UWA Elite Vets Reflect On 20 Years
The anniversary show takes place June 12.
New Jersey-based UWA Elite celebrates 20 years this Saturday at the South River VFW.
Considered the best kept secret in pro wrestling, this story-driven company is unlike most indie promotions. Every match features well-defined characters embroiled in lengthy feuds and captivating storylines. First-timers won’t feel out of loop, though, as UWA Elite’s active social media presence brings you up to speed.
Ahead of the 20th Anniversary Show, The Wrestling Estate spoke with three veterans of UWA Elite – King Tek, UWA Elite iChampion BT Bull and UWA Elite Champion Vincent Valentine – about their favorite memories over the past two decades.
Genesis
Similar to ECWA and the Hardy Boyz’ OMEGA promotion, UWA Elite’s origin is backyard wrestling. From 2001 until 2011, founder Dave Swan invited his friends and even established pro wrestlers over to his house for matches. This was before YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, so indie guys could easily fly under the radar taking bumps in the backyard before wrestling on a show that night. “My family thought I was crazy, but they went along with it,” Swan told The Wrestling Estate in April.
By happy accident, Vincent Valentine discovered Swan’s baby in 2002, before UWA became Elite. Valentine was high school friends with King Tek, Bowes and Sean McNelis, all diehard fans immersed in the backyard wrestling craze. According to Valentine, Tek (who didn’t have his driver’s license yet) had found another backyard fed and kept it a secret until he needed a ride one day. By the next year, Swan asked Valentine to join UWA as commissioner.
“It was one of the most professional organizations I’ve ever seen,” Valentine says. “There were storylines, rules, etiquette. That backyard is where we all developed our characters.”
Built on family-friendly, episodic storytelling, UWA allowed young talent to experiment and cultivate their personalities. Before the roster constructed a homemade ring in 2004, the matches took place on a trampoline. Back then, they wrestled every Sunday, filming four episodes of Meltdown that built to a supercard. Twenty years later, those supercard names are still used: Setting the Standard, Brawl For It All, Last Breath, to name a few.
“I learned a lot about how to work and tell a story in that backyard,” Valentine says. “Pretty much everybody was either professionally trained or currently in training. I ended up going to wrestling school because UWA inspired me to pursue it further.”
This Saturday Night, UWA Elite celebrates it’s 20th Anniversary! Before this weekend’s huge event, take a look back at UWA Elite’s first 20 Years!
— UWA Elite (@UWAElite) June 8, 2021
Tickets are available right now only on https://t.co/ogdF9zzl8D! pic.twitter.com/iCvjWoL18Y
Currently, Tek is the longest tenured member of the UWA Elite roster. Debuting at Living on the Edge in November 2002, his first opponent was Dave Winant, older brother of KTB.
“Dave Swan was strict with us before it was necessary,” Tek says. “In the early 2000s, he’d enforce time limits on the matches. He did it because he wanted to show us that’s how smooth shows operate. Other backyard feds used to laugh at us because they were just doing it for fun. Producing a good show that makes sense with psychology, stories and characters – the reward of that is what’s fun to me.”
By 2005, Swan’s parents had enough of backyard wrestling, essentially putting UWA on hiatus for several years. Aside from annual reunions and occasional one-off shows, the crew focused on school, day jobs and working for professional promotions. But the other companies just weren’t the same, and by 2009, discussions arose about getting the band back together on a regular basis.
Tek was the loudest voice in support of resurrecting UWA.
“I knew people would come pay to watch this,” Tek says. “We were the most serious backyard fed in the history of pro wrestling. I’d put those backyard shows from 2004 and 2005 against some of today’s professional shows on the indie scene.”
In 2011, UWA became UWA Elite, transitioning from the backyard to the historic Darress Theatre in Boonton, NJ, where Swan had previously hosted a couple of indie film premieres. Because most of the talent booked was already respected on the indie scene, the fed didn’t face much criticism for segueing into a full-fledged promotion. Within three years, Swan landed a deal with The Sportsplex in Metuchen, NJ, running monthly events and taping weekly shows for YouTube. Today, every event since 2011 is available on the UWA Elite Network for $6.99 a month.
“Moving in front of crowds was the next logical step,” Valentine says. “We worked for all these other companies that we didn’t have this emotional connection to, and now we could take this company we do have an emotional connection to in front of people. That was incredibly exciting for us.”
Greatest Matches
2011 also marked the debuts of BT Bull (formerly known as Brandon the Bull) and TJ Blade, real-life brothers who would go on to carve their own unique paths in UWA Elite.
They broke into the sport under the tutelage of Eric Corvis, a mainstay of the promotion. “He’s on the Mount Rushmore of UWA Elite,” Bull says. “Not only for his success in the ring, but also for his contributions outside it. People don’t understand the work he puts in. He sets up the TitanTron for every show, helps guys with spots and still trains us.”
Blade arrived on the scene as “The Shore Thing,” capitalizing on the hit MTV series Jersey Shore. Eventually, he’d be paired with Mike C-Way and the late “DynaMike” Davis. They’d strike gold as the BROtein Pack, dominating the tag team division for the better part of the last five years.
Because Bull was only 16 years old at the time of his first match, Swan suggested that he wear a mask. It hasn’t left his face for the past decade. “My first match was against my brother,” Bull says. “In 2018, I got to wrestle him in the main event for the UWA Elite Championship. And then when he retired in April, he gave me the rub when I attacked him. It’s been full-circle.”
As diehard Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) fans, it’s understandable that both Bull and Blade look back fondly on their matches with Archadia. Blade had the 2011 Match of the Year with him and Bull dethroned him in a ladder match for the UWA Elite Championship in 2017.
“Archadia is one of the top five independent guys who should have been on TV and yet never were,” Bull says. “All those core JAPW guys, my brother and I look up to them. They made me fall in love with pro wrestling, so I’m going to give my all when I’m in the ring with them.”
Corvis’ name also pops up when his peers discuss their favorite matches. For instance, Tek recalls a War Games at Last Breath 2012, in which he teamed with Corvis, Bowes, Elder Foreman (the Stormin’ Mormon) and TKO against Robbie Roller, Vin Grayson, “DynaMike” Davis, Brian Brass and Blade.
A couple of his other favorites have been a “Kiss My Foot” match with Acejack in 2015 and his iChampionship defense against Matt Vertigo the next year. “We don’t believe too much in bringing in stars,” Tek says. “We’ve invested in our own stars for better or worse. Consistency is king in UWA. We’re trying to build long-term guys like me and Bowes. Relying on your core, homegrown wrestlers makes it much easier to tell long-term stories.”
Perhaps Valentine’s favorite story was in 2003, when he and Corvis (under the alias Arkum) engaged in a hellacious blood feud. The final encounter – titled Unholy Trinity – took place five days before Christmas and won Match of the Year honors. “The story was incredibly complex and the blow off match had a lot of emotion behind it,” Valentine says.
Another favorite took place just last month at Setting the Standard. Ten years after their last battle inside a cage, Valentine successfully defended the UWA Elite Championship against Bowes in a red-hot brawl that spilled into the crowd.
“It felt like Freddy vs. Jason,” Valentine says. “I’ve been telling him for years that the people want to cheer him, and they finally turned him babyface that night. It’s been amazing to watch the evolution of my friends as they came into their personas. Watching people that you genuinely love find their connection to their art and grow before your very eyes.”
“Outside the Indie Bubble”
Despite the success and longevity of UWA Elite, the promotion gets zero recognition from the wrestling world.
It’s puzzling because it’s one of the few independent wrestling companies to operate for the better part of two decades, establish a loyal, albeit not large fanbase, produce consistently high-quality content and churn out recognizable names like Jay Lethal, Jordan Oliver, KTB and Brandon Kirk.
“We all think UWA Elite should be on this bigger pedestal,” Bull says. “Maybe that’s our fault, maybe there’s something we need to do differently.”
On the surface, there isn’t much the company could do without sacrificing what makes it special. Recruiting ex-WWE Superstars and names from yesteryear may pique more interest, but at the risk of hindering the growth of its core roster and disrupting ongoing storylines. In the past, promoters have cited oversaturation of the market, especially in New Jersey. But then again, UWA Elite has fostered such a strong connection with its local audience that taking the show on the road would be a slap in the face. After all, there’s still ECWA fans pissed that the promotion migrated from its long-time home of Delaware to New Jersey.
As the producer of the company’s music videos and compilations, Tek has been struggling with UWA Elite’s lack of attention for quite some time. Unable to pinpoint what needs to improve, he does mention the importance of social media in today’s landscape. “We live in a viral world and doing something to get retweets is how you get over,” Tek says. “I’m desperately trying to get people to look at our videos, but we’re not getting retweeted. I want people to see that we don’t fuck around.”
Bull suggests UWA Elite transfer its library to IWTV. That doesn’t mean live streaming, though, because Tek’s wizardry with production and editing is a staple of the company. Surrendering the rights to first-run footage could be disastrous, as other local promotions have learned the hard way. “Why would someone spend $7 a month on the UWA Elite Network when they could spend $10 a month and get everything,” Bull says.
Valentine refers to UWA Elite as being “outside the indie bubble.” By not booking the same rotation of talent that more prominent promotions rely upon, it’s easy for the company to get ignored. At the same time, not many promotions have a pool of popular veterans to depend upon 20 years later.
“Obviously, I want UWA Elite to be successful with big crowds, but there is something to be said for the charm of it being close-knit,” Valentine says. “It’s always nice when people discover UWA Elite and enjoy it.”
To The Future
If you’re looking to hop on the UWA Elite bandwagon, there’s no better time than the 20th Anniversary Show.
Among the matches scheduled, Vertigo defends the Territory Championship against archrival Corvis in a street fight. “Explosive” Eddie Thomas puts the Iron Man Championship on the line against newcomer Ty Thomas. It’s wrestler vs. kickboxer as Jay Evans meets Brandon “The Mechanic” Cuttino. Bowes seeks revenge on Sean “Damage” McNelis, who costed him the UWA Elite Championship last month.
BT Bull will defend the UWA Elite iChampionship against his brother’s old partner Mike C-Way. “I really don’t care about Mike C-Way,” Bull says. “This was between me and my brother and he got himself involved in it. I’m going to wipe the floor with him and make sure he realizes he should have never stepped up to me.”
In the main event, Valentine puts the UWA Elite Championship up for grabs in a triple threat with Tek and Hedges. After 20 years, Tek has never won the company’s richest prize, pretty much the only thing left on his bucket list. But Valentine is confident Tek’s dream won’t come true.
“When you’re in a triple threat and two of your opponents have a deep hatred for each other, it’s easy to sit back and let their hate guide them to each other,” Valentine says. “Let the embers of their fury grow into an inferno. Once they’re burnt out, swoop in and kick the ashes.”
UWA Elite’s 20th Anniversary Show takes place June 12 at the South River VFW in South River, NJ.
For tickets and more information, visit https://www.uwaelite.
You can watch all of UWA Elite’s past events on the UWA Elite Network.
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