The Return of WOS Wrestling
To those outside of Britain it probably doesn't mean much, but to Brits of a certain age the return of WOS Wrestling is a really big deal.
Between 1965-1985 ITV, the second biggest channel in the UK, aired a sports magazine programme called World of Sport every Saturday afternoon, which featured an hour of wrestling. Making big names of the of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, who were the equivalent of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.
After World of Sport went off the air wrestling continued to air in a similar timeslot under the name Wrestling with Kent Walton, but only for another three before disappearing from UK screens altogether. Ironically right before American wrestling started to become popular.
...and that was it for 28 years, until New Years Eve 2016 when ITV aired a two hour WOS Wrestling special/pilot/reboot. And although it may have taken another 18 months to see a secondWOS show it was clearly enough of a ratings winner to gain more of ITV's time and money.
The first episode of the new series aired 28th July 2018 at 5pm, while that might be an early slot on the Saturday line-up it's still primetime on a major British network.
The show kicked off with a 5 way elimination match to establish a contender for the championship, won by Impact! Wrestling's Grado during the New Year's Eve special. The winner to face the champ in the show's finale.
Next we saw New Japan Wrestling regulars Will Ospreay and British Bulldog Jr. , son of the legendary Davey Boy Smith battle it out.
The third match kicked off a tournament to crown the tag-team champions. The tournament's first participants were Kip Sabian & Iestyn Rees versus Martin Kirby & Joe Hendry, who's recently been appearing on Impact! Wrestling alongside Grado. With two more teams competing next week.
The final match saw Grado defend his title in a triple threat match with Rampage and Justin Sysum.
Altogether the show was pretty good, with three of the four matches actually having consequences, helping the audience to care about the outcomes. We also saw the emergence of alliances and future rivalries, there's bound to be a match down the line between Kirby & Hendry after Kirby walked out on his tag partner.
Have you watched the new WOS Wrestling? What's your verdict? Let me know in the comments below
Sounds like it would be almost like Stampede Wrestling returning to us hre in western Canada!
Yeah pretty much. I don't know what it's like over there, but here there was nothing free to view until Impact Wrestling started airing late night on one of the lesser channels about eight or nine years ago. Everything else before and since airs on subscription based TV.
I remember the Dynamite Kid said he wouldn’t teach wrestlers out there because there wasn’t anywhere for British wrestlers to make a living.
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