At the end of one life, Legacy Wrestling Federation was given another chance at becoming something big.
Joel Cunningham was the owner of the LWF. It was a wrestling organization that did quite well for itself, despite the giant wrestling companies that had loomed around it for quite some time. Joel Cunningham initially founded the Southern California Wrestling Alliance and for four years ran it out of a suburb of Los Angeles. In the wake of becoming bigger, he felt the name did not fit where he wanted to go, so changed the name to Legacy Wrestling Federation.
LWF ran for around three years. It was a company that hit some rocky bumps in the three years but, its biggest one came in the form of cancer striking the long time owner of the company. In one last ditch effort, he set up a tournament to crown one final champion. In the end, a young wrestler named Levi Vega captured the title as the company went out of business.
Sadly, it was only six weeks after LWF went out of business, that Joel lost his battle. He was loved by everyone that worked for him and everyone that worked with him. As directed, on the seventh day after his burial, his will was read to some of those closest to him. He left many assets to his ex-wife and his daughter. His girlfriend got their current house, but the assets of LWF and the funding that was put aside for it went to a man named Richard Sexton, formerly known to the wrestling world as Rick Sexy.
The company was left to him under the condition that within sixteen months of Cunningham’s passing, Sexton put out a wrestling company to compete against other companies and was required to think outside of the box.
Sexton took on the challenge. First he met with several investors and laid plans for the new company. Soon, after investors were secured, the Legacy Entertainment Group was founded. Their mission was to not only put on great wrestling events, but to also put on great entertainment of all sorts. Soon six locations across the US were secured to be used for wrestling purposes, but also for concerts and small sporting events. As these buildings were renovated, Sexton took on the task of recruiting wrestlers from all over.
Another task that had come up in meetings was the name of the company. Many felt that the name had to change. Some felt drastically, while others felt not too big of a change was needed. Sexton took under advisement and had hired an outside company to poll fans, wrestlers, and investors as far as what would sound good. Eventually the “room” came to an agreement and the term “Federation” was dropped to form Legacy Wrestling.
Flash forward four years and business is thriving. While continuing to maintain the six original venues, three more sites were added to the rotation. While Sexton tried to push live events every week, it did not work out to be cost effective. Eventually the decision was made to do like several other companies and have a live PPV, or in Legacy’s case Mega Event, followed by one live event at the same venue, then tape the next few weeks the following two nights leading up to the next Mega Event and therefore the next city and venue.
While Legacy has been running for four years, many wrestlers have come in and left, competing for the championships that Legacy offers. These championships are as follows:
Cash Money - The Cash Money championship is unique in the fact that it can be cashed in after a time to compete for any of the other championships in the company. You have to either hold the title for six months consecutively, while also defending it at least seven times successfully during that time or, if wanting to cash in before six months, must successfully defend it ten times. While this may seem easy to some to be able to do this, in the 10 men that have held it, only one lasted long enough to cash in and, in fact, lost his cash in due to an injury.
Tag Team - While many companies tag team championships are only two “belts”, Legacy is unique in the fact that there are three straps to be won. Meaning the championships can be defended two on two or three on three. In a few instances the titles were defended two on three. It is a unique way for tag teams to compete in either duos or trios without watering down the division.
Heritage - this championship started out as the International championship, but during their feud, The Redeemer Scott Morale stole the belt from then champion Marcus Profit and ran over it with a steam roller. Morale would then go on at the following ME to pin Profit for the damaged championship. The following ThrowDown, he would unveil the Heritage Championship, adding the stipulation that in order to compete for said championship, you must be in the company at least a year to do so. This way, in his words, it would keep out the garbage champions.
Diamond - Although there are not a lot of women that wrestle in Legacy, the Diamond Division is one of the best in the business. The Diamond Division Champion is the best woman in the company. She proves so by competing and defending the championship. In many people's eyes she is even equal to the Grand Champion.
Grand - The original Grand Championship was won by Levi Vega. Immediately after winning it, he went all over the world changing his craft. Sexton made the decision that this championship would be the benchmark of the company. The grand prize if you will, there are many ways to earn a championship match to compete for it. However, the championship, in the four years it has been defended, has only been held by four different people, with one, Dre King having two different title reigns.
All in all these are the venue cities in which LEG owns property for events:
Miami, FL
Brooklyn, NY
Cleveland, OH
Austin, TX
Denver, CO
Los Angeles, CA
Seattle, WA
Mexico City, Mexico
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
These are the current champions in the company as well:
Cash Money: Jeremiah Bailey
Tag Team: War, Doom, Howard Cranston (The Purge)
Heritage: Desmond Price
Diamond: Kiana
Grand: Alister Banks
Here is the names of the on air personalities for the shows (ThrowDown and Mega Events)
Play by Play: Jason Smith
Color: Samantha Hoover
Ring Announcer: Mike Matthews
Backstage Interviews: Crystal Watson
CEO: Richard Sexton
We pick up the story of Legacy two weeks after their huge Mega Event, Bound for Glory, with ThrowDown being hosted in Denver, CO.
TO BE CONTINUED...
