Intense Pro Wrestling X-Perience

Intense Pro Wrestling X-Perience (also known by the acronym IPWX) was a defunct American professional wrestling promotion based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was originally founded in October, 2001 by wrestling promoter and former professional wrestler Robert Richard "Bob" O'Reilly, Sr., alongside longtime wrestling promoter William Lauderdale, as International Pro Wrestling, before changing into its eventual name in 2003. During most of its existence, IPWX acted as a subsidiary of Big-Time Sports & Entertainment, LLC., which also owned various minor league American football, baseball, ice hockey and basketball teams around the Minnesota area, as well as the short-lived mixed martial arts promotion, Aggressor Combat Championship.

IPWX held live events, television tapings, and pay-per-views primarily in the United States. Initially broadcasting content on syndicated television, IPWX later introduced its flagship television show, Danger Zone, in July 9, 2003, airing weekly on Wednesday nights, where it has remained until the company's closure in 2020.

IPWX has been considered a major wrestling promotion in the United States (alongside WWE, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and later, All Elite Wrestling). However, due to WWE and AEW's large financial backing and U.S television deals, IPWX was typically seen as a smaller promotion by comparison.

Due to financial woes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and dwindling viewership because of newer, hotter competition, IPWX has announced that the promotion is closing its doors on August 16, 2020, with the final episode of Danger Zone airing four days before in August 12, 2020.

History
Before the inception of what would become IPWX, the last major wrestling federation based in Minnesota was the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA). Founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo, the territory was originally part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), before becoming an independent territory in 1960. Following financial troubles as a result of losing talent to the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the AWA folded in 1991.

Before founding what would become IPWX, Robert Richard "Bob" O'Rielly Sr. was an active wrestler who spent an illustrious career working for warious territories and promotions all over the country, and even a 3 year-long stint in All-Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), from 1968 until his retirement in 1997 due to piling injuries. During this time, O'Reilly began transitioning into a booker, working for the creative team of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), until the company's eventual demise in March, 2001, after its various assets were sold to the WWF.

O'Reilly had been toying with the idea of starting his own wrestling promotion ever since around 2000, months before WCW's closure. As soon as WCW closed its doors, O'Reilly realized the gap that had been left for competition against the WWF. And so, with the help of wrestling promoter and longtime friend, William Lauderdale, International Pro Wrestling (IPW) was formed in October, 2001. The next year, on January, 2002, the promotion held its first show at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

For most of IPW's early shows, the promotion's shows were held at the Gangelhoff Center nicknamed the "IPW Zone". The promotion then ran a weekly syndicated television show on the America One Network, simply entitled International Pro Wrestling, beginning in 2002, showcasing various highlight matches from the IPW Zone shows. At that point, IPW's roster consisted mostly of established names who had previously worked for other promotions like WCW, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the WWF (later WWE), as well as some focus on newer talent. With a roster full of name talent, IPW found slight success in the syndicated television market during that time.

In February 15, 2003, Big-Time Sports & Entertainment, LLC., then known as the owner of various minor league sports teams based on Minnesota, purchased a controlling interest (56%) of IPW. With newfound financial backing from a major investor, IPW began to rebrand itself as Intense Pro Wrestling X-Perience (IPWX), and would eventually sign their first cable television deal with Comcast SportsNet, granting them much larger nationwide exposure in the process.

On June 29 of that year, IPWX held its very first pay-per-view, Rise Above, followed merely days after by the launch of their new flagship program on cable television, Danger Zone, in July 9, 2003, on a Wednesday night 8PM timeslot. With the switch to cable television, IPWX adopted a monthly 3-hour pay-per-view format as previously used by WCW and ECW and as currently used by WWE. In July 27, IPWX aired their second pay-per-view, SummerHeat, officially kicking off IPWX's yearly pay-per-view calendar.

In 2004, IPWX held their first event outside the Gangelhoff Center, with their pay-per-view event, Rise Above, taking place in June 27, at the at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. With the promotion's newfound popularity, IPWX took on various merchandising deals. In September, 2004, Mezco Toyz launched the first line of IPWX action figures.

The television contract with Comcast SportsNet expired in June, 2005 and was not renegotiated, leaving IPWX without television exposure. During this time, IPWX continued pursuing a profitable television deal for regular broadcasting. The company would later end up securing a television deal with FX and aired its first Danger Zone episode on the channel in August 3 of that year. With FX's much wider coverage garnering them even more exposure than ever before, IPWX's popularity rose to greater heights.

In 2006, IPWX introduced a second weekly television program, IPWX Intensity, which airs on Sunday nights and serves as a B-show to Danger Zone. During this time, IPWX was riding high off of the successes of several of their homegrown talent, while also signing in name talent that had previously made their name in other promotions like WWE and newly-established competitor Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), as well as burgeoning indie wrestling promotions such as Ring of Honor (ROH), Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG) and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW).

On January, 2007, IPWX announced that they would start taping their weekly show Danger Zone in different venues around the United States. The first Danger Zone episode held outside Minnesota aired on March 21 of that year, emanating from the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. That same year, IPWX began a partnership with YouTube, under which IPWX supplied YouTube with exclusive video content in exchange for hosting, leading to the production of internet shows. In May 2, 2007, Danger Zone had also been extended to two hours.

In 2008, IPWX held its first event outside of the United States, with that year's Rise Above pay-per-view taking place at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in June 22 of that year. That same year, IPWX escehwed pre-taping shows in favor of airing live episodes of Danger Zone, starting in September 17. Later that year, IPWX had conducted a working relationship with Heartland Wrestling Association for them to serve as a developmental territory for IPWX, which ended in late 2013.

In 2009, IPWX made the transition to 720p High-Definition for the January 14 broadcast of Danger Zone and announced that all future episodes would be broadcast in HD. That year, the company also held its first tour in the UK, starting with that year's No Limit event taking place at the Wembley Arena in London, England, in April 19, 2009.

2010 and 2011 proved to be some of IPWX's most successful years yet, with the company putting out back to back high profile pay-per-views. In 2010, IPWX introduced their subscription-based video on demand television service, IPWX Wrestling On-Demand, which offered several hours of rotating programming consisting of previous IPWX shows and events. The service lasted until 2014.

In 2011, IPWX signed a licensing deal with the Japanese game publisher ACS to develop a video game based on the promotion, eventually leading to the release of the first IPWX-based video game, IPWX Danger Zone in October 6, 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, with ports for the Protable PlayStation Portable and Nintendo 3DS released the following year in 2012.

In April 16, 2012, despite negotations the broadcast deal with FX came to an end, prompting IPWX to start looking for another television deal. Eventually, in May, the company was able to secure a broadcasting deal with AXS TV, with Danger Zone premiering for the channel in May 30 that year.

Despite the multiple setbacks, IPWX continued to put on stellar shows from 2013 to 2014. In 2013, IPWX's parent company, Big Time Sports & Entertainment, LLC., founded a mixed martial arts promotion, Aggressor Combat Championship. ACC ran for only 29 shows before eventually closing down its doors in 2016. This failed venture is seen by many as the start of IPWX's financial woes.

On 2014, following the end of their working relationship with Heartland Wrestling Association, IPWX signed a deal with Ohio Valley Wrestling, fresh off from their stint as a developmenal territory for TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling, to serve as IPWX's new de facto developmental territory. This relationship ended in 2018, due to a pay dispute.

November 20, 2015 saw the company's TV deal with AXS TV expire yet again, prompting the to look for another channel to air Danger Zone on. As they continuously searched for a new TV deal, IPWX temporarily went back to pre-taping shows, streaming the remaining Danger Zone episodes of that year on YouTube. Eventually, they were able to secure a distribution deal with Ion Television, with Danger Zone premiering on the channel in January 13, 2016.

In 2017, IPWX introduced the Wrestling X-Perience Network, a subscription-based digital streaming service and mobile app which primarily featured content from the IPWX video library, as well as several other affiliated indie promotions. In a similar vein to the WWE Network and Anthem/Impact Wrestling's Global Wrestling Network, the service features several hours of on-demand content at the price of a subscription fee of $7.99 a month. The Wrestling X-Perience Network ceased operation in 2019 due to financial issues.

The next few years proved to be tough times for IPWX. The promotion slowly lost some of their biggest talent to other promotions, forcing them to rely on newer, greener talent. In 2017, IPWX had to cease touring and live TV telecasts due to growing costs, prompting a return to the Gangelhoff Center. In 2018, IPWX ceased distribution of pay-per-views, instead opting to air their supercard events as free TV specials.

By 2019, most of their biggest name talent have gone to greater pastures. The introduction of brand new competitor All Elite Wrestling, and its weekly show AEW Dynamite occupying a similar timeslot with Danger Zone only served to cement the company's decline. This all came to a head when the 2019 Coronavirus pandemic began in 2020. With a live events cancelled, IPWX returned to the Gangelhoff Center to tape episodes of Danger Zone behind closed doors, resulting in a significantly lessened audience.

In July 18, 2020, IPWX cancelled its SummerHeat TV special, originally slated for the 29th, due to dwindling viewership. The next month, in August 12, 2020, IPWX aired the final episode of Danger Zone. Days later, on August 16, 2020, it was announced on IPWX.com that the promotion was closing its doors. Its YouTube channel remains to this day, but has not been updated since the company's closure. Parent company Big-Time Sports & Entertainment, LLC. would later end up declaring bankruptcy as well on October 2, 2020.

Style
IPWX's wrestling style encompassed several styles of pro wrestling from all over the world, such as sports entertainment, Southern-style rasslin', puroresu, lucha libre and hardcore. Many of the talent signed to the promotion are trained primarily in each or all of these styles of wrestling. IPWX featured four separate divisions: the heavyweight division, the cruiserweight division, the tag team division and the Belles (women's) division.

Staple Matches

 * Last Laugh Match = This match is usually contested within a 60-minute time limit between four or more wrestlers. When a wrestler scores a pinfall or submission, he/she is considered "Safe" and is then confined to the "Safe Zone", a plexiglass booth situated outside the ring, where they are kept from competing up until another wrestler scores a pinfall or submission, after which the other wrestler replaces the previous one in the Safe Zone, and the previous wrestler has to compete with the rest once again to get a pin or submission and be Safe once again. Whoever scores the last pinfall or submission before the time runs out wins the match. DQ and countout rules apply.


 * Quarantine Cage Match = This match is usually contested between two wrestlers. The ring is surrounded by a regular-sized, open-roof steel cage, within a larger cage that covers most of the ringside area. To make things much more fair for the losing wrestler, the door in the smaller cage would automatically be opened upon the first successful escape, giving the losing wrester an opportunity to thwart his/her opponent's escape. Whoever escapes the two cages wins the match.


 * Faction War = This match is usually contested between four teams of three or more wrestlers. Each faction consists of one captain and two or more lackeys. The match operates in elimination tag rules, where losing by pinfall or submission would lead to the opponent being eliminated from the match. Eliminating a captain would cause the entire team to be eliminated, regardless of how many team lackeys are left. Whoever is the last team standing wins the match. DQ rules apply.

Roster and Alumni
Main article: List of former Intense Pro Wrestling X-Perience alumni

Championships
In its inception, IPWX held four respective titles for each of their divisions: The IPWX World Championship, the IPWX Tag Team Championship, the IPWX Cruiserweight Championship' and the IPWX Belles' Championship. In 2006, the IPWX U.S. Championship was introduced as a secondary title to the World Championship. Soon after, in 2011, the IPWX Television Championship was introduced, which has to be defended every week. In 2017, the IPWX Belles' Tag Team Championship was introduced, as part of IPWX's expansion of their Belles roster.

Television

 * International Pro Wrestling (2002-2003)
 * America One Network (2002-2003)
 * IPWX Danger Zone (2003-2020)
 * Comcast SportsNet (2003-2005)
 * FX (2005-2012)
 * AXS TV (2012-2015)
 * Ion Television (2016-2020)
 * IPWX Intensity (2006-2020)
 * FX (2006-2012)
 * AXS TV (2012-2014)
 * Hulu (2014-2020)

Pay-Per-View Schedule

 * January: Awakening
 * February: Critical Point
 * March: Inescapable
 * April: No Limit
 * May: Path to Glory
 * June: Rise Above
 * July: SummerHeat
 * August: Riot!
 * September: Full Force
 * October: Vindication
 * November: CyberChaos
 * December: Red Alert