Real Pro Wrestling

Real Pro Wrestling (also known as RPW or RealPro Wrestling) was a professional sports league of wrestling, similar to the amateur wrestling found in the Olympic Games and at the college and high school level. The term "real" was meant to emphasize that it was professional (meaning the wrestlers are paid money) and it was wrestling, but that it was not professional wrestling in the traditional sense; modern professional wrestling features predetermined outcomes and operates under a very different set of rules from amateur wrestling.

Real Pro Wrestling, Inc was founded in 2002 by former Northwestern University wrestling teammates Toby Willis and Matt Case. The company was based in Nashville, Tennessee with branch offices in New York and Virginia. RPW was a television production company and a producer of live events.

The league began operations in March 2005 and consisted of eight teams (see below). Although the teams had various city and state names, all matches were taped on a soundstage in Nashville and Los Angeles (Los Angeles Center Studios).

According to the official website, "In RPW, classic meets the future as the matches are conducted in a specially designed coliseum which showcases a raised circular mat to facilitate better camera angles and to afford the live audience a better viewing experience. The circular mat allows for 360 degree camera angles and aids in covering the close quarters that wrestlers frequently find themselves in as they maneuver for position."

Numerous similar projects were announced before RPW, but none had gotten off the ground. Lanny Bryant, the Montana-based editor of Wrestling USA magazine, proposed a similar league in the early 1990s, as one example.

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