Many fans are familiar with the WWWF
name but a different entity was created along with the formation of
the WWWF in 1963. Vincent James McMahon and Larry Atkins originally
created the World Wide Wrestling Association (WWWA) in Cleveland, OH,
in 1963. Promoter Larry Atkins helped promote Rogers as WWWA champ
in Cleveland, alongside Rogers as WWWF champ in Vince Sr.'s New
York/Washington D.C. territory. Atkins and his Buckeye Sports
Corporation used the WWWA name for the company. Teamed with other
men like Willie Gilzenberg, Vince Sr., and Joe “Toots” Mondt,
Atkins promoted under the WWWA name for a short period. Rogers lost
the WWWA title to Dory Dixon, in Cleveland, on March 28, 1963. A
week later, in Chicago, IL, on April 5, Dixon and Rogers had a
rematch, which Rogers won but he did not win the WWWA title. On
April 11, Rogers was acknowledged as being the WWWF Champion, in
Washington D.C, before a match with Bruno Sammartino, that went to a
no-contest. It was around this time that Rogers' health took a turn
for the worse, and the WWWF had to go in a different direction with
Bruno at the helm.
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| Willie Gilzenberg and Bruno Sammartino |
Dory Dixon held onto the WWWA
championship until losing it to Karl Von Hess, on May 2. On May 17,
Sammartino won the WWWF title from Rogers, in New York and Atkins
took a break from promoting in Cleveland. By the time he started
back up in the Cleveland Arena, there was some confusion about the two entities. Bruno, at times, was billed as being either the WWWA or WWWF champion, until later in the year when his official association/title became WWWF Champion.
~Thanks to Tim Hornbaker and his
work, especially his new Capitol Revolution book. I would highly
recommend reading it.
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| Dory Dixon |
