UK wrestling

WWE are launching a UK Championship early next year with a load of British guys (I'll admit not having heard of most of them), in a two night championship. As ITV are relaunching World of Sport (on ITV4 on NYE), can't help thinking this is WWE's way of wrecking any hopes ITV may have had of launching a proper wrestling company in the UK with touring and a regular Tv show on prime-time telly. That could potentially dick all over WWE's monopoly in the UK.

Wrestlers in the WWE tournament:

Tiger Ali
Joseph Conners
Jordan Devlin
Pete Dunne
HC Dyer
James Drake
Sam Gradwell
Saxon Huxley
Roy Johnson
Dan Moloney
Ringo Ryan
Jack Starz
Trent Seven
Tucker
Tyler Bate
Chris Tyler
T-Bone
Wolfgang

All the guys in it can still work where they want.

And Trent Seven will win it.

An initial 1.25 million watched WOS. Was anyone one of them?

I wasn't. Was it any good or was it like a normal ITV1 shitertainment type show? Although Simon Cowell vs Eric Bischoff in a black turtleneck on a pole match could be something

---
I think the only chance of a new UK based promotion with tv shows and maybe some touring would be if after the wwe UK tournament, they launched a UK based NXT. Could sell a weekly show to networks, and/or keep it on the wwe network. I think the UK would be the easiest place to start a new foreign promotion under the WWE umbrella. And the NXT model is quite transferable into new markets. Studio arena, record shows, training students as visual engineers, production etc.

If there are people that understand both UK wrestling and entertainment and WWE style entertainment and wrestling in charge, I think it could even be a success on network television.

I really feel like this is the age where outsiders will tune in if there's something more hard hitting, like the Revival vs DIY, regardless of how entertaining the show is, people love a bit of knee to the head wrestling because it brings back the legitimacy and feeling that your watching something dangerous and exciting. And that sells to the masses, not just wrestling fans.

Sexton Hardcastle wrote:

An initial 1.25 million watched WOS. Was anyone one of them?

I wasn't. Was it any good or was it like a normal ITV1 shitertainment type show? Although Simon Cowell vs Eric Bischoff in a black turtleneck on a pole match could be something

I was one of them...

The good:

The matches were pretty decent, even if some of the booking screamed 'TNA!' - a 4 man laddder match for the winner to enter a battle royal for starters. The wrestlers were pretty decent, and it made sense for Grado to be booked as the star of the show as he was one of the very few that I'd heard of. The heels and faces had clearly defined roles, and it was obvious who was who - no Rollins or Owens-style cool face moves for the heels here. Dave Mastiff particularly impressed, and a nice 'surprise for Bulldog's son to make a special appearance.

The bad:

Although having Grado and Mastiff as the two main guys, they don't exactly look like your stereotypical WWE guys. At times, they just looked like two chunky guys having an elaborate scrap. Frequent cuts to the crowd started to annoy (this is something WWE is doing waaay too much of too). Backstage bits weren't great at all, they seemed a bit rushed. One particular low point was Mastiff's two henchmen standing guard outside the 'GM's office, only for the blonde Renee Young-style interviewer to easily barge past them.
Jim Ross on commentary relied on his old cliches too much for my liking ('tougher than a one pound steak!' came out a couple of times).
There was a lot of nostalgia involved, which included a lot of flashback videos of Giant Haystacks, Rollerball Rocco, Johnny Saint and others. Whilst good for reintroducing WOW to the audience, the time could have been better used introducing the wrestlers to an audience who probably hadn't heard of most of them.

As a one-off, it was an okay show. If you were expecting WWE style theatrics, you'd be out of luck. If you were expecting a fairly inoffensive family-friendly show that emphasised the panto aspect, it did it's job. i'm not convinced there's enough there for a full revival and touring brand, but a few one-off shows through the year (maybe Easter, a couple during the summer and Christmas) would be a starting point.

It reminded me of watching gladiators back in the day.

Aye, definitely. They were certainly playing up the panto elements to it.

Tonight on Spike they are showing 5 star Dominant Wrestling event. The one I think Kurt Angle had to pull out of mysteriously. Its Live from Scotland and Drew Galloway, Johnny Mundo and Rey Mysterio are listed on the programme info.

It won't get ITV viewing figures, but on a big wrestling weekend having more live wrestling on TV can't be a bad thing.

Just settling in to watch now. opening with Johnny Mundo issuing an open challenge (in the interests of not spoiling, I'mkeeping schtum from here).

Crowd looks a bit empty, but for names, this show is pretty impressive.

Haha until whoever Moose is.

It is a pretty good card for UK TV. It just came out of nowhere, maybe it got a tv deal quite late.


I think if people had known it was on TV they could have drawn a good crowd, so the venue and tickets were probably sorted way before they got this spot.

If our Scottish correspondant can confirm it's live? It's not like it would be the first wrestling show to be shown as if it was live tv when it isn't? But Morrison said it was, and if it is then its quite a big deal for UK Indies.

Maybe the crowd is filling up more as it goes on, it seems louder now

I think it is live. There's a clock in the background of a couple of angles, and it's bang on time. Eitehr it's been pre-recorded to perfection, or it's live.

It's not been that bad so far.

Backstage interviewer is terrible, she really is.

It feels live, just sometimes with it being wrestling you wonder haha. It is definitely a big deal.

I assumed some of these guys were stuck with Jeff Jarrett and the show that no tv stations would buy. So this is good exposure on a big wrestling weekend.

I'm looking forward to Drew Galloway. I always thought he could get back to WWE if he wanted. Especially since he left at a really bad time considering the changes HHH has brought about

Stopping watching now, need to watch the footy on 5...

Exeter in the Championship now?

Is it weird how over Rey is with kids that might not have been alive when he was good in the mainstream?

I hope the rest of the crowd are blind drunk by the main event.

We're in the play-offs! On a helll of a run too...

Show ends with JoMo announcing a 128 man tournament that'll run all summer long. Given some of the crap WWE ended up using to fill up the CWC (yes, Ho Ho Lun, I'm looking at you), who the heck are they going to hire for this?

Anyone from anywhere is better than HoHo Lun.

I'm guessing it will be open to any wrestler not under an exclusive contract, so it will boil down to who is interested. CWC invited him because he started Hong Kong's only wrestling school and company, and WWE wants to get in with these in case a talent appears that looks Chinese that's any good.

May as well put this here. Nigel Mcguiness... Is... N.X.T

Replacing Corey Graves

The U.K really is taking over wrestling.