Empire Wrestling Federation
Independent wrestling promotion
The Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion operating in Southern California. It was founded in 1996 by Bill Anderson and Jesse Hernandez and takes its name from California's Inland Empire. Jesse Hernandez has owned and operated the promotion since Bill Anderson's departure in 1999. EWF is associated with Jesse Hernandez's School of Hard Knocks wrestling school and was formerly affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance.
EWF began presenting events in San Bernardino and later developed a regular circuit across communities including Covina, Rialto, Riverside, Banning, San Bernardino and Lytle Creek, CA. The promotion has operated continuously since 1996 and marked its 30th anniversary in 2026.
History
1996-1999: The Beginning
EWF held its debut event on May 5, 1996, at the Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino. Bobby Bradley defeated Tom "Zuma" Howard in the main event and later defeated him again on June 16 to become the inaugural EWF Heavyweight Champion. The promotion also held a tribute to Superstar Billy Graham during its first year.
The first EWF Tag Team Champions were the Ghetto Boyz, John Black and Johnny Love, who were recognized on December 6, 1996. By 1997, EWF was promoting monthly events at the San Bernardino Sports Arena; contemporary newspaper coverage described a roster of approximately 25 active wrestlers and fans traveling from around Southern California.
“Empire Wrestling Federation” enters the record as independent wrestling promotion. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Empire, Wrestling and Federation can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5374178. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 1999, 2026 and 1997.
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This entry incorporates text from “Empire Wrestling Federation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.