Within the last year, The Frontier Wrestling Alliance, or FWA for short, has gotten a lot of people talking as of late, but not just in its home in the United Kingdom. Just recently, the promotion struck working agreements with the U.S. promotions Ring of Honor and Xtreme Professional Wrestling and has allowed two of its top stars in Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm produce an exceptional independent Match of the Year candidate in Combat Zone Wrestling last year. Believe it or not, FWA is no stranger to having talent exchange agreements with other companies. Throughout their four years in existence (FWA held its first show on February 27, 1999, only about a week after CZW debuted), FWA has engaged in interpromotional agreements with other European feds like CCPW (Capital City Pro Wrestling), EWA (European Wrestling Association), EWW (Extreme World Warfare), and UCW (Ultimate Championship Wrestling), among others. However, this is really the first time that they've struck agreements with U.S.-based feds.

Within the last six months, U.S. stars like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Jerry Lynn. However, what many indy fans aren't aware of is that - before FWA recently used Styles, Daniels, and Lynn on its shows - FWA has featured a long list of premier U.S. performers, such as current WWE superstars Christopher Nowitski, Eddie Guerrero, and Nunzio (a.k.a. James "Little Guido" Maritato) and former-ECW stars Balls Mahoney, valet Jasmin St. Claire, Nova, Sabu, Steve Corino, and others. FWA is responsible for making Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm, and Doug Williams household names in international wrestling.

Fleisch, the only two-time FWA World Heavyweight Champion in FWA history, and Storm have been rivals for over four years and have competed against each other countless times in FWA, along with other promotions. They made their first major appearance in the U.S. at CZW Best of the Best 2, the company's second annual Junior Heavyweight Tournament, in Philadelphia, PA. They faced off at the show in a highly-acclaimed classic bout that was voted by the fans in attendance as the Match of the Night. The two long-time rivals went all out and amazed the audience with incredible aerial spots and high-paced mat sequences, with Fleisch eventually winning the bout after hitting his awe-inspiring Phoenix Swinging DDT. Fleisch advanced all the way to the final round of the tournament, but fell just short of winning it all when he lost to Trent Acid, the tournament's final winner. Fleisch had nearly won the tournament and turned quite a lot of heads, but Storm was certainly not forgotten and instead his involvement in the show was also highly-acclaimed.

Less than 24 hours after they stole the show in CZW, Fleisch and Storm had ANOTHER match, this time on the Premiere Wrestling Federation's "Lockdown in Pottstown" show in Pottstown, PA (6/9/02). While the match was a step below their CZW match (which is quite understandable, because this was Fleisch's fifth match and Storm's third match in two days), it was still received quite well by the PWF fans in attendance, who gave both men a standing ovation after the bout in which Storm pulled off the win.

Fleisch and Storm have also worked ROH and they, along with former-FWA World Heavyweight Champion Doug Williams, made their ROH debuts on July 22, 2002, only about a month after Fleisch and Storm's show stealing contests in CZW and PWF. The show featured the first two rounds of a tournament to crown an inaugural ROH World Heavyweight Champion. Fleisch and Storm continued their rivalry with their third match in the U.S. in two months. They dueled it out against each other in a first round tournament match and both proved just how well they know each other's styles by countering each other's signature manuevers several different times.

In the end, Fleisch countered Storm's attempted Rewind Huracanrana with a stiff Sitout Powerbomb for the pinfall to advance. Although Fleisch was eliminated from the tournament later that same night when he lost a hard-fought battle to Spanky (now Brian Kendrick in WWE), the involvement of the two FWA stars on the show certainly caught more than a few eyes and Fleisch and Storm. Williams, meanwhile, beat both Jay Briscoe and then "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson in that one night, which qualified him for the final round match of the tournament, a Four Corners 60:00 Ironman Match (which also included Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, and Spanky) that was held on a July 27 ROH show.

All four participants placed it all on the line in an absolutely incredible and emotion-filled bout filled with near falls, stiff, Japanese-style kicks, graceful aerial spots, and some of the most sound mat and submission wrestling techniques ever used in a wrestling ring. Even the general concensus of the often critical Internet wrestling public was astounding, with many calling the contest as the U.S. Indy Match of the Year because Williams eventually fell short of winning the title that night, but that was the least of importance - the fans in attendance were awestruck by what they had just seen in the bout and all four men received standing ovations after the bout.

In late 2002, Xtreme Professional Wrestling (or XPW, for short) had just invaded the East coast and was running in the former-ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were in the midst of a war with fellow Philly area promotions 3PW Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling, and Ring of Honor, all of whom had strategically allied up against them in hopes of forcing them out of Philly and back to their former home of Southern California on the West coast. XPW management, though, was surprisingly persistent and refused to be forced out of the Philly wrestling market, at least at that point. It was around this time that XPW issued a formal press release that they would be engaging in an interpromotional (and international, for that matter) talent exchange agreement with the UK-based FWA.

The relationship between the two promotions would begin with FWA talents Jonny Storm and Zebra Kid flying into the U.S. to wrestle at the XPW Merry F'n X-Mas show on December 21, 2002. They both participated in a four corners elimination match to decide the number one contender to "The Rock Superstar" Kaos' XPW Television Title. The bout also featured former-ECW alums Jerry Lynn and Joey Matthews, both of whom were also making their XPW debuts. The bout ended up being deemed by most of the fans in attendance as the Match of the Night. Zebra Kid was eliminated first, followed by Matthews a few minutes later. Then, for the rest of the match, Lynn and Storm, both of whom had engaged in several excellent matches in FWA against each other, dueled it out in a great showing to determine the challenger for Kaos' TV title.

However, the finish ended up surprising more than a few, as Storm escaped Lynn's attempted Cradle Piledriver and delivered an X-Factor (Sitout Face Plant). Both men then collapsed down to the mat and landed on top of each other for a double pinfall! Lynn and Storm then wrestled for about 30 minutes in another show stealing bout at XPW New Years Revolution 3 Night 1 on January 17, 2003 to determine the undisputed challenger to Kaos' TV title. Storm eventually pinned Lynn to earn a shot at Kaos' TV title the very next night at NYR: Aftermath and although he fell short of his quest to win the TV title, he turned a lot of heads and helped produce what was again called by many as the Match of the Night.

Shortly after the NYR weekend of doubleheader shows, XPW issued another formal press release and this time announced that it and FWA were going to team up and hold a tournament to crown an inaugural XPW European Champion. Each company would hold their own leg of the tournament featuring four of their own wrestlers and then the winners of the FWA and of the XPW legs of the tourney would face off in a final round, interpromotional match to crown the European champion. FWA was represented by Jonny Storm, Robbie Brookside, Zebra Kid, and Juventud Guerrera (who was actually on loan to FWA from XPW) and XPW was represented by Chris Hamrick, Jerry Lynn, Psychosis, and Simon Diamond.

The first round of the FWA leg of the tourney occurred on February 8, 2003 at FWA New Frontiers, which was held at Walthamstow Assembly Hall in London, England. That show's first tournament match saw Zebra Kid and Robbie Brookside fight to a Draw after they both failed to re-enter the ring during referee Scott Conway's 20 second count. This meant that both Zebra Kid and Brookside were eliminated from the tournament. The very next bout on the show pitted Jonny Storm against Juvi and in that exceptional match that was hailed by many in attendance as the Match of the Night, Storm pinned Juvi after rolling through a Juvi Driver attempt. Storm therefore received a bye to the final round of the tournament, where he would meet the winner of the XPW leg.

The first round of the XPW leg of the tournament was held at My Bloody Valentine 3 on February 14, 2003 in Philly. On that show, Psychosis beat Diamond and Lynn beat Hamrick. This meant that Psychosis and Lynn would wrestle at the next XPW show to determine both the winner of the XPW leg of the tourney and the opponent of Jonny Storm, who had won the FWA leg of the tourney. However, Psychosis was unable to make it to the show that he was scheduled to wrestle Lynn at (My Bloody Valentine L.A. Tour Night 1 [2/28/03]), so Chris Candido and Super Crazy wrestled at that show and the winner, who ended up being Crazy, went one-on-one with Lynn the very next night to determine the winner of the XPW leg of the tournament. That excellent bout ended up being quite reminiscent of their great feud in ECWand was eventually won by Lynn, which catapulted him into the interpromotional final round of the tournament. That match saw him wrestle rival Jonny Storm (the winner of the FWA leg of the tourney and a current XPW wrestler) in an exceptional bout at FWA Crunch on March 16 of this year. Also at that show, Psychosis - representing XPW - wrestled FWA mainstay Jody Fleisch in a bout that was for the number one contendership to the XPW European Title.