There's a long and complex tradition of wrestling in Memphis that gets you the WHY and HOW Memphis Championship Wrestling (one of many promotions around the US using the MCW acronym) but I don't know it all. Be content with the knowledge that throughout the run of shows featured here, MCW was a WWF Developmental Territory - a kind of minor league, featuring talent the WWF has signed and is trying to decide if they're worth keeping. With a couple exceptions, everyone was not only trying show they earned a job in the WWF, but at least make sure the WWF kept them at all. In the end, a lot of them weren't kept.
In addition to airing locally, MCW aired nationally on a America One - a cable channel not basically used to fill space, and surviving on paid programming. Like almost everything else on the channel, MCW (part of a Saturday night block of wrestling shows) had to pay to get on.
The wrestlers weren't polished, but they were very motivated, and it showed. My favorites were American Dragon and Spanky, two guys who were trained at Shawn Michael's (now former) wrestling school and were very talented. There were plenty of other talented guys, and even those who weren't that good were at least putting in the effort. WWF guys showed up every so often to get some extra work and help bust the star power, which made for even more fun. The storylines weren't that great, but the longer matches made up for it. It wasn't the greatest show ever, but it was a pretty fun one.
In Summer '01, the WWF decided to withdraw their guys from MCW and move them, while letting go a bunch of others. MCW gave the guys who were leaving, one way or another, a chance to say goodbye on a couple MCW shows. One made it through to AmericaOne, but the show fell into reruns soon after - a sign that either new episodes weren't getting delivered or the money wasn't getting delivered. Eventually, the show was totally taken off the lineup. The show continued to air locally after the WWF talent left, but showed only previously taped footage. To my knowledge, they've stopped running shows at all, at least for now.
You can check out their site at www.memphischampionshipwrestling.com