New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling
New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling is a professional wrestling promotion based in Petone and later Wainuiomata in New Zealand. The promotion entered a hiatus in 2018, when former NZWPW wrestler, Jay Marshall left the promotion to start Capital Pro Wrestling. Since 2020, professional wrestling and training in Wainuiomata is now run by former NZWPW wrestler, Hayden Thiele with his Valiant Pro promotion. This promotion has many former wrestlers from NZWPW such as Axl Stirling, "Rufguts" Roddy Gunn, Chad Howard and Jade Priest.
History
Formation
NZWPW was formed in October 2003 by martial arts trainer, former New Zealand Sumo Wrestling champion and head of Petone's He Toa Sports Association, Martin Stirling. Stirling noticed a new generation of wrestling fans, brought up on WWF action. With a wrestling ring already set up at his He Toa gym, Stirling sent an invitation for prospective Wrestlers. Four men answered the call, X-Rated, Juice, Inferno and D-Hoya, with these four pioneers, NZWPW was born. Wrestlers trained by Stirling first performed at the Armageddon Convention on 20 September 2003, as part of an Impact Pro Wrestling show, and the promotion was launched under the name Wellington Pro Wrestling. WPW's first show was held on 14 November 2003 in Petone. Throughout 2004, more wrestlers joined and small shows were held at community venues around the Hutt Valley. Soon, Stirling, was inundated with prospective wrestlers and had to hold training weekends to find the best talent.WPW then got re-branded to New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling in January 2005. This was partly because the domain name for WPW was already used and to reflect the growing interest in touring New Zealand as well as the Wellington area. By May 2005, NZWPW had a presence on the internet and thirty five active wrestlers. On 25 March 2005 NZWPW held the Powerplay 2 event at the Lower Hutt Town Hall with over 300 fans in attendance
Expansion
NZWPW performed shows in Christchurch, Palmerston North, Porirua, Ōtaki, Levin, Paraparaumu, Blenheim and many others major centres up and down the country making it the most widely touring New Zealand promotion and the only one to perform regularly in both New Zealand's North Island and South Island. Wrestlers from NZWPW have also wrestled for Australian promotion Impact Pro Wrestling Australia. Female wrestler Misty also competed in the all women's Australian promotion PWWA.In May 2006 a number of NZWPW wrestlers, led by former NZWPW booker The Punisher and WCW/NWA star Rip Morgan, left to set up a rival promotion called Kiwi Pro Wrestling. Since then NZWPW has had an on-again-off-again working relationship with Auckland-based promotion Impact Pro Wrestling. In 2008 NZWPW featured on the television show 'Good Morning' which is a nationally seen show on TV One to promote Powerplay V with all profits being donated to the Te Omanga Hospice. It continued on its charity work in 2009 when it ran a show to raise funds for the Movember foundation. NZWPW also co-promoted a show with the Australasian Wrestling Federation featuring Raven. In 2009 Chris Masters featured at Powerplay VI, making numerous television appearances to promote the event including 'Good Morning' and '20/20'.
Martial arts
Thanks to Martin Stirling's martial arts background, NZWPW made much of its links with New Zealand's martial arts scene. Many of their early shows featured demonstrations of fighting styles such as karate and kickboxing. Shows have also been co-promoted with major Sumo events such as the 2005 Oceania Sumo Championships and the 2006 New Zealand Open Sumo Championships.Also in 2006, NZWPW co-sponsored sumo wrestlers Sio Sakaria and Mark Tanu to attend the Junior World Championships in Estonia, where they won silver and bronze medals respectively.
In 2009 NZWPW wrestlers Travis Banks and Tykade both won gold medals at the Oceania Sumo championships in Australia.
This was backed up in 2010 when numerous NZWPW wrestlers took part in the Oceania Sumo Championships. With Tykade once again taking out the open and heavyweight divisions, Rufguts and Ben Mana were also in the medals in the heavyweight and open divisions.
Travis Banks, Tykade and Rufguts went on to compete at the World Combat Games in China in August 2010.