Word up homies! Welcome to 2017, and welcome to the first Gorilla Warfare of the new year. I truly hope you had a spectacular New Year with your loved ones and continue to support us over the next 365 days. Today, I’ll be specifically looking at what’s been a huge week for UK wrestling, and the few weeks ahead – there’s definitely a UK revival on the go!
Indulge me for a second please. It’s been around 30 years since UK wrestling has been on mainstream TV. 30 years. In that time, Mandela was released from prison, the Berlin Wall came down and there have been countless tragedies across the world. But as a society, we as humans thrive and prosper.
The same can be said for wrestling in the UK. Since World of Sport stopped being broadcast on ITV, the whole world has changed. In a way that makes it possible for a drunk (more often than not) Scotsman to post his opinions on wrestling on a website that’s viewed across the entire world.
But…in that time, despite there being no national exposure on terrestrial TV for the UK wrestling scene, promoters across the country have been busting their nuts for years now, trying to maintain and develop their own niche products in a market that they know is there.
There are countless promotions I could reel off today, but instead, I’ll focus on 3 – my own local promotion, SWE (Scottish Wrestling Entertainment), BWP (Britannia Wrestling Promotions) and ICW (Insane Championship Wrestling). I’ve interacted with the promoters of these 3 companies in various ways and means over the last 5 years and the way they go about their business makes me proud to be a wrestling fan.
Let’s kick off with SWE. A promotion that runs in the North-East of Scotland where yours truly is based.
Over the last decade and more, David (the promoter) and his team have put on countless shows featuring not only the best local talent, but the best talent in Scotland, Europe and more, as well as complimenting them with former WWE talents like Juventud Guerrera and Cody Rhodes, as well as WWE legends like Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper, the late Chyna and more.
So many SWE talents have gone on to work further afield in Scotland, the UK in general and more (Sammii Jayne, Debbie Sharpe, Stallyon), and others like Nikki Storm and Big Damo O’Connor have gone on to sign with NXT, whereas other special attractions like Grado and Drew Galloway have gone on to work in promotions like TNA.
You have no idea how proud it makes you as a wrestling fan when people you have spent genuine time interviewing or talking to, make it on a big stage and then you see them getting national or international recognition.
I’m specifically talking about Nikki Cross, Damo O’Connor, Grado and Sammii Jayne here. I’ve spent a wee bit of time in the company of all 4 of these fantastic wrestlers and you couldn’t wish to meet/talk to a bunch of humble, determined, highly skilled workers and the success they’re having makes you so happy.
And there’s the promoter himself – David. It’s hard to be a wrestling promoter. I’ve heard it from several people. Whether it’s the perception of the general public or people having let venues down in the past, it can be an uphill struggle. But the way David and his team go about their business is second-to-none and quite honestly, he deserves all of the success he’s had, gets and will get in the future.
SWE’s biggest show of the year is the annual Hell for Lycra event, taking place from Dundee in August. Please go to www.sweonline.co.uk for details on the roster, promotion and shows.
Despite the fact I’d only met him once and featured some of the SWE roster in a series here many years ago, he asked me to take part in a show. Personal circumstances meant I couldn’t, but it shows you the type of man he is that he would invite someone who is essentially a nobody (not a journalist, just a BLOGGER!!!) to take part in his show. A class act.
Talking of class acts, that brings me to BWP and what is now (I think) the Tyberial One’s local promotion, Britannia Wrestling.
Ever since Tybo freed me from the shackles of other sites and gave me the platform to be his aggressive Scottish companion, I’ve been lucky enough to interact with BWP management, but sadly, have yet to attend one of their shows.
Whether it’s the shows Tybo and Brad were involved with from the start (less so now), or the interactions we’ve had with wrestlers and management alike, it goes to show that with the right people involved, you can get far in this industry.
Steve Sax runs the show for BWP, surrounded by like-minded driven individuals who want to put on the best show they can. Some of their stars, like the Babyface Pitbull, Lana Austin and Cyanide, have all had further exposure across the country, proving that the cream rises to the top.
When we had our first initial interactions, Denbigh was BWP’s bread and butter. It still is. But with the success of their shows, demand has grown and they’ve had to cater to other markets. Sax is an incredible guy from what I know – always interacting, always doing what’s best for his promotion and trying to break down barriers and move into new markets in North Wales and Liverpool. He’s always been sound with us and he deserves all the success in the world. A top bloke. End of.
Finally, we come to the sheer phenomenon that is Insane Championship Wrestling. What began as an upstart Glaswegian promotion is now a company that puts on shows at arenas where WWE and UFC put on shows – namely the SECC or the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. These arenas hold THOUSANDS of people and quite honestly, the comparisons drawn between ECW and ICW are deserved. Let me explain.
ECW and ICW fans are rabid and fanatic. They realise that although they’re a part of the show, they’re not THE show. The wrestlers are the show. And whether you’re watching weekly via the Fite app or via ICW On Demand, each show is compelling, professional wrestling at its best. The crowd pops huge for what wrestling used to be – a fun, entertaining spectacle.
Mark Dallas and everyone involved deserve a huge amount of credit for the work they’ve done in making ICW arguably the top promotion in the country.
ICW mixes the best wrestlers from current TNA, ROH and NJPW stars, to indy wrestlers across the world and complements them with the best workers the UK has to offer and every show stands out in its own right.
The only time I’ve met Mark Dallas was at an NXT show in December 2015. I explained what a great job he’d done, we had a smoke at half-time and left it at that. He was surrounded by other people wanting to thank him for the success ICW had become, down in no small part to his vision of what wrestling in this country could be.
That brings us full circle back to this past week when World of Sport made its triumphant return to terrestrial TV in the UK.
You could argue the rights and wrongs of putting a returning British wrestling show on TV on New Year’s Eve when most people would be watching football (yes, real football not the protected rugby they have in America) or be drunk at house parties, but the fact is the ratings for the show were respectable and came across really well on TV.
From a purely biased, Scottish point of view, it was great to see many of OUR top stars getting the spotlight – Viper (who is BAD-ASS!!), the Coffey Brothers (Mark and Joe), Kenny Williams and the aforementioned Grado. Those guys are all top-class. But.. there are just as many good performers in your local area and if World of Sport is to make a permanent return to our screens, there are 100s of wrestlers in the UK who can, should and will be HUGE megastars.
Whether we’re in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Ireland, there are wrestlers out there, and promotions, that deserve our support. And with that support, the UK revival will continue and we won’t necessarily need the WWE to validate how good our wrestlers, crews and promotions are.
SLTD Wrestling's resident Scottish Nightmare. Some of my content may not be suitable for younger readers or those who are easily offended!
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