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Iadevia first got into the business training at the now-defunct Lower East Side Wrestling School in NYC run by the late Pete McKay. He began working as "Lightning" Lou Diamond and his initial idea was to be take "The New Breed" name used by Chris Champion and Todd Champion in Jim Crockett Promotions as one half of a team that was sent to the future to get the original New Breed for failing to take out Dusty Rhodes.
Eventually, he settled into a team titled NC-17, partnering with Kane D (who now is one of the JAPW bookers) and were regulars for McKay's IPWA promotion, which literally ran out of the basement of a NYC housing project for many years as a training school and regular shows that would feature up and coming talents breaking in (including the future Devon Dudley and Little Guido) as well established names (Johnny Gunn, Matt Borne as Doink, Jason Knight).
Iadevia went on to found Jersey All Pro Wrestling with several partners in 1997. Iadevia at the time was a huge fan of what the original ECW was doing and founded JAPW with Jeff Shapiro and Pierre Pilger using a lot of similar ideas based on blood and violence. Indeed, at one point, the promotion's battle cry was "Blood is Better." JAPW would run regularly in New Jersey out of a former A&P turned into a charity hall. With the ability to do whatever they wanted in the venue, violence and chaos was often part of the show, as was heavy bloodletting, which eventually led to local politicians going after "extreme wrestling", which wound up banned in Bayonne, NJ.
JAPW would also run larger anniversary shows, booking conventions with big-name stars. They were the first to reunite all of the original Four Horsemen together and at one point, had stars from WWF, WCW and ECW all appearing at the same convention during the height of the Monday Night War.
JAPW also became a breeding ground for talent as current ROH champion Jay Lethal, Charlie Haas and Danny Maff all came out of the promotion's training school while others such as Low Ki, Monsta Mack and Homicide, found JAPW to be their home promotion for a good portion of their careers. Indeed, when the founders of Ring of Honor launched in 2001, a good portion of the early roster who were locals were JAPW alumni.
JAPW was also the first promotion to co-promote with New Japan Pro Wrestling, bringing them over for a trio of shows in NYC, New Jersey and Philadelphia. While the shows did well, the financial investment involved led to JAPW taking quite a long time off. They began to promote only annual anniversary events, with the next one set for 11/14.
On a personal note, I met Iadevia way back in June of 1992. I hadn't even graduated High School and we encountered each other at an event former NYC wrestling reporter John Arezzi was putting together. Out of the group we all ended up talking wrestling with that day who all agreed we were going to stay in touch, Iadevia was the only one who did. I remember him being so excited about training to become a wrestler and as JAPW grew, he was as proud of it as he was his own family. Iadevia was very much part of the fabric of my time discovering wrestling beyond the WWF and WCW and at times, was one of the most successful Northeast independent promoters. I am very sad to hear of his passing and I feel very, very old today because of it.
On behalf of everyone associated with PWInsider, I'd like to extend our deepest condolences to Iadevia's friends and family.
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