Alpha Omega Wrestling AOWUK. is an award winning family friendly professional wrestling company in Morecambe in England. Formerly Known as FWA, XWA, and Paid Promotions their new name is Alpha Omega UK. We were lucky to have an exclusive talk with Charles Nelson Riley of Alpha Omega Riley.
Morecambe wrestling has gone by many names in the past FWA, XWA, P.A.I.D. with various degrees of success and now Alpha Omega UK represents wrestling in Morecambe, what differs AOW bring from the past?
Alpha Omega has taken the tried and tested method of family friendly crowd interactive good vs evil shows and made it accessible to fans of all ages and from all generations with new exciting wrestlers and old school British style wrestlers all mixing it up with the only characters that Morecambe fans love.
Alpha Omega Wrestling brought wrestling back to The Morecambe Winter Gardens for the first time in 40 years, why has AOW selected that building specifically to host their shows?
We selected the winter gardens as it is a beautiful building that had fallen into disrepair. 80 plus years ago wrestling took place on that iconic building so to bring history full circle is a special feeling for all involved.
All of our shows are 100% non profit and we give money to the “Friends of the winter gardens” a charity of volunteers dedicated to the restoration of the building.
The current Alpha Omega Wrestling Champion, Stixx has remained undefeated in Morecambe for the better part of a decade, defeating Big Damo, Craig Kollins, Johnny Phere to name a few, what do you think is his secret to his success in Morecambe?
We all watch this Stixx have intense hard hitting main events and we can all see how good he is. But at the same time the passion he brings to every feud and every match is returned by the morecambe faithful. I believe they are as much part of his success as his phenomenal ability.
Something that has made Alpha Omega Wrestling special has been the Women’s Division, something that has continued ever since last year when the company was known as P.A.I.D Promotions, what are your thoughts on the resurgence of Women in Wresting and what AOW does to help that?
Women’s wrestling has been given a chance to be seen as equal to men’s over recent years. I think the way people see women’s wrestling in WWE makes them feel differently about seeing it on local shows.
We have brought in the very best from around the UK and identified women who the morecambe fans connect to. They have more than stepped up. And it’s only a matter of time until a women’s match is main eventing an Alpha Omega show.
Greg Lambert has always played a pivotal role in the Championship picture for many years, either associated with the Champion or being a Manager of the Champions adversary, and his connection with the Morecambe fans is unparalleled, how has he remained such a presence in Morecambe and wrestling?
Again with Greg it’s that passion. He has always put in 100% to either bring the fans exactly what they want or exactly the opposite. You can tell when someone is passionate about what they do. In a very similar way to Paul Heyman, you can tell Greg loves what he does.
The Scottish Force known as The Referendum has gained multiple unique reactions from the fans, your thoughts on the crowd reactions towards them and the groups success within the promotion?
In modern day wrestling it’s increasingly rare to find legitimate bad guys. Legitimate villains who aren’t trying to be “cool” or get cheers while acting evil. The Referendum come out every show and get constant boos. The crowd response to Laird Grayson specifically is so loud you can’t hear the sound system over them when he tries to speak. The Referendum love to be hated and they most certainly are.
Alpha Omega Wrestling in the last year has produced some great shows and shocking moments, your thoughts on those?
Personal highlights for me have been bringing wrestling back to the winter gardens. (Including modifying the ring to fit on a sloped floor!)
The crowd reaction when Stixx finally became champion in Morecambe.
And most recently getting such a large crowd we had to get extra seats out from storage!
As for what is to come, more new faces rising up will be given a chance to show off their skill in front of the most passionate crowd in the country. We will continue to raise money for the Beautiful winter gardens and hopefully break the crowd attendance record for morecambe wrestling at the same time 😉
UK wrestling has many different wrestling promotions at the moment, various fanbases, what seperates your events from the others?
Alpha Omega brings family friendly shows into the 21st century by having every character you see on every show involved in their own story.
Instead of “here’s a match, here’s another” we have a show full of intertwining story arcs where every match has consequences for each participant. That aspect brings the emotion level up every show and the morecambe fans show how much they care every time.
Also our shows aren’t recorded for dvd so there’s no video cameraman blocking your view and the only way to experience our shows is to be there and feel it live!
As mentioned earlier, there are various different wrestling promotions in the UK, what is your thoughts on the current UK Wrestling scene?
The UK industry is booming. The are more companies than I can count and it seems more popping up every day.
Some fans in some towns (such as London Manchester & Newcastle) are spoiled for choice with shows every other week or so.
With more exposure for British wrestling online and on TV more people will be aware that there is wrestling just a short drive away and be more inclined to support their local promotion.
What new talents within Alpha Omega Wrestling do you think are the ones fans should be looking out for?
There are so many young stars coming up that I can’t possibly name them all.
Personally just from the former XWA academy there is Ryan Hunter – @RyanHunter_1, Andre Dekker – @RealDekker , Ethan Berry – @RealEthanBerry, and Benny Munroe – Facebook.com/BennyMunroeWrestler have come on in leaps and bounds and 2017 looks bright for all of them.
VultureHound wants to thanks Charles Nelson Riley for the interview and Tony Knox for photography.