Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Read about this in a Marvel Directory website about a wrestling fed for superbeings that they have/had. Seems pretty cool.

 

http://www.marveldirectory.com/teams/ucwf.htm

 

Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation

 

The Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation is an association for professional wrestlers who possess superhuman strength, endurance and resistance to injury. The U.C.W.F. was founded by wrestling manager and promoter Edward Garner after a client of his was barred from the existing wrestling associations for being too strong and thus a danger to normal human-strength combatants. Garner reasoned that if he could find enough suitable opponents for his fighter, he could start his own wrestling club, whose public exhibitions were certain to be more spectacular than the regular association's due to the greater capabilities of the fighters. Garner held several highly-publicized auditions in Las Vegas, where he was based, and soon began to sign up a roster of suitable wrestlers. Originally to qualify for the U.C.W.F., an applicant must be able to lift (press) a minimum of 2 tons. When Garner began finding people who could lift significantly more than 2 tons, he organized weight divisions within the federation to keep the fighters well matched. The lightweight division is for wrestlers who can lift in the 2-10 ton range, the middleweight division is for the 10-25, and the heavyweight is for 25 +. On the brief time the U.C.W.F. has been in existence, Garner has been phasing out the lower weight divisions as more fighters are being found to qualify for the heavyweight division. At present, one must be able to lift (press) 25 tons in order to even qualify for the U.C.W.F.

 

Many of the original wrestlers to join the U.C.W.F. were members of the Deviant or Eternal evolutionary offshoots of humanity, or were superhuman mutants. Some had been sparring in the normal professional wrestling circuits before the U.C.W.F. was founded by hiding their prodigious strength levels. Later, normal human beings who had their musculature artificially enhanced began to join. Many of these people, it was later learned, were augmented by Power Broker, Inc., a company specializing in the physical enhancement of human beings. Prior to servicing wrestlers who wanted to qualify for Unlimited Class, the Power Broker provided criminals with superhuman henchmen. Garner, who has been known to fix fights on occasion, claims to have no connection to the Power Broker, although members of his federation profit from the Power Broker's services. The U.C.W.F seems to be one of the few legitimate ways that the clients of the Power Broker can pay for the augmentation process. Certain wrestlers have undergone the augmentation process more than once as the power requirements of the U.C.W.F. became more stringent. Virtually all the wrestlers assume stage names and wear colorful costumes not unlike those of superhuman adventurers. However, unlike most superhuman adventurers and crimefighters, few of the wrestlers hide their real identities from the public.

 

The U.C.W.F. gained widespread publicity when Benjamin Grimm alias the Thing, famed member of the Fantastic Four, joined the U.C.W.F. during his estrangement from the team of adventurers. The Thing was not only the U.C.W.F.'s top attraction; he was also the undefeated champion for a time. He forfeited the championship when he purposely threw an exhibition bout with Battleaxe, a member of the U.C.W.F's female division, the so-called Grapplers. For personal reasons, the Thing dropped out of the U.C.W.F. a short time later after bringing Garner's attention to the Power Broker's investment in the wrestlers. The virtually omnipotent extradimensional being known as the Beyonder was also briefly a member of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, while he sought novel Earthly experiences. The current U.C.W.F. champion is Little John.

 

The U.C.W.F. remains a thriving business enterprise of unprecedented mass popularity. In a world filled with men and women of superhuman power and ability, the Unlimited Class Wrestlers are the only such beings that the average person can pay to see at arenas all over the country.

 

First Appearance: THING #28

 

Members

 

Armadillo Enigmo Little John

Auntie Freeze Ikaris (as Iceberg Ike) Ms. Marvel II

Battleaxe Jersey Devil Poundcakes

Blacksmith Justice (as Vance Astro) Songbird (as Screaming Mimi)

Beyonder Letha Thing

Demolition-Man Titania

[Zack Malibu 0]

I actually have that issue of THING somewhere. Got it in a comic bundle my grandmother used to order me every Christmas from the JC Penney catalog (one of those "50 Comics Mega Packs" or something).

[SuperJerk 0]

It was toward the end of the Thing's solo series run in the mid-1980s. This was around the time "Hulkamania" hit big, so a comic exploitation of a pop-culture phenomena was a natural.

 

Ms. Marvel II and Demolition-Man (this was years before the Stallone movie, FYI) were the super-hero names later taken by wrestlers in the UCWF.

 

And since this was before wrestling was exposed, the matches were shoots.