SELLERSBURG, December 30, 2021 – Paradigm Pro Wrestling and IndependentWrestling.TV (IWTV) will bring in the New Year with the fourth season of the UWFi Rules Contenders Series beginning on Wednesday, January 5th at 10PM ET / 7PM PT.
“The Contenders Series has historically been some of our most popular programming and we’re excited to take it to the next level with Season 4. This is the fastest-paced, hardest hitting professional wrestling series on the air today. If you believe professional wrestling is a sport, and deserves to be treated as such – this is the show for you” said Paradigm Pro Wrestling co-owner Gary J. Wilson.
The series will air weekly on Wednesdays for seven consecutive weeks and showcase Japanese-inspired shoot-style professional wrestling, and feature competitors such as UFC veteran and current New Japan Strong Openweight Champion “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, MLW Star Big Beef Gnarls Garvin, Paradigm’s Super Middleweight Champion Jordan Blade, Paradigm’s Heavy Hitters Champion Isaiah Broner, Pan-Afrikan World Diaspora Champion Trish Adora, Big Japan Wrestling’s Josh Crane and many others.
In addition to the Paradigm roster members participating in the series, more than twenty new contenders will be looking to earn a spot on the Paradigm roster through the show. The Contenders were selected from a nationwide pool of over 150 applicants and come from a wide variety of sporting backgrounds.
“We’ve got a ton of top talent coming – wrestlers that have competed around the world in places like Wrestle-1 in Japan, WXW in Germany, and top martial artists including world ranked Tang Soo Do competitor Alex Weir. The most exciting aspect is that the fans will choose who makes our roster – we encourage everyone to use the hashtag #UWFiContenders on Twitter to let us know how they want to see back,” said Wilson.
As implied by the name, every bout in the series is contested under UWFi Rules. Paradigm Pro Wrestling often utilizes a modernized version of the ruleset of the now defunct Union of Professional Wrestling Forces International promotion in Japan. UWFi Rules are essentially a hybrid of traditional professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. The key difference is that under UWFi rules, there are no pinfalls – matches may only be won via knock-out, TKO, submission, or points.
PPW became the first promotion to use the UWFi rule-set and point system in the United States in 25 years in November of 2019 at the first Fighting Spirit Heavyweight Grand Prix. Since then, UWFi Rules bouts have been a key component of Paradigm Pro events.
Each episode will feature five to six fights, presented in a sports-first manner and including a unique cyberpunk-esque synthesizer score provided by Karl Casey at White Bat Audio. The Season Premiere will be headlined by an Openweight, Intergender Super Fight pitting Tom Lawlor against Jordan Blade, a co-feature pitting Illinois All-State Wrestler Tanner Keeler against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt Dustin Leonard, and supporting bouts featuring Killa Kate, Big Beef, and Lord Crewe.
Season Four of the UWFi Rules Contenders Series premieres Wednesday, January 5th at 10 PM ET / 7PM PT on IndependentWrestling.TV, the world’s largest library of independent wrestling. Subsequent episodes will premiere every Wednesday thereafter, with the complete first three seasons of the show also available for on-demand viewing. The streaming service IWTV is available on Roku, Amazon FireTV, Apple TV, iOS, Google Play and more.
About Paradigm Pro Wrestling
Founded in 2017 and based in the Louisville, KY, metropolitan area, Paradigm Pro Wrestling (PPW) presents professional wrestling events with an emphasis on the shoot-style, hardcore, and high flying genres of the sport. All shows are filmed for international distribution on the IndependentWrestling.TV streaming network. PPW fighters have competed on the largest stages in professional wrestling and MMA including the WWE, UFC, All Elite Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Bellator MMA, EliteXC MMA, New Japan Wrestling, and Major League Pro Wrestling.
