Israeli Pro Wrestling Association
# Israeli Pro Wrestling Association

Israeli Pro Wrestling Association is an independent wrestling promotion, operating from Israel.

## History

IPWA was founded on October 17, 2001 by Gery Roif and ran a few exhibition matches on national TV before holding the initial Summer Splash event in summer 2002. Roif was crowned its first champion after defeating Texas Wrestling Academy graduate Joey "The MOALM" Tylec in a televised match in the summer of 2003.

Subsequently, the IPWA gained a fair amount of recognition worldwide; toward the end of 2003 Total Wrestling magazine started publishing its rankings on a monthly basis. Summer Splash 3 in 2004 featured FWA star Aviv Maayan making a one-night appearance to team up with Hawaii Allen and take on Jumping Lee and Yossi The Bull with Joey Tylec finally defeating Gery Roif to win the IPWA title.

In 2005 almost the entire IPWA roster starred in a wrestling/social satire sitcom series "Makkat Medina" ("The Land Under Attack"), gaining further recognition in Israel. Both Kevin Von Erich and Bret Hart visited the crew during taping. In the beginning of 2006, the IPWA Wrestlenovella event was aired on The Wrestling Channel. In June 2009, the promotion had an event that got aired on the local Ego Total channel under the title of Israeli Wrestling. In the summer of 2011 Rabbi Swissa defeated Israel's Survivor reality show winner, Nathan Bashevkin.

In 2011 the promotion ran a series of monthly events, from "Makat Shemesh" at June to "Makot Besukut" at November.

On August 16, 2012 Tatanka main evented the Wrestling Super Show as he defeated Rabbi Swissa to win the IPWA Heavyweight Championship. Two months later the match was shown on Israeli sport channel ONE.

On April 19, 2014 former two time WWE Cruiserweight champion and two time ECW Tag Team champion, Little Guido defeated Rabbi Swissa in IPWA's traditional Passover Bash which was the last show of the promotion.

In April 2019 however, IPWA returned with an additional Passover Bash event, which featured Jay Lethal against David Starr. Originally, Lethal was scheduled to defend the ROH World Championship against Starr, but Lethal lost the title to Matt Taven in a Three-way ladder match, which included Marty Scurll as well at G1 Supercard event on April 6, 2019. The card also featured Gery Roif defending the IPWA Heavyweight Championship against Matt Sydal.

## IPWA special events

The IPWA events feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

### IPWA Passover Bash

On 21 April 2019, IPWA put on their return event, IPWA Passover Bash. It was held at Berale in Lehavot Haviva and drew 200 people.

| No. | Results | Stipulations | Times |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Lior Libman defeated Shay Blanco | Singles match | — |
| 2 | Max Havok defeated Hadar Horovitz | Singles match | — |
| 3 | Yuval Goldshmit defeated The Black Leopard and Idan Boulder | Triple threat match | — |
| 4 | Ariel Mor and Landau defeated Tal Bar-On and Idan Dagan | Tag team match | — |
| 5 | Matt Sydal defeated Rabbi Swissa (c) | Singles match for the IPWA Heavyweight Championship | — |
| 6 | Jay Lethal defeated David Starr | Singles match | 25:18 |
| (c) – the champion(s) heading into the match ||||

### IPWA Wrestling Party

On 26 August 2019, IPWA put on their second return event, IPWA Wrestling Party. It was held at Berale in Lehavot Haviva and drew approximately 80 people.

| No. | Results | Stipulations | Times |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Hadar Horovitz and Guy Landau defeated The Leopards (The Black Leopard and The White Leopard) | Tag team match | 15:17 |
| 2 | Idan Boulder defeated Ori Avram (with Amit Magnezi) | Singles match | 6:09 |
| 3 | Yuval Goldshmit defeated Rixon Ruas | Singles match | 6:45 |
| 4 | Shay Blanco defeated Lior Libman | No disqualification match | 14:14 |
| 5 | Gaya Glass defeated Nadia Sapphire | Singles match | 4:55 |
| 6 | Rabbi Swissa defeated Tye Clodd | Singles match | 9:47 |
| 7 | Yuval Goldshmit won by last eliminating The Black Leopard | 21-man Battle royal match to determine the #1 contender to the IPWA Heavyweight Championship | 30:52 |
| 8 | Matt Sydal (c) defeated Yuval Goldshmit | Singles match for the IPWA Heavyweight Championship | 16:41 |
| (c) – the champion(s) heading into the match ||||

### IPWA at Cinema City

On 15 December 2019, IPWA put on their third return event, IPWA Cinema City Wrestling. It was held at Cinema City in Ramat Hasharon and drew over 300 people.

| No. | Results | Stipulations | Times |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Tal Bar On defeated Shay Blanco, Black Leopard, Ori Gold, Amit Magnezi | Fatal five way | 15:17 |
| 2 | White Leopard defeated Gal Barkay | Singles match | 7:56 |
| 3 | Idan Boulder and Rixon Ruas defeated "Iceman" Ben Rozin and Sharon "Platinum" Palty | Tag team match | 10:10 |
| 4 | Gaya Glass defeated Molly Spartan | Singles match | 6:02 |
| 5 | Darby Allin (c) defeated Rabbi Swissa | Singles match for the NEW Heavyweight Championship | 2:02 |
| 6 | Sammy Guevara defeated Yuval Goldshmit | Singles match | 9:32 |
| 7 | Hadar Horovitz defeated Ken Kerbis | Singles match | 7:25 |
| 8 | Matt Sydal (c) defeated "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn | Singles match for the IPWA Heavyweight Championship | 14:31 |
| (c) – the champion(s) heading into the match ||||

* ↑ Lior Libman was injured few days before the event and therefore he was unable to compete in the match.

## Roster

### Alumni

* Aviv Maayan
* Tatanka
* "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn
* Little Guido
* Tomer Shalom
* Jay Lethal
* David Starr
* Matt Sydal
* Darby Allin
* Sammy Guevara
* Nadia Sapphire
* Molly Spartan

## IPWA Heavyweight Championship

The IPWA Heavyweight Championship is the only professional wrestling championship in the Israeli Pro Wrestling Association promotion. At the end of 2002, Israeli professional wrestler Gery Roif announced a match between himself and Joey "The Moalm" Tylec to determine the first IPWA Heavyweight Champion. The current champion is Matt Sydal, who is in his first reign.

From the IPWA Heavyweight Championship's inception in 2003, there have been thirteen different title holders, combining for eighteen championship reigns.

### Reigns

Key :

| No. | Overall reign number |
| - | - |
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Championship change | Championship change | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. |
| No. | Champion | Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Notes | Ref. |
| 1 | Gery Roif | July 24, 2003 | N/A | Herzliya, Israel | 1 | 215 | Roif defeated Joey Tylec to become the inaugural champion. | |
| 2 | Nadav Arbel | February 24, 2004 | IPWA Netanya Havoc | Netanya, Israel | 1 | <1 | Arbel defeated Gery Roif in the semifinals of a tournament in which the championship was on the line in every match that the champion is in. | |
| 3 | Evgeny Lyder | February 24, 2004 | IPWA Netanya Havoc | Netanya, Israel | 1 | 49 | Defeated Nadav Arbel in the same tournament's final. | |
| 4 | New York Rosenfeld | April 13, 2004 | IPWA Passover Bash | Netanya, Israel | 1 | <1 | | |
| 5 | Gery Roif | April 13, 2004 | IPWA Passover Bash | Netanya, Israel | 2 | 84 | | |
| 6 | Joey Tylec | July 6, 2004 | IPWA Summersplash | Netanya, Israel | 1 | 296 | | |
| 7 | Gery Roif | April 28, 2005 | IPWA Passover Bash | Netanya, Israel | 3 | 203 | This was a three-way match, also involving Hawaii Allen. | |
| 8 | Omry Balely | November 17, 2005 | IPWA 5th Dimension Catch | Tel Aviv, Israel | 1 | 103 | This was a four-way match, also involving Hawaii Allen and Sharon Palty. | |
| 9 | Hawaii Allen | February 28, 2006 | IPWA Holy Land Havoc | Tel Aviv, Israel | 1 | 403 | | |
| — | Vacated | April 7, 2007 | — | — | — | — | Hawaii Allen was stripped of the championship. | |
| 10 | Sharon Palty | June 9, 2007 | N/A | Tel Aviv, Israel | 1 | 704 | Palty defeated Yossi The Bull in a tournament final to win the vacant championship. | |
| 11 | Yossi the Bull | May 13, 2009 | IPWA Israeli Wrestling 2009 | Tel Aviv, Israel | 1 | 476 | | |
| — | Vacated | September 1, 2010 | — | — | — | — | Yossi the Bull was stripped of the championship in September 2010. | |
| 12 | Rabbi Swissa | July 14, 2011 | IPWA Summersplash | Netanya, Israel | 4 | 399 | Swissa defeated Lior Libman in the finals of an eight man tournament to win the vacant championship. | |
| 13 | Tatanka | August 16, 2012 | IPWA Wrestling Supershow | Netanya, Israel | 1 | 7 | | |
| — | Vacated | August 23, 2012 | — | — | — | — | Tatanka was stripped of the championship after he couldn't defend it. | |
| 14 | Rabbi Swissa | August 23, 2012 | IPWA Summer Splash | Netanya, Israel | 5 | 151 | Swissa defeated Ken Kerbis in the finals of a ten-men gauntlet match to win the vacant championship. | |
| 15 | Hellboy | January 21, 2013 | IPWA Music and Wrestling | Tel Aviv, Israel | 1 | 182 | | |
| — | Vacated | July 22, 2013 | — | — | — | — | Hellboy was stripped of the championship. | |
| 16 | Lior Libman | September 7, 2013 | IPWA Wrestling In The Dead Sea | Kalya, Israel | 1 | 224 | Libman defeated Leonardo to win the vacant championship. | |
| — | Deactivated | April 19, 2014 | — | Jerusalem, Israel | — | — | The IPWA ceases promoting events on April 19, 2014. | |
| 17 | Rabbi Swissa | April 1, 2019 | N/A | Netanya, Israel | 6 | 20 | | |
| 18 | Matt Sydal | April 21, 2019 | IPWA Passover Bash | Lehavot Haviva, Israel | 1 | 1,558+ | | |

### Combined reigns

| † | Indicates the current champion |
| - | - |
| Rank | Champion | No. of reigns | Combined days |
| 1 | Matt Sydal † | 1 | 1,558+ |
| 2 | Gery Roif/Rabbi Swissa | 6 | 1,072 |
| 3 | Sharon Palty | 1 | 704 |
| 4 | Yossi the Bull | 1 | 476 |
| 5 | Hawaii Allen | 1 | 466 |
| 6 | Joey Tylec | 1 | 296 |
| 7 | Lior Libman | 1 | 223 |
| 8 | Hellboy | 1 | 182 |
| 9 | Omry Balely | 1 | 103 |
| 10 | Evgeny Lyder | 1 | 49 |
| 11 | Tatanka | 1 | 7 |
| 12 | Nadav Arbel | 1 | <1 |
| 12 | New York Rosenfeld | 1 | <1 |
