The Revolution Will Be Televised

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OOD: So I've realized that this is it for me. Like an ex GF, I'll always come crawling back to this story, so I'm just gonna only do this. No more other attempts, going to stick with this. Promise.

 

elite Wrestling revolution

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see eWr (disambiguation).

 

elite Wrestling revolution

 

Type: limited liability company

 

Founded: 2004

 

Founder(s): Tom Carter, Mike Quackenbush, Ace Darling

 

Headquarters: Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.

 

Key people: Calvin Ayre (President)

 

Ric Flair (Vice President, President of Wrestling Activities)

 

Ted Brogan- CEO

 

Bobby Risigliano- CFO

 

Tom Carter - Executive Vice President, Director of Talent Relations

 

 

Industry Professional wrestling

 

Parent bodog Entertainment

 

Website Official Website

 

 

elite Wrestling revolution (eWr) is an American professional wrestling pomotion, founded in 2004 by wrestlers Tom Carter, Mike Quackenbush and Ace Darling and was purchased by Calvin Ayre and his bodog Entertainment group in 2006. It uses television, the Internet, print advertising, "viral" and "Street Team" advertising and live events, with additional major revenue sources from product licensing and direct product sales. eWr was initially known as Independent Pro Wrestling until 2006's purchase by Ayre, and was headquatered out of Yonkers, NY. In 2009, eWr signed a 2 year television deal with FX Network, airing it's "eWr BattleGround" every thursday night at 9:00 PM.

 

eWr has become known as the premier professional wrestling based company in North America not focused on the sports entertainment model. eWr is known for being the first major wrestling promotion to have wrestlers defend their titles in other promotions both domestically and world wide. eWr's business focus is on professional wrestling, but has recently announced plans on starting an video on demand wrestling network. It is currently the third largest professional wrestling promotion in North America, behind World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, which many claim eWr will soon enough overtake. However, eWr is currently the second largest promotion worldwide, due to it's high syndication numbers and touring.

 

 

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History

 

Formation

 

In 2003, former WWE devolpmental talent and Eastern indy wrestling legend Tom "Reckless Youth" Carter along with fellow wrestlers Devon Storm, Ace Darling and Mike Quackenbush spoke of creating a different wrestling promotion, focusing on the young talent and actual wrestling, something different from most independent promotions across the area. They called the promotion "Independent Pro Wrestling". The first event, titled Birth Of A Promotion, took place on September 14, 2004. It featured ten matches, headlined by a four way dance between Reckless Youth, Devon Storm, Christopher Daniels and Steve Corino and a tag team match between the duo of Colt Cabana and Nigel McGuiness against Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush, all four are considered to be some of the "heart and soul of eWr". For the rest of 2004, IPW ran shows mostly as the sister promotion of CHIKARA across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In November, Devon Storm left the promotion after a falling out with Carter and Quackenbush. IPW shut down in December in order to restructure. Following it's hiatus, IPW debuted a mostly new roster along with two new titles, IPW World Tag Team Titles and IPW Crusierweight Title. IPW increased not only it's touring schedule but also it's advertising, many times plastering a town it ran in with print and television ads, which thusly quickly made it one of the bigger drawing indy promotions around. IPW's initial venture into mainstream media took place at Battle Of The Titans when New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey got involved and wrestled in a match, teaming with Eddie Kingston and facing and defeating Emil Sitochi and Chris Raaber. The match was covered by many media outlets including ESPN, USA Today and the New York Times. In it's early run, IPW gained critical acclaim by many wrestling journalists for it's storylines and in ring action, even having Wrestling Observer head Dave Metzler call IPW "the true promotion of the future".

 

Purchasing of PWU and The Carazullio Incident

 

In July 2005, IPW made news when they purchased the Pro Wrestling Unplugged promotion, owned by Johnny Kashmere and Tod Gordon. The purchase was important because it solidified IPW's spot as the top non Ring Of Honor indy promotion in the Northeast. During this time, Tom Carter, who had been both booking and wrestling as IPW Champion, instituted former PWU and NWA New Jersey booker Richard Carazullio as head booker. IPW booked an invasion style storyline with PWU's Team Philly invading, and setting up for a War Games type match. However, unknown to Carter and IPW staff, Carazullio had an agreement with Tod Gordon and CZW owner Jon Zandig, in which Carazullio would bring a group of IPW wrestlers into CZW and was also reportdly in talks to sign shares of IPW over to Zandig, thusly selling IPW to CZW. However before this happened, Carter and Quackenbush were informed of the plan and Carazullio, Gordon and all the wrestlers involed in the plan were promptly fired. Carter was thusly elected to become the head booker yet again. Carter announced he would soon retire in order to be full time behind the scenes. During this time, many stars debuted/returned to IPW including Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, Nigel McGuiness, Kevin Steen, Claudio Castagnoli and others. During this time, IPW expanded to shows in the Western United States, along with tours of Canada and the United Kingdom. IPW also debuted it's IPW TV syndicated show across the country. It's similar set up to ECW's Hardcore TV, due to Ron Buffone and Charlie Bruzzese's pressance in IPW., made it an instant syndication hit and became the top syndicated sports program in the United States, despite it's usual late night placement. In October 2006, IPW announced that in 2006 they would begin producing bimonthly live pay per view events.

 

bodog Purchase

 

In January 2006, IPW announced that the company had been purchased by bodog Entertainment CEO Calvin Ayre and with the purchase the promotion would be rebranded as elite Wrestling revolution. Ayre announced he would be putting his full financial backing behind eWr. eWr's debut pay per view The Big Bang saw it's biggest gate as well as it's new, New Japan Pro Wrestling inspired sets. Soon after the initial PPV, eWr announced they had signed a deal with MyNetwork TV to air a weekly show titled eWr BattleGround on Saturdays at 8PM. eWr also expanded greatly internationally, not only having BattleGround syndicated internationally, but signing working partnerships with All Japan Pro Wrestling and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, which resulted in many stars from both leagues making extended tours in eWr. eWr also began running shows in France, Germany, Italy, Puerto Rico and Japan, holding a joint show with AJPW at the Tokyo Dome. Following the success of their first 2 PPV's, eWr announced they would be airing monthly live PPV's across North America.

 

 

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Controversies

 

As eWr moved into the monthly pay per view territory, it suffered its first major departure as eWr World Heavyweight Champion Colt Cabana announced he had signed with the WWE. Cabana would drop the title to Stevie Richards a week after this announcement. Almost two weeks before this was offically announced however, eWr debuted Alex Shelley, who had shockingly jumped from TNA. Shelley claimed that his move to eWr was due to their use of talent over names. This theme is still evident as several stars have jumped from both TNA and WWE to eWr due to their use of young talent rather than established names.

 

In the early months of 2007, during eWr's tour of Japan and it's Japanese Supershow pay per view, eWr and AJPW's relationship essentially ended. eWr had booked an eWr World Tag Team Title change as The Backseat Boyz lost to the duo of Minoru Suzuki and Yoshohiro Takayama. According to those within eWr, with the title change, eWr believed AJPW and new AJPW President Simon Inoki would allow Suzuki and Takayama to have an extended stay in the US and eWr. However following the victory and the tour, Inoki informed eWr they would be staying in AJPW, a move which Suzuki and Takayama were not notified of. eWr offically ended their partnership with AJPW and stripped Suzuki and Takayama of the titles, which they sent back, not wanting to be a part of Inoki's plans. This was actually the final straw of Inoki's very brief run in AJPW. However in early 2008, eWr and AJPW put together another relationship, mostly with Keiji Mutoh.

 

eWr made major headlines in early 2008 when they announced the signing of former ROH Champion and the company's franchise player, "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson to a 3 year contract away from ROH. ROH thusly began a campaign against eWr calling them "immitators" and "theives". This is seen as eWr's "deathblow" to ROH.

 

MyNetwork/WWE Controversy

 

In March of 2008, MyNetwork TV announced that they had accquired the rights to WWE Friday Night Smackdown, and they would begin showing it in May. As a result, eWr BattleGround would be cancelled. As a result of the contract with MyNetwork, claiming MyNetwork could removed the program at their transgression, eWr could do nothing. BattleGround would move to Versus Network, replacing the eWr on Versus show. Soon enough after this, a group of lower level eWr workers left eWr and joined TNA Wrestling. However the biggest jump would be eWr World Tag Team Champions The Backseat Boyz jumping to TNA the day before eWr's biggest show of the year WrestleFest 08.

 

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Ric Flair Involvement/FX Deal

 

With the departure of the Backseat Boyz fresh in many fans' eyes, eWr made two huge simultanious announcements at WrestleFest 08. They announced that Ric Flair would be debuting as the on air President of eWr. In reality, eWr's Calvin Ayre named Flair the legitimate Vice President of the company and made him the head of the day to day operations of the wrestling standpoint. They also announced a 2 year deal with FX Network to air "BattleGround" starting in Feburary 2009. However, what was shocking was a week following the announcement, it was learned that BattleGround would be going opposite TNA Impact on Thursday nights at 9PM. It has been said that the inclusion of Flair in the talks with FX is what prompted the deal. The intital show pulled in a very strong 2.5 raiting, highlighted by the surprised debut of Christian Cage and have since kept it's rating relativly high, routinley trading ratings wins with Impact.

 

ROH Purchase

 

Also at WrestleFest 08, eWr formally announced that they had purchased the Ring Of Honor promotion. The deal was for around $3 million dollars, and focused manily on the ROH video library. Of the ROH roster, 8 wrestlers came on board with eWr including ROH Champion Austin Aries, ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers and The Young Bucks. Many of the ROH roster followed ROH booker Adam Pearce and owner Cary Silkin to the reformed National Wrestling Alliance. eWr would go on to unify the ROH titles with eWr titles in Feburary's Fight Night: Unification pay per view.

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Differences from WWE and TNA

 

International Titles

 

Unlike the WWE and TNA, eWr not only encourages but mandates it World Champions to defend their titles against all comers, espically international opponents. As a result of eWr's relationships with WXW, AJPW, Pro Wrestling NOAH and AAA, it is routine for the eWr World Heavyweight Champion to face the champions of those respective companies champions. For example during his eWr World Heavyweight Title reign, Chris Hero defended his title against the IPW UK Champion Doug Williams, WXW Champion Bad Bones, AAA Champion Mesias and AJPW Champion Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima. Many times these matches take place during eWr's tours of the country.

 

CHIKARA

 

eWr utalizes Mike Quackenbush' CHIKARA promotion as both a training center and devolpmental league. It is tradition for eWr to graduate "classes" from CHIKARA to eWr. The first class of graduates included Super Dragon, Chuck Taylor, Max Boyer, B-Boy and others. eWr will also routinely take CHIAKRA talent on the road in special "CHIKARA Showcase" matches, exhibiting the top stars of CHIKARA/next stars of eWr.

 

PPV's/House Shows

 

eWr will routinley hold PPV events on Saturday nights for smaller events. They have also innovated several concepts including 2009's King Of The Deathmatch/Sweet Science Tournaments, two different shows held on Saturday and Sunday nights, sold for $30. Much like the WWE in the 1980's, eWr has signed deals in several markets to simulcast it's houseshows on regional sports networks. eWr local house shows can be seen on Comcast Sports in Philadelphia, KJLA in Los Angeles, SNY in New York/New Jersey, NESN in Massachusets and are rumored to begin similar deals in Chicago and Toronto.

 

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Championships

 

eWr has three main titles that it recognizes being the eWr World Heavyweight, eWr World Tag Team and eWr World CrusierX Titles. All 3 titles trace their linage back to IPW when they were the Heavyweight, Tag Team and Crusierweight Titles and where thusly renamed when the company changed it's name. eWr unified the titles with the Ring Of Honor titles (World Heavyweight, Tag Team and Pure Titles) in Feburary 2009. The combination of the Pure and CrusierX Titles made eWr announce the eWr World Hybrid Championship.

 

Over the years eWr has recgonized other titles to be defended on its shows and programming including the AJPW Triple Crown and WXW World Heavyweight Title. eWr has also had a psuedo fourth title in Larry Sweeney's ICW/ICWA Texarkana TV Title, which he later "unified" to become the ICW/ICWA Southern Title. The title hasn't been seen since later 2008.

 

Champions

 

Championship Champion(s) Previous champion(s) Date Won Location Event

 

eWr World Heavyweight Championship: "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson; defeated Chris Hero in Chicago, Illinois at WrestleFest 08

 

eWr World Tag Team Championship: The Briscoe Brothers (Mark and Jay Briscoe); defeated The Murder City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Fight Night: Unification

 

eWr World Hybrid Championship: Kenny Omega; defeated Joey Ryan in Chicago, Illinois at WrestleFest 08

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<p></p><div style="text-align:center;"><p><strong>The Big Players</strong></p><p> </p><p>

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<strong><span style="font-size:18px;">"American Dragon" Bryan Danielson</span></strong></p><p> </p><p>

The man leading eWr into it's biggest year ever is the man universally considered to be the best wrestler in the world. After a long and storried career in the Ring Of Honor promotion, Danielson made his way to eWr in March 2008 and imeditly made his intentions known he wanted to become the eWr World Heavyweight Champion, a title held by Chris Hero. Danielson had a hard road on his way to the title as Hero constantly refused to grant Danielson a title shot and threw all of the members of the Kings Of Wrestling at Danielson. After a series of tough battles against Claudio Castagnoli, Necro Butcher and Kings Of Wrestling ally Kevin Steen, Danielson finally recieved his shot for the title by wining the WrestleSummit. Danielson enacted the title shot for the biggest event in eWr history in WrestleFest 08. After a now legendary 49 minute match, which went on to win unamious Match Of The Year awards from the top wrestling outlets around the world, Danielson fought through 5 Knockout Elbows 6 Hero's Welcomes and 2 applications of the Hangman's Clutch to end Chris Hero's 378 day reign as eWr World Heavyweight Champion. Almost immedietly, Danielson and Hero faced off again in the rematch for the title, and in yet another classic, this time with European Rules, Danielson again defeated Hero. </p><p> </p><p>

However as he prepared for the rematch with Hero, a new challenger and rival appeared in the form of Ring Of Honor World Champion Austin Aries. Aries challenged Danielson to a unification match at eWr Fight Night to prove who the real best wrestler in the world is. In yet another instant classic bout, Danielson defeated Aries with the lethal Cattle Mutulation at the 41 minute mark. Following the match, Aries shook hands with Danielson and the duo forged a pact of honor to rid eWr of the men who had been terrorizing them and eWr, in the Kings Of Wrestling. Danielson then turned to the new number one contender, and a man which would put forth a very interesting matchup, in the form of "Captain Charisma" Christian Cage. The match between Cage and Danielson, however was spoiled by The Kings Of Wrestling who hit the ring and destroyed both men and Austin Aries. This led eWr President Ric Flair to announce at eWr May Massacre, we would see a match which would be unprecidented in eWr's history as we would see the All or Nothing War Games match (more later). However, before this match could take place, Danielson would once again illustrate his place as The Best in The World as he defeated Pro Wrestling NOAH's megastar and a longtime rival of Danielson, KENTA in Tokyo, Japan. </p><p> </p><p>

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"That Young Knockout Kid" Chris Hero

 

The leader of the most powerful group in wrestling, The Kings Of Wrestling, and the once longest reigning champion in pro wrestling, Chris Hero has become a one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Hero came to eWr and almost immeditly formed the Kings Of Wrestling with Claudio Castagnoli, Larry Swenney and later on Michael "Stevie Richards" Manna. After intitally sticking to tag team competition with Castagnoli, Hero would make waves by winning the a title contenter tournament and facing and then losing to then eWr World Champion Alex Shelley and Michael Manna in a 3 Way Dance. Hero however would shock the wrestling world by winning the first annual WrestleSummit and instantly cashing in his title shot and winning the eWr World Heavyweight Title from Alex Shelley. Hero then ceded control of the Kings of Wrestling, kicking out Manna and bringing in the Necro Butcher. Then for the next 378 days, Hero would go on to be the most dominant champion in pro wrestling. Hero took on every contender and defeated them, ranging from Nigel McGuinness, Alex Shelley, Lance Storm and everyone in between. Hero nearly lost the title to Eddie Kingston, during their Feud Of The Year run, at Scars and Stripes, but despite this Hero and the Kings reigned supreme. However despite this Hero faced a constant threat from Bryan Danielson, whom Hero constantly deined a title shot, despite having thrown the entire Kings of Wrestling at him.

 

When Danielson won WrestleSummit, the 2 faced in an instant classic where Danielson defeated Hero for the title. Hero and the Kings vowed revenge and Hero enacted his rematch lause at New Year's Evil in a European style rules match. Again in a close affair, Danielson defeated Hero. As Hero now had to work his way back to the top, a new opponent entered the ranks in Christian Cage. Hero claimed eWr was once his federation, and now due to eWr President Ric Flair and Bryan Danielson, it was raped from him and then called Cage a joke for believing he was the true top man in eWr. Hero then gained another enemy in Austin Aries. Hero attempted to take Aries out so he could gain yet another title opportunity. Hero now fought a 3 pronged war, attempting to take out top challengers in Cage and Aries in order to gain another shot at Danielson. As a result of this, Hero and the Kings Of Wrestling introduced two new members in the form of Davey Richards and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen, both men members of Larry Sweeney's Sweet and Sour Inc. (an KOW ally/funded stable created by KOW member Larry Sweeney, following Bryan Danielson "ending" Sweeney's career and thusly becoming a manager) who had their contracts sold to the KOW. The new KOW exhibited a new kind of killer instinct the group seemingly lacked. The KOW would then lose the Necro Butcher, who would join the Age Of The Fall, a move Hero "allowed" to happen. The Kings would strike when they disrupted the highly anticiapted Christian Cage/Bryan Danielson match, which set the wheels in motion for the All Or Nothing War Games match.

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Nigel McGuinness

 

A man considered to be one of the founding fathers of eWr, Nigel McGuinness has over the last few months gone through a nearly 180 degree transformation. McGuinness has long time been considered the best wrestler in eWr to never hold a title. Nigel has throughout his eWr career come close to becoming eWr Champion but has been consistantly dealt bad cards. From injury, to side feuds, "Hard Luck Nigel" has despite these troubles stayed one of the biggest fan favorites in eWr. Until he snapped.

 

McGuinness' quest for the eWr Title from Chris Hero was side tracked by Alex Shelley and later Chris Sabin. The reformed Murder City Machine Guns would tourment Nigel and numerous partners until Nigel brought in fellow Englishman Doug Williams to combat the Guns. At WrestleFest 08, the United Kingdom as they would become known as, would suffer a tough 2/3 falls loss to the Guns in the final match of the feud. Following the match, a clearly angry Nigel bailed on Williams and one week later would shock the world by turning on Williams. Nigel would return the next week, claiming he was a changed man. He blamed the fans on his luck in eWr, claiming he did it all for them and it got him nowhere and when Bryan Danielson showed up, they abandoned him, and now the true Nigel McGuinness would reign supreme over eWr. From there on, Nigel and his new found arrogant attitude became one of the most dominant wrestlers in eWr, banishing Williams out of eWr and defeating literly everyone thrown in his path. McGuinness however also began to state that eWr World Heavyweight Champion Bryan Danielson was "ducking" him because he knew McGuinness was truly the best in the world. But recently, Nigel and his lust for the title may have taken him to a new level, as he agreed to join the Kings Of Wrestling for the All Or Nothing War Games match at May Massacre.

[BYU 14]

Great job on the buildup, you have a reader here.

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"Captain Charisma" Christian Cage

 

The man loved by his "peeps" has become the biggest free agent signing in eWr history. The former multiple time TNA Champion and a former holder of numerous WWE titles, shocked the wrestling world by rejecting contracts from the "big two" promotions to join eWr, and he would make his debut on the first episode of eWr BattleGround on FX. Almost immeditly, Cage made his intentions known that he came to eWr not for the money but for the competition, something he lacked in TNA and WWE. And in his very first apperance, he found the competition in the Kings Of Wrestling, who immeditly confronted Cage and claimed he had accomplished nothing, and he could not hang in eWr against the Kings. Cage would instantly side with Bryan Danielson in his fight against the Kings, but promised Danielson he would soon come for a title match. As Danielson and Cage wared with the Kings, Cage would end going after the King's second in command Claudio Castagnoli, as Claudio would knock Cage out with a vicious bycycle kick. As it were in March, Cage would end up defeating Claudio in the finals of an 8 man number one contendership tournament. Cage would focus his sights on Danielson and his title.

 

The highly anticipated Cage/Danielson bout would be spoiled by the Kings, destroying both men, and new ally Austin Aries. Cage vowed revenge for having his shot at the title taken away from him, going after both Hero and Castagnoli. But following the attack, new KOW member Kevin Steen began to aid Claudio in his feud against Cage, claiming Cage was a disapointment to the people of Canada, unlike himself Canada's Greatest Wrestler. Cage's feud with the Kings although not tremendously long, has become one of the more notable ones in eWr.

 

 

 

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Austin Aries

 

The only two time Ring Of Honor champion finally made his way to eWr following eWr's purchase of ROH. Aries made his official debut at New Years Evil in January 2009, where he and the other ROH Champions watched the show. At the end of the Bryan Danielson/Chris Hero World Title rematch, Aries would enter the ring and shake Danielson's hand and offically challenge him to a unification match at the next month's Fight Night event to prove who the best in the world was. Aries would dominate top eWr stars like Mike Quackenbush, Davey Richards and Kevin Steen in the weeks preceding the Danielson match up. It was also much hyped that in their 3 encounters in ROH, Aries won all 3 matches (2 tag team and one singles bouts). In yet another classic, Aries would fall to Danielson and thusly losing his ROH Title. Aries, ever the competitor would present Danielson the title and shook his hand and proclaimed him the better man.

 

Despite the loss, Aries was still considered the top contender for the title and a rematch was announced in March. However, before the match was offically signed, Aries was attacked following a match against Kevin Steen, by Chris Hero, who was considered the number 2 contender. The attack by Hero and the Kings Of Wrestling seperated Aries' shoulder and thusly kept him out of the match. eWr immeidtly put together a tournament, won by Christian Cage, to fill the number one contendership spot. As Danielson and Cage's match was ruined by the Kings Of Wrestling, Aries made a shocking return attempting to aid Cage and Danielson, but only to be attacked by newest KOW Davey Richards, who would lock Aries in a vicious inverted armbar. Aries would continue to rehabilitate his injured arm as Davey Richards began to tout himself as "the man who took Austin Aries out of eWr". However, the night Ric Flair announced the all or nothing War Games match, Aries would make his return to eWr, aiding Danielson and Cage in a brawl with the Kings.