Since August 2003, talks have taken place between X Wrestling Limited and several parties with a view to financing the company and also putting X Wrestling’s live events on television in the UK. These talks have been regular, in-depth, and fruitful. Talks with one particular party – who are launching their own channel on the Sky Digital platform in a matter of weeks, have been extremely encouraging, and a verbal understanding that X Wrestling footage would be shown via their channel (as well as via DVD and VHS distribution) was reached in late Autumn 2003. The channel, who cannot be named today as they are awaiting the green light and exchanging of contracts from BSkyB, will be a major part in the success of X Wrestling Limited’s live events and backroom activity, and a deal was hoped to have been signed before Christmas 2003 with a view to the channel and a private consortium financing the company throughout 2004 and beyond. On December 23rd 2003, a conversation took place between Phil Lowe of X Wrestling Limited, and a Director of the television channel X Wrestling had been dealing with for several months. The outcome of this conversation was that funding had been delayed, purely due to timescale issues. The television channel – which had originally been set to launch on the Sky Digital platform in late 2003 – had been delayed for various reasons, and in turn, X Wrestling’s involvement has been put back also. As a result of this, it has since been decided that ‘Revolution’, the debut live event from X Wrestling will be re-scheduled. Our original date of Saturday April 10th is now postponed, and our debut will now take place in August of this year.
Over the next few months, the company will undergo several changes. While these changes will not directly affect our live events or our fans, they are important changes that will see the company’s ownership alter, and current Managing Director step down from his position to a new role. These changes are for the better, and with prospect of X Wrestling Limited’s live events being made available to a national television audience from the second half of 2004, I am sure that the majority will agree with this. While our television coverage may be relatively small via our initial outlet, our priority behind the scenes is to make as many people as we can aware of X Wrestling as a brand. Our brand, our superstars, and our first class production quality (both at live events and in post-production) will help to achieve our aim of a mainstream television deal, which we strongly feel we can accomplish.
We feel that this change of plan is the best course of action we can take as a company. While we could technically still go ahead with our original date of April 10th, the show would be a “watered down” version of what we had previously advertised and promoted. With some UK wrestling fans still feeling short-changed due to the promises that past wrestling promoters in the UK had failed to deliver, we took the decision to put things back a few months in order to ensure that fans get the big names they deserve. Also promoting an event so close (in terms of both dates and location) to WWE’s Smackdown! Brand show in Sheffield could have worked against us in a big way should we have debuted with a “watered down” card.
We have made some talent aware that we are not looking to bring them in for August. They are ‘West Hollywood Blondes’, Swiss Money Holding, The UK Pitbulls, The German Strumflieger and Jorge Castano. We thank them for their interest and input to date, and wish them the best for the future. We have been in contact with all wrestlers who were set to fly to the UK in April, and we have confirmation that all bar three will be in the UK for our August debut. At time of writing D’Lo Brown, Gangrel and Luna are unable to confirm. D’Lo Brown has bookings throughout 2004 in Japan, but we aim to resolve this in the near future and have D’Lo as a major part of X Wrestling in 2004, should his schedule allow.
The rest of the roster has confirmed that they will be in the UK for our August debut, and also shows later in 2004. In addition, we can today announce that NWA:TNA’s Elix Skipper, along with Jimmy Rave and Altar Boy Luke will be in the UK for our August debut, and will also be in the UK with X Wrestling in October 2004. All three will bring something to the promotion and our live events, and we are extremely happy to have these guys as part of our roster.
In late 2003 we held discussions with several major names in the industry that were not scheduled to be on our April 10th show, including the legendary ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper. This delay may work in our favour in the fact that we can work to bring some of these names to the UK for our dates in August and beyond. Our events in August will be a massive success and the start of a journey for X Wrestling that already has some exciting avenues to explore.
We appreciate that some people may think that this announcement brings nothing but bad news for the British wrestling industry, but as a company we believe otherwise. It is in the best interests of the company, the wrestlers and the fans that we take this action. Failure to take these measures could have meant a short future for X Wrestling Limited, and could also have meant that top superstars such as D’Lo Brown, Buff Bagwell, AJ Styles and more would not have been flying to the UK due to budget cuts. This relatively short delay will ensure that X Wrestling ‘bring the X factor’ to the UK from August onwards, and ensures that the paying public get to see the cream of what this industry has to offer. We are looking to bring in other top superstars from the USA, Mexico and Japan who we have not publicly mentioned in the past, but as a company we are determined to offer British wrestling fans quality on a regular basis.
Our debut in August will now take place on Saturday August 28th at The Dome, Doncaster. Individuals who had already reserved their VIP Tickets for April 10th should email vip@xwrestling.co.uk to confirm whether or not they will require their tickets for the re-arranged date of Saturday August 28th. VIP Ticket holders will be invoiced in late March, with payments due by the end of May. The VIP package will now feature two superstars of X Wrestling, to be announced in the Spring. Other tickets will go on sale via The Dome’s Box Office and via Ticketmaster in the Spring. The card for ‘Revolution’ will be truly amazing, with matches to be announced in the next few weeks. We are waiting to hear from individuals who may not be free to work August 28th due to bookings elsewhere, but we have no doubt that ‘Revolution’ will have the best roster that the UK sees this year.
The first X Wrestling Heavyweight title match will take place on August 28th, with the event being taped for UK television, DVD and Home Video. We have also entered initial discussion to have the event broadcasted on television in Italy. Our coverage throughout mainland Europe has been helped by a half page feature on X Wrestling in German based wrestling publication ‘Power Wrestling’, and we look forward to a long working relationship with that magazine, as well as similar publications closer to home. While we are predominantly aiming our product at UK fans – as they will make up the bulk of our attendance – we are keen not to eliminate fans throughout Europe, and further a field.
Following our debut this August, we can announce dates for the remainder of 2004 through to April 2005. Further information regarding these dates will be made available in the near future. We can announce that these dates will take in Scotland, Ireland, and hopefully Wales as well as focusing on bringing quality professional wrestling to venues around England who have been starved of a first rate product for many years. We appreciate every email that has been sent to themassdebate@xwrestling.co.uk and encourage fans to continue to inform us of where they would like to see X Wrestling live. With this in mind, our calendar of events to April 2005 is as follows:
SATURDAY AUGUST 28TH – DONCASTER, THE DOME
VIP Tickets £100
Tickets £50, £25, £15 – ON SALE LATE APRIL VIA TICKETMASTER & THE DOME BOX OFFICE THURSDAY OCTOBER 28TH – TBA
SATURDAY OCTOBER 30TH – TBA
SATURDAY DECEMBER 4TH – DUBLIN, NATIONAL BASKETBALL ARENA (INC. ‘FANSLAM’ EVENT – DETAILS TBA)
‘FANSLAM’ and Ticket information to be announced in Spring 2004
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 18TH 2005 – TBA
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 19TH 2005 – TBA
SATURDAY MARCH 19TH 2005 – TBA
FRIDAY APRIL 15TH 2005 – TBA
SATURDAY APRIL 16TH 2005 – TBA
X Wrestling Limited would like to thank all fans, website visitors, staff and those associated with the company for their continued interest, support and input. This is a setback, but nothing more. The ‘Revolution’ is coming. We look forward to having you check out our websites at www.xwrestling.co.uk and our corporate website at www.xwrestling.info, and look forward to entertaining you at our live events throughout 2004 and beyond.
Many thanks
X Wrestling Limited