Shayne Hawke is a longtime Canadian independent wrestler who has shared the ring with the likes of Sami Zayn (El Generico), Kevin Owens (Kevin Steen), Ethan Page, 2point0, "Speedball" Mike Bailey, and more.
Hawke is the executive producer of IWS, an independent promotion in Montreal that has been around since 1999 and been the home to the likes of Zayn, PCO, Owens, and more.
IWS recently joined FITE+, giving the promotion a new home for American fans. The promotion already airs on Fight Network in Canada and Europe.
Speaking to Jeremy Lambert & Joel Pearl on In The Weeds, Hawke discussed the move to FITE.
"We decided it was the right time to pick up that deal because they decided they wanted to make a deal. 'Yeah, let's do that, for sure,'" he said. "We did the show with GCW, those two events, Brett Lauderdale was a referee in IWS back in the day. We've [Lauderdale, Hawke & IWS owner Crazy Manny] known each other, we all go back a good 20 years. For a while, we've been talking about it. Logistically, we were finally able to make it work. It worked out super well, we had two really fun shows in Montreal and Toronto. That FITE+ stream did really well for everybody at that event and re-introduced people to IWS. Manny got his ear cut off at one of the shows and Sexxxy Eddy did the naked moonsault on Matt Cardona and Jim Cornette had an aneurysm."
IWS and GCW teamed for two shows in March that aired on FITE+.
Hawke continued, "I think it did open people's eyes up. The Canadian scene right now is firing on all cylinders. There are a lot of people who don't realize that south of the border, which is par for the course in professional wrestling. People don't really know about Canada, it's this big land mass. I was working Philly one time, and the gas operator asked me, 'Where you from?' 'Up north.' 'Like New York?' 'Higher up.' 'Alaska?' 'Brother, there's a big land mass between there, much bigger than your country, it's called Canada.' All sorts of places in Canada are firing on all cylinders. IWS, I feel like we have the strongest product we've ever had in the 25 year history of the company. There are really talented people who are hungry and a lot of them have been trained by myself and Speedball Mike Bailey to an extent. Then you have C4, NWE in Vancouver, NSPW in Quebec City. There are a lot of talented professional wrestlers coming out of Canada where if the border wasn't an issue, and maybe Twitter was bigger here, we might have a little more attention on us. The whole point of this FITE+ deal is to elevate and increase our own value as a brand and to get some eyes on some people up here, who people down there might not be aware of even exist. I genuinely feel if you put our roster against any American roster, we smoke them. You put the Canadian talent, the top Canadians against the top Americans, any day of the week, we're going to expose them and make them look like goofs. American Indies right now are the Indies on easy mode. Very easy to get attention. It's a boom period in wrestling, very awesome, fantastic. When you're Canadian, if people in the States know you and you're Canadian, you worked extra hard for that. It's almost like a badge of honor because you're undeniable. It's one thing I'm very proud of with Casanova productions, being able to wrestle in the States and Europe, it's very hard to break out as a Canadian athlete, very difficult. It can be done, but if you look at people in the big leagues like WWE and AEW who are Canadian, a good chunk of them came from Montreal. It's a hot bed of wrestling, always has been, I genuinely believe, you put us up against any Americans, and we'll smoke you."
IWS is set to hold its Scarred 4 Life show on July 15. Fans can find tickets by clicking here.
Fans can learn more about IWS on FITE+ by clicking here.
Check out the full interview with Shayne in the video above.
