Innovative Hybrid Wrestling is returning to Sackville almost 21 years after what its promoter says was the promotion’s first show under the IHW name.
IHW’s Full Circle show takes place tonight – Friday, Aug. 28 – at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre, bringing the promotion back to a town that played a key role in its beginnings.
Current promoter and co-owner Kirk Aube wasn’t involved with IHW when it first came to Sackville in 2005 but says the promotion’s history was passed on to him by one of its founders Julien Young.
Before Innovative Hybrid Wrestling, Aube said the IHW initials stood for Irishtown Hardcore Wrestling, a backyard wrestling group based around Irishtown, outside Moncton. He said the group became more serious after some of its members received formal wrestling training through Emile Dupree and Grand Prix Wrestling.
“From what Julian told me, it was IHW Wrestling prior, but it was Irishtown Hardcore Wrestling previously to 2005,” said Aube. “Once they got their training through Emile Dupree and Grand Prix Wrestling, then they got more serious as like, let’s kind of do this and call it Innovative Hybrid Wrestling, still keeping the IHW letters.”
Aube said the first show under the new name, September to Surrender, was held in Sackville before the promotion went on to hold events in other New Brunswick communities.
From fan to promoter
Aube’s own connection to IHW began years later while he was living in Moncton and attending the promotion’s shows in Riverview. In 2013, he signed up for wrestling training with Young, Titus and Brody Steele. At the time, he was living in Bathurst and making the drive to Moncton every Saturday for three months to train.
“I would wake up first thing in the morning, do my merchandise run for the first few hours, from 6:00 until 10:00, whenever I was able to finish. Drive down to Moncton, be beaten and banged around for about three to five hours and then drive back,” he said.
His role changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. Aube said IHW’s previous promoter had left, and in 2022 people began contacting him to ask whether the promotion would return. He had previously helped promote wrestling events in Bathurst and Campbellton and had thought about becoming a promoter himself, although he expected that to happen much later in his life.
“I’ve always wanted to promote but not until my 40s,” said Aube.
After discussing the idea with his wife, Aube approached Young and Titus about restarting IHW. The promotion returned in October 2022 with a show at the Coverdale Centre in Riverview, followed by another event in Miramichi the next month.
A different IHW 21 years later
The promotion returning to Sackville Friday looks considerably different from the one seen in footage from its early years. During an interview with CHMA, Aube watched an old video of Young and Titus wrestling in 2005, which he said he had never seen before.
“Julian doesn’t have hair. Titus is no longer wrestling unfortunately,” said Aube. “They’re both kind of the same characters and the same mannerism and whatnot, but obviously much better now.”
Aube said the biggest change is the level of professionalism surrounding the shows. That extends beyond what happens in the ring to the entrances, lighting, merchandise and other parts of the presentation.
“It’s more professional,” he said. “It’s a more professional presentation in ring, whether it’s inside the ring with the wrestling or the presentation that we have when you first enter the arena.”
Aube describes current IHW events as family-friendly and said the promotion tries to connect each show with an organization in the community where it takes place. Proceeds from the 50/50 draw at Friday’s event will go to Sackville Minor Hockey.
Behind the more polished presentation, Aube said, is a significant amount of work that audiences never see. He describes promoting IHW as almost a second full-time job on top of his regular employment, and said the first few years after the revival were financially difficult as he learned how to market the shows.
“What you don’t see is the work from home,” said Aube. “Like the emails, the phone calls, the travelling, the put up posters, taking money from your own savings account to invest in a company, and then some shows you don’t make money.”
Finding a way back to Sackville
Even after IHW began running shows again, getting back to Sackville took another attempt. Aube said he contacted the municipality last year about bringing wrestling back to town, but acknowledged he reached out relatively late in the season. He said he was told wrestling wasn’t a fit for the municipality’s community events at the time.
That changed this spring, when Aube said someone from the municipality contacted him about the possibility of holding a show.
“One of the town members emailed me and asked me, ‘Hey, we have some free time, and we’d like to, we’ll help support you guys and whatnot,’” said Aube. “So I jumped on it. I was like, it’s been 21 years.”
Aube said IHW has also been building an audience in nearby Amherst and expects some fans from there and Moncton to travel to Sackville. The timing was deliberate as well: he wanted to avoid the middle of summer, when Mount Allison University students are away, and instead hold the show around the time students begin returning to town. If Friday is successful, Aube said he hopes Sackville could become a regular stop once or even twice a year.
Coming ‘full circle’
Friday’s show will bring together members of IHW’s current roster with wrestlers connected to the promotion’s early years. Young is returning to wrestle, along with Johnny Fugazi, who Aube said performed as Chris Tuff in 2005.
That connection between the promotion’s past and present inspired the name Full Circle.
“It is like coming full circle from our first Innovative Hybrid Wrestling show 21 years later, almost to the day,” said Aube. “It’s kind of like coming home, although it’s not really our home, but it’s kind of like our first show here.”
Full Circle takes place Friday, Aug. 28 at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with wrestling beginning at 7 p.m.
Theodore Ramharack holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Western University and a diploma in Broadcast Journalism. He recently completed an internship with CBC News’ The National.
Originally from Ontario, he moved to Sackville to join CHMA as a local journalist and is excited to get to know the Tantramar region and share stories from the community.
