As the strong working relationship between the two companies continues, another WWE-contracted wrestler will be appearing for ICW next weekend.
ICW announced today that Kassius Ohno will be challenging Joe Coffey for their World Heavyweight Championship at the O2 Academy in Newcastle on September 17th. The cameo in ICW will be the first time the former Chris Hero has wrestled outside of a WWE ring since returning to NXT earlier this year.
Ohno tweeted about facing Coffey again: “Finally. Two years in the making, it’s the Knockout Artist vs. the Iron Man, round #3. Elbow? Or Lariat? See you on the 17th, @Joe_Coffey”
There will be representation from some of WWE’s UK talent on the show as well, with the British Strong Style team of Tyler Bate & Trent Seven challenging The Marauders for their tag titles and Wolfgang facing Kid Fite.
Noam Dar previously appeared for ICW in July as he returned to the promotion to team with Sha Samuels against Coffey & Bram. Pete Dunne also defended his WWE United Kingdom Championship on that show, defeating Trent Seven, Wolfgang, and BT Gunn in a four-way match.
For the second time since the title was created, WWE’s United Kingdom Championship is set to be defended outside of the company.
Insane Championship Wrestling announced today that Pete Dunne would defend his title on July 29th at the first night of their “Shug’s Hoose Party 4” weekend of shows. Dunne’s challenger will be decided at an ICW show prior to that, with WWE UK’s Wolfgang facing the winner of a four-way (which includes Davey Blaze, Kenny Williams, BT Gunn, and Gabriel Kidd) in a number one contender’s match.
Dunne’s match won’t be the only WWE representation on the July 29th show, with it having been previously revealed that Noam Dar would return to ICW to team with Sha Samuels against Grado & Joe Coffey.
The first time that the WWE UK title was defended outside of the company was during WrestleMania weekend earlier this year. When Tyler Bate was still champion, he put his title on the line against Mark Andrews at PROGRESS Wrestling’s event in Orlando in March. This will be the first time that the title has been defended at a non-WWE show in the UK.
Both ICW and PROGRESS have strong relationships with WWE. George Barrios (WWE’s Chief Financial Officer) even mistakenly said last month that there had already been an agreement announced for events from ICW and PROGRESS to appear on the WWE Network.
Dave Meltzer reported that those deals are in place, but Vince McMahon has to give the okay for them to become official.
Some of the best European-based wrestlers in the world will be appearing in a WWE ring for the first time during WrestleMania weekend.
WWE announced on Tuesday that wrestlers from NXT, 205 Live, PROGRESS Wrestling, and ICW, as well as some from the UK tournament, will be wrestling in matches at WrestleMania Axxess. NXT matches have been part of the attractions at Axxess over the last few years.
Of those that WWE is advertising, Jimmy Havoc, Mark Haskins, the South Pacific Power Trip (TK Cooper, Travis Banks & Dahlia Black), Toni Storm, and Jinny are from outside of the company. They will be in Orlando for the show PROGRESS is running on March 31st, which is part of WWN’s weekend of events.
The current schedule of Axxess matches is:
Thursday, March 30th —
Rich Swann vs. Brian Kendrick
TJ Perkins vs. Drew Gulak
More from Hideo Itami and others
Friday, March 31st —
WWE United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate defending against Mark Haskins
Pete Dunne vs. Mark Andrews
More from Jimmy Havoc, TK Cooper, Travis Banks, Dahlia Black, Toni Storm, and Jinny
Saturday, April 1st (8 a.m. ET) —
Akira Tozawa vs. Ariya Daivari
Pete Dunne vs. Wolfgang
WWE United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate defending against Joseph Conners
More matches
Saturday, April 1st (1 p.m. ET) —
Heavy Machinery vs. The Vaudevillains
Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss vs. The Ascension
More from Liv Morgan, Daria Berenato, and others
Saturday, April 1st (6 p.m. ET) —
Akira Tozawa vs. Steve Cutler
Trent Seven vs. Noam Dar
TJ Perkins & Mustafa Ali vs. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss
Sunday, April 2nd —
Trent Seven vs. Wolfgang
WWE United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate defending against Pete Dunne
More from Mark Haskins, Jimmy Havoc, TK Cooper, Travis Banks, Dahlia Black, Toni Storm, and Jinny
WWE held a press conference this morning in London to announce the inauguration of the United Kingdom Wrestling Championship Tournament, a 16-man single-elimination tournament to crown the first WWE United Kingdom Champion.
When is it?
The two-day affair, to be shown live on the WWE Network, will be held on January 14th and 15th, in Blackpool, a town in north west England close to the heart of NXT commissioner (and one of WWE’s heads of development) William Regal.
The show clashes with PROGRESS Wrestling’s debut show in Birmingham, and Preston City Wrestling have acted quickly to announce matinee shows in Blackpool on the days of the WWE events.
Why is it?
In the early 2000s there was talk of WWE opening a UK office but nothing came to fruition. The carrot was dangled, however, that this tournament could lead to a dedicated UK territory, with a show on the WWE Network, much in the way that the Cruiserweight Classic led to 205 Live.
At the press conference, Regal was at pains to stress that this was not a response to the forthcoming relaunch of ITV’s World of Sport show, although the timing is nothing if not coincidental. However, it must be stressed that the wheels move slowly in big corporations, so it may just be that — a huge coincidence.
The UK scene is at its hottest point for well over 30 years, with a slew of critically (and financially) successful promotions, and a deep talent pool produced by training schools like the ProJo, the House of Pain, Glasgow Pro-Wrestling Asylum, and more.
Who’s in it?
The full list of talent released for the tournament includes 18 names, presumably including a couple of alternates in case of injury. It includes Wolfgang, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Sam Gradwell, James Drake, T-Bone, Tucker, Jordan Devlin, Joseph Conners, HC Dyer, Chris Tyler, Roy Johnson, Dan Moloney, Jack Starz, Tiger Ali, Ringo Ryan, and Saxon Huxley.
Who are they?
Seven and Dunne (and latterly Bate) form the tag team of British Strong Style, who are PROGRESS Tag Team Champions. Dunne is also a double singles champion, currently holding the PROGRESS and Fight Club: PRO titles, while Seven recently won a number one contenders’ match for Wolfgang’s Insane Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship. Seven, Dunne, Bate, and Dan Moloney are all regulars for Fight Club: PRO, a promotion co-owned by Seven.
Drake, T-Bone, and Gradwell (who wrestles as Ricky J McKenzie) are fixtures on the north west scene, while Jordan Devlin and Pro-Wrestling Ulster’s Tucker bring an Irish flavor to the contest. Tiger Ali is a former 4-Front Wrestling Champion who has caught the eye of Ultimo Dragon and main evented Arena Mexico.
Conners and Dyer are graduates of Stixx’s House of Pain school, and they both work regularly for Southside, where Conners is a former Heavyweight Champion and Chris Tyler currently holds one-half of the tag team titles titles (with Stixx). ProJo trainee Johnson works a powerlifter gimmick for PROGRESS, and the field is rounded out by All-Star Wrestling’s Ringo Ryan, the Robbie Brookside-trained Jack Starz, and former Lance Storm student Saxon Huxley.
What does that mean for PROGRESS & ICW?
The vast majority of UK wrestlers are free agents, so there is little that PROGRESS, ICW, OTT — or any other promotion for whom these wrestlers work regularly — can do about what looks on the surface like an audacious talent grab. However, many of these promotions have close working ties with WWE, and their talent and officers, and it is hard to imagine that there haven’t been at least preliminary discussions before today’s public reveal.
One possibly unforeseen complication, given the lead time usually required for such projects, is that PROGRESS’ debut show in Birmingham looks — at least at present — to be without the promotion’s Heavyweight and Tag Team Champions, and the British Strong Style stable are the hometown heroes for that date. However, this may open up opportunities to others from the region who previously have been overlooked by the promotion.
Who’s not in it?
Aside from those signed to TNA (Drew Galloway, Bram, Grado, and Rockstar Spud), the big names missing are Zack Sabre Jr., Marty Scurll, and Will Ospreay, and the latter two are under contract to Ring of Honor (with Ospreay under a New Japan contract to boot). Other stars of the UK scene you would have expected to see are Jimmy Havoc (possibly not PG enough), Mark Andrews (has been working TNA of late), and Nathan Cruz (who had an NXT tryout on his recent US tour).
Also missing are those who signed up to the World of Sport revival, a list which includes scene heavyweights Dave Mastiff, Joe Coffey, Rampage Brown, El Ligero, Bubblegum, Sha Samuels, and Kenny Williams, among others.
Lastly, also not named was Nick Aldis, whose wife Mickie James just signed to return to WWE and who presumably will base himself in the US. That may also account for Sabre, who will become a US-resident in 2017.
Where now?
For now this is just a one-off, but it may lead to a regular show on the WWE Network, and the formation of a regular WWE UK promotion, run similarly to NXT. Whether this would be stand-alone, or promoted in conjunction with “friendly” promoters like PROGRESS, is anyone’s guess.
This may also account for the rumors of contracts offered to UK wrestlers that Dave Meltzer has reported on recently, which were described by some as preventing talent working for anyone the WWE considered to be competition — again, presumably, the partner promotions would still be on safe ground.
Outside the WWE UK project, the World of Sport revival show is confirmed for a New Year’s Eve broadcast on ITV, and there is still talk of a touring promotion — and regular series — spinning out of it if it is successful. Adding to the confusion is FloSlam’s entrance into the UK and Irish market, signing up IPW:UK and OTT for broadcast on their streaming network, which may affect talent who have signed to WWE UK deals.
2016 has certainly not been a dull or predictable year for wrestling, UK and worldwide, and the last sputtering days of the year show no sign of slowing down. No one could have predicted this happening, and it’s nothing short of fascinating for followers of the sport, regardless of nationality.
With access to traditional television shows thin on the ground for UK promotions, they’ve had to think outside the box for solutions. In last week’s column, I gave a rundown of the different options available if you want to watch British wrestling (apart from the always-preferable live option), and this week Revolution-Pro held another of their popular “TV” tapings at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London. The Cockpit is more used to hosting fringe theatre but is a perfect venue for a television taping, harking back to the studio shows of old with its tight seating arrangement perfectly fitting around the squared circle in the centre. RevPro held three tapings at the Cockpit last year, for their YouTube TV show, and on Sunday they came back with a stacked card for a new run of shows for 2016.
Despite ENDVR taking place at the same time just 3 miles across London (more of which later), the show still attracted a good crowd, and they were treated to a mini-tournament for the Undisputed British Cruiserweight title, with Pete Dunne overcoming “Flash” Morgan Webster in the final – el Ligero & Josh Bodom being eliminated in the semi-finals. Jimmy Havoc continued his feud with the Revolutionists, bringing a mystery partner to face the Undisputed British Tag-Team champions, Sha Samuels & James Castle, and it turned out to be T-Bone.
Thanks to shenanigans, the champions kept their titles but Havoc has promised to bring back T-Bone and a third man to take on the tag champs and Bodom at High Stakes on January 16th. Main-eventing a card that also featured Big Damo, Mark Haskins, Marty Scurll, and Martin Kirby, was a bout between Will Ospreay and ACH, who made his return to RevPro after October’s Uprising. The two tore the house down and the match will be available to watch – for free – on RevPro’s YouTube channel very soon.
2) PROGRESS take their big guns to Brixton.
In last week’s column I trailed HUGE news from PROGRESS, and speculated what it could be. Well, speculate no more, because on January 1st they announced that September’s show – chapter 36 – will be held at the legendary Brixton Academy, in south London. It won’t be the company’s first trip south of the river – their ProJo wrestling school is situated round the corner from the Academy, and they’ve held trainee shows at the Bedford, in nearby Balham, before – but it will be the first time they’ve played a hall bigger than their usual 700 seats at the Electric Ballroom. The Academy will be set up for 2000 seats, and while that is dwarfed by ICW’s planned show at the Hydro in Glasgow, it will be the biggest crowd to see a British wrestling show in London for a good thirty years.
PROGRESS have always resisted temptation to move to a bigger building before, simply stating that the Electric Ballroom treat them very well and they would be afraid to lose that special atmosphere created at the sold-out shows, so this is a step into the unknown for the company. However, they’re doing it in conjunction with LiveNation, the company that handled NXT’s UK tour, and the logistics shouldn’t be too high a hurdle. Whether they can sell almost 3 times the amount of tickets they usually do in London is another thing, but UK wrestling is VERY hot right now, and with a 9-month lead they have every chance. Progress indeed!
3) A Sex Pest won a rap battle.
It’s impossible to sum up an entire show, especially one featuring so many different characters as an ENDVR show, in one pithy line, but – yes – a sex pest did win a rap battle at ENDVR’s first show of the year on Sunday. Anyone who follows ENDVR (and the PROGRESS shows as of the last London chapter) will know that the sex pest is Jack Sexsmith, and the rap battle was a precursor to his showdown with “Body Guy” Roy Johnson on Sunday’s show at the Garage in Islington. You’ll be reassured to know that “Mr Cocko” made his customary appearance, and those of you who don’t know anything about Jack Sexsmith will no doubt be very confused by now.
Also on the show, Pollyanna and Livvi won women’s matches, Damon Moser (a favourite for this year’s Natural Progression tournament) won a four-way over Pastor Bill Eaver, Earl Black Jr, and TK Cooper, and ProJo head trainer Darrell Allen beat Chuck Mambo in a “traditional British rules” match (which, unusually for such contests, didn’t suck). Some of the more established PROGRESS stars made an appearance (and a whole load of them were across London at the RevPro TV taping!), with Wild Boar teaming with PROGRESS-debutant Mike Bird (a mainstay of the south-west scene, and Mark Andrews’s trainer) taking a DQ win over Paul Robinson & trainee Shen Woo, and Eddie Dennis and Dave Mastiff colliding in a hard-hitting main event. The consequences of that fight will be felt long after the conclusion of Sunday’s show, with Dennis earning a tag-team title shot for himself and Mark Andrews, and Mastiff earning the ire of PROGRESS management with a sustained beating on a prone Dennis after the match.
4) Big shows aren’t just channel changers on the USA Network.
As well as PROGRESS planning their big outing to Brixton in September, several other promotions have already announced big shows of their own for 2016. New Generation Wrestling have already announced their mid-year spectacular, Ultimate Showdown, in Hull in late May, Southside have their annual Speed King tournament inked in for April, and – of course – everything that Insane Championship Wrestling does this year is leading up to their bigger-than-big-it’s-huge show at the 11,000-capacity Hydro in October.
But even bigger than that show, in relative terms, is Pro-Wrestling Chaos’s April 8th show in Bristol, with The Young Bucks flown in as a special attraction. Why is that so big? Because Chaos, a Bristol-based promotion formed in 2013 for former grappler Dave Mercy, usually run a 200-seater hall and they’ve booked a 3000-seater for this show, which they’ve promised to stack. As gambles go it’s a pretty big one, but with the Bucks only doing one other UK show (in faraway Edinburgh) it’s a risk that could pay off.
5) Friday Night’s Alright For Fight Club
In order to bring fresh and exclusive footage to their ICW OnDemand service, the promotion held another Friday Night Fight Club taping at the Garage nightclub, in Glasgow, last weekend. Like RevPro’s taping, they stacked the card with all their usual regulars, plus semi-regular import Tommy End, for a show which saw a title change, an ICW Heavyweight title defence, and a huge 8-man main event, featuring Grado, Davey Blaze, Noam Dar, and Kenny Williams against the New Age Kliq. They have another taping scheduled for this coming Sunday – the only show anywhere in the UK, as far as I can work out – with everything leading up to their big Square Go! show on January 24th.
Other than a few holiday camp shows (including one where the ATTACK! boys played to over 1000 people), the only other show over the last week was WrestleForce’s return to Rayleigh, in Essex, which featured their usual cast of characters.
British wrestling is on the up, with some of the bigger promotions drawing huge crowds, some of the smaller ones doing very interesting things with pro-wrestling, and some of our homegrown stars making waves outside their home territory. Here are five things you need to know about the scene this week:
1) ICW drew the biggest British wrestling crowd in over thirty years on Sunday night, when they presented Fear & Loathing VIII at the SECC in Glasgow.
The promotion, formed in Glasgow in 2006 by Mark Dallas, have had a banner year, with two national tours, two documentaries on BBC TV, and a series of sell-out shows in ever bigger halls in their hometown. For Sunday’s show, they booked an almost entirely British crew, with only Rhyno – who is involved in storylines as a regular import – and the Sumerian Death Squad from Holland, flying in. Mick Foley was brought in as host, but it’s clear that the huge majority of the four thousand tickets were sold on ICW’s reputation for a great show. Before the show started, they announced that Fear & Loathing IX would be held at the Hydro, a thirteen thousand capacity venue across the city. It may be a step too far but few would bet against Dallas and his crew making it.
As for the show itself, Grado became the new ICW Heavyweight champion, defeating Drew Galloway after a typically-ICW series of run-ins and surprises, with the whole roster celebrating in the ring with him afterwards. Earlier in the show, Viper became the first ICW Women’s champion, and Davey Boy beat Stevie Boy in the battle of the Buckie Boys to win the ICW Zero G title. The show will be up on ICW On Demand by the time you read this, and is well worth a look.
2) It’s WAR!
Well, it’s not really, but there is a big clash coming up in January, when PROGRESS’ next ENDVR show goes head to head with Revolution Pro-Wrestling’s next TV taping, just three miles away. ENDVR is the middle of three tiers that PROGRESS operate at, and while it’s not the big shows that sell out the 750-seat Electric Ballroom every month, it does sell out the 300-seat Garage in Highbury Corner. RevPro’s tapings, at the perfect-for-TV-wrestling Cockpit theatre in Marylebone, are stacked with talent, and the promotion had advertised Zack Sabre Jr before he was booked by PWG, and have now booked Will Ospreay versus ACH. It will give the hardcore fans a tough choice, but with ENDVR tickets having been on sale a week before RevPro announced their date, PROGRESS have the upper hand. RevPro owner Andy Quildan has gone on record as saying he prefers to work with other promotions rather than against them and this seems to be a case of an unavoidable clash. But WAR makes for a better story…
3) British talent continues to turn heads in the U.S.
Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, and Mark Andrews – who competed in PWG’s BOLA 2015 – are making a return trip to the Los Angeles promotion next month. While Andrews and Scurll might be known to some from their TNA connections, Ospreay is the real surprise package this year, and it’s been reported that AAA offered him a deal last month. Ospreay is only three years into his career, yet carries himself like a seasoned pro – there are few better babyfaces (“blue eyes” in old school British parlance) out there, with everything he does having meaning and impact. He’s just turned heel (or “villain”!) for IPW:UK and this reporter, for one, is interested to see how he pulls that off. American fans could do worse than get in on the ground floor – the Ospreay bandwagon starts here.
4) As well as our guys going over there, the Americans came here last week, with WWE touring the UK and Ireland (and bits of Europe, too).
While they were here they took a look at some of our talent, with try-outs being held before Raw in Manchester last Monday. Seen trying to impress WWE scouts were Scottish standout Nikki Storm, North East powerhouse Jason Prime, sometime luchadora Nina Samuels, Australian émigré Toni Storm, and the “Beast of Belfast” Big Damo. Damo’s had quite a year already, having faced Tomohiro Ishii, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Hiroshi Tanahashi for RevPro, and he’d certainly be comfortable in NXT.
5) While most of the UK’s attention was understandably focused on the ICW show, there were still a dozen shows on Friday and Saturday, up and down the UK.
Target Wrestling ran both Carlisle and Workington, and drew decent crowds with Grado and Rockstar Spud along for the ride, while NGW left their usual east coast base to run Lancashire’s west coast in Ormskirk, where Nathan Cruz defended his NGW Heavyweight title against CJ Banks. One of the more interesting shows took place in Northwich, where Great Bear Wrestling – sister promotion to RAWlternative standouts (and Chikara-Pro King of Trios entrants) Attack Pro-Wrestling – promoted Teach Me How To Dance With You, featuring teenage phenom Tyler Bate, and a Great Bear Heavyweight title match between Axel Dieter Jr and Jack Gallagher. Also on the card was Chris Brookes, continuing his brilliant heel run of defeating women, this time taking down Alexis Rose. Nixon Newell looms large in his future, I’m sure…
After two fairly quiet weeks – if you count almost 4000 people flocking to an indy show a quiet week! – next weekend hots up, with a TON of shows on offer. Join me again next week for a rundown of the movers, shakers, and headline makers!
Results and notes from the ICW Fear And Loathing VIII show.
Results:
— ICW Zero G Championship Davey Boy (w/ The Wee Man) defeated Stevie Boy (c)
— 6 man Tag Joe Hendry, Noam Dar & Kenny Williams defeated Liam Thomson, Lionheart & Doug Williams (Jimmy Havoc run in attack on the Thomson, Lionheart & Doug Williams team; after the match Carmel challenged Liam Thomson to a match at the next show, Square Go)
— Tournament final for the new ICW Women’s Championship Mick Foley banned any ringside interference and added Viper to the match, making it a Three Way Dance Viper defeated Nikki Storm and Kay Lee Ray to become the first ICW Women’s Champion
— Joe Coffey defeated Rhyno
— ICW Tag Team Championship Polo Promotions (c) – Jackie Polo & Mark Coffey (w. Coach Trip & DCT) defeated The 55 – Kid Fite and Sha Samuels (w/ James R Kennedy and Timm Wylie to retan their titles
— 6 Man Steel Cage Tag Teams win by all three members escaping. The New Age Kliq – Chris Renfrew, Wolfgang & BT Gunn eventually defeated The Legion – Tommy End, Dante & Mikey Whiplash. Order of Elimination: Wolfgang, Dante & Tommy End, Chris Renfrew and then Gunn & Whiplash crashed through tables at ringside at the same to make it a draw; Whiplash demanded that Gunn face him one on one and the match restarted as sudden death, with a pinfall to finish – Gunn pinned Whiplash for the victory.
— Big Damo defeated Jack Jester
— ICW World Heavyweight Championship Grado defeated Drew Galloway (c) Suspended GM Red Lightning tried to get involved, but was stopped by Mick Foley; ICW owner Mark Dallas counted the pinfall after a ref bump.
Notes:
— Legitimate sold out and packed 4000 crowd in Hall 3 of the SECC (Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre) the second biggest venue in Scotland. — Mick Foley as guest GM for the night, the only other import was Rhyno, who has a history of working ICW shows – no one shot big names to help pad the card. — Owner Mark Dallas announced next year’s Fear And Loathing would be in the larger SSE Hydro – on paper, the second busiest venue in the world after the O2 Arena in London. This is absolutely HUGE for ICW, the same arena that TNA ran their televised shows from and that the WWE run on their tours now. — Show started on time at 7pm, no mean feat with the size of the queues outside when the doors opened at 6.30pm — Stars of Scottish TV police sitcom “Scot Squad” appeared after the first 6 man tag match and “arrested” Lionheart to a big reaction. — The Grado vs. Galloway match had a legitimate “big match feel” to it – there was an atmosphere like nothing else I’ve ever experienced at any wresting show I’ve been too. — Mick Foley’s involvement was minimal, but he was well used. — Excellent show, well worth checking out on the ICW On Demand service.
