In a press release published yesterday afternoon, IWL Entertainment and ESPN Networks have come to an agreement to begin airing IWL OverDrive tapings and three television specials throughout the year on the ESPN8 Network.

“We’re excited to add the IWL brand to our already action-packed professional wrestling block here at ESPN8.” stated Hector Paskert, director of programming for ESPN8. “We’ve been after the IWL brand for quite some time after it was announced last year that the IWL was returning. Signing IWL Entertainment to a deal like this is phenonominal news for our wrestling views and fans of the IWL.”

“With this deal, we can give our fans a chance to experience the IWL like never before and give our wrestlers even more people to prove why they are the best.” stated Paul Williams in an interview to IWLe.com.

With the deal comes exclusives television airing rights to show IWL OverDrive’s two hour programming and three television specials which can be anywhere from one hour to three. In addition, IWL will begin broadcasting in High Definition (HD) similiar to all programming airing on the ESPN networks.

The first IWL OverDrive to air on ESPN’s “El Ocho” will be on February 5, 2009 for the IWL season premiere.

During the press conference held earlier today by Paul Williams, Williams also mentioned rumorts of the IWL being put for sale. “The IWL has been here for 8 years, we’re going to be around eight maybe ten more.”

It is isn’t the first time that the ownership of the IWL has been called to question but time and time again, Williams has gone on call to say that the IWL is his dream and it is not for sale.

“There were a total of at least six times as I can recall that the IWL was offered up to either sell out or merge or loan it’s wrestlers en masses to other promotions. While all of the IWL wrestlers and talent are under independent contractor status meaining that they can go wherever and whenever, I refuse to give someone what I worked so hard to build and what the roster I have collected worked so hard to maintain,” Williams continued. “I will not now, nor ever put up a price tag, a “For Sale” sign, nor a “Closed” sign unless it’s for the holidays when we give our roster and staff time off… you will never see a sign like that or an indication given that the IWL is for sale. PERIOD!”

In a press conference held earlier this afternoon, IWL owner and promoter Paul Williams fielded several questions in regards to the restarting of the IWL.

“IWL ended 2008 on a sour note as most of our roster has left to pursue greener pastures as it were. However, as always when that is the case the IWL has one plan to counteract that. And that plan is to start the IWL Roster Initiative again,” Williams stated. Read the rest of this entry

It’s a new year! And that means the IWL gets a new look.

Fresh out of the IWL Entertainment labs by way of WordPress, IWL Entertainment is proud to present the new IWL website. Things are a bit easier to navigate through and a hell of a lot easier for the IWL staff to edit. No more worrying about who is on the roster page and the what not, no more 24 week old updates to titles. Now everything is de-centralized and recentralized around this great new software.

Also new to the IWL site is RSS Syndication! So now you can easily read the new postings of the IWL website on your favorite RSS news catcher. To subscribe, simply click the big RSS logo to the top right corner of the page.

While a lot of the major portions of the site are still under the “Work Under Construction” banner but are still functional to a degree. Everything should be operation within a week.

Speaking of a week, a brand new OverDrive card is fresh off the pages of the IWL office and the tour bus and places start to wind up again. So don’t delay, get on over to the forums today and start watching the action unfold as the IWL enters it’s eighth year of business.

Plus, the season premier of IWL OverDrive is just two weeks away and with last year’s announcement that Paul Williams is returning to take control of the helm, what new surprises await the Internet Wrestling League. The only way to find out is to stay tuned to IWL and IWL OverDrive!