Absolute Championship Wrestling

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Revision as of 02:54, 28 May 2009

Absolute Championship Wrestling
Details
Acronym	ACW
Established	1997 - present
Location	Painesdale, Michigan, United States of America Castellon, Valencia, Spain
Website	www.AbsoluteWrestling.net
Video Pages	YouTube LiveVideo LiveStream BYWTube Blip.tv Revver Yahoo! Video Veoh

Absolute Championship Wrestling is a wrestling group founded in 1997. It is located in Painesdale, Michigan, United States of America and Castellon, Valencia, Spain.

History

Absolute Championship Wrestling (ACW) can trace its roots back to an early federation in the mid-90's called Global Wrestling Federation (GWF). But ACW doesn't consider its birth until the summer of 1997 when GWF became known as the National Wrestling Federation (NWF). This is when their wrestling became more organized and they became more serious about their wrestling.

For many years NWF competed and existed with little to no communication with wrestling groups. A part of this was due to the lack of population in their home territory which is the upper peninsula of Michigan, so there were not any other competing wrestling groups in that part of the state. Also at that time the internet was not a big part the area as it is now. So this isolation is what essentially made the NWF, now ACW, develop its unique style of character driven storylines and production values.

As opposed to other wrestling groups, each NWF wrestler portrayed a cast of characters. This was done to establish a full roster that would allow for creativity in story line writing. But this also meant each wrestler could wrestle up to 5 times a night. That amount of wrestling seemed to establish dedication and pride in the wrestlers for what they are doing. So despite having at times a small roster, NWF, now ACW, has never called it quits.

A little less than a decade long as the NWF, it officially changed its name in the middle of 2006 to Absolute Championship Wrestling. They cited the name change due to multiple other National Wrestling Federations existing and wanting a unique name to match their unique wrestling. Soon after this name change, ACW began converting their old tapes of recorded material into digital format and established a YouTube account on September 1st of 2006. And soon after that ACW was contacted by Cam of Global Backyard Wrestling News (GBYWN) and became part of the restarting process of GBYWN.

In February of 2009, ACW expanded in a way it had not predicted. Two brothers, Fernando and Francis Morante, of HWA Spain approached ACW with an offer of becoming ACW Spain and expanding ACW into Spain. The existing wrestlers of ACW watched the wrestling matches of HWA Spain and were immediately impressed with the heart and talent the Spanish wrestlers showed. So on the 21st of February, ACW made it official that it had expanded into Spain. Since the expansion ACW has made it a de-facto policy that the wrestlers in Spain should not be considered a separate group, despite being referred to at times as ACW Spain and having separate championships, but as part of the main group who happen to be in Spain. One effect of this policy is that wrestling matches coming from Spain aren't labeled as ACW Spain but simply ACW, and are uploaded on the same accounts as the American videos. It was the intention of ACW to keep its identity as a unified group, rather than separate groups that are only linked by a name.

Then in March of 2009, ACW participated in its first supershow, Salt Lake Spring Break Showdown. It competed against other federations such as New Generation Wrestling (NGW), Lewiston Wrestling Federation (LWF), Battle Born Wrestling (BBW) and Championship Battleground Wrestling (CBW). The show was held in Salt Lake City, Utah then later in the week, Las Vegas, Nevada. It marked the first time ACW competed in two west coast states, Utah and Nevada.

YouShoot

ACW has made semi-regular contact with the world of professional wrestling through Kayfabe Commentary�s YouShoot. YouShoot is a regular DVD series produced by Kayfabe Commentaries (KC) where they get people in wrestling to answer no-holds-barred questions about anything from questions submitted by the public. KC encourages the public to submit videos, but also accepts questions via e-mail. It is hosted by Sean Oliver and frequently has wrestling personalities that have worked for KC in the past.

Honky Tonk Man

"YouShoot: The Honky Tonk Man" which has Hypnosis and Loco imaged on the cover

The first ever YouShoot featured former professional wrestler, and current trainer, the Honky Tonk Man (HTM). Two ACW characters, Hypnosis and Loco, are featured in the chapter �Pain & Fear� which is the longest chapter on the DVD.

In Loco�s video, he criticized Honky Tonk Man�s complaints about wrestlers who hurt him, and Loco boasted that he hurt many wrestlers himself. This is what the Honky Tonk Man had to say about Loco on the DVD: �You say you have injured a bunch of wrestlers. Well you have put them out of work�!�, �You�re bragging about [censored] wrestlers up, sounds like Bill Goldberg to me��, and �Loco you should be in matches with Bret Hart�� And since it has been posted on YouTube, fans of Honky Tonk Man have had worse to say about Loco. The general reception has been that Loco was making a legitimate shoot on HTM and has been so far the most heated contact ACW has had with the professional wrestling world.

Hypnosis dug into Honky Tonk Man�s past and criticized him for his praise of Hulk Hogan and his feud with Jerry Lawler in his video. Honky Tonk Man responded to Hypnosis�s Hulk Hogan comments with this: �I have never stooged for Hulkamania. I am probably one of the foremost critics of Hulkamania. Not with Hulkamania�s ability to change the business, the ability to sell tickets, or to be one of the most recognizable characters in the world.� And then he tries explaining why his feud with Jerry Lawler was real by telling a lengthy story on how Jerry Lawler, and possibly Jim Ross, was jealous about his commentary skills. This video was much less controversial than Loco�s and has received some positive comments on YouTube.

Missy Hyatt

The next YouShoot ACW took part in involved the former valet Missy Hyatt. This time Hung Lo and Valor Valancy sent in videos.

Hung Lo made an offer to Missy Hyatt to join �Team Hung Lo� in his video. Missy Hyatt�s response didn�t directly answer his question but included her feeling herself and the words �Hung Lo� Come on baby!�, �Looks like he is in my basement��, and �If I get home tonight and that is in my basement, I�m going to be really upset, because I got my stripper-pole getting put in tonight.� This video had the opposite reception of Loco�s and has overwhelmingly positive responses on YouTube.

Valor Valancy in his video, warned Missy Hyatt against joining Team Hung Lo and that he had a �rat trap� to catch her if she joined with Hung Lo. But unfortunately it didn�t meet the deadline to make the DVD. It can still be viewed on the ACW website as well as its video pages though.

Kevin Sullivan

A former character in ACW, the Lethal Licker, returned with his �woman� to participate in a YouShoot with a former wrestler, Kevin Sullivan. Leathal Licker commented Kevin Sullivan�s retirement in Florida and Sullivan�s departure from the �dark side� while making licking actions with his �woman�. In response, Kevin Sullivan described his religions experiences and his philosophies on faith. After the DVD, the Leathal Licker thanked Kevin Sullivan for his in depth and respectful response.

External links

• Official ACW Website
• ACW on MySpace
• ACW on deviantART
• ACW on YouTube
• ACW on LiveVideo
• ACW on LiveStream
• ACW on BYWTube
• ACW on Blip.tv
• ACW on Revver
• ACW on Yahoo! Video
• ACW on Veoh