Bad news for UK fans.
Oriental Wrestling Entertainment announced that they have delayed their upcoming UK Tour.
The OWE UK tour has been delayed, not cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We will be making further announcements as soon as we finalise things.
The tour was set to run from Sept. 18 through Sept. 22 and feature AEW stars Private Party, Luchasaurus, and Marko Stunt.
Fightful reached out to OWE for more information on the delay, but have yet to hear back.
Sean McMahon, OWE United Kingdom senior vice president, issued a statement of his own on Facebook, announcing his resignation from the promotion.
"I have submitted my formal immediate resignation as a director and head of marketing of Martialism Sport & Culture Communication UK Ltd, trading as OWE United Kingdom," wrote McMahon. "I have decided to resign as a director, due to, what I feel, is misconduct of the director and OWE China. I find this to be totally unacceptable, damaging to the industry and reputation of all who have committed themselves to ensure the tour would have been a success. The company will now be required to either continue with the tour themselves with Jay Apter or myself or make other arrangements."
When asked for comment, Sean told Fightful, "I have been offered a position with another company. Also I did not share common values with the owners of OWE."
Sean noted, "broken promises" as the "misconduct" he was referring to in his original statement, but no further details were given.
Head of OWE UK Creative Jay Apter wrote on his Facebook page, "We have been made aware of a situation that has arisen that has resulted in the postponement of the upcoming OWE UK tour. For clarity, TNT Ignition and TNT Extreme Wrestling are not affiliated with OWE or OWE UK, however, I was recruited to book talent on behalf of OWE UK. Although, due to creative differences they parted ways earlier this week. It is unfortunate OWE UK have taken the decision not to go ahead with their UK launch. This in no way affects TNT or our future shows. On behalf of Myself and TNT we wish OWE and OWE UK all the best in their future endeavours."
Following the announcement of the delayed tour, OWE put out another statement on Facebook claiming they had no access to social media.
OWE were shocked today to learn that the planned UK tour had been delayed.
While we partnered with a UK promoter to use OWE in the UK, we've been unable to reach them for several days.
We also have no access to any OWE UK social media
Full statement will be released shortly.
OWE UK issued the following statement to Daniel Wood of Sportskeeda via Twitter DM before the account was deleted.
"We took the decision to delay the tour due to unforeseen circumstances and anyone wishing to have a refund, this will be honoured, of course. There is no wrongdoing nor has anyone "messed things up". It was purely down to a major scheduling conflict that was unavoidable. Shows, unfortunately, get cancelled or delayed all the time from all types of promotions, of all sizes. The same goes for members of our team in Shanghai or the United Kingdom, we don't always see eye to eye with everyone and everyone has their own views.
It anyone who has purchased tickets requires a refund please email us at info @orientalwrestlingentertainment.com and we will endeavour to process this over the next week."
Ticket payments for the event went to NothingElseOn.TV, a company owned by McMahon. Their social media accounts have also been deleted, but not before they told Steven Wilson from Suplex Retweet that the website would be shutting down as McMahon had taken another job.
Tickets are currently in the process of being refunded according to fans and McMahon.
Other wrestling promotions in the UK such as PROGRESS, Wrestle Island, and Dragon Pro are offering fans the chance to exchange their OWE ticket for a ticket to their upcoming events.
