We recently spoke to the owner of the new UK independent promotion Wrestle Gate Gary Ward. The promotion will be making their debut in January but have already hit the headlines with a major affiliation to Will Ospreay’s Frontline promotion. Check out the interview below:
SEScoops: Wrestle Gate is the newest promotion to emerge from the UK scene. If you could describe the ethos of the company in a sentence what would it be?
Gary: Opening The Gate To British & Japanese Strong Style, while giving the next generation of British based wrestlers an opportunities to nurture.
Relationship with Ospreay
SEScoops: Your working relationship alongside Will Ospreay’s Frontline promotion with both companies having intertwining Championships is such a unique concept. How did the relationship come about?
Gary: We both share the same views and philosophy on how wrestling should seen in front of a live and on-looking audience. The partnership wasn’t something I don’t think either of us set out for, but we met at a show and spoke for a few minutes. During that it became clear that we share a lot of the same interests with wrestling and how we enjoy watching it (Will performing it too). We felt that we could bring something completely unique to the wrestling scene here. The Inter-promotion Triangle Tag Team Championships is just that. While also supporting each other product with upcoming talents like Will’s Young Lions or current British standouts like Robbie X, Sean Kustom etc. We will also have cross promotional matches like on January 10th as Wrestle Gate Pro presents an exhibition match. This will be between Robbie X and Sean Kustom at Frontlines Chaos Restored in London.
NXT UK Restrictions
SEScoops: With the recent NXT UK restrictions coming in to force did this affect the strategy before your debut show?
Gary: I was “lucky” in the fact that it really didn’t. I did purposely book the shows to have a very limited amount of NXTUK wrestlers on it. This wasn’t because I don’t think they aren’t great, but because what would set Wrestle Gate Pro apart from other established promotions? People naturally go to the brand they know. Like if you went to Tesco you would buy Coca Cola over a new brand, so my idea anyway was to be different, but bring to the UK, Japanese imports that have never before here. while we had to pull Xia Brookside from the show, she wasn’t originally booked, Jordan Devlin however was someone we we’re very keen on. Him being able to perform on January 26th following his signing is great news for us, but this will be 1 and done for him so we’re grateful to Jordan and WWE for this.
Jordan Devlin vs Chris Ridgeway
SEScoops: You’ve got some big names appearing at your debut event in January and the main event looks spectacular. Was Jordan Devlin vs Chris Ridgeway THE bout you had in mind from the get go?
Gary: Chris and Jordan were always the top names for Wrestle Gate Pro, my idea from the get go was to find two men that not only embodied what my ideas are and everything that I believe Wrestle Gate is and will become, but to be two names that indy wrestling fans love and admire, these two are just that.
Nottingham: The Home Base?
SEScoops: Do you plan on running shows across the country or will Nottingham be a base for now?
Gary: We will be exclusively in Nottingham Rushcliffe Arena in 2019, while other options have presented itself to us already, our home will always be The Rushcliffe Arena, we want fans to be able to easily follow all the action and storylines from one venue, sometimes moving around unless you have an outstanding on demand service can make things hard to follow. We have the ability to scale Wrestle Gate Pro in the same venue too, as the Rushcliffe’s has two halls, one a 350 seater and the other a 800 seater, the there is massive scalability here for us.