by John Reid

The commonwealth has been known to be home of some of professional wrestling’s biggest stars. From Terry “Magnum TA” Allen of National Wrestling Alliance to “Hangman” Adam Page of All Elite Wrestling. Over the past few years, however, there has been a dearth in wrestling action, particularly in the Northern Virgina region. Although there have been a few events, the last independent promotion in the area was NOVAPro Wrestling, which closed its doors during the pandemic of 2020, as did many companies.

This Saturday, a new promotion aims to give up and coming grapplers their opportunity to shine, as Intense Action Wrestling makes its debut in Manassas. Recently, we spoke with the founders Tony Tone and Nick Ojeda about their journey into making it happen.

Coming to Manassas: “It was an exciting process,” said Tony. “We’ve been trying to put this together for a couple of years, but we wanted to make sure that everything was in place, and we had a brand that people would enjoy.”

“It was a lot of work, sometimes tedious, but we wanted to make sure we had something, specifically in the Northern Virginia area.”

What was the feedback like? “We got pretty good feedback,” says Tony. “This is a wrestling town, and people love it. So to be able to bring it home, it was exciting. The reactions were people really positive, and now it’s about delivering, and what fans can expect throughout Virginia is great wrestling.”

Saturday night’s event will feature eight matches on the card, including some wrestlers who have appeared in such promotions as Ring of Honor and AEW. “We wanted to make sure we brought great talent to Manassas,” said Tony. “The goal was to bring local talent from the DMV, and from New York and Carolina, and showcase some of the top talent that you may have not heard before.”

Ojeda, who has been in the business for over 20 years, talked about what he learned working with such legends as Jim Cornette, Jay Lethal, and others, which enabled him to maintain those relationships. “A lot of the talent I have shared locker rooms with, and I kept in touch with a lot of people, because I knew they could bring something to the table. We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to wrestle.”

The duo works in tandem to bring this together, as Tony is the promoter and Nick as the head of talent relations. Having that experience was important to bring IAW to creation.

“Together, we are able to fit in order to bring a great product. We get to meet some great people who have worked really hard to get to this point, and we love to give others a chance to see what they can do in front of an audience.”

To find out more about Intense Action Wrestling, visit their Facebook page.