House of Glory

House of Glory Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion and training academy based in New York City. Amazing Red (Jonathan Figueroa) and Brian XL co-founded the promotion in 2012, building on the House of Glory Wrestling School that they had established in Ridgewood, Queens in 2010.

Both founders were trained by ECW legend Mikey Whipwreck, and Amazing Red brought significant name recognition from his career in TNA Wrestling, where he captured the X Division Championship three times and became known as one of the most innovative high-flyers of his generation. Brian XL competed in Ring of Honor (ROH) and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) during the early 2000s before shifting his focus to training the next generation of talent.

HOG held its inaugural event, High Intensity, on May 5, 2012, with Amazing Red defeating Brian Kendrick in the main event. The promotion ran regular shows throughout the New York area, taking graduates from its own wrestling school and putting them up against established independent talent.

In 2014, HOG introduced its top championship, the HOG World Heavyweight Championship, which was determined through an eight-man tournament at Quest for Glory. Ricochet won the tournament by defeating Drew Gulak in the finals, becoming the inaugural champion. The tournament field also included future stars like Shane Strickland (Swerve Strickland) and Marq Quen.

The promotion steadily expanded its championship structure over the following years, introducing its own top singles title, the HOG Heavyweight Championship, two years after launch. This gave cards a flagship belt that sat above their secondary titles, like the Crown Jewel and Cruiserweight championships that followed.

Over time, HOG added a women’s championship and a tag team championship, and by the mid-2020s, those divisions featured recognizable names, including Shotzi Blackheart holding the women’s title and The Hardys carrying the tag belts while also recognized as TNA World Tag Team Champions.

The promotion steadily expanded its championship structure over the following years. HOG added the Crown Jewel Championship (previously named the Elite Championship) in 2015 as a secondary singles title, the Women’s Championship in 2017, and both tag team and cruiserweight divisions.

Throughout the mid-to-late 2010s, HOG built a reputation for booking high-profile talent alongside homegrown performers, hosting names like Ric Flair, Zack Sabre Jr., LAX, and the Lucha Brothers. The promotion also co-promoted events with Impact Wrestling, including the Code Red event that aired on Impact Plus in May 2019.

In October 2019, rapper and entrepreneur Master P (Percy Robert Miller) acquired a majority stake in the company and was announced as the new owner. Master P, who had previously ventured into professional wrestling with WCW’s No Limit Soldiers stable in the late 1990s, brought financial resources and production support to the promotion.

HOG paused operations in December 2019, partly due to industry-wide challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and remained inactive for nearly two years. The promotion returned in November 2021 with the Born Again event, which featured Amazing Red coming out of retirement to face Will Ospreay from New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in the main event. Master P promoted the bout on a billboard in Times Square, which is a rare move for an independent promotion.

Since its return, HOG has expanded its geographic reach, running events in Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Toronto in addition to its New York City home base. The promotion streams its events on TrillerTV and has attracted a steady roster of high-profile talent, including Hiroshi Tanahashi, Matt Cardona, Nic Nemeth, Mercedes Moné, and Konosuke Takeshita.

The HOG Wrestling Academy continues to operate as one of the top-ranked wrestling schools in New York, with graduates including Private Party (Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy) and Sasha Banks (now Mercedes Moné) among its most notable alumni.

HOG maintains a loyal fanbase known for its energetic crowds and continues to position itself as one of the premier independent promotions on the East Coast.