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Ed Garner was a wrestling promoter who formed the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, capitalizing on the abundance of super-humanly strong fighters who were too powerful for conventional wrestling. From his offices in Las Vegas, Garner sent out attracted would be clients with television advertising.[2] Unknown to Garner, many of his future clients all received strength enhancements from Power Broker, Inc. which also hooked the wrestlers on drugs in order to bilk them out of money.[3] Among Garner's original wrestlers included Dynamite Dunphy, the Mangler, and the Thing who was estranged from the Fantastic Four at the time. After initial trials, Garner selected the Thing and Dunphy for the first match. With a lot on the line, Garner tried to bribe Dunphy to throw the fight. Dunphy refused and when the Thing learned about it he threatened to destroy the UCWF if Garner ran a crooked operation. Despite Garner's fears, the Thing and Dunphy fought fairly. Dunphy throwing the fight proved to be a moot concern as the Thing won anyway, making the UCWF a breakaway sports sensation.[2][note 1]


Garner boosted his roster which now included such wrestlers as the Caveman, Jersey Devil, and the Blacksmith among others. When retired wrestling legend Gator Grant came to Garner demanding a chance to fight the Thing in the ring, Garner refused due to Grant's medical condition after years of fighting. Grant later interrupted a later match after using a voodoo spell to turn himself into a half-human/half-gator hybrid, but he was defeated by the Thing none-the-less.[4] Not long after this, Garner agreed to test out the Beyonder as a potential fighter in the UCWF. Impressed by the Beyonder's show of strength, he allowed him to join the league. But when he learned that the Thing held a murderous grudge against the Beyonder he tried to talk Ben out of fighting the Beyonder. The match went on none the less, and the now suicidal Beyonder attempted to let the thing pummel him to death, but the Thing's inability to kill someone prevented him from doing so.[5][note 2] Not long after this Garner had to deal with the National Safety Commission who was demanding that he do something to protect the audience from the increasingly dangerous bouts that were starting to smash out of the ring with increased frequency. [6] He later recruited Manglin' Mahoney into the league, only to lose him when it was revealed that "Mahoney" was really the Thing's youthful sidekick Vance Astrovik after Vance was convinced to return home to his parents.[7][note 3]

Garner finally satisfied the NSC by erecting an impenetrable transparent wall around the ring in order to keep the fighters contained. However things were starting to go bad with his league after starting a female division which included the former criminals known as the Grapplers. After Titania was slain by the Source operative known as Gold Digger, tensions were running high between the female wrestlers and the Thing, who was accused of murdering Titania. Garner later bowed down to demands by both the Thing and Battleaxe to fight it out in the ring.[8] When the UCWF's wrestlers were suffering from withdrawal symptoms and began gunning for the Thing after the Power Broker cut off their drug supply, Garner strambled to maintain the media frenzy of the strange happenings.[9]

Although the federation avoided scandal when Captain America and Ms. Marvel shut down the Power Broker's operations.[10]. Although the UCWF is still in operation, Ed Garner's current activities are unknown.

Notes

  1. At this point in time, Ben was recently involved in the Secret Wars in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-12. After which he decided to stay on Battleworld because he believed that that planet allowed him to change back and forth between his human and Thing form. He was there from Thing #11-22 when he sacrificed his ability to return to human form to stop Grimm the Sorcerer. In Fantastic Four #277 and Thing #23 Ben learned that not only that his teammate Johnny Storm is now dating a woman who everyone thinks is Alicia Masters, but also that Reed Richards knew that Ben could change back and forth any time he wanted for some time prior to the Secret Wars. Some additional facts: Johnny isn't really dating Alicia Masters, as revealed in Fantastic Four #358 she is really Lyja, a Skrull spy who took Alicia's place circa Fantastic Four #265. Reed was aware that Ben could change back and forth at will in Fantastic Four #245. Although Ben thinks he's lost his humanity for good following the events of Thing #22, this is also proven as false as seen the next time Ben is restored to human form in Fantastic Four #326.
  2. The Thing blamed the Beyonder for all his woes following the Secret Wars. At the time of this story the Beyonder was depressed after being rejected by first the Dazller and later Boom Boom in Secret Wars II #4 and 5 respectively.
  3. Vance Astrovik was travelling with the Thing since Thing #26 after he ran away from his abusive home.

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