German Wrestling Federation (GWF) is a

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within ...

which has been founded and is based in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of ...

. While the promotion has toured through Germany and has held events in

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

Hennigsdorf Hennigsdorf () is a town in the district of Oberhavel, in Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. It is situated north-west of Berlin, just across the city border, which is formed mainly by the Havel river. History The town was first mentioned in 1375, ...

and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

among other cities, most of the GWF events are being held at their homebase in Germany. Aide the monthly events, the German Wrestling Federation also runs a wrestling school in Berlin-

Neukölln Neukölln (), officially abbreviated Neuk, is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located south-east of Berlin's center and stretches from the inner city southward to the border with Brandenburg, encompassing the eponymous quarter of Neu ...

since 1997. The most famous graduates of this school include

Axel Tischer Axel Tischer (born 5 November 1986) is a German professional wrestler currently performing for German Wrestling Federation (GWF), Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) and Progress Wrestling, where he is the current Progress Wrestling Atlas Championshi ...

Ilja Dragunov Ilja Rukober (; born 10 October 1993), known by his ring name Ilja Dragunov (), is a Russian-born, German- naturalised professional wrestler. As of January 2019, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand, but is currently inacti ...

(who was trained by Tischer), Wesna Busic, Blue Nikita, Jazzy Gabert and Lucky Kid.

History

The German Wrestling Federation was founded under the name "Graefe Wrestling Federation" by Ahmed Chaer and Crazy Sexy Mike (Hussen Chaer) and their friends, who lived in the Graefestrasse in Berlin-

. They quickly changed their name to "German Wrestling Federation", following the example of the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

. The first show called "GWF Winter Slam" took place in December 1995. The GWF Training School was founded two years later in order to train young people who could compete in the shows. The school still exists today and is coached by Ahmed Chaer and Crazy Sexy Mike as well as Orlando Silver, who started his career as a

Luchador ''Lucha libre'' (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term for the style of professional wrestling originating in Mexico. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has develope ...

in Mexico before moving to Berlin. In 2011 an offshoot of the school was also founded in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. The trainer there was Alexander Wolfe, who trained

among others.

Growth and cooperation

In 2010, the German Wrestling Federation worked closely with German Stampede Wrestling (GSW) Thus, the German Wrestling Federation functioned as a development territory and training school of GSW. However, after GSW closed down, the German Wrestling Federation started to hold events on their own again. There were also cooperation shows with other wrestling promotions. For example in 2015 with

westside Xtreme Wrestling Westside Xtreme Wrestling, commonly shortened to wXw, is a German professional wrestling promotion based in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. wXw has been one of the leading professional wrestling promotions in Germany, and most of its event ...

or in 2003 with Athletik Club Weinheim. In 2017 GWF collaborated with WhatCulture Pro Wrestling and jointly organized the German qualifying tournament for the Pro Wrestling World Cup in Berlin, which was ultimately won by Kushida later that year.

Expansion

In October 2011 the show "GWF Berlin Wrestling Night 6" was held in the Statthaus Böcklerpark, attracting more than 300 spectators. After the December event, the German Wrestling Federation moved to the "shake", a circus tent at Berlin Ostbahnhof. From then on, the GWF and its events were part of the Berlin party scene and the regular events were always completely sold out. In addition, in 2014 the GWF started to organize events in

(GWF Next Step) and in Waren an der Müritz. Other regular locations were

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

Bad Ems Bad Ems () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa on the river Lahn. Bad Ems was the seat of Bad Ems collective municipality, which has been merged i ...

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, Herne and

Andernach Andernach () is a town in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, of about 30,000 inhabitants. It is situated towards the end of the ''Neuwied basin'' on the left bank of the Rhine between the former tiny fishing village ...

. After the shows at shake were always completely sold out, GWF was looking for a new home and from 2015 on, the GWF moved to Huxley's Neue Welt - which is not only a well-known concert arena in Berlin, but also a traditional wrestling hall. Traditional wrestling tournaments were held here in the 1970s. In 2017 GWF also held an open-air event at Zitadelle Spandau, where several internationally renowned wrestlers like

Christopher Daniels Christopher Daniel Covell (born March 24, 1970), better known by the ring name Christopher Daniels, is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he works as the Head of Ta ...

, Drago,

Bram Bram may refer to: People * Bram (given name) * Bram (surname) * Thom Latimer (born 1986), English professional wrestler better known as his former ring name ″Bram″ * Bram Tchaikovsky (born 1950), stage name of British musician Peter Bramall * ...

, Carlito and Chris Masters competed. In the

main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

of the show

Moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

lost the GWF World Title against Pascal Spalter. In 2019 the GWF moved to Festsaal Kreuzberg, where up to 600 spectators regularly attend the monthly shows.

Tournaments, special events and miscellaneous

In 2016 the GWF organized for the first time the event called "GWF Battlefield", which copies the match principle of the

Royal Rumble The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after, and centered on, the Royal Rumble match, a modified Battle royal (professional wre ...

. The winner receives a chance to challenge for the GWF World Championship at the following GWF Anniversary show at the end of the year. Among the most famous winners of the last years are

, Angélico. and

. Also in 2016 the GWF started to promote all-female events under the banner "GWF Women's Wrestling Revolution". During these events the

Progress Women's Championship The Progress World Women's Championship is a women's world professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the British professional wrestling promotion Progress Wrestling. It was announced on 24 April 2016, that Natural Progression ...

was defended for the first time in Germany, when

Toni Storm Toni Rossall (born 19 October 1995), better known by the ring name Toni Storm, is a New Zealand-Australian professional wrestler. She is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the epithet "Timeless" Toni Storm and is the reigning AEW Women' ...

defeated Wesna Busic at GWF Revolution 8 in May 2018 at the first-ever all-female evening event in German history. In 2017 the GWF started to create a YouTube series called "GWF Who's Next" which was designed like a casting show where rookies from the GWF Training School and other countries presented their characters and had matches in front of a jury consisting of legends (like

Ulf Herman Ulf Nadrowski (born April 4, 1966) is a German professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ulf Herman. He is best known in the United States for his appearances in Extreme Championship Wrestling where he was part of The Full Blooded Ital ...

, Doug Williams and

Al Snow Allen Ray Sarven (born July 18, 1963) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Al Snow. He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation/ World Wrestling Entertainm ...

) and current GWF superstars. The first season was won by Hungarian wrestler Benji, while the second season was won by GWF trainee Onur Dağlar. The third season was focussed on all-female talents from all over the World but couldn't conclude due to the ongoing

corona crisis The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2017 and 2018 the German Wrestling Federation released two seasons of a self-produced series called "GWF Three Count" which is available for free on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...

and is a mixture of a daily soap and a traditional wrestling show. In 2018, the GWF introduced the GWF Light Heavyweight World Cup, in which eight wrestlers from eight different nations compete against each other in one tournament. The winners of the four preliminary round duels meet in a 4-way match in a final. Among others Tucker, Kenny Williams,

Jonny Storm Jonathan Whitcombe (born 19 April 1977) is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Jonny Storm. He has worked for many independent promotions across the United Kingdom, including the Frontier Wrestling Alliance, Real ...

and Matt Cross competed here. The tournaments were won by Angélico, in 2018,

El Phantasmo Riley Vigier (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he performs under the ring name El Phantasmo (often shortened to ELP) and is the NJPW World Tel ...

in 2019, Tarkan Aslan in 2020, Crowchester in 2022, Aytac Bahar in 2023 and Ahura in 2024. In 2018 the German Wrestling Federation launched a subscription-based video streaming service called WeAreGWF.com where the viewers can watch all of the events since 2016 with German and English commentary.

Championships and accomplishments

Current championships

Former championships

Tournaments

Notes

:1.The concept of the GWF Loserweight Titles says that the wearer is the worst wrestler of the German Wrestling Federation. The title is therefore also called the title of shame. To "get rid" of the title, the wearer has to win a fight. With this he passes the title on to the loser.

References

External links

* {{Professional wrestling in Germany 1995 establishments in Germany German professional wrestling promotions Companies based in Berlin Sport in Berlin