Premier Wrestling Federation

The Premier Wrestling Federation (PWF) grew out of Steve Corino’s Pennsylvania Wrestling Federation, which was a successor to IWA Pennsylvania. Corino, fresh off losing the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman at Guilty as Charged on January 7, 2001, established the PWF on February 15, 2001. The first show ran on March 15 at a venue in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and the promotion quickly became a home for displaced ECW talent and rising independent wrestlers throughout the Northeast.

Rob Dimension and Bryan Reigel bought into the promotion shortly after launch and shared ownership with Corino. The early roster drew from the deep well of mid-Atlantic and Philadelphia independent wrestling. Trent Acid, Johnny Kashmere and the Backseat Boyz, Christopher Daniels, The Amazing Red, Chris Hamrick, Mikey Whipwreck, and CW Anderson all appeared on PWF cards.

Corino, who had won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in April 2001, defended the belt on PWF shows, bringing the NWA’s traveling champion tradition into his own building. On December 16, 2001, NWA World Heavyweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto made his first title defense on American soil at a PWF event in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, in a four-way Iron Man match.

The Legacy Cup tournament debuted in September 2001. Johnny Kashmere defeated Christopher Daniels in the finals to win the first cup. Daniels returned the following year and took the tournament for himself, beating The Amazing Red. These events gave PWF a signature annual attraction that has outlasted every other element of the original promotion.

By mid-2003, the original PWF ceased operations. Corino transitioned the operation into Pro Wrestling WORLD-1, which ran shows in New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia through 2007. That promotion morphed again into 3K Wrestling Fighting Athletes in 2008, reunited with the WORLD-1 name from 2009 to 2011, and briefly operated as the DREAMS Project into 2013.

None of these carried the PWF name, though Corino maintained creative continuity and kept his relationships with Japanese promotions, particularly Pro Wrestling Zero1. The Premier Wrestling Federation name remained dormant for over a decade.

In 2014, Corino relaunched the Premier Wrestling Federation, this time based in Hubert, North Carolina, near the Crystal Coast and Camp Lejeune. The promotion ran shows at a local bingo hall that Corino, along with CW Anderson and his son Colby Corino, dedicated as Hashimoto Hall in honor of Shinya Hashimoto, who had died of a brain aneurysm on July 11, 2005.

Championship lineages carried over from the original run, but new titles were added, including the Shinjiro Otani International Openweight Championship and the Crystal Coast Oceanic Championship.

With the move to North Carolina, PWF began to attract regional talent and established names. Cedric Alexander, John Skyler, CW Anderson, Tommy Rich, and Ricky Morton all worked PWF cards during this period.

Corino created the PWF Mid-Atlantic Masters Championship in 2016 and defeated Ricky Morton to become its inaugural champion. His son Colby emerged as a featured performer, and young wrestlers like Jakob Hammermeier, Jagger, and Zane Riley became regular fixtures on the cards.

Corino stepped away from active competition in late 2016 and joined WWE as a trainer at the Performance Center and a producer for NXT in 2017. He transferred ownership of PWF to Jakob Hammermeier in 2019.

Hammermeier, who had been a PWF regular since the early North Carolina shows, continued running events on the Crystal Coast and opened the Carolina Wrestling Academy in Newport, North Carolina, co-owned with Colby Corino and Steve Corino.

On August 27, 2021, Corino briefly exited retirement to face Colby for the Crystal Coast Oceanic Championship at a show celebrating Colby’s 25th birthday. The promotion operated steadily through the 2020s, streaming events on IWTV and developing new talent through its training school.

Annual events like the Shinya Hashimoto Memorial Legacy Cup, WrestleBowl, Zero Gravity, and the Premier Tag League kept the calendar anchored. In 2023, PWF made its debut at The Wrestival in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Corino returned again in December 2025 under his Mr. Wrestling 3 persona, teaming with Alexander Lev to win the Premier Tag League. On February 22, 2026, at the PWF 25th Anniversary show held at the Carolina Wrestling Academy in Newport, Corino made a surprise return to singles competition, defeating champion Kaitlyn Marie to win the PWF Championship for a record seventh time. He announced he would compete exclusively for PWF going forward while continuing his coaching duties at the WWE Performance Center.

Twenty-five years after its founding in a Pottstown hall, the Premier Wrestling Federation remains active on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina, running regular events, training new wrestlers, and carrying forward the championship histories and tournament traditions that Steve Corino first established in 2001.