In June, it was announced that International Wrestling Syndicate would be coming to FITE Plus.
IWS and GCW partnered for a show in March that aired on FITE and was well-received by fans of both promotions. FITE was happy with the numbers for the show, which helped lead to the partnership between IWS and FITE.
IWS was founded in 1998 and has become the top independent promotion in Canada with the likes of Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and "Speedball" Mike Bailey being part of the promotion.
Speaking to Jeremy Lambert & Stephen Jensen on The Spotlight, IWS Founder Crazy Manny discussed the deal coming together.
"It was late November, early December, [GCW Owner Brett Lauderdale] is a really good friend of mine," Manny recalled when asked when IWS and GCW decided to work together. "I've known Brett for a long time, since he was a ref back in CZW. For the longest time, we've been talking about doing a show together, the schedules just never really worked out. We said, 'We can do this in March.' I knew that our live events, nobody puts on live events like we do. The production, the attendance, it's very rare you see that in indie wresting. I knew that FITE would get blown away. If you watch the live tweets, so would the fans. 'What the hell is this? A WWE atmosphere with deathmatch wrestling? This is incredible.' I knew that was the night to go all out and that was the night that would get us the streaming deal."
Manny continued, "The downloads on FITE for the replay went completely off the wall. I spoke to Brett and was like, 'Who is the guy I have to talk to?' He gave me the President of FITEs info and he was like, 'Hell yeah we want you on here. This is the kind of product we want on FITE.' The deal came through."
IWS is set to hold its first live event on FITE Plus with IWS Scarred 4 Life.
"If you like to support independent wrestling, I'm going to be real, I've been involved with several streaming deals. I've been involved with streaming deals since the very beginning. FITE Plus actually takes care of the wrestling companies. They actually make sure you get some good money out of it. They help out, they send the LiveU 300s, which are very expensive units, to the event so you can stream. They offer a lot of info. They are the one true company. If you can get on FITE Plus, you've made it because they do care about you as a company. I talk with the top people there. Many other companies, from television companies to smaller streaming platforms, people get annoyed with you or don't talk to you. I've been on television, I've had several television deals, a lot of people don't even want to sit in a room with you. These guys, the top people there, they speak to you, they take their time, they help you out, and they make sure you get paid well. I give them big props," he said.
Fans can find tickets for IWS Scarred 4 Life by clicking here.
Learn more about IWS on FITE Plus by clicking here.
Watch the full interview with Crazy Manny in the video above.
