Until 1988 wrestling had been a regular occurrence on British television, making big names out of the likes of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, and then it was gone. ITV's new boss didn't see any value in it...ironically this was right before the UK started getting Satellite television, and in turn introduced to the likes of Hulk Hogan, Jake 'The Snake' Roberts, and Andre the Giant. Wrestling was about to get huge.
Fast forward to 2014, and the WWE broadcasts up to eight hours of programming a week, not including monthly pay-per-views, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honour, Lucha Underground, and New Japan Wrestling are all making waves and more importantly money.
So ITV decided to bring back World of Sport Wrestling for a New Year's Day special featuring the cream of British wrestling with commentary by the legendary Jim Ross. While the show was a little rough around the edges it showed enough potential for the suits to commission a ten part series.
The first series was filmed over three days in May this year then edited into the ten episodes, and shown at the end of July continuing over consecutive weeks.
It featured a three piece commentary team unique to the show, babyface Brit Alex Shane, American SoCal Val and heel/authority figure Stu Bennett a.k.a WWE's Wade Barrett. It also featured many of the wrestlers who appeared on the special including Grado, British Bulldog Jr and Ramage Brown (now just Ramage).
We got to see the crowning of the first WOS women's champion, a tournament to crown the first tag team champions, mixed gender matches, ladder matches, and the unique Bennett's Buzzer Battle.
There have been complaints by some people about the amount of editing in the programme, but this is primarily to edit around some of the more violent looking shots, you have to remember this is going out at teatime. As opposed to a more hardcore product like Impact Wrestling which goes out at 11:30pm.
The main issue with the programme though is down to the scheduling. When it was first broadcast it went out at 5 o'clock, as the start of the Saturday night line-up. Then got pushed to half 4 and then 4 o'clock making way for another screening of a Harry Potter movie. The last two episodes went out at half two in the afternoon, while this was WOS's original slot back in the day it shows a lack of confidence from the bigwigs.
Altogether though it's been a incredibly enjoyable return, and even a seasoned wrestling fan couldn't see all the twists that came along the way. Here's hoping there's a second series.
Did you watch WOS? What did you make of the first series? Let me know in the comments below.
