American Wrestling Federation

American Wrestling Federation (AWF) is a Memphis-based professional wrestling promotion that was found on February 21, 1952 by John Alperstein.

History
AWF's origins can be traced back as far as 1939 when John Alperstein Sr. II and Jesse Mantel created the Continental Wrestling Corporation Ltd. (CWC), which joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1941. Alperstein Sr. II, who was a successful boxing promoter, began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing and wrestling at the third Madison Square Garden.

In November 1954, Alperstein Sr. I died and Ray Fabio, one of Mantel's associates, brought in Alperstein's son John James. The younger Alperstein and Mantel were very successful and soon controlled approximately 70% of the NWA's booking, largely due to their dominance in the heavily populated Northeastern United States. In 1963, Alperstein and Mantel had a dispute with the NWA over "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers being booked to hold the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.Both men left the company in protest and formed the AWWF in the process. Mantel left Continental in the late 1960s and although the AWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, John Alperstein, Sr. quietly re-joined in 1971. Continental renamed the American World Wrestling Federation to the American Wrestling Federation in 1979.

Expansion beyond wrestling
In addition to licensing wrestling and performers' likenesses to companies such as Acclaim, THQ, 2K Sports, and Mattel to produce video games and action figures, AWF has branched out into other areas of interest in order to market their product.

Active

 * USWA Inc.: created in 1997 as W. Acquisition Company - owns the rights to the video library and intellectual property for United States Wrestling Association.
 * AWF Collection: Warehouses where AWF holds classic wrestling gears, props, and equipment.
 * AWF Books: publishes biographies of and on AWF personalities, behind-the-scenes guides to AWF, illustrated books, calendars, young adult books, and other general nonfiction books.