All I've been able to substantiate so far is that Don "The Moose" Lewis is a real person, and was at some point a boxing and wrestling promoter.
I came across this snippet in the Wikipedia article for John "The Body" Johnson:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Body_JohnsonQuote:
1998
For the rest of 1998 John would work for several promotions as a referee. When a few wrestlers from the old War Zone promotion decided to run their own promotion, John was brought in as a referee, as well as the company's webmaster. The new promotion called Millennium Wrestling Alliance, would run for several months until making the decision to work with a new promoter named Don "The Moose" Lewis and his International Wrestling Union (IWU).
IWU and Don Lewis
In the Summer of 1998 a new promoter emerged on the scene booking some of the biggest names from WCW, WWF, and the indies. Don Lewis ran his first IWU show at the Cobb County Civic Center that year. John despite never having met Don Lewis, actually worked this event as security, but as he has stated several times before, "was only paid a t-shirt, for 7 hours of work." The show was a major failure, due in part that many of the names booked for the show, either cancelled or were never booked to begin with. Another major complaint was the length of the show (a reported 6 hours), and ticket prices (starting at $25 and as expensive as $100). John officially went to work for the IWU that fall, as MWA began promoting shows in conjunction with the IWU. By December, the decision was made to merge the two companies and begin promoting shows throughout north and central Georgia. For the first 5 months of that year IWU was promoting no less than 16 shows a month in various cities. John started as a heel referee, but was also working in the office as Director of Operations.
It was during this time that John would also get to break away from his referee duties, and get a chance at a new venture. The IWU did not have television at this time, but would do live commentary during the matches. When the IWU's usual ring announcer quit minutes before a show in Barnesville, Georgia, John decided to take over the duties, since there were five referees and only 7 matches. John would then become the voice of the IWU for the next few months until his short departure in the Summer of 1999. The IWU's first venture out of Georgia was a poorly promoted event at the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama in June 1999. Once again outrageous ticket prices and a card of legendary wrestlers made it a financial failure. The event drew less than 50 fans (8 paid and about 30 free tickets showed. After slow ticket sales a reported 200 tickets were given out, none showed). John would leave the IWU for a short time over a pay dispute, and a war of words ensued between Lewis and Johnson and Lewis' wife many which played out on various internet message boards and Johnson's personal website.
1999-2003
After leaving the IWU, John began working many of the shows he was told he could not work while employed by the IWU. He quickly became a respected announcer and commentator injecting both a knowledge of wrestling and humor to live commentary. He went back to work for the IWU after Lewis secured a TV Spot, and agreed to pay John the money he was owed. John continued to work for the IWU in his old job as Director of Operations. On camera he was a ring announcer, color commentator, and even played his real life role as Director of Operations. Behind the scenes he was also a writer, and producer for the IWU TV product. He also finally got his manager spot, doing a babyface turn on Don Lewis by becoming the manager of the Odd Squad. The Odd Squad was a group of wrestlers who had been feuding with Don Lewis and his stable of wrestlers. John continued managing the Odd Squad until he the IWU folded in the Spring of 2000. [...]
I haven't been able to find any more details yet. From the sounds of it, though, this guy has a history of pulling scams and bad publicity hoaxes. With the history (sketchy as it is) and the fact that this press release was conveniently made on MLK day, I'm leaning towards the bad publicity hoax theory.
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