On November 1, 2021, the formation of Deadlock Pro-Wrestling (DPW) was announced by Anthony Douglas (TonyPizzaGuy), James Darnell (Pulse), and John Blud (Jawnny from NewLegacyInc), the hosts of the Deadlock Podcast. On April 16, at Forever, The Reality (Chance Rizer and Patrick Scott) defeated The Workhorsemen (
Anthony Henry and JD Drake) to became the first
Worlds Tag Team Champions. On June 10, at Showdown In The Carolinas,
Calvin Tankman defeated Kevin Ku in a tournament final to became the inaugural
National Champion, and on August 6, at Believe The Hype, Raychell Rose defeated
Rosemary in a tournament final to became the inaugural
Women's Worlds Champion. On January 14, 2023, DPW held their first live PPV event named Live 1: Ali vs KENTo. On April 16, 2023, the promotion held Live 2 in
New Jersey – marking their first event outside of
North Carolina. On April 25 and 27, 2023, DPW held a two-night collaboration event with Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling in
Japan, which marked their first event outside of the United States. On December 2, 2023, DPW announced it would be touring outside of North Carolina for the year of 2024. Such locations included
Texas and
Illinois. On March 29, 2024, DPW announced that they had entered into a strategic partnership with fellow independent wrestling promotions West Coast Pro Wrestling and Prestige Wrestling. It was announced on June 7, 2024, all future DPW events, starting from Limit Break, would be made available on
Wrestle Universe. On November 8, 2025, DPW announced the company would be going on an indefinite hiatus in 2026, with
4th Anniversary, being its last ever show in the
US. ==Programming and events==