Something Old, Something New: How the EWA is Looking to Break the Mold

There are more Indy promotions out there than can possibly be covered in a lifetime on this site. Therefore, we mostly stick to whatever misery Vince is inflicting upon us coupled with whatever Cody Rhodes is doing out of spite toward Vinny Mac. It’s worked out pretty well so far. However, every now and then, something special comes along that we like to highlight. We’ve had wrestling and cinematic representations of wrestling (GLOW, The Wrestler, Fighting With my Family, Nacho Libre, etc.), but the closest amalgamation of the two was Lucha Underground which was basically the wrestling equivalent of a Telemundo soap opera. Which, of course, meant it was fantastic.

Now, there’s a new product (can’t call them a promotion) looking to combine wrestling and cinematic storytelling like never before: Elite Wrestling Association. The EWA is less a wrestling promotion than a wrestling product shot for TV/streaming services. One of the main differences, though, is the EWA isn’t looking to win a daytime Emmy competing with Days of Our Lives for best melodrama marketed to lonely housewives/husbands/however you wanna identify. The EWA wants to create a story-focused product which takes us back to the over-the-top characters of the 80s. You know? That time in wrestling where we were still all having fun and not disappointed weekly.

The EWA looks to blend live wrestling with a fully scripted TV show in a manner we have not seen before. If you’re sitting there saying, “well, isn’t the WWE a combo of live-action and a scripted TV show?” I say to you, “shut up, smart mark, I’m getting to it.” I even went so far as to crawl out of the dungeon that is the WrestleTalk offices to do some dreaded field reporting. Getting outside isn’t our forte. Last time I let light into Andy’s office, he hissed like a vampire and crab-walked up the wall, but I digress…

Behind the Scenes:

The EWA invited WrestleTalk for an exclusive peek behind the scenes at their new wrestling product. It was an interesting day, to say the least. I got to bear witness to some of the filming they’ll be doing for the series. I was even put in a scene, amongst the press, where I looked like the worst dressed reporter ever. Even though I was the real press, I looked worse than the fake press. It was humbling. I did, however, avoid being choke slammed through a table or having poison spit in my eyes. So, really, it was a good day (except Malico). Founder Bob Zee was also nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule to do a one-on-one interview with me and shed some light of what exactly the EWA will be.

Cody: I’m here with Bob Zee the founder, promoter, and all-around guru for the EWA: Elite Wrestling Association. Give us a little bit of your background, your journey to this point. How do you find yourself running this giant promotion with this weight on your shoulders?

Bob Zee: Oh, man, simply passion, it’s a passion project, man. I wouldn’t even call it a promotion. It’s a product.

C: Gotcha, I remember reading that on the front page of your website, excuse me.

BZ: Oh, no, it’s totally cool because, I mean, in the main story it’s a promotion, but on the outside of that spectrum, it’s a TV show. I don’t wanna have a promotion unless I have a kicka** $6 million venue, which is in the works. It’s in the hands of several [investors], but it’s not happening in the immediate future. It’s gonna take some really good time for me to have that outlet. So, right now, I’m using, literally, everything I have to see my passion forward. Pro-wrestling has been a huge staple in my life.

Bob himself has made his name in the tattoo industry, even having his own reality show Family Ink.

The success of that venture helped to spur Bob on to create the EWA. A daunting prospect for a relative newcomer to the scene. Though, Bob’s lack of experience in the wrestling industry doesn’t seem to be hindering him. In fact, he’s coming at this with all the love and passion of a die-hard fan. You know how we sit around and wax on about what we’d do with our very own promotion? Well one of us is actually doing something about it. Kudos B-Man.

A Busy Man

At this point in the interview, we were interrupted by a PA and one of the wrestlers, Seizetsu, trying to figure out if he should record his promo or touch up his makeup first. The point is it never stops for Bob on set. There’s always something needing his attention.

C: You’re doing the video editing, music editing, even creating the music, and promotions. I mean I even saw your name on the schedule for the concession stand.

BZ: Oh yeah, dude. Every little thing has been planned, pre-planned for an entire year to make sure it’s perfect.

C: What part of this have you found the most taxing?

BZ: The most taxing… Wrangling up 40 individuals.

The Actors/Wrestlers

Those individuals are the EWA roster comprised of both experienced wrestlers and rookies to the business. Some of those established wrestlers include the Magnificent Malico, the ‘Young Gun’ Chandler Hopkins, and The Radikal Athletes, to name only a few. Also, new characters are already creating a buzz and selling merch without evening setting foot in the ring (like the aforementioned Seizetsu: a man possessed by a mask that houses an especially violent oni).

Then, we were again interrupted by a wrestler who just signed his contract thanking Bob for the opportunity.

BZ: Just like this gentleman, it’s about meeting different individuals, and it’s about them exuding passion and sacrifice and a want to do it. The willingness to do it, and it’s also about me giving them the open ability to not constrict, and restrict, their characters and their charisma. It’s giving them bullet points and letting them role, see who’s got it.

C: Do you feel like there are any characters like that… that the fans are going to really gravitate towards? Like your Fonzy as it were? You know what I mean?

BZ: Yeah, absolutely. There are some that are ordinary characters… and the Ignition series, building all the characters and introducing everybody, there’s an ordinary world and there’s a special world. For me, and the nostalgic wrestling that I enjoyed back in the day, that I really got into it, was the special world characters that had the mysticism behind them that REALLY got me into it. So…

C: Like your Papa Shango’s and stuff like that?

BZ: Exactly! And that’s my whole thing is actually taking that nostalgic factor and the special world characters and not giving them any restrictions as far as the introductory story. So, possession, sleep paralysis, nightmare demons…it’s all there.

C: You boldly proclaim it’s not a promotion; it’s a product for TV. What made you decide to take that route as opposed to going just a full Indy promotion?

BZ: Well I can rent a f***ing school gym and rent a ring, put all these cats in the ring and have it be a great show, but what’s so special about that? I vowed to bring the spectacle back a bit. I wanna go to a g****** show [with] all the bells and whistles, the pyro, the sets, the stories… down to how the f***ing titles look… I mean every little aspect has to be perfect. It’s about more introducing the characters before you even see wrestling. Yeah, we know these wrestlers are amazing, but who the f*** are they?

Structure of the Show

The EWA season will be presented in 2 parts. The first half of the season will be Ignition. Like TV, the show is shot cinematically and introduces characters by building upon backgrounds, the world, and the storylines. The second half is called Meltdown. During part 2, things move into the arena for the live shows. Bob Zee explains more:

C: Ignition season one sounds like it’s going to be a riveting TV show. Will we see any wrestling during that time or is it going to be mostly shot very cinematically?

BZ: It’s actually methodically broken into all the genres that we love, that I love personally. That’s action, comedy, drama, suspense, horror… I’m a huge fan of film and I have specific directors and writers that I gravitate towards…

C: Do you separate that by episode?

BZ: I just make d*** sure that in each episode there’s a little bit of everything… I love f***ing wrestling, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot of s*** about wrestling that I don’t like. And I don’t like lackluster, I don’t think it should be done that way… [The WWE] have the capabilities with their studio to go in and f***ing make movies to introduce their characters. I don’t know why they don’t do it. And developing this too, I’ve completely stopped watching wrestling. I’ve completely not delved back into what I enjoyed, and that’s specifically so this is completely different. Something completely original. Our tagline is “Original. Outlandish. Organic.” And that is a testament to everybody. We’re talking about several individual characters that have aspects and characteristics of their real-life that I wanted to involve so that when they get in front of the camera that it is completely organic.

The EWA will premiere in December of this year if all goes well. Find the entire interview below. We go a little further in-depth on these matters and discuss the future venue. We also talk about what it could mean to the DFW wrestling scene.

I was also lucky enough to get to interview a few of the wrestlers. You can hear me stammer through those interviews like Bob Newhart below.

For more, you can check out the EWA’s website and follow them on Facebook page here where merch is already available.

• EWA
• Elite Wrestling Association

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