Arizona Republic: Local wrestling company shutting down

               By Sylvester Cooper| @ Sly_Cooper
                      A R I Z O N A  R E P U B L I C

    Ultimate Championship Wrestling, the state's premier wrestling promotion will be closings it doors at the end of next month following their final show, appropriately titled End of the Line, which will be live on pay-per-view September 27th, UCW owner and general manager Mickie Laree announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon. "After being involved with the company for twenty-five years, it's just time," she said, "The amazing fans of Arizona are what kept UCW going for all those years and from the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you". Regarding the company's developmental promotion; HYBRiD Wrestling, Laree said the property will be sold to the highest bidder and the promotion will continue to operate as usual under new management upon purchase. "HYBRiD brought us some of the biggest and best wrestlers on the planet. Now it's their time to thrive on the basis of their in-ring product alone," said Laree, "I wish them all the best of luck in the future."

    UCW was the home for entertainment in Arizona, being the biggest wrestling promotion in the entire state. The original owner, Christopher Laree founded the company in 2005 after he was fired from his creative position at RBW, the promotion based in Stanford, Connecticut. Using his entire life savings, he started the promotion with only six wrestlers, all former RBW contracted performers and slowly, the company became a hotspot for local independent wrestling, responsible for discovering and introducing the wrestling world to some of the biggest names in wrestling today such as current WFWF superstar Mesh, Katharsis, Moxy and Roxy, who went on to form the critically-acclaimed band Mock Rock, Kyle Lepsey, Bruce Medher, successful business mogul Kris Kash, former GFL fighters "The French Assassin" Cheryl Young and Martina "Martello" Paolucci, Galatico, Brian "Black Dream" Kruger as well as his younger brother, Jericho Kruger to name a few. Their weekly television program, UCW Live! later titled UCW Livewire was the number one sports program in all cable television, beating Laree's former employers own show RBW W.A.R as well as WFWF Loaded in the ratings.

    Throughout the company’s existence, reports of their finances were commonplace among wrestling media sites. Mr. Laree was reported to “not be in total control of his company”, according to sources. Laree allowed “outside influences” to run the company which caused the backstage morale to be at a constant low. There's a famous rumor that Laree himself was secretly funding UCW's main competition - Devastation Pro Wrestling amidst his breakdown but that rumor was never confirmed. Such negligence was allegedly what caused Katherine Naught, better known to wrestling fans as Katharsis to infamously walk out from the company in 2012 following a heated confrontation with Laree and the Board of Directors, according to rumors. After Laree went bankrupt that same year, he suffered a nervous breakdown and put the company up for sale where it was purchased by Theodore Marvin, better known by his famous nickname – The Million Dollar Man. Marvin turned company profits around, grossing at their peak year a total of 6.9 billion dollars but the same dark cloud that lingered around Laree followed Marvin. Various rumors and speculation from former employees suggest that Marvin “rigged” the results of some matches backstage, giving those that he found to be worthy opportunities to be faces for the company. Arizona native and former UCW Champion, Jericho Kruger is one of those accused of getting “a push” because he was on good terms with Marvin. Kruger continues to deny the rumors. 

    Once Marvin stepped down as owner amid rumors of corruption, the reins were then handed to Christopher Laree’s ex-wife, Mickie Laree who ran the company from 2015 to the present day where she announced that the company will hold its final show, promising to “celebrate the careers of those who helped make UCW what it is today and the ultimate way to say thank you to all the fans that supported the company for twenty-five years.” Laree also stated in the press conference that commemorative replica belts of the UCW titles, those being the UCW Championship, UCW Television Championship, UCW Tag Team Championship for both men and women, UCW Light-Heavyweight Championship and the UCW Women’s Championship will be given out to those who “helped give each championship a certain level of prestige and those that carried the title with honor." Laree and a small committee of pro wrestling experts will gather in the coming weeks and democratically vote on the recipient of each title.