International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom

International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (Sometimes called IPW:UK or IPWUK) was a British professional wrestling promotion, founded by Daniel Edler.[1] The company was established in 2004 and promotes events across Kent and the south-east; notably in Tonbridge, Swanley, Snodland and Selsdon. Billy Wood sold the company on 1 January 2020 to Paul Hopkins

International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom
AcronymIPW:UK
Founded2004
StyleProfessional wrestling
Sports entertainment
HeadquartersOrpington, United Kingdom
Founder(s)Daniel Edler
Owner(s)Daniel Edler (2004-2017)
Billy Wood (2017-2019)
Paul Hopkins (2020-present)
WebsiteIPWUK.com

History

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. 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). The promotion would soon reach a deal with The Wrestling Channel to broadcast a weekly one-hour television show.

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.

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.

In mid-2007 IPW:UK were contacted by Channel 4's Endemol regarding working with Big Brother's Little Brother and former Big Brother contestant Billi "Lightning" Bhatti. After successful training days, IPW:UK were featured heavily on the BBLB program and have continued to work with Billi ever since, featuring him on several of their live events.

On August 26, 2012, at Summer Sizzler 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.[2][3]

IPW:UK established a working relationship with the WWE in 2015 which later ended, and also run media wrestling conventions in the UK and abroad.[4] In 2018, IPW:UK would appear on FreeSports, after the fall of 5 Star Wrestling.[5]

On November 15, 2019, IPW announced that they would cease all live wrestling events by the end of the year, announcing its final title defenses for December 15 at Undisputed III.

On the 1st January 2020 it was announced that IPW:UK had been sold to Paul Hopkins and although it was stated that there were no plans to run shows in the foreseeable future it was not ruled out that the company may return to running live shows.

Championships

IPW currently promotes four championship belts, with the major title, the IPW:UK World Championship being a national championship.[6]

Current championships
ChampionshipCurrent champion(s)[7]Date wonLocationPreviousDays
IPW:UK World Championship Battle Tested Rob Lynch 15 December 2019 Maidstone, Kent, England Robert Sharpe 192+
IPW:UK Tag Team Championship The Anti-Fun Police
(Chief Deputy Dunne and Los Federales Santos Jr.)		 29 May 2019 Canterbury, Kent, England Pretty Deadly
(Lewis Howley and Sam Stoker)		 392+
IPW:UK Women's Championship Bobbi Tyler 24 March 2019 Maidstone, Kent Sierra Loxton 458+
IPW:UK Junior Heavyweight Championship Daisuke Harada 16 November 2019 Tokyo, Japan Atsushi Kotoge 221+

Retired championships
ChampionshipFinal champion(s)Date retiredLocationNotes
IPW:UK All-England Championship Mark Haskins 29 April 2018 Rochester, Kent, England Haskins defeated Austin Aries to win the IPW:UK World Championship thus unifying both titles.
British Heavyweight Championship Sha Samuels 15 May 2011 Sittingbourne, Kent, England The title moved to Revolution Pro Wrestling after Andy Quildan's departure from the promotion.
British Tag Team Championship Project Ego
(Kris Travis and Martin Kirby)		 26 August 2012 Sittingbourne, Kent, England The title moved to Revolution Pro Wrestling after Andy Quildan's departure from the promotion.
British Cruiserweight Championship Marty Scurll 28 April 2012 London, England Scurll defeated Sami Callihan in the finals of an 8-man tournament to win the vacant to win the British Heavyweight Championship, later the title moved to Revolution Pro Wrestling after Andy Quildan's departure from the promotion.

See also

References
  1. Rodriguez, Angel (9 January 2018). "Former IPW: UK promoter Daniel Edler accused of sexual misconduct with a minor". Wrestling News. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  2. "About RevPro". Revolution Pro Wrestling. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  3. Boon, Allan (30 August 2015). "THE STEELCHAIR INTERVIEW: ANDY QUILDAN OF REVOLUTION PRO-WRESTLING". TheSteelChair. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  4. "IMPACT Wrestling set two huge matches for Wrestling MediaCon in UK - RealSport". RealSport. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  5. "New British wrestling contents soon available on FITE TV". VultureHound + SteelChair Magazine - Music, Film, TV + Wrestling. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  6. Voller, Martin (28 April 2017). "Jimmy Havoc to defend IPW:UK wrestling title against teenage idol Tommy Dreamer in Clapham". South West Londoner. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  7. "IPW:UK Champions". International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
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