Welcome one and all to my weekly stroll through the UK Scene which this week comes to us on one of the darkest weekends for wrestling as a whole in the UK as ITV bring us Celebrity Wrestling. The programme has been pimped more than a hooker on your local street corner and threatens to take away any shred of credibility that wrestling has worked so hard to gain. I will however endeavour to talk about the good things that have happened this week in my usual upbeat style so please do read on.
Ok just so I can get everything to do with Celebrity Wrestling off my chest there has been a smidgen of good news related to it this week but like I say it doesn’t outweigh the harm it is doing. The news is now thanks to wrestling’s notoriety on ITV again they are releasing a World of Sport DVD so you can relive the action that kept us all in on a Saturday afternoon. The DVD is presented by our favourite wrestling commentator Dickie Davies.
The DVD is 80 minutes long and will feature interviews with Jimmy Saville and features on Les Kellett and Ricki Starr. The DVD features classic bouts including Mick McManus, Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki, Giant Haystacks, Pat Roach, Jackie Pablo and many more. The DVD will hopefully be in stores from June and producers are already considering doing another one with more of your favourite matches.
Luckily British wrestling got some nationwide publicity for the right reasons as well this week as the Daily Star did a big feature on the boy done good Paul Burchill. As you all know Paul was a big star in the UK over the last few years and late last year got offered a job by the WWE. After months of red tape and paperwork to get a visa Paul is now out there and has been sent to their developmental territory OVW.
The article was really good and well worth the 25p. Paul put over the British scene well showing that he hasn’t forgotten his routes which is good to see. The article talks about how OVW have made so many stars like Batista, John Cena etc. and that we hope that Paul can be the next one. It’s good to see Paul doing well and hope we get more updates over the next few months on how he is progressing in America. Keep working hard and flying the flag.
3CW look to be continuing their investment in their product as they keep on aiming towards becoming a major player in the UK Scene. After having Raven and Alex Shane making their 3CW debuts this year they have announced that former FWA and RoH Pure champion Doug Williams will be headlining their next show on April 29th. Doug will be going head to head with 3CW champion Ice XVII. Also in Aklam at the Garden City Club on the 29th of April a tournament will begin to crown 3CW tag champions with teams from up and down the country being invited to throw their names in the hat. So this looks set to be an event not to be missed.
It’s been a big week for Ireland as the WWE rolled in to town. As part of the tour four of IWW’s finest were given try out matches before their big card at the Point. One of our favourite wrestlers here at wrestling101 Darren Burridge as well as Seamus Shaunessy, Red Vinny and Mad Man Manson all got tryouts and I hope this has built good relations between the two companies and who knows there may be an Irish star in the WWE in the years to come as JBL dressing up as a leprechaun does not count.
The big news in Ireland this week has been that prospective Irish wrestlers now have another place to train as Blake Norton announced the launch of Celtic Pro Wrestling. Their facility is in Dubiln and is called “The Celtic Dungeon” following on the legacy of the infamous Hart Family Dungeon in Canada. Also on the board of staff with Blake is Ross Hart who is a member of the famous Hart family and is currently the promoter and trainer of Stampede Wrestling. So if you live in Ireland and want to get into wrestling or you want to be a wrestler and become Flybe’s favourite customer log on to CelticProWrestling.com.
The FWA have had mixed reactions to their latest offering FWA Crunch that went down last weekend. For the first time in a long time they went with a completely British card with no big name American star. According to people who went to the show claimed that attendances were down on recent events which is not a good sign for the new buyer and the new FWA management team. The event though marked the return of one of the greatest wrestlers in modern wrestling history Jody Fleisch as he main evented against Mark “5 star Belton.”
The show did create some very interesting news coming out of it and has got everyone talking again as a masked man interfered in the match to cost Jody a victory in his first match back and after leaving him laying the masked man revealed himself as Doug Williams. So it looks like the fan favourite Doug Williams has gone to the most hated and set up an awesome feud against Jody which could hopefully produce some of his best matches ever in such a short time of him being back.
Until next time,
Adam Sibley