The Age of WARHORSE is over. After 532-days and 42 title defenses since WARHORSE defeated Erick Stevens in September of 2019 at Black Label Pro in the Turbo Graps 16 Tournament Final, there is a new IndependentWrestling.tv (IWTV) Independent Wrestling Champion and his name is Lee Moriarty. Going into the match on Saturday as part of Alabama’s New South Pro Wrestling‘s HOSS Tournament, WARHORSE wasn’t exactly sure who his opponent actually was. The title defense was in essence the true finale to IWTV’s 2020 fall series, The Masked Wrestler. A truly unique series, it featured multiple masked wrestlers who competed against each other, with no true idea who they were under the mask until they lost in the tournament. As the tournament went on, various masked wrestlers were revealed to be Logan Easton LaRoux, KTB, Josh Bishop, Wheeler YUTA, Lady Frost, Tony Deppen, and Tre Lamar. But it was the mysterious Genkai that won the tournament, going on to win a title opportunity against WARHORSE for the Independent Wrestling Championship at a later date. That date wound up being Saturday night at New South Pro, where Genkai finally removed his mask to reveal he was one of 2020’s breakout superstars on the US indies, Lee Moriarty. And now, Lee Moriarty is the 8th IWTV Independent Wrestling Champion in the title’s four-year history (7th unique wrestler).
And new. pic.twitter.com/Tin3MK9HYq
— IWTV (@indiewrestling) March 7, 2021
The Independent Wrestling Championship was created in October of 2017 and was initially won by Jonathan Gresham, who won a tournament to crown the inaugural champion, after defeating Joey Lynch. Gresham held the title for 126-days before losing it to his future Foundation stablemate “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams in February of 2018. Williams held the title a whopping 309-days, which stood as the record until WARHORSE’s historic reign. In December of 2018, Orange Cassidy defeated Williams for the title and his first reign – of 146 days – before he lost it to Kris Statlander in May of 2019. Statlander only held the title for two weeks before losing it back to Cassidy, whose second reign added another 104-days to his legacy as Champion. At Black Label Pro’s Turbo Graps 16 tournament in September of 2019, Cassidy lost his title in the first round to Erick Stevens, who ultimately lost it that night in the finals to WARHORSE.
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During his 532-day reign, WARHORSE defended the title against many big names from the US indies, including Matthew Justice, Orange Cassidy, AJ Gray, Tony Deppen, Curt Stallion, Danhausen, John Silver, Fred Yehi, Kylie Rae, Daniel Makabe, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, EFFY, and Rickey Shane Page. The IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship is open to be defended on any of the multiple international independent promotions featured on IWTV, and has been defended across promotions like Beyond Wrestling, BLP, ACTION Wrestling, Freelance Wrestling, Camp Leapfrog, Southern Underground Pro (SUP), Alpha-1 Wrestling, Paradigm Pro Wrestling (PPW), Glory Pro, St. Louis Anarchy, and more.
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