Preparations for a potential tag tournament in iPRO, the crux of which would be to crown iPRO’s first tag team champions, are beginning to take some shape. Teams have already been confirmed for this, and are listed, along with affiliation:
Barry Tulowitzki and Jacob White (iPRO)
Pine Street Posse (LARIAT)
The Firebirds (LARIAT)
David Anderson and Archie Kenny (PW:C)
Rumor has it that a potential teaming of BASH Yamada and Rob Powers, both graduates of one of the world’s finest training facilities in Jason Ramsey’s Tenchu-Do, may be taking part in this event as well. Ryan Corey was contacted by phone about potential plans for this:
“We’re thinking an eight-team tag league. Obviously, we have four confirmed participants, and would love to see Yamada and Powers take part. We’re on the scouting trails for at least three more teams, but we’re open to an even larger tournament too. We’ll be happy to have ten, twelve, or even more teams.”
“Tag team wrestling has suffered a huge setback in the overall picture of the wrestling landscape. A lot of the sport’s greatest stars have come from successful tag teams, and we want to help usher in a renewed emphasis of this important part of the wrestling sport.”
Asked if there was a set of titles created, or named:
“Not yet. Obviously, as with the Central States Legacy Championship, we want to honor the heritage and pedigree that comes with tag team wrestling, so we’re tossing about some names for the titles themselves. As for the tournament, it will be called the Tag Renaissance Grand Prix, or TRGP for short. The format’s gonna depend on how many teams we can bring in, but we are envisioning some sort of round-robin style action, because we really want to feature this new division to the fans of not only iPRO, but the wrestling world in general.”
iPRO’s website, innovaPRO.com, has been receiving a lot of hits lately, some of them tied into the MHT DVD. Corey spoke about this as well:
“iPRO.com has been getting hit a lot since the announcement of the DVD release. There are only about 14 signed copies of the discs available, but we’ll continue to take pre-orders right up until the release date.”
“Overall, we’re very pleased with the response to the site. In the near future, we’ll be starting some discussion groups on the site, so wrestling fans from around the world can weigh in with their thoughts on the action they will see in iPRO.”
There has been some speculation that iPRO has been in discussions with US Cable to air iPRO shows over the public channels. Corey discussed this as well:
“Nothing is concrete yet, but we’ve been talking to the folks from US Cable. There’s a lot…and I mean a LOT…of work to do as far as production, time slotting, and that sort of ilk that we’d have to hammer out with them before moving forward on this. But it is something we’re interested in, if it can help iPRO grow. If it’s just something that causes us headaches, then we won’t go forward with it.”
“It is, however, a very positive step in the growth of the promotion. It seems that we’ve really hit a nerve with the wrestling and fighting fans in mid-Missouri, and there are folks from all over the world hitting up innovaPRO.com, looking for any sort of videos they can get to watch our product. Hopefully, we’ll be able to appease them very soon.”
Asked about providing some video content online:
“It’s something we’ve definitely planned since we first put the site online. There are a few technical kinks we’re working out. For example, the lighting at some of the shows didn’t really allow us to put, say, a Papes vs. Catalyst match online in a quality format. We’ve contracted with a web production firm in Columbia, and they’re looking at everything we have so they can make suggestions and such as far as lighting, camera angles, and what not. Suffice it to say, the internet is not my particular area of expertise!”
With that, Corey ended the phone call, citing a need to train for his upcoming HRW title defense.
