GKJ
Global Moderator
- Feb 27, 2002
- 187,440
- 39,440
Also, they've officially signed Nigel McGuinness from ROH.
Supposed to be a 2-day 16-man tournament in January, and aired live.
That belt is beautiful.
It's not really impressive, just a generic coat of arms lol.Which is what makes it so confusing!
They've struck out on almost all the newer belts and then they put out this piece of art?
Currently in the UK we're in a wrestling boom period with tons of top tier talent being produced, and great promotions doing really well. And on top of that, wrestling in general is bigger over here than in america.
Back in the day, World of Sport Wrestling was massive. The stars were house hold names, and there were local shows on every night. But there was a decline and it dropped off, then Hulkamania ran wild overhere just as much as it did in america and that killed it all off. The UK has been the WWE's territory ever since.
But now ITV is rebooting World of Sport, they've already taped the pilot that will air later this month. ITV is the second biggest TV channel here (second only to the BBC, both free TV so everyone watches them), and there will be a audience in the millions. It's very realistic for this show to have a bigger audience in the UK than the WWE does in america.
There are plans to take the show to series, but it's not a sure thing yet. It would be done similar to TNA's format, with bulk tapings. There is also talk of house shows is the TV series does well. The talent has already been sent contract giving ITV priority on their dates and exclusivity to them on TV (so they can do indies and streams, just no TV, like how TNA does).
But while ITV is aiming to lock talent up, WWE are going against them.
WWE are offering contracts to a bunch of UK guys. They're not performer or development contracts, but a different kind. WWE are basically giving them a small amount of money so that they can keep working on the indies instead of giving up wrestling to take normal jobs to support themselves. In exchange the talent won't work for ITV on their show, or bigger indies that have a streaming service. They're basically being WWE exclusive, with WWE having some control over their dates, in exchange for money to keep wrestling.
They've offered these deals to a bunch of guys, both known names and randoms, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes.
they're using ICW right?
Joe Hendry and Grado entrances!