The Allied Independent Wrestling Federations (AIWF) is a world-wide group of promotions that have banded together to help promote each other to both the casual and passionate local fans alike.
They are similar to the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance), but have taken it to the international level with promotions in countries such as Canada, England, Mexico, and Australia in addition to their US home in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. There are dozens of partnering promotions across America as well, and there is one overall set of champions including the World Champion, World Tag Team Champions, a World Women’s Champion, and a World Cruiserweight Champion with an upcoming tournament for the AIWF World Television Championship to be held on February 6th of 2016 in Columbus, Georgia.
The growth of this group of companies has not been easy to accomplish, however. At first, the AIWF stood for “American Independent Wrestling Federation” and toured around the mid-south area of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina mainly.
With stables like The Ryderz of the Apocalypse, they acquired a reputation of being “more hardcore than ECW” by Pro Wrestling Illustrated! In the just over 20 years the AIWF has been in existence, it has grown to be at least on par with the current National Wrestling Alliance – who has been around at least 50 years longer!
Current champions in AIWF are people to look out for on the future frontier of the independent scene for years to come. Wrestlers like Damien Wayne, Drew Game, Johnny Anthrax, Kevin Phoenix, Dylan Kage, Melanie Cruise, and Lodi (yes, THAT Lodi) are people to keep an eye out for across the country long-term. The most recent products of the AIWF are current NXT Tag Team Champions, Scott Dawson (aka KC McKnight) and Dash Wilder (aka Steven Walters).
All I see in the future for this company are good things. The world of professional wrestling is on the cusp of going through a complete upheaval and I, in particular, am hoping the AIWF is able to stay on it’s game by continuing to put out stellar matches, polish future superstars, and entertain thousands of fans around the globe! For the sake of the bigger companies’ futures like ROH, New Japan, AAA, and of course WWE…they should hope the same!
If you are curious as to where the closest local AIWF-sanctioned action is in your area, check their Facebook page or get in touch with Matt Classic via Facebook.