, Chad Bowens would take over as CEO and Head of Talent Relations, John Evergreen would take over as COO and General Manager of the new show Wednesday Night Lightning, and Lafron would take over as CFO and Head of Talent Development. The trio quickly signed a decent sized roster and retained some classic names that any fans of GCW would be able to name like ring announcer Jerry Gerard, referee Chuck Alfred, and play-by-play man Ryan Derekson. The transaction was announced to the public on May 5th, 2017 during a press conference at John Evergreens wrestling school the John Evergreen Wrestling Academy (JEWA). It was there that it was announced that a tournament would take place to determine the new GCW
Heavyweight Champion at the first GCW Pay-Per-View “First Blood: Don't Call It A Comeback". The first round of the tournament took place on the first episode of Lightning which aired on May 10th, 2017. At "First Blood: Don't Call It A Comeback" the very first GCW Legacy Champion, Kevin Smith, was crowned and Calvin Radcliffe won the 20 person tournament to be awarded with the GCW Heavyweight Championship. Radcliffe held this championship until July 26th, 2017 at Boom or Bust when he was defeated by Mace Douglas. GCW was turned on it's head on September 27th, 2017. That night Joshua Ryan defeated Kevin Smith to become the 2nd GCW Legacy Champion ever but then just moments later fan favorite Mr. Love cashed in his Boom or Bust briefcase and walked out of Las Vegas the GCW Legacy Champion. In the next match, the main event, GCW Heavyweight Champion Mace Douglas put another competitor on the shelf when he injured Hamish and retained his GCW Heavyweight Championship. Hamish joined Calvin Radcliffe as men injured in championship matches by Mace Douglas. Right after that match Jonathan Evergreen turned his back on best friend Chad Bowens when he brutally attacked him and left him bloodied backstage and announced that Chad's brother Tony would be Jon's new assistant. On the 18th episode of Lightning Joshua Ryan was able to defeat Mr. Love (thanks to help from Danny Hall) to become the first ever multiple time champion in the new GCW.

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