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38-579: Irish Whip Wrestling (IWW) is an Irish-owned independent professional wrestling promotion established in January 2002. The company is named after a wrestling move called the 'Irish Whip'. IWW runs shows Nationally throughout the whole of Ireland, both in The Republic and Northern Ireland. The company has appeared on numerous terrestrial and digital channels and had a weekly show called WHIPLASH TV on The Wrestling Channel , which aired from 2005 to 2006 throughout

76-410: A champion there. Independent Mexican wrestlers may use a lot of gimmicks, including some that may be based on copyrighted characters from American television shows, such as Thundercats and X-Men . (These gimmicks are often changed if the wrestler playing them makes it into AAA or CMLL; the most prominent example of non-compliance with this method is midget wrestler Chucky from AAA, whose gimmick

114-558: A chance to show their skills to IWW management and to a crowd. On 20 March 2005, IWW presented its first-ever SuperShow, held in the SFX City Theatre in Dublin. On 28 March, O'Shaunessy was crowned the first-ever IWW International Heavyweight Champion when he defeated Darren Burridge in the tournament final. American wrestler D'Lo Brown unseated O'Shaunessy as IWW Champion at D-Day on 20 May 2005. Brown reigned for 126 days, before dropping

152-517: A five-year extension on its TV wrestling monopoly from January 1982 to December 1986. However, by the mid-1980s Dixon had won over many wrestlers and fans from Joint who were tired of the Big Daddy -orientated direction of Joint. Eventually this culminated in All Star gaining a TV show on satellite channel Screensport and later, a slice of ITV's coverage from 1987 until the end of ITV wrestling in 1988. By

190-520: A good impression may be offered a developmental or even a full-professional contract. The advent of the Internet has allowed independent wrestlers and promotions to reach a wider audience, and it is possible for wrestlers regularly working the indie circuit to gain some measure of fame among wrestling fans online. Additionally, some of the more successful indies have video distribution deals, giving them an additional source of income and allowing them to reach

228-581: A large enough crowd to fill such a venue were they able to do so. Instead, they make use of any almost open space (such as fields, ballrooms, or gymnasiums) to put on their performances. Some independent promotions are attached to professional wrestling schools , serving as a venue for students to gain experience in front of an audience. As independent matches are seldom televised, indie wrestlers who have not already gained recognition in other promotions tend to remain in obscurity. However, scouts from major promotions attend indie shows, and an indie wrestler who makes

266-534: A larger audience outside of their local areas. Unlike the North American or Japanese products which have large, globally renowned organisations such as WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling with several hundred smaller promotions , Australia only has approximately 30 smaller independent circuit promotions which exist in all but one of the states and territories, that being the Northern Territory . Tours from

304-750: A major national promotion such as WWE , All Elite Wrestling (AEW) (which also owns Ring of Honor (ROH)), or Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in the United States, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico, or New Japan Pro-Wrestling , Dragongate , All Japan Pro Wrestling , World Wonder Ring Stardom or the CyberFight promotions in Japan. It is also not uncommon for veteran wrestlers who have had past tenures with major promotions to appear on independent shows, either as special attractions or as

342-525: A major promoter with shows featuring himself as headline heel. In 1958, when Bert Assirati was stripped of the British Heavyweight Championship , Lincoln formed the BWF alliance of promoters to support Assirati's claim, later recognising Shirley Crabtree as champion. Lincoln's BWF was eventually bought out into Joint in 1970. Welsh promoter Orig Williams also used the BWF name, promoting from

380-518: A region and maintain a consistent schedule. After Vince McMahon , seeking regulatory relief, gave in 1989 testimony in front of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission where he publicly admitted pro wrestling was in fact a sports-based entertainment, rather than a true athletic competition, many state athletic commissions stopped regulating wrestling. This obviated the need for complying with many expensive requirements, such as

418-476: A show in Lucan, Dublin , and the main event featured an FWA British Heavyweight Championship match in which Alex Shane pinned Sheamus O'Shaunessy . Also in 2004, IWW opened up their 'Lock-up' training school in Dublin. Trainers at this school have included Blake Norton, "Middleman" Lee Butler and "The Pukka One" Darren Burridge. The training school has also been host to the company's Gym Wars shows which gives trainees

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456-422: A way to prolong their careers. The "indie" scene in the United States dates back to the days of regional territories. When a promoter ran opposition in even one town controlled by a National Wrestling Alliance sanctioned territory, they were often called an "outlaw" territory. This is considered by some to be a forerunner to indies since some stars of the past got their start in these low quality local rivals to

494-482: A week or once a month in local towns. Independent promotions are usually local in focus and, lacking national TV contracts, are much more dependent on revenue from house show attendance. Due to their lower budgets, most independent promotions offer low salaries (it is not unusual for a wrestler to work for free due to the fact most promoters can only afford to pay well-known talent). Most cannot afford to regularly rent large venues, and would not be able to attract

532-569: Is based on the Child's Play movies.) Until 1984, no independent puroresu promotion per se existed in Japan; potential talent went directly into the training dojos of either New Japan Pro-Wrestling or All Japan Pro Wrestling . ( International Wrestling Enterprise also was a third-party promotion until 1981.) The advent of the Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation offered a long-sought third alternative. From 1986 to 1988

570-545: The 1990s there have also been numerous American-style "New School" promotions. Note: Minimum attendance of 5,000. General Specific Buzz TV Buzz TV was an Irish user-generated television channel that was launched in June 2008, it closed 2 years later in July 2010. The channel allowed viewers to upload their own content, as well as focusing on independent productions, and broadcast on cable and Internet Protocol TV . It

608-644: The International Heavyweight Championship after this match. Naas , Kildare, Ireland The IWW Zero Gravity Championship is professional wrestling championship in IWW. The championship was created in early 2007. The tournament to crown the inaugural champion was a 12-man tournament including wrestlers from seven countries. On 5 February 2010, it was unified with the IWW International Heavyweight Championship and retired. It

646-715: The Japanese system went back to the two-promotion system, but then the UWF was reformed and another promotion, Pioneer Senshi, was started. Because of Japanese societal mores which implied that a wrestler was a lifelong employee of a company and thus identified with it wherever he went, neither AJPW nor NJPW made an effort to acquire wrestlers trained in other promotions; wrestlers from the major promotions who left, such as Genichiro Tenryu , Gran Hamada , Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Akira Maeda , Atsushi Onita , and Nobuhiko Takada had to start their own independent promotions in order to keep themselves in

684-583: The North American product are regularly sold out in capital cities such as Melbourne , Sydney , Perth and Brisbane . Lucha libre has many more independent wrestlers in proportion to the rest of North America, because of the weight classes prevalent in the Mexican league system as well as its emphasis on multiple person tag matches; just about anyone with ability can emerge from an independent promotion into either AAA or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and be

722-542: The UK and Ireland. They also released over a dozen VHS tapes and DVDs of original IWW content, shipping them to over 17 countries worldwide across five continents. Irish Whip Wrestling was the first ever modern day wrestling promotion in Ireland & the first to tour nationally with former WWE , WCW , ECW & Japanese wrestlers. They were the first wrestling company in Ireland to produce Irish wrestling VHS & DVD content &

760-615: The beginning of 2007, the IWW Zero Gravity Championship was created, and a tournament was held to crown the first champion. The 12-man tournament included wrestlers from seven countries. In March 2017, IWW held its second SuperShow, and in the main event, Vic Viper defeated Christopher Daniels to retain the IWW International Heavyweight Championship. On 6 July, IWW returned to the Forum in Waterford for its Global Impact show, which

798-440: The big regional territories. The modern definition of the independent circuit came about in the middle to late 1980s and fully formed and flourished after 1990. These promotions initially sought to revive the feel of old school territorial wrestling after former territories either went national, such as WWF , went out of business, or eventually did both, such as WCW . Several indies did in fact manage to tour different towns within

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836-461: The death of Giant Baba and retirement of Antonio Inoki , which effectively broke their control over the promotions they founded, the major promotions began looking to the smaller promotions for talent. In 2000, the first major signing from an independent, Minoru Tanaka by NJPW from BattlARTS , took place; soon after NJPW stocked the junior heavyweight division with independent talent such as Masayuki Naruse , Tiger Mask , Gedo , and Jado . On

874-505: The end of this period, All Star had effectively replaced Joint (by now owned by Max Crabtree , brother of Shirley) as the dominant promotion in the UK. Joint, renamed Ring Wrestling Stars in 1991, dwindled down before closing with Crabtree's retirement in 1995, All Star has continued to be the dominant non-import live promotion in the UK up to the present day. Its principal competitors since that time have been Scott Conway's TWA, John Freemantle's Premier Promotions, RBW and LDN Wrestling. Since

912-535: The festival and agricultural show circuit. In 2019, they held approximately 30 shows, compared to their peak of over 60 shows per year. As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Irish Whip Wrestling entered a period of hibernation in 2020 and 2021. The IWW International Heavyweight Championship is the primary title for IWW. The championship was created in 2005. A tournament was held in Naas, County Kildare in March 2005 to crown

950-675: The first and only Irish promotion to have a wrestling television show aired in Ireland. Irish Whip Wrestling (IWW) ran its first two shows in June 2002 in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght , which featured wrestler Tatanka . After these two shows, IWW returned to the ESB National Basketball Arena on 9 October for a show that was headlined by Jake "The Snake" Roberts . IWW continued to promote shows around Ireland through 2003 and 2004. On 2 December 2004, IWW held

988-446: The first ever King of the Gym tournament was held over the course of four Gym Wars events. The key IWW feud of this period was between O'Shaunessy and Drew Galloway who battled in a series of gimmick matches (Lumberjack, Two-Out-of-Three Falls, Last Man Standing) between January and August 2006 until Galloway successfully defeated O'Shaunessy to win the IWW title and the end their rivalry. At

1026-641: The first ever champion. The former champion Mandrake was the longest reigning champion in history of the company. On 5 February 2010, the Zero Gravity Title was unified with it and it became known as the Irish Whip Wrestling Unified Heavyweight Championship. On 30 April 2011, The Supermodel defeated Mandrake for the IWW International Heavyweight championship. The Zero Gravity championship was un-unified with

1064-472: The first time in six years. All the matches were taped for IWW's television show on Buzz TV . IWW continued running shows in 2011. Around this time they branched into fundraisers , festival events and summer circuit shows. From 2011 onward, IWW focused on showcasing Irish talent, resulting in a streamlined roster with touring performers still utilized from Canada, America, the UK, and Europe. Irish Whip Wrestling currently tours nationally, participating in

1102-518: The independents that were signed included Akitoshi Saito , Takahiro Suwa , and Taiji Ishimori ). Although AJPW, NJPW, and Noah remain committed to their dojos, the reliance on independents is growing as obscure talent is recognized for its ability. For most of the years of ITV 's coverage of British Wrestling, the dominant promoter in the United Kingdom was the Joint Promotions cartel, which

1140-416: The late 1960s up until the early 2000s and then sporadically until his death in 2009. From 1982 to 1995, Williams had a Welsh language TV wrestling show "Reslo" on S4C. Brian Dixon, a referee for Williams, set up his own company Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead later renamed All Star Wrestling c.  1984 . An alliance with promoter and former top star Jackie Pallo failed to prevent Joint gaining

1178-405: The limelight ( Wrestling Association "R" , Universal Lucha Libre , Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi , Fighting Network Rings , Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , and Hustle respectively) . As the 1990s ended, though, things began to change. Independent promotions began gaining more prominence as they were featured in major specialized media such as Shukan Puroresu and Shukan Gong magazines. With

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1216-426: The need for an on-site ambulance and trained emergency medical personnel at each bout. After the business was thus exposed and deregulated, just about anyone could be a promoter or a wrestler since no licensing beyond a business license was then required. Many thought they could save money by holding shows in lesser towns and smaller arenas with little to no televised exposure, leading to many shows being held only once

1254-526: The same year, following the Pro Wrestling Noah split, AJPW was forced to fill its ranks with independent talent; Nobutaka Araya , Shigeo Okumura and Mitsuya Nagai signed up (Araya is the only one who remains, but other signings since then have been Kaz Hayashi , Tomoaki Honma , Hideki Hosaka , and Ryuji Hijikata .) Noah admitted one wrestler from the independents, Daisuke Ikeda , to its ranks as well (Ikeda has since left, but other wrestlers from

1292-669: The title back to O'Shaunessy at a Main Event Wrestling Event in Newcastle, England. Also in 2005, IWW got its own TV show called Whiplash TV , which was broadcast on The Wrestling Channel on Sky Digital . The show ran for two seasons. Throughout May and June 2006, IWW taped several episodes of its Whiplash TV show in the Laughter Lounge in Dublin City. In 2006, IWW ran shows in cities across Ireland. From August to October 2006,

1330-408: Was later reactivated, after Mandrake lost the IWW International Heavyweight Championship. Independent circuit Independent promotions are essentially viewed as a minor league or farm system for the larger national promotions, as wrestlers in "indie" companies (especially young wrestlers just starting their careers) are usually honing their craft with the goal of being noticed and signed by

1368-439: Was only available on Irish cable provider UPC, on their digital service, channel 131 (their sister service was available on 132). Viewers could text in comments during various programmes, voting for music video of the week, or even use the channel as a social network to chat to the presenter or other viewers. The channel also aired other material such as independent artists' music videos, comedy sketches, and short films. Buzz TV

1406-461: Was originally modelled on the NWA and later amalgamated into a single company. Nonetheless, throughout this period, untelevised alternative promotions flourished with at least one significant competitor to Joint for live shows. Initially the main rival was the former dominant promotion in the territory, Atholl Oakley 's BWA. By the time of its demise, wrestler/promoter Paul Lincoln had established himself as

1444-560: Was taped for DVD sales. The match between the Ballymun Bruiser and Doug Williams was featured on TV3 's Diary of a Sportstar program. In late October 2007, it ran 14 shows between 19 and 28 October. Several matches on the tour were taped for the International Hits, Vol. 1 DVD. On 1 June 2008, Gym Wars returned after a 10-month absence. Later that month, IWW returned to the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, Dublin for

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