HISTORY OF THE FWA

The Frontier Wrestling Alliance has been crossing the frontiers of British wrestling for over a decade. No other UK wrestling promotion has made the same kind of massive impact as the FWA during the past 10 years.
 

The FWA, then known as the Fratton Wrestling Alliance, was formed in 1999 and promoted its first show in February of that year. At the time, the FWA was a small Portsmouth-based company run by ‘The Specialist’ Mark Sloan. The FWA’s main achievements during its formative years were a regional TV show in the Portsmouth area, its critically-acclaimed live wrestling events and the success of its training school – the FWA Academy – which later spawned a whole host of talented young grapplers including future WWE superstars Paul Burchill and Katie Lea.

But it was in 2001 when the FWA really shot to national prominence. One of the promotion’s top wrestlers, ‘The Showstealer’ Alex Shane, became the co-host of a weekly Saturday night wrestling radio show on TalkSPORT. Alongside famed children’s TV presenter and radio DJ Tommy Boyd, Shane had a forum to promote the FWA to a national audience and make British wrestling fans sit up and take notice.

TalkSPORT listeners really began to get excited about the FWA when Boyd and Shane began talking about a groundbreaking event that they claimed would herald the dawn of a new era in British wrestling. This event was called Revival, and took place on February 9 2002 in front of 2,000 fans – a huge crowd for a British wrestling event. Although most fans ventured to the Crystal Palace Indoor Arena that day wanting to see American superstars Eddie Guerrero and Brian Christopher, they left enthusing about the fantastic performances of the new wave of British stars – such as ‘The Phoenix’ Jody Fleisch, ‘The Wonderkid’ Jonny Storm, ‘The Anarchist’ Doug Williams and Alex Shane himself. This unbelievable event was broadcast live on TalkSPORT and then an edited version appeared on Sky TV’s Bravo channel, marking British wrestling’s return to TV after years in the wilderness.

Although Boyd was the promoter of Revival, the stars of the FWA were its heart and soul. And with Alex Shane and British wrestling veteran Dino Scarlo at the helm, the FWA then went on to deliver a series of spectacular live events in the same vein as Revival – mixing stellar overseas talent with the cream of the young Brits.

On October 13 2002, FWA British Uprising raised the bar still further. Held at the legendary York Hall venue in Bethnal Green, British Uprising was UK wrestling’s answer to WWF WrestleMania. Fans paid up to £50 a ticket – the most expensive seats ever for a British wrestling show – such was the demand to see the FWA in person. And after an amazing spectacle including tremendous matches such as Doug Williams v Jerry Lynn, Jonny Storm v AJ Styles and Jody Fleisch v Flash Barker, the FWA had the entire UK wrestling scene buzzing. Even Power Slam magazine – the UK’s top independent grapple mag whose editor Findlay Martin is notoriously sparing in his praise for British wrestling – waxed lyrical about the quality of the FWA.

2003 saw the FWA cement its newly-found status at home and abroad. A joint promotional show with red-hot US promotion Ring of Honour –entitled Frontiers of Honour - saw the very best of British take on the top indie stars from America (including future WWE superstar Paul London, and TNA’s Samoa Joe and AJ Styles) at the York Hall on May 17 2003. Also in 2003, FWA broke out from the south of England in 2003 to promote a pair of well-received national tours. And British Uprising returned to the York Hall on October 18 2003 as FWA’s momentum grew and grew. Then in 2004 the company gained a national TV deal on the new Wrestling Channel on Sky Digital. After an over 20-year absence, British wrestling was back where it belonged in the country’s living rooms on a weekly basis.

The FWA promoted British Uprising 3 in front of the company’s biggest-ever crowd of 1800 on November 13 2004, in the promotion’s first ever arena show at Coventry Skydome. Major American names Terry Funk, D-Lo Brown and Jimmy Hart were part of this extravaganza, alongside the wave of hungry UK wrestlers whose development had been assisted by the FWA – the likes of Hade Vansen (who would go on to sign a WWE contract and appear on SmackDown in 2008), Andy Simmonz (who appeared on RAW in 2007), Spud and Ross Jordan.

The Coventry Skydome would also be the setting for two of the biggest events ever seen on the British Isles in 2005 – International Showdown and Universal Uproar. Like at Revival, although the FWA’s name was not on the bill, its stars and behind-the-scenes staff were the backbone of these ‘supershows’ as the likes of James Tighe, Jonny Storm, Alex Shane and Doug Williams worked with the very biggest names in the industry like Mick Foley, Raven, Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi. And in June of that year, the FWA would also be part of another first as its superb northern venue The Morecambe Dome played host to the first ever Japanese World Title match on British soil, when Minoru Suzuki and Naomichi Marufuji won Pro Wrestling NOAH’s GHC World Tag Team Titles from Williams and former WWF superstar 2 Cold Scorpio.

In 2005 and 2006 the FWA branched out far and wide across the country, bringing its product to more different areas of the UK than ever before. And even when the company took a sabbatical in 2007, it made a far-reaching impact while doing so. The FWA’s ‘Losing Company Must Fold’ feud with upstart promotion IPW:UK had British wrestling fans talking excitedly for months about its twists and turns, until ultimately the FWA was forced to ‘shut down’ at the historic Final Frontiers event on March 25 2007.

Even though the FWA has not promoted any wrestling shows since that date, its influence on the direction of British wrestling since 2007 has continued to be immense. Daniel Edler and Andy Quildan (promoters of IPW:UK), Greg Lambert and Mark Kay (XWA) and Sanjay Bagga (LDN) all got into the wrestling business through the FWA – and now run three of the top promotions in the country. And there are countless other wrestlers and companies across the UK which took their inspiration from the groundbreaking FWA.

Now it is 2009, and the FWA is coming back. August 2 2009 will see the return of the Frontier Wrestling Alliance to its spiritual home of Broxbourne Civic Hall. On that night, we will cross New Frontiers and once again, the FWA will be the most talked about wrestling promotion in Europe. And another exciting chapter in the history of this legendary company is about to be etched in stone.