The state of Georgia is filled with wrestling history. In the mid to late 20th century, there were two well known wrestling companies in Georgia. First, there was Georgia Championship Wrestling, which was founded in 1944, and ran for 40 years until it was bought by Vince McMahon, owner of World Wrestling Entertainment, in 1984. Then, there was World Championship Wrestling, which was founded in 1988 by Ted Turner, and ran until 2001, which was also bought by Vince McMahon.

What wrestling fans may not know is that there is an active wrestling company in Georgia. This company is called Southern Violence and Wrestling (SVW). Their story is quite unique.

SVW is a wrestling company based in Athens, and was founded in 2015 by Dave Hadden. SVW usually holds events once a month, with their most recent event taking place on April 10. Most of their events are held at the Southern Brewing Company at 231 Collins Industrial Boulevard. There is no limited capacity if they’re outside. However, if they have to go inside, they reserve 150 seats, and these seats sell out like hotcakes.

SVW was founded on a premise to bring back extreme wrestling because it has been forgotten. With the fall of the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling in 2001, there hasn’t been a lot of independent wrestling companies that have promoted extreme wrestling. SVW has done exactly that; their avid fan base supporting them with much success.

“Southern Violence and Wrestling is here to bring back the extreme of wrestling, death matches, blood, and more blood.” – Southern Violence and Wrestling

For example, extreme wrestling match types include a Death Match, a Killing Fields Steel Cage Eight Man Tag Team Match, a No Holds Barred Match, a Three On Two Handicap Tables Match, a Buried Alive Match, and a Barbed Wire Hell Dog Collar Match.

SVW has a few championships, which are the SVW Hoss Fight Title, the SVW Tag Team Title, the SVW Hardcore Title, and the SVW Heavyweight Title. Their current champions are Austin Towers, FAME (Brandon Whatley & Ryan Murdoch), Chop Top, and Axel Foley respectively.

What also makes SVW stand out is their headquarters. As stated above, SVW’s events mostly take place at the Southern Brewing Company, which is also where their headquarters are. The Southern Brewing Company is a locally owned company in Athens that brews beers.

The Southern Brewing Company was founded in August 2014 by Rick Goddard and Brian Roth. Since launching to the public in May 2015, they have more than 30 employees, and have created over 50 unique beers. You can check out their website here.

Despite SVW holding their events at the Southern Brewing Company, they make sure kids can attend their events as well as legal adults.

If you want to follow SVW, you can follow their Facebook page, which is their main platform of communication. You can also follow their Instagram and Twitter pages. You can view SVW events on FITE TV. More information about SVW can be found on Cagematch.