Moncton wrestling company attacks more New Brunswick territory

The drought for pro-wrestling in Fredericton and Saint John has ended before it got a chance tostart.

An established wrestling promotional companyout of Moncton, Innovative Hybrid Wrestling, will begin running shows in the area this month.

That's filling a hole left bya company, Vision Pro Wrestling, thatfolded in September.

Kevin Tyler, the promoter of IHW, said the move into new areas was actually endorsed by the owners of VPW.

"I guess they weren't really going to leave the promotion to anyone and they trusted us," Tyler said.

"We were more than happy to come in and start running this town."

• Vision Pro Wrestling in Saint John hosting final show next month

'They would do really well'

Geoff Durning, who co-owned VPW and wrestled under the name Dick Durning, spoke highly of the othercompanyearlier this year.

"Moncton is crazy right now, so hopefully if the company from Moncton comes down here, everything will get back to normal because they are a great company," Durning said.

"I think they will do really well if they do get in here."

The blessing extended to what will be IHW's first show in Fredericton.

The show was originally supposed to be a VPW show, but the show would actually be produced by IHW. It became apparent later VPW's proposed final show wouldn't be a true sendoff.

"We just, unfortunately, couldn't get enough of the [VPW] regulars, the wrestlers the fans are really familiar with " Tyler said.

"It kind of didn't feel like it was going to be a very good [VPW] show ... So we thought let's just do an IHW show."

A lot of turnover

For an industry that prior to the mid-80s was largely local based, the Fredericton area has seen a lot of turnover in wrestling promotions.

For years a promotion titled Xtreme Pro Wrestling was a mainstay, however after the promotion folded two others beganto hold shows.

Those promotions were the previously mentioned VPW and NWE Pro-Wrestling out of Miramichi.

While NWE has largely retreated back to its traditional Miramichi territory, VPW continued to run shows in Fredericton until August.

Even with this instability in the Fredericton and Saint John wrestling scene Tyler is optimistic of the market.

"I think it shows that there's definitely something there if everyone keeps trying to takeover the market," Tyler said.

"As I understand it Fredericton especially is a very strong market for pro-wrestling."

IHW will hold itsfirst event in the capital city on Oct. 22 at the Ville.