British Wrestling

[Aggro]

A brief guide to the current British Pro Wrestling scene.

This something I thought I would put together after my usual “random scour” of British wrestling promotions. I don’t follow UK wrestling as much as I would like to, so I’m about to make a concerted effort in keeping up to date with what’s going on in my homeland.

This is a list of some currently active promotions here in the United Kingdom.

FWA (Frontier Wrestling Alliance): Started in 1999, FWA has showcased the best of British ever since. Talent such as Doug Williams, Nigel McGuiness and Paul Burchill have passed through FWA before crossing to the States. In 2007, FWA was rebranded as the XWA, who are mentioned below. British Wrestling’s main man Alex Shane reformed FWA in 2009 and they have put on shows every 3 months or so. The FWA basically bring together the best wrestlers from around England and attempt to put on large scale shows at venues such as the NEC Birmingham and the Excel Centre in London. Their most recent show was a weekend event this past November, which saw the opening of the British Wrestling hall of fame. In attendance was Bret Hart, who accepted an entry dedicated to himself and Davey Boy Smith for their match at Summerslam 1992, Wembley Stadium. UK legends Drew McDonald and Robbie Brookside have featured recently in FWA storylines and recent Heavyweight Champ Martin Stone is rumoured to be heading to WWE. FWA have a youtube channel with regular news updates. They also have a decent website www.fwauk.com where you can order DVD’s of previous events.

ASW (All Star Wrestling): ASW have shows running up and down Britain and they also put on events at the Butlins holiday parks. Gangrel is a regular performer and Drew (Galloway) McIntyre was once part of ASW. Their website is pretty poor but up to date.

BWP (Britannia Wrestling Promotions): These guys are based in Wales and have monthly shows booked for the whole of 2011. They have a decent website www.britanniawrestling.co.uk Their roster seems pretty fresh in comparison to the English promotions, who tend to be beefed up with the same guys.

XWA : Based in Morecombe, Lancashire (Up North!) XWA is basically the rebranded FWA from 2007. They put on a show every 3 months and Alex Shane is their current champion. They have a decent website www.xnawrestling.net

GPW (Grand Pro Wrestling): GPW are based in Wigan. The thing I noticed about this lot straight away was the fact that 95% of the roster look under the age of 16! I swear the one of the ref’s is 10! They have 8 shows lined up for 2010. www.gpwrestling.org.uk

RQW (Real Quality Wrestling): Don’t know what happened here, but it looks like they folded up in March 2010. It was in RQW where I first saw Sheamus in action, against D-Lo Brown!

WZ: WrestleZone Scotland again have a fresh roster and had a solid output of monthly shows in 2010.
They have a decent, up to date website www.wrestlezonescotland.co.uk

1PW: Based in Doncaster. Ric Flair has made an appearance here back in 2008. Kevin Thorn seems to be a regular and Beer Money have also appeared. They put on 4 shows in 2010. Again, they use a few familiar faces of British wrestling. www.oneprowrestling.com
Update on 1PW!
I recently purchased a 1PW dvd collection from 2006. Know Your Enemy Night 1 and 2 plus Invincible. All 3 shows feature stars from around the globe, including Danielson, McGuiness, Christian, Steen, Corino, Abyss, SUWA, Lance Storm, Mohammed Yone, Takeshi Morishima, Styles, Daniels, Strong, Aries, Cabana, Joe, Snow, Sydal, Rave, The Brisoces and loads of British stars like Doug Williams, Johnny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Spud and PAC.
Know Your Enemy Night 2 features Doug Williams vs. Lance Storm in a truly fantastic match for wrestling purists. Doug Williams also goes up against Nigel at Invicible in a British Master Class. On these two matches alone, Williams has gone up ten fold in my already highly respectful opinion.
There are a lot of good matches, too many to go into right now, but there is also a lot of crap and its clearly evident that a lot of the guys from the U.S where on the card just for the money. The Pound was nearly worth 2 US Dollars at the time.

IPW:UK : They have Davey Richards appearing for them on March 6th 2011, enough said! Paul London, El Generico and Eddie Edwards have all competed recently for IPW:UK. They put on 17 shoes in 2010 and 4 of those were exclusive to over 18’s. These shows take place in a pub in Chatham, Kent and things get a bit “Extreme”. The bulk of the roster is made up of the top talent in Britain at the moment. www.ipwuk.com

LDN: Based in the South of England. They have plenty of shows scheduled for early 2011 and a decent website, where you can watch some matches. Their roster boasts some fresh talent. www.ldnwrestling.com

VPW (Varsity Pro Wrestling) : Website under renovation right now. Based in the South of England, they have had Bob Holly, Kip James and The Road Dog all appear in 2010.


I’m sure there are a few more promotions that I have missed out, but the ones above are initially the easier to access to.

I mentioned the familiar faces of British Wrestling. The following guys seem to be the major draws here in the United Kingdom and all appear for the FWA, IPW:UK, XWA and 1PW.

Alex Shane
Martin Stone
Leroy Kincaide
John Moss (Genetic freak! Surprised Vince ain’t picked him up!)
Andy Simmons
Joel Redman
Dave Moralez
Sha Samuels
Rockstar Spud
El Liguero
Mark Haskins
Stixx and Malen
Iestyn Rees
Bubblegum
Johnny Storm

And many more.

These guys are really putting in a huge effort to bring British Wrestling back to the forefront. However, until there is any kind of TV deal put in place, exposure is limited to you tube and the net.

[ROB_BLACK]

I remember watching FWA Frontiers of Honor (I think it was called) on The Wrestling Channel when we still had it and seeing all the FWA guys duke it out with ROH. Good times. ROH and CZW need to bring in a few of the Brits. Storm and Fleisch had an amazing match in CZW once I remember. Britain really doesn't get enough credit for its wrestling especially when we've produced a number of top names over the past few years!