Kevin Sullivan, Gangrel, Bill Alfonso Plan To Revive Championship Wrestling From Florida [Update]
[UPDATE 4/28/2023: Wrestling Inc. has been informed that Jeff Weaver McGill has been running shows under the "Championship Wrestling from Florida" moniker since 2021 and has a trademark on file. He has no affiliation with Coastal Championship Wrestling and has no intention of ceding any potential trademark to them.]
Coastal Championship Wrestling has begun pre-production on reviving Championship Wrestling from Florida, with former WCW star Kevin Sullivan at the helm of affairs.
"PWInsider" has reported that Kevin Sullivan, whose "Army of Darkness" caused chaos in the CWF, will serve as executive producer and creative director of the promotion. "The ownership at CCW, and the team we have here, are the spiritual successors to what we have created here in Florida with Gordon Solie, Dusty Rhodes, and the countless others who made Championship Wrestling from Florida what I believe to be the greatest territory in professional wrestling history," said Sullivan to PWInsider.
Dave "Gangrel" Heath and Bill "Fonzie" Alfonso will serve as producers, and Heath will be head of talent relations while Alfonso will handle media relations. Filming of the CWF series is scheduled to begin in May with CWF-branded events to follow in July.
The original incarnation of CWF was opened in 1949 by "Cowboy" Clarence Preston Luttrall, and by 1971, Eddie Graham took over due to Luttrall's health issues. After Graham's death in January 1985, the promotion tried to continue on but continually lost money and eventually merged with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in February 1987.
Two years later in February 1989, Dusty Rhodes partnered with Mike Graham and Steve Keirn to revive the Florida territory through the Professional Wrestling Federation (PWF). Though Rhodes had visions of making PWF a national brand to compete with WCW and WWE, the financial backers didn't share that vision and Rhodes headed to WWE that summer. The PWF folded in June 1991.
In 2006, the CWF video library was purchased by WWE. The following year, WWE opened its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), and as an homage to the original territory, each episode ended with a CWF video clip of Gordon Solie signing off.