The Internet Wrestling League is going through tough times right now as many of their roster are leaving for more lucritive offers. Owner, Paul Williams, mentioned to staff here at The ‘Zine recently: ‘We’re doing all we can to promote the IWL, but it’s tough right now with the economy. If you’re an up and coming wrestler in the business, now is a time to sign with the IWL. It won’t always be like this, but those who stick with us will be rewarded.’

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.

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.

The IWL roster initiative was the brainchild of Paul Williams that dawned a start to several IWL roster members. Sally Screw, Michael Platt, and several other roster members were signed up from that same iniative. “We don’t have an idea start date and that’s mainly because there never really was one to begin with. … We start the initiative on a whim by starting at the grassroots and going around and asking any rookies that haven’t had a chance to establish their ground for a commitment to a few shows and from there we see how they like the program. If they like it that much, they continue on to sign full fledged contracts. If they don’t like the contract or don’t like their status in the IWL, we either try to improve them in one direction or the other or we generally let them go back to the free agent pool and try again.”

The Talent Development division head spoke with IWLe.com today and assured that no superstar that comes in will supersede any currently active roster member. “The purpose of this initiative is to develop the IWL into the kind of brand that is watchable by our fans standards, it’s not to replace what we already have. Those in the IWL before the initiative will see the same kind of play that they were given prior to it’s start but in the event that we have a hot shot talent that garners the attention of the fans, then we might see a member of that iniative gain rank rather quickly,” a member of the Talent Development division said under the grounds of anonymity.

“We hope to see the start of this initiative rather quickly and hopefully in time of our season debut,” Williams concluded.

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!