ECWA Buys WORLD-1 Wrestling
The companies will remain separate, according to ECWA’s Joe Zanolle.
The Wrestling Estate has learned that East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA) has purchased Morganville, NJ-based WORLD-1 Wrestling.
The deal comes days after ECWA announced this year’s Super 8 Tournament will be switching venues to WORLD-1’s home: The Jersey Dugout, a 15,000 sq. ft. baseball and softball training facility with batting cages and artificial turf.
“We were looking for a larger venue to help out with social distancing guidelines that may still be in place and we wanted a comfortable atmosphere for our fans,” says Joe Zanolle, longtime matchmaker who took over ECWA from Mike Tartaglia in December 2019. “WORLD-1 management was gracious and that only cemented my belief that I was doing the right thing in purchasing the company.”
The Legendary Super 8 tournament comes to Morganville NJ on September 19th! pic.twitter.com/SPcP89jOeh
— ECWA Wrestling (@ECWA1967) June 25, 2020
As Zanolle promised seven months ago, ECWA’s archived footage continues to be digitally transferred, making it more accessible to fans. Currently uploaded to the promotion’s YouTube channel are five episodes of ECWA TV from 1997, the 1998, 2005 and 2018 editions of the Super 8 and random matches like Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki from the 2001 Super 8.
“ECWA has an extensive library for our ECWA Network and WORLD-1 can make the same argument with their events dating back to 2004,” Zanolle says. “The opportunity to purchase the company, as well as the library, came up and I couldn’t pass it up.”
Zanolle says the plan is to keep both companies separate, but that doesn’t mean inter-promotional matches are off the table. “I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a dream match show that I had my eye on someday,” Zanolle says.
Founded in 2004 by Steve Corino, WORLD-1 was supposed to be the U.S. version of ZERO1, a Japanese wrestling promotion that used to be affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The promotion held events in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia, Florida and Michigan before settling in New Jersey. WORLD-1 quickly developed a reputation for presenting stacked cards featuring former WWE, WCW and ECW stars, (most notably Jerry Lynn, Justin Credible and Dustin Rhodes) as well as recognizable independent names on their path to stardom (CM Punk, Low Ki and Spanky, to name a few).
For the past decade, Ryan Kavanagh has been in charge, shifting WORLD-1 from strong style to a more traditional, family-friendly promotion. “Our roster is a bunch of guys in their 30s – we’ve all been doing shows together for years,” Kavanagh told The Wrestling Estate in May. “Most of them just do it for fun. We’re just trying to do one fun show every quarter to give the fans their money’s worth.”
To get a taste of WORLD-1’s flavor, look no further than PretzelMania, the promotion’s biggest show of the year. Traditionally held in April, the event has been pushed back to November 7 due to the coronavirus pandemic. As of right now, Chris Rockwell is scheduled to defend the WORLD-1 Championship against former champion KTB.
It just so happens that Rockwell and KTB are both competing in this year’s ECWA Super 8, which takes place on September 19. Also in the tournament are Matt Tremont, Vinny Pacifico, Archadia, Ricky Reyes, Dasher Hatfield and Eric Martin.
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