TEAM Wrestling announced at press conference
Jess Chapel, former A1E booking assistant and owner of the now-defunct Underground X-Treme Wrestling, has announced the formation of a new team-based wrestling promotion.
This promotion, simply enough, will be named TEAM Wrestling. The press conference, held at The Storage Facility, UXW's home base of operations in Northeast Philadelphia, was held Tuesday, July 5 and started at 4 pm.
Basically, Chapel quelled rumors of a UXW revival and laid out the plans for TEAM, which will have at least eight teams of six wrestlers apiece competing for the Chad Dupree Memorial Cup. The Dupree Cup was donated from an anonymous benefactor.
Not much else was laid out at the conference. TEAM does not have a TV deal yet, but they are in heavy negotations with ESEN, FX and possibly even a spot on one of ESPN's family of networks.
One interesting aspect of TEAM is that it will not work in direct competition with existing feds and will work in cooperation, giving feds the option of fielding teams for the season.
In the wake of the announcement, there have been several signings to the new promotion. Before the press conference, the Iron Duke was signed to a multi-year deal to be the lead color announcer for weekly programming. Chapel himself will handle play-by-play duties.
SEveral wrestlers have been signed to the league so far, but no teams have been registered for. However, it's strongly rumored that the CSWA, MBE and Legacy of Champions will all field teams. Also, sources report that Teri Melton has been meeting with Chapel and she may have interest in owning a team as well.
On the wrestling signing department, Chapel scored a major coup by registering the services of Dan Ryan and Hida Yakamo for the season. It's strongly rumored that they will enter on teams rather than as draftable wrestlers, but at this point, no one's sure of anything.
Link:
http://team.fwrestling.com/pressconference.html
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