Acronym | IPW:UK |
---|---|
Founded | September 2004 |
Defunct | September 2017 |
Style | Professional wrestling Sports entertainment |
Headquarters | Orpington, United Kingdom |
Founder(s) | Daniel Edler |
Owner(s) | Daniel Edler (2004–2017) |
International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (Sometimes called IPW:UK or IPWUK) was a British professional wrestling promotion, founded by Daniel Edler. The company was established in 2004 and predominantly promoted events across Kent and the south-east; notably in Orpington, Sittingbourne, Tonbridge, Swanley and lastly Rochester.
The promotion made its debut in September 2004 with a show called Extreme Measures at the Orpington Halls in Orpington, Greater London. The show included an Iron Fist match between Jonny Storm and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Super Dragon. At its inception, the promoter was Daniel Edler and the Booker was Andrew "Fozzy" Maddock.
Other memorable early shows for IPW:UK would include the Best of British series which would see matches to determine the best wrestlers in the UK of a certain class (High Flyers, and Heavyweights).
After initially coming in as a referee in 2005, Andy Quildan was promoted in the company to Booker, replacing Andrew Maddock - with Quildan also taking over the behind the scenes role of lead editor for all media output. The promotion would soon reach a deal with The Wrestling Channel to broadcast a weekly one-hour television show. [ citation needed ]
In August 2006, Frontier Wrestling Alliance allowed IPW:UK to participate in its second Frontiers of Honor show which also involves American promotion Ring of Honor. This working relationship with FWA would seem to take a turn for the worse when several incidents involving IPW:UK using FWA talent when the same talent were scheduled to appear in FWA events, and promoting FWA title defences without asking for permission from the FWA management team. However, these seemingly legit incidents were worked into an inter-promotional feud that would see then IPW:UK Champion Martin Stone be stripped of his FWA Tag Team Title, siding with IPW:UK in preparation to face semi-retired FWA Star Alex Shane in a Promotion vs. Promotion – Winner Takes All Match at Broxbourne on 16 March 2007. This was later changed to The Orpington Halls vs. Flash Barker, on 25 March - an event which IPW:UK won.[ citation needed ]
In early-2007, IPW:UK announced that from October 2007 to September 2008, they would be running a year-long, 64 person tournament entitled the "British National Championship". This culminated in a final bout between Johnny Moss and Terry Frazier, with Frazier coming out on top as the winner of the BNC and the new All-England Champion. The promotion tried a second version later down the line, with far less critical success. [ citation needed ]
On 26 August 2012, at booker Andy Quildan broke with the promotion to ensure "the high standards he set to the promotion" would be maintained. Quildan would bring with him the British Heavyweight, Tag Team and Cruiserweight Championships to his new promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling. [1] [2]
At the same time, Daniel Edler, still recognising all the current champions, began working on "Academy" events set in Swanley, with the aim being to produce the next generation of British talent. A star student would turn out to be WWE NXT UK wrestler Sam Stoker.
In November 2015 the company began a string of “SuperShow” events at the Casino Rooms Nightclub in Rochester, Kent. These featured famous former WWE and top independent wrestlers, facing off against IPW:UK roster members. There were 11 of these SuperShow events through until September 2017.
In July 2017, owner and founder Daniel Edler sold the company assets and the final ever IPW:UK event was held on 24 September 2017, one day shy of 13 years to the date of the first show.
IPW:UK promoted four main championships during its time, with the major title, the IPW:UK World Championship being a World championship - after being defended internationally. [3]
Championship | Final champion(s) | Date retired | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
IPW:UK World Championship | Jonny Storm | September 2017 | Swanley, Kent, England | Vacated and retired |
IPW:UK Tag Team Championship | Sammy Smooth & James Castle | September 2017 | Swanley, Kent, England | Vacated and retired |
IPW:UK Women's Championship | Livvii Grace | September 2017 | Swanley, Kent, England | Vacated and retired |
IPW:UK All-England Championship | Earl Black Jr | September 2017 | Swanley, Kent, England | Vacated and retired |
Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) was a professional wrestling promotion in Britain. Established in 1993 as the Fratton Wrestling Association it soon became the Frontier Wrestling Alliance six years later and until 2007 when it lost a scripted inter-promotional feud with International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom. As a result of losing the promotion was forced to close and the company XWA was founded, largely based on the old FWA with some old staff and wrestlers as well as some championships. However, in 2009 the FWA brand was relaunched again as a separate promotion to the XWA, running for three more years before folding again in 2012.
The IPW:UK All-England Championship was a professional wrestling championship which was originally contested for in Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) and subsequently in International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (IPW:UK) after FWA's closure. The title was established in 2001 and existed for eight years until it was unified with the IPW:UK Championship in September 2009. The IPW:UK Championship and the All-England Championship were de-unified in 2012 through until the company closing in 2017.
Andrew Simmons, better known by his ring name Andy Boy Simmonz, is a British professional wrestler. He is worked on the independent circuit in the United Kingdom for several promotions. Simmons' most high-profile work in the UK came in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance under the face gimmick of Simmons the Butler. Simmons later returned to the FWA under the ring name Andy Boy Simmons but remained face.
Alexander Daniel Spilling is a British professional wrestler and professional wrestling commentator who is best known by his ring name "The Showstealer" Alex Shane. Spilling also works as a promoter, wrestling coach and television producer.
James Michael Curtin is an English former professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE as a writer on Raw. During his time as an on screen performer in the company, he worked under the ring name Drake Maverick. He has also worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, under the ring name Rockstar Spud.
Robert Edward Brooks, better known by his ring name Robbie Brookside, is a retired English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a trainer/producer for the NXT brand. He has toured all over the world during his career, wrestling in the United States, Japan, Germany, and Mexico. He was a regular tag partner of Steve Regal in the United Kingdom and has competed in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling's annual tournament, the Super J Cup, in 1997, where he picked up a victory over Chris Jericho.
Joel Pettyfer, is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Joel Redman. Pettyfer is best known for his work on the independent circuit in the United Kingdom, where he is a former Unified British Tag Team Champion alongside Mark Haskins in International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom and Real Quality Wrestling and was a regular competitor in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance. He is also known for working in WWE's developmental territory NXT under the ring name Oliver Grey, where he was one half of the inaugural NXT Tag Team Champions along with Adrian Neville, often collectively known as British Ambition.
Mark Sloan is a British professional wrestler. Sloan is best known for his work with the Frontier Wrestling Alliance due to founding the promotion and being head trainer in the company's training academy, FWA Academy.
The Kartel was a professional wrestling tag team made up of Terry Frazier and Sha Samuels. They are best known their work on the independent circuit mainly within the United Kingdom.
Shaaheen Hosseinpour, better known by the ring name Sha Samuels, is an English professional wrestler, currently performing for Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro). He is also known for his time in WWE where he performed on the NXT UK brand.
Martin Harris is an English professional wrestler best known for his time with WWE, where he performed on the NXT brand under the ring name Danny Burch. He is a former one time NXT Tag Team Champion with Oney Lorcan. He has worked in the British independent circuit under the ring name Martin Stone with promotions such as Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW), Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA), and International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (IPW:UK).
James Tighe is a semi-retired English professional wrestler. He is best known for his work with Frontier Wrestling Alliance. He currently competes around the United Kingdom.
XWA was a British professional wrestling promotion, based in the English southeast town of Sudbury, Suffolk. The XWA was formed in March 2007, following the demise of the Frontier Wrestling Alliance, and acted as a spiritual successor. XWA initially ran quarterly events in Morecambe using FWA titles and some former FWA talent. XWA had an extended hiatus between 2012 and 2014. After resuming operations in 2014, the promotion ran its final events in September 2018.
The Swiss Money Holding was a professional wrestling tag team originally composed of Ares and Claudio Castagnoli, and later joined by Marc Roudin in late 2004. Their in-ring personas parodied Swiss bankers from the United Bank of Switzerland. The team first worked for Westside Xtreme Wrestling in Essen, Germany, for much of their early career and later competed in promotions throughout the continent. Within a few years, $MH were considered one of the top tag teams in Europe having won titles in Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro/RPW) is a British professional wrestling promotion founded on 26 August 2012 by Andy Quildan after separating from International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom.
The Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro/RPW) promotion. The title was created and debuted on 16 July 2005 and is the promotion's principal championship. The current champion is Luke Jacobs, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Michael Oku at the RevPro 12th Anniversary Show in London, England on 24 August 2024.
The Undisputed British Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro/RPW) promotion. The title was created and debuted on 17 July 2005. The inaugural champions were AK-47. The current champions are Sunshine Machine, who are in their second reign as a team and individually. They defeated the Grizzled Young Veterans at the RevPro 12th Anniversary Show in London, England on 24 August 2024.
Travis Bligh, better known by his ring name Travis Banks, is a New Zealand professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE on their NXT UK brand. He is also known for competing in promotions such as Fight Club Pro, What Culture Pro Wrestling, Attack! Pro Wrestling, Revolution Pro Wrestling, and most notably Progress Wrestling, where he is a former World Champion. He works in Mexican promotions such as International Wrestling Revolution Group, Kaoz Lucha Libre, The Crash Lucha Libre and Wrestling League Society. As of 2023 he is the fourth champion of the Morelia, Michoacan wrestling promotion SCW.
The IPW:UK World Championship was a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the English professional wrestling promotion, International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom.
The IPW:UK Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team championship created and promoted by the English professional wrestling promotion International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom. The inaugural champions was AK-47 and they won the titles on July 7, 2005.