The history of the European Wrestling Society starts back in the late 90s. Tony Smith, an English businessman of limited resources, and a huge fan of wrestling, attempted to start his own promotion. His work, coastal defence supplies, had taken him to Ireland, and so it was in the County of Cork that Emerald Isle Wrestling was born.
It was here that Smith met enthusiastic wrestling fan and local radio presenter Ronan O’Shea. O’Shea agreed to call some matches for Smith, and DVDs of the Wrestling were produced in limited supply. It wasn’t long before the money dried up, and in 2001 Emerald Isle Wrestling was forced to stop putting on shows. Smith then offered his services to other small promotions in Ireland, and learned further skills in administration and booking. He maintained contact with O’Shea, who returned to the radio, and cultivated his own set of contacts within the industry.
In early 2007, Smith again attempted to get Emerald Isle Wrestling started, but failed to find the starting capital required. In late 2007, Smith met stadium announcer Marco Antonelli at a football match in Turin, and the idea was born for an international wrestling promotion. Smith gathered together as much funding as he could, and formed the European Wrestling Federation. It was based in Dublin, and featured a roster of mainly Irish and English wrestlers, but suffered from a lack of investment from day one, and was soon struggling to pay fees for performers and venues. By mid 2008, the EWF was on indefinite hiatus, although Smith retained the rights to the company and associated images.
Fast forward to late 2009, and Smith had decided to try once more. He decided to rename the promotion the European Wrestling Society, in an attempt to underline the concept of bringing Europe’s finest wrestlers together in a wrestling community. He gathered together more funding, but the project was once again on the verge of collapse until the appearance of Marcus Lever.
Lever, by this point, had amassed a sizeable business empire, specializing in everything from luxury spa resorts to take away restaurants, and was interested in the marketing potential of a Pan-European brand of sports entertainment. While Smith was happy with the idea of hefty corporate backing, he was less enamoured with the idea of handing control of his company over to Lever. Unfortunately for him, this was his only option, and as of March 27th, 2010, Marcus Lever became the controlling interest in the European Wrestling Society. He retained the services of Smith for his wrestling knowledge and expertise, while bringing in American advisor and right hand man, Simon Emerald. Emerald came from a sports background, having previously worked in marketing for the NFL, and held an executive position on the board of NHL franchise the New Jersey Devils.
Lever set about attracting glamorous individuals and top quality wrestlers to the promotion, but had to be content with Ronan O’Shea on Colour commentary, as a contract was already in place. Former French television sports correspondent Tamara Deloure was recruited as play by play announcer, and the two commentators were encouraged to spend as much time together as possible to get past any language barrier that might exist.
Spanish MTV interviewer Anna Morales and former German weather girl and lingerie model Morgan Schieber were recruited as back stage interviewers, while Marco Antonelli was contracted as ring announcer following a recommendation from Smith.
Lever made it his aim to recruit competitors from as many nations as possible, and the final count of countries represented on the roster tipped 22 when he travelled personally to Sweden to recruit former Olympic Weightlifter Erik Gustavsson and beach volleyball starlet Jenny Lund.
Lever and Smith developed a healthy enough working relationship, and set about putting together a tour of Europe, finalising that the first official EWS show will take place in Verona, Italy, from the third largest Coliseum in the world. The stage is set for the future history of the European Wrestling Society to be written, and an announcement was made on September 22nd, 2010, confirming the date for EWS Episode 1 as Saturday November 6th, 2010.
