World Wrestling Federation and Toliver Racing Enter Sponsorship Agreement for NHRA Championship Drag Racing
4 February 1999
World Wrestling Federation and Toliver Racing Enter Sponsorship Agreement for NHRA Championship Drag Racing
STAMFORD, CT--February 4, 1999--WWF Premieres One of Five Unique Funny Cars at Pomona Raceway on
February 3
The World Wrestling Federation will tear up a new track with the debut of the first of five signature Funny Cars on February 3 at the Winternationals in Pomona, California. Entering the vastly popular world of the National Hot Rod Association, the World Wrestling Federation signed a four-year agreement with Toliver Racing to become its major promotional partner in the NHRA Championship Drag Racing series.
With owner/driver Jerry Toliver behind the wheel, the Stone Cold Steve Austin Funny Car will make its debut appearance at the Media Pro Am Race on February 3 at 12:00 noon. Based on the Federation's most popular wrestlers, the WWF Funny Cars will also feature The Undertaker, The Rock, Mankind and D-Generation X. The five Pontiac Firebirds will have a one-of-a-kind body and design and will race at least five times in the course of the 1999 NHRA racing season.
According to Jim Bell, senior vice president of merchandising and licensing for the World Wrestling Federation, "By competing in the NHRA with five unique Funny Cars, we create new and exciting avenues for merchandising and licensing for the World Wrestling Federation." He continues, "The strategic alliance with Toliver Racing is in line with our corporate philosophy: What has more attitude than a WWF car that exceeds 300 miles per hour in three seconds."
Owner/president of JT Enterprises and 30-year racing veteran, Jerry Toliver states, "The demographic parallels of the WWF fans and those of the NHRA are impressive and certain to provide a winning formula for high impact exposure and extremely profitable merchandising and licensing opportunities. With the WWF as our promotional partner, Toliver Racing now has speed, muscle and 'attitude' on the race track."
Titan Sports, located in Stamford, Connecticut, is a privately held company founded in 1982 that does business as the World Wrestling Federation. As a leader in sports-entertainment, Titan's business is structured around television programming in 120 countries (cable and syndication), live events, pay-per-view, print and on-line publishing, home video, merchandising and licensing on a worldwide basis. Titan's impact on popular culture is pronounced: The WWF two-hour prime-time show "Raw is War" is the No. 1 rated cable channel ( USA Network). Over half of the top 60 Pay-Per-View events of all time have been produced by Titan. Specifically, these programs were seen by over 100 million people and represent over $350,000,000 in gross revenues. The "wwf.com" site is one of the most popular on the World Wide Web receiving over two million page views per day and is at the top of AOL's most frequently visited sites. Titan's live events hold several world records for paid attendance and recently, the home video business placed four WWF titles in the top 30 of all videos sold in the United States and a music CD, "WWF Volume 3" is currently charting at 41 on the BILLBOARD charts.