About HOTv

The High Octane Television network and its library is a Lee Best-owned subsidiary that consists of the largest collection of professional wrestling videos and copyrights in the world. It comprises not only past and current works by HOW, but also the works of now defunct professional wrestling promotions dating back to the 1990s. As of 2022, the library stands at 150,000 hours of content including weekly television shows, pay-per-views, and recorded house shows. The collection represents a very significant portion of the visual history of modern professional wrestling in the United States and Canada. HOW has made their classic holdings available through numerous home-video releases, and HOTv.

Classic HOW holdings

The library includes all past and present HOW tapes dating back to 2002, including all previous forms of the company.

Although not wrestling content, the library’s holdings also include footage from various documentaries, reality shows, and fictional works produced for home video, HOTv and other broadcasters, and any motion pictures produced by HOW Studios. The footage saved from HOW’s days as Golden Phoenix Wrestling is also among the rare surviving footage of broadcasts from the Geoshitties Network, as most of their footage was destroyed in 2004.

Non-HOW purchases

For years, HOW has engaged in a campaign of purchasing libraries of defunct wrestling promotions. The first significant purchase took place in 2008 when the company bought the complete historical archives of their former competitor Shockwave Sports Entertainment. The purchase of the Pro Wrestling X intellectual unit and library during its bankruptcy proceedings in 2015 and the sale of the library from the Halkum/Wingate Estate in 2020 gave the company the majority of all national professional wrestling content available at the time.

Shockwave Sports Entertainment: Chaos Brand (2002-2005)

Penguin Inc.

• Pro Wrestling X (2009-2014)
• 2nd City Wrestling (2014-2016)
• Canadian X Pro Wrestling (2015)

Hardcore Promotions which by the end included

• Next Generation Wrestling
• Xtreme Wrestling Federation
• Hate Wrestling
• Encore Wrestling

nMo Entertainment

• New Age Wrestling
• New Mog Wrestling
• Full Throttle Wrestling

Libraries Acquired through HOTv Broadcast Rights

Legacy Pro Wrestling (2011-2012)

TRUE Wrestling (2012)

Peach State Wrestling (2011-2012)

Heartland Productions

• Political Championship Wrestling (2007-2019)
• Missouri Valley Wrestling (2009-Present)

Sinful Entertainment

• Sanctioned Violence Organization
• Dynasty Wrestling
• Project: Violence

4 Corners Wrestling (2013-2020)

AMP Industries

• Boardwalk Wrestling (2014-2016)
• Strike Towers Wrestling (2001-2016)

New Edge Wrestling (2013-2019)

Shoot Project Wrestling (2001-2016)

PWA – Pro Wrestling Assault!

Editing

HOW owns the unedited master tapes for all content in the library.

Music rights issues are also reasons for occasional editing by HOW of its library when airing or releasing videos. While most wrestlers’ entrance themes are done in-house or licensed, those whose music is not owned by HOW are often dubbed over with cheaper alternatives rather than providing the original audio, to save HOW paying licensing fees to the writers/performers of the original songs. Exceptions to non-HOW composed themes that HOW leaves in its archives are either songs that are in the public domain, or songs that HOW acquired from its purchase of SSE and PWX. Additionally, wrestlers who worked for HOW but whose entrance music in other promotions may be owned by an outside company have had their songs in those promotions replaced by their HOW counterparts, such as Mike Best’s DREAM theme being replaced by his HOW theme.

When HOW became a registered trademark and copyright in 2019, HOW and HOTv began editing controversial content from HOW’s past in order to meet standards and practices; this also applied to the standalone HOTv Network feed that remained overseas.

PWA: TV

On July 15, 2022, effective at midnight MST, all archived content and future content broadcasted on High Octane Television has been sold to a new entity. HOTv will still be available as a standalone streaming product, but all shows aired on the HOTv network will be simulcasted with their new partner:

Phoenix Wrestling Alliance

The PWA has purchased the broadcast rights to play HOTv content in their entirety. The streaming service, known as PWA:TV will be unveiled at a later date. It will air content from multiple different wrestling promotions. They have also recently agreed to a deal with the ACE Network to air all content that is also broadcasted, and archived, on the ACE Network.

Now you will soon be able to find all of your HOW, PRIME, MVW, and sVo content in one place, albeit on different channels, under the umbrella of PWA:TV. This is a major deal as the streaming service will have access to back catalogs of PCW, SSE, PWX, LPW, and the entire Wingate Estate video library. Huge score for this up and coming streaming service.