UNION Wrestling (RLS Promotion)

UNION Wrestling (formerly Pro Wrestling Union) is a professional wrestling promotion based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, who, from March 2022, will produce professional wrestling shows for broadcast both from their bespoke arena in Sheffield and venues from around the UK, occasionally touring abroad.
The promotion was founded in 2015 by a consortium headed by Eddie Hamer, wrestlers Mikey Ace and Jordan "The Cowpoke" Hamer and retired former pros Paul Vega and Bill Arson. Despite originally being conceived as being a kind of wrestling "underworld", the U in the name evolved over time to come to mean "Union", with UNION Wrestling becoming synonymous with fully contracting and protecting it’s talent compared to certain other promotions.
In April 2017, the promotion announced a full rebrand from it’s former name out of respect for fellow promotion Pro Wrestling Ulster, not wishing to potentially unfairly compete with the promotion using the same initials. By October 2017, they’d fully transitioned into UNION Wrestling.
Due to issues arising from a short-lived partnership with WWE, being entangled in a scandal with affiliate promotion TWA, a sizable exodus of talent including founder Mikey Ace, and the COVID-19 pandemic, UNION Wrestling nearly folded in 2020 and 2021, and had to strip back in many ways.
The promotion received substantial investment from the Special Wrestling Group consortium, led by Swedish businessperson Brita Vigerbäck, allowing them to buy their current arena, the UNION Arena, in Sheffield, as well as ensuring finance for their return to broadcast shows and live events. This new era would be described by Hamer as being a "reboot".
== History ==
=== Pro Wrestling Underworld/Union and WWE Success (2015-2017) ===
The promotion began as a concept to bring a stable, securely rostered promotion to the North of England, conceived mainly by Texas-born, English-based promoter Eddie Hamer and his son Jordan. Jordan soon brought long-time friend and former BWF colleague Mikey Ace on board, with retired wrestlers Paul Vega and Bill Arson joining the venture in early 2016, which moved quickly to fill the gap filled by the collapse of BWF and Best of British Wrestling around Yorkshire, Lancashire and the North-East.
The first few shows, branded as PWU: From The Underworld originally, leveraged the popularity of it’s guests (such as WWE alum like The Rock and Christian) more than it’s roster, but soon began establishing it’s own talent, eventually leading to the confirmation of a weekly show to come from a bespoke arena in Newcastle. It was around this time that Mikey Ace, believing people had made several incorrect assumptions about the meaning of “Underworld”, petitioned his fellow founders to change it, eventually settling on “Union” because of their plans to unionise it’s roster.
Around this time, Exhibition Wrestling Ltd., who at this time ran successful promotions in Canada, Japan and Mexico, entered into discussions with the founders about investing and potentially taking control of the promotion. These talks stalled, and eventually collapsed, due mainly to creative control issues, and EW’s insistence on rebranding the company as Exhibition Wrestling: UK, to match it’s other promotions.
Instead, the promotion entered into what seemed to be a lucrative and beneficial partnership with WWE. This afforded them certain boons, such as access to WWE trademarks (such as Capitol Punishment and Money in the Bank), use of certain WWE talent and financial support. The deal eventually ended, with all WWE-related elements either quietly withdrawn or renamed, without much comment, and for much of it’s second cycle starting in 2017, the promotion was more independent and self-reliant.
=== UNION Wrestling Rebrand, Rise & Fall (2017-2021) ===
In April 2017, the promotion announced an immediate move to rebrand the promotion due to the similarly named Pro Wrestling Ulster. They stressed that they’d faced no pressure from the promotion, and had come to the decision out of respect and fairness, claiming it was “only right” to not infringe on the initials as Pro Wrestling Ulster had been using them first.
Between this time and October 2017, the rebrand was completed and UNION Wrestling entered what is arguably it’s most popular period. Names like Broderick, Lara Grey and The Coalition helped usher in a period of modest acclaim that led to several plans to expand. Head of Scouting & Recruitment Bill Arson confirmed in July 2017 that he’d been tasked with greatly expanding the roster, especially the women’s division. This led to some rumours at the time of a potential brand-split, with two shows coming from different parts of the country. Despite being denied at the time, Simon Lowe did confirm on his podcast “The Lowe-Down” on Squared Circle Insider that he’d been briefed on such plans.
Also in July 2017, UNION Wrestling entered into an affiliate agreement with Turbo Wrestling Alliance (formerly BOW), which contained a purchase option for the promotion if certain conditions were met later down the line. This proved to be costly, and damaging to the reputation of UNION Wrestling, when TWA was embroiled in a scandal involving the leadership unfairly hazing and essentially shaking down talent. Bill Arson resigned in November 2017 due to this.
In February 2018, Mikey Ace announced he’d left UNION Wrestling, due to frustrations that the promotion had become “like all the others”, and citing unfulfilled promises from Eddie Hamer in particular. Hamer later admitted that he knew a fallout was coming, and though he took responsibility for his part in it months later, his initial response backfired when several other roster members including Koldskador, Sitara, The Coalition, Miss Deeds and Wroe resigned in solidarity with Ace.
This led to a slow decline for the promotion, which never regained enough momentum, though it ticked over without too much of note until the COVID-19 pandemic led to them ceasing shows in early 2020. They haven’t held any shows since then, though there are plans to return in the near future in some capacity, with Eddie Hamer stating in May 2021 that “UNION has plans to get back to where it was.”.
=== UNION "Reboot Era" (2021-present) ===
UNION Wrestling returned with a small show, featuring some of the talent they'd retained throughout the pandemic such as Virgil Baker and Kelly Gazidis, as well as returning stars like Zander Adder and Bane, and Japan MIGHTY! Wrestling star Hubris appearing as a special guest. They'd do more shows, seeing the return of stars like Matsuda, Wroe and Jackie Compton, before announcing in January 2022 that they would be embarking on a "roster expansion" ahead of their March 2022 "reboot".
In February 2022, Hamer would reveal that the Swedish-based consortium Special Wrestling Group (SWG) had invested heavily in the promotion, led by businessperson and "wrestling superfan" Brita Vigerbäck, allowing them to buy up the properties of several former promotions such as PRIZE and BWF, while also allowing them to make solid plans to bring back their former Charged, Unleashed and Attendance Only shows, the former two as broadcasts. They would also buy the newly-rechristened UNION Arena, Sheffield, from it's former owners (which included former UWU promoter Tetsuya "Mighty" Nishii). They'd hold their final pre-"Reboot Era" show in early March 2022, in Leicester.
UNION Wrestling (RLS)
Category:ReVerse 2.0