The territory system. A familiar concept to the pro wrestling world. Originally popularized by the National Wrestling Alliance and implemented throughout the majority of the company’s storied history, the general idea of the territory system is to have several wrestling promotions unite under one governing body. The individual promotions within the system would have their own champions and manage their own operations but as a unified body, they identified champions that represented the NWA as a whole. While a promotion may have a top title, they would still recognize the NWA champion as the world champion, holding a more prestigious title than their promotion’s top honor.

The NWA has since moved away from their territory system but that doesn’t mean that the territory system no longer exists in professional wrestling. In fact, there is a sanctioning body running a system today that expands on the original NWA format. 

The Allied Independent Wrestling Federations (or AIWF) is currently overseeing a territory system like the NWA’s throughout the American independent scene. But this system isn’t contained to the United States like the territories of the NWA largely were. Instead, the AIWF currently has a total of 84 affiliate promotions in 24 different countries. 

Before diving into the AIWF’s international system of independent wrestling, the story of the AIWF’s early days and how they got to this point can’t be overlooked. In order to get some more information on all things AIWF, WrestleMap spoke with the executive director and co-owner of the AIWF, Matt Classic.

The AIWF, then known as the American Independent Wrestling Federation, first opened their doors in 1992, right as the original wave of independent American promotions began to establish themselves. 

“AIWF was rough and tumble in the early years with an ECW type edge and regional TV coverage throughout North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia in those days. While we still have bloody battles, there is now much more variation and better athletes as wrestling has evolved into the 21st century,” said Creed when discussing the company’s older days. 

But that’s a little bit of a mixture between being humble and an understatement. Those early days led to the AIWF being declared as “more violent than ECW” by Pro Wrestling Illustrated and allowed the promotion and their hardcore violence to be featured on the Louis Theroux television program “Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends,” where they would declare themselves the most violent, hardcore wrestling promotion in America.

It was because of this exposure to a U.K. audience that the AIWF was able to establish their first international relationship, according to Classic. “We formed partnerships in 2008 in England after being on Louis Theroux’s show which ended up leading to the beginnings of our current system.”

That current system is an impressive one. Featuring affiliates on every continent except Antarctica (unfortunately, there’s no wrestling in Antarctica) and stretching into 24 countries. There are currently AIWF affiliates in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Argentina, Peru, Tunisia, South Africa, China, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Japan, England, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Australia. The AIWF is establishing a very solid brand in international independent wrestling. The fruits of these relationships are starting to show.

“We are becoming well known with our social media following over 20k currently and we’ve seen rapid growth the past few years which is always a good thing.”

It’s an exciting opportunity for wrestlers too, with occasional opportunities to travel internationally to compete for AIWF affiliates. “We have seen talent come to the USA from the beginning (of the current system) such as The UK Pitbulls, our former International Champion Keegan Brettle from Australia, as well as multiple talents from Canada and Mexico. Our champions have also defended their titles in a multitude of countries such as England, Portugal, China, Canada and more.”

The AIWF boasts world titles that can actually be considered world titles, which can be rare in the sport of pro wrestling. Meaning that the titles have been defended in multiple countries around the world. “We oversee many titles on the world level including our World Women’s Championship held by Heidi Katrina who just recently defended her belt in Finland,” Classic said. “Our European champion Mad Dog Connor has defended in England, China and Tunisia.”

The AIWF World Heavyweight Title has a lineage that dates back to 1992 with the establishment of the American Independent Wrestling Federation (which would go on to be the original AIWF territory, AIWF Mid Atlantic, and is still active today). It’s been held by some notable names such as Ricky Morton, Buddy Landel, Brian Lee, Rodney Mack and Beer City Bruiser. “Kevin Phoenix is currently the World Champion. He has been champion a full year and before Covid was defending coast to coast (in the United States) and had defended in England, Austria and Portugal,” Classic said.

The AIWF World Heavyweight Championship dates back to 1992 and has been held by some notable names in pro wrestling including, clockwise from top left, Ricky Morton (WWE Hall of Famer, 9 time NWA World Tag Team Champion), Buddy Landel (former NWA, WCW, and WWE star), Brian Lee (former WCW, WWE and ECW star), Rodney Mack (former WWE star), Kahagas (former NWA World Champion), and Beer City Bruiser (ROH star).

Other former champions have gone on to have mainstream success. Thunder Rosa held the International Women’s Championship for a time before moving on to the NWA and later All Elite Wrestling. Several other wrestlers that have gone on to work for major companies have wrestled for AIWF affiliates in the recent past like Sammy Guevara, Fallah Bah, Fuego del Sol, Tommy Dreamer, Matt Hardy and Billy Gunn among others.

On top of numerous world titles, the AIWF also recognizes regional titles in their international territories. This helps to keep the AIWF’s name and brand in the region as well as a top title for the wrestlers in the area to compete for. This is beneficial to the company because with the cost constraints involved in indie wrestling, it is hard to regularly have their world champions travel internationally. These regional titles exist for Latin America, Europe, North America and Australia.

The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down any international movement that the AIWF had hoped to make in 2020 but with 2021 looking more promising in terms of event and travel restrictions being eased, the AIWF has it’s eyes on expanding their reach even more, with a desire to work with more promotions based in Africa and the Spanish speaking world. “We are going continue expansion around the globe. We are also launching our official Roku channel this year which will be adding new content every Saturday,” Classic said.

With an eye on further international expansion and a Roku channel launching this year, it will be fun to see where the AIWF’s vision takes them in the coming years! You can check out the AIWF by visiting their Facebook page.

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