Welcome one and all to another investigation in to the goings on in the UK grapple game. With the thought of celebrity wrestling invading our screens shortly it’s enough to make a respectable wrestling fan to wonder what more can the TV companies do to ridicule wrestling and hurt British wrestling companies. I will try though to keep upbeat and positive as I can and report some of the good news which has been happening this week as well so as always get yourself a drink from the fridge and enjoy a few minutes of enjoyment in an otherwise mundane day.
As a special prize for all of those that clicked on the link to read my whole article after reading the introduction I have some special news. On Wednesday the 27th yours truly will be heading to London to speak with one of the UK’s greatest wrestling ambassadors, current WWE star William Regal. I have been granted half an hour with the man for wrestling101 who started his career in Blackpool and then made it all the way around the world. So if you have a question for our favourite son, email it in along with your name and location to [adam@wrestling101.com] and I will be sure to put your grilling questions to one half of the WWE tag champions.
So that’s the good news and now for the bad and that is of course Celebrity Wrestling. The show is going to be put in a prime time slot on ITV and it features z-list celebrities making a mockery of our beloved sport in front of millions watching at home. The series was recorded back in February and the reviews from the live audience have been less than optimistic so it is with baited breath we wait for it to hit our screens on April 23rd.
ITV have an uncanny ability to always have an affect on the British wrestling scene. First it was when Greg Dyke decided to cancel World of Sport then they aired the Transatlantic Challenge which was put together by NWA-UK if my memory serves me right but the amount of people that actually got to watch that was very minimal and now as another hammer blow they parade wrestling for millions to laugh at. This is one of the few occasions where I don’t believe the statement any publicity is good publicity. After doing a dissertation on Saturday night TV and conversing with many people with in the mainstream TV channels their aim was supposed to be finding family programs that would not embarrass any age group to say they watched it but I think this is a programme which will embarrass every age group.
Now back on to the good news and after my bits and pieces talking about IWW they seem to be doing even more to prove they are back on the right track and that they are an organisation with big plans. IWW are returning to the SFX arena for another big show which will feature D’lo Brown as their headline act on may 29th hopefully building off his new found notoriety in the mainstream from being on Celebrity Wrestling. The show will once again feature a crop of home grown talent that are really making a name for themselves in IWW and instead of having gold, silver and bronze tickets they are opting to call them deluxe tickets, I’m still waiting for a promotion to offer copper tickets.
By their standards it has been a quiet week for the FWA in the build up to Crunch this weekend but hopefully with the airing of War on the Shore last week on TWC it has hopefully created a buzz and interest around the event. One interesting piece of news going into the event is that Aviv Maayan has chosen a forfeit for James Tighe should he tap out in their tap out challenge match. If James loses he will be forced to wrestle in a clown suit when thy return to the Broxbourne Civic hall on July 10th for FWA Vendetta. So you have that along with the return of Jody Fleisch with a superb flyweight contest between Spud and Max Voltage in the offing what more could you want.
In less than a month’s time a host of UK stars will invade Holland for DCW Thursday Turbulence. The last year has seen many stars from various UK promotions go over there to compete and may 5th will be no different. This time Cameron Knite, Jack Hazard, Chris Wyld, Sir Archibalt and TJ Cain will be flying the flag and making the UK one of the most represented countries on the card which speaks volumes for that people around the world think of our stars. For many of these guys May 5th isn’t their DCW debut so hopefully they can go on to have long careers with organisation.
EWW held another successful event last weekend from what is now the EWW arena (The Palace Nightclub in Witney). The events saw the first time that Alex Shane and Karl Krammer have been on the same card since the infamous incident, well that I’m aware of anyway. On the night there were big wins for Cyclone over Bash and Dominator over Frankie Capone. Alex Shane also recorded another win as he put his FWA title on the line against long time fighting partner Paul Travell and the event also saw the inclusion of NWA Florida tag champ Marcus Dillan most importantly though the event was sold out, well done boys.
Are you a student? Can you scrape £1 together? Well if you can do both of those you need to get down to the Charnwood Social Club in Loughborough for a night of live wrestling presented by TAP on the 22nd of April. This will be the fourth time TAP have run this venue this year so they are building up a quite a cult following at the club and will this time be bringing a card which will be headlined with Jamie James and Andrew Coyne will be challenging Chris Botherway for his British heavyweight title.
Before I go this week I want to give a shout out to the “Pucker” one Darren Burridge who seems to be getting his name on every show at the moment and is working hard flying between Ireland and the mainland to train the stars of tomorrow as well as move up the ranks himself in the UK Scene. Good work champ.
PS If anyone from FCW is reading this column what’s happening with the website? Let us know when it will be back up or if it is just me experiencing problems and I will let everyone know what the score is in next week’s column.
Until next time,
Adam Sibley
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