Interview with Nick Ashberry, the owner of EAW

This week, I managed to sit down and talk too Nick Ashberry, the hard working owner of EAW. A man that has had a lot of ups and downs over the last 15 years that he has been a wrestling promoter. Nick has overcome a lot of adversity, but it is drive and passion that has made EAW into the excellent product we see today. EAW have a huge event in Rushden this Sunday, I urge you all to enquire into booking or at least follow us on twitter @__SportCentral, to keep up to date with the event, and the upcoming events this year. With at least 7 more EAW shows still remaining this year, including Rumble in Rushden, an event that is going to be huge and my personal favourite of the year. Please take a look at the interview with the hard working owner of EAW, Nick Ashberry. 

Question 1 - What made you get into wrestling, and make the leap to making your own shows? I started training at 16, but the different promotions and schools were not ran like a business. I'd taken business and drama in school and college. Which are both perfect fit for wrestling and promoting. I've always been an entrepreneur and into making money. So I literally thought to myself 'I can do better than this crap' so I got my Dad to build a ring (he's an engineer and welder, he even made the steel cage, he truly is talented) and we started promoting shows from there. Nearly 15 years later and several hundred shows and we're still going!! I stopped wrestling due to having 3 rare illnesses (crowns disease, BAM & Addison's) and focused on promoting full time so that I could fit my work around my illness's. Question 2 - Proudest moment as a Wrestling Promoter? Seeing the smiling faces of all the kids and disabled fans at the shows. Nothing better than knowing your show has brought a smile to someone's face. 

Question 3 - 15 years, that's amazing, a real credit to how you have stuck through it, as British Wrestling has both risen and dropped in popularity multiple times. What's next for the brand? This year we launched into a few new towns. The goal next year is to continue that expansion and to increase our exposure. We're now running Wisbech. St Mary, March, Stilton, Whittlesey and a few more. But the goal is to improve those areas. Question 4 - Can you explain a typical week as the owner of EAW? A typical week of a promoter; Im actually self employed and do wrestling promoting / hiring full time, so working and thinking of wrestling never ends! Messages are constantly coming in either from fans or hire enquiries as I also run HireWrestling.com If I'm not designing and editing I'm out postering or messaging fans or doing something to advertise the multiple shows we do. It really never ends!! We also have an academy every Tuesday night in Kettering. It's very rare I get a weekend off. 

Question 5 - What would be the dream? To get bigger & bigger for all the venues we run to the point were we can run monthly shows in each one like we do for Rushden. To be able to run monthly shows enables us run awesome storylines which really gets the fans involved and hooked in to the point we are getting 250-300 loyal fans each month in a tiny town. Which is pretty awesome. 

Question 6 - Who is the best wrestler or wrestlers you have worked with and why? Defining 'best wrestler' is very hard. As what make a wrestler 'better' or 'worse'? As it's all a matter of opinion. From a business point of view, Mister Monster is EAW's John Cena. He is so popular and connects with the audience. They love his character and look. He might not be the 'best' technical wrestler. But neither was Hogan yet he made Vince millions. I value Mister Monster on my roster over any 'top name' as I know my audience cares about him more.

Brilliant answers from Nick in this interview, an interesting character and a man passionate about what he does. Please check out EAW, and don't forget to follow them on twitter @EAWOfficial and of course, ourselves, on @__SportCentral.