Acronym IPWA Headquarters Netanya, Israel | Style Technical wrestling Founder(s) Gery Roif | |
Founded 2001 (school)
2003 (first professional event) Defunct 2014 (as a promotion, still active as a school) | ||
Israeli Pro Wrestling Association was an independent wrestling promotion, operating from Israel.
Contents
History
IPWA was founded in October 17, 2001 by Gery Roif and ran a few exhibition matches on national TV before holding the initial Summer Splash event in summer 2002. Roif was crowned its first champion after defeating Texas Wrestling Academy graduate Joey "The MOALM" Tylec in a televised match in the summer of 2003.
Subsequently, the IPWA gained a fair amount of recognition worldwide; toward the end of 2003 Total Wrestling magazine started publishing its rankings on monthly basis. Summer Splash 3 in 2004 featured FWA star Aviv Maayan making a one-night appearance to team up with Hawaii Allen and take on Jumping Lee and Yossi The Bull with Joey Tylec finally defeating Gery Roif to win the IPWA title.
In 2005 almost the entire IPWA roster starred in a wrestling/social satire sitcom series "Makkat Medina" ("The Land Under Attack"), gaining further recognition in Israel. Both Kevin Von Erich and Bret Hart visited the crew during taping. In the beginning of 2006, the IPWA Wrestlenovella event was aired on The Wrestling Channel. In June 2009, the promotion had an event that got aired on the local Ego Total channel under the title of Israeli Wrestling. In the summer of 2011 Rabbi Swissa defeated Israel's "Survivor" reality show winner, Nathan Bashevkin.
On 2011 the promotion ran a series of monthly events, from "Makat shemesh" at June to "Makot besukut" at November.
On August 16, 2012 Tatanka main evented the Wrestling Super Show as he defeated Rabi Swissa to win the IPWA Heavyweight Championship. Two months later the match was shown on Israeli sport channel ONE.
On April 19, 2014 former two time WWE Cruiserweight champion and two time ECW Tag Team champion, Little Guido defeated Rabi Swissa in IPWA's traditional Passover Bash which was the last show of the promotion.
Alumni
IPWA Heavyweight Championship
The IPWA Heavyweight Championship is the only professional wrestling championship in the Israeli Pro Wrestling Association promotion. At the end of 2002, Israeli professional wrestler Gery Roif announced a match between himself and Joey "The Moalm" Tylec to determine the first IPWA Heavyweight Champion.
Since the IPWA Heavyweight Championship's inception in 2003, there have been ten different title holders, combining for fifteen championship reigns. The title was retired in February 2008 when the promotion closed but in May 2009 the title became active once again with the promotion relaunching.