Windy City Pro Wrestling

After retiring from professional wrestling due to a back injury, Sam DeCero decided to establish Windy City Wrestling (WCW) and began training local wrestlers advertising as far as Hammond, Indiana. Within a year, he held the promotions first event at a South Side nightspot featuring Steve Regal against Paul Christy in the main event on January 30, 1988. The event, which was attended by 160 people, was successful.

DeCero soon began running televised wrestling events with then-22-year-old Paul Heyman,[2] who was also working for Southeastern promotions Southern Championship Wrestling and the Continental Wrestling Federation.[3] Their events were held at DaVinci Manor and the International Amphitheater,[4] which later aired on WMBD-TV. During the summer, the promotion drew a large crowd at a card featuring Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event.[5]

Within four years, the promotion operated two training facilities and had a weekly half-hour television show airing on SportsChannel. They also participated in several fundraisers for charity organizations including Toys for Tots, Muscular Dystrophy , Maryville City for Youth and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.[6][7]

During the late 1980s, the promotion featured many popular wrestlers of the era including Ken Patera, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, "Dirty" Dick Murdoch, Shigeri Akabane, Dennis Condrey,[8] Steve Regal,[9] and George Ringo, who acted as honorary commissioner. The promotion even made possible notable first time matches like The Battle Of The Bam Bams which saw Bam Bam Bigelow vs Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, as well as the first time meeting between Bruiser Brody and Nord the Barbarian at the International Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois on August 12, 1988.[10] Roster mainstays included "Mean" Mike Anthony,[11] Tony Montana,[12] "The Lifeguard" Sonny Rogers and The Power Twins (Larry & David Sontag).

The annual Battle of the Belts supercard was aired on SportsChannel on May 22, 1993,[13] and two years later, it presented Sailor Art Thomas a "Lifetime Service to Sport Award" on May 16, 1995.[14] The promotion also began holding events in venues outside the Chicago-area such the Hammond Civic Center in Hammond, Indiana and Hempstead High School in Dubuque, Iowa in February 1996.[15] In September, the promotion initiated in a nine-month legal dispute with Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling regarding trademark infringement over the use of the WCW acronym. The matter was settled out of court and in late 1997, the promotion was renamed Windy City Pro Wrestling (WCPW).[16]

Due in part to its wrestling school and televised events in the Chicago-area, several wrestlers such as Ace Steel,[17] Sosay,[18] Kevin Quinn,[19] Christopher Daniels,[20] Bigtime,[21] "Tenacious" Terry Allen, "New Thing" Robby Dawber, Steve Boz, Brandon Bishop, and Vic Capri emerged from the promotion during the late 1990s and early 2000s. During this decade, independent wrestlers such as Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Colt Cabana, Abyss, Nick Dinsmore, and Austin Aries among others made appearances in the promotion as had WWF veterans Road Warrior Hawk, Rob Van Dam, Typhoon, Brutus Beefcake, King Kong Bundy,[22] Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, and Jerry "The King" Lawler.

On May 20, 2000, WCPW promoted the Largest Battle Royal in History at that time. Battle of the Belts 2000, an event held in The Hammond Civic Center in front of 2500 fans, was an event main evented by a 3 ring, 120 person Battle Royal to crown the first ever WCPW Battle Royal Champion.[23] Bigtime won the Championship that night in what is still the largest championship match in all of pro wrestling history.

The promotion remained popular with Chicago wrestling fans favoring its "old school" wrestling approach unlike "sports entertainment" based promotions such as the World Wrestling Federation.[24] In late 2000, WCPW created another promotion under the Windy City Promotions banner named UAPW (Urban American Pro Wrestling) which put on shows in Chicago's inner-city areas throughout the decade.[25][26] Featuring predominantly African American and Hispanic talents like Chitown T, Willie "Da Bomb" Richardson, Germel "GQ" Quinn, Cinnamon, Los Mexicanos, and 2000CC, this helped WCPW's South Side wrestling school to be featured on Insomniac with Dave Attell in 2002.[27]

In 2001, hoping to present an event as historic as the previous years', Sam DeCero tapped Bigtime to create the main event of Battle of the Belts 2001. Bigtime created The Stacked Ring Battle Royal a match dubbed "The Badder, Ladder, Royale". The match was held in front of 1900 fans and saw two rings side by side arranged like a staircase. The first ring was a standard wrestling ring. The second ring stood twice as tall as the first and had a ladder in it. The rules had 40 participants start in the lower ring and try to climb into the taller ring to attempt to set up the ladder to climb it and claim the Battle Royal Championship Belt suspended 50 feet in the air. Rob Van Dam was on this card (his only indy appearance before signing with the WWF) and threw his opponent into the top ring and hit his 5-star frog splash from the top turnbuckle of a ring 40 feet tall. He was interviewed after the show and complimented Bigtime's match concept.

In 2004, WCPW grossed over $15,000 with over 1,000 in attendance for their supercard Battle of the Belts 16. Unfortunately, WCPW's good fortunes would start to slip away after this. Plagued by a mass exodus of talent and diminishing attendance as a result, WCPW fell into a downward spiral in the latter half of the decade. Bad booking decisions in desperate attempts to retain fans had the opposite effect and drove more fans away. The loss of revenue led to the loss of WCPW's long time South Side Production Studio and a move to a smaller less professional looking facility didn't help WCPW's descent. WCPW attempted to turn things around one final time by landing The Immortal Hulk Hogan for an autograph signing near the end of the decade and promoting a supershow at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois in conjunction with that signing.[28] While the event was a moderate success, it was not enough to turn the company around and in December 2010, WCPW ran it's last event.

Or did they..........................

In 2011, Bigtime met in secret with Sam DeCero. Bigtime, who had left the company in October 2001, broached the subject of buying WCPW's property, both physical and intellectual. Sam DeCero told Bigtime what he was asking for the sale price and while an agreement could not be reached, the two agreed to revisit the topic again. In 2012, Bigtime once again met with Sam DeCero. Bigtime made a full scale pitch to DeCero about his vision of what WCPW could be and offered a price. DeCero accepted Bigtime's proposal and the two men left with a handshake deal pending the approval of their lawyers. However, once the lawyers got involved, the deal fell apart and the transaction never completed. While Bigtime and DeCero kept in touch with each other over the following years, no further discussion of buying WCPW was had.

In November 2015, after waiting 5 years since the last WCPW show and 9 years after the cancellation of DeCero's Federal Trademark on the name, Bigtime trademarked the name WCPW and began plans for the rebirth of a new WCPW. In May 2016, a wrestling company based in the United Kingdom began illegally using Bigtime's Federally Registered Trademark for their promotion. This delayed the launch of Bigtime's WCPW and led to Bigtime getting his lawyer involved and several cease and desist letters being sent. After 18 months, the UK Promotion finally changed their name.[29] This led to Bigtime finally being able to hold a soft opening of his new WCPW on January 20, 2018. The show was held on the Northside of Chicago and used talent from outside of the Midwest to present a unique roster of chiseled athletes in the best traditions of what WCPW used to be. While the show only drew 47 fans, it was a soft opening to test the waters and refine things prior to a full grand re-opening of the once iconic Fed.

Now that other legal matters pertaining to the illegal use by others of the WCPW name have been addressed and/or resolved, Bigtime's new WCPW is ready for the grand re-opening. On March 14, 2020, WCPW will present - "Windy City Pro Wrestling: Still Standing!" live from DeKalb Illinois. The first fully promoted and produced WCPW show since 2010. Kicking off a new era of WCPW history and creating a new generation of fans in the process.

"The Difference Maker" Elia Baratz, "The Immaculate" Mike Micas, Cody Vance,

To Be Announced

Between 2001 and 2010, Windy City Pro Wrestling hosted an open-invitational tournament, the "Lee Sanders Memorial Cup", as part of an annual tribute to longtime WCPW mainstay Lee Sanders, who wrestled as Staff Sgt. Storm, in which any independent wrestler throughout the U.S. was eligible to enter.