World of Sport Wrestling

WOS Wrestling (originally an acronym for World of Sport Wrestling) is a British professional wrestling television series and promotion. It was marketed as a relaunch of the wrestling segment from the ITV sports programme World of Sport, which ran from 1965 to 1985.

WOS Wrestling debuted on 31 December 2016 with a two-hour special on ITV. This was followed by a ten-episode series in 2018, and a six-date live tour between January and February 2019. The promotion went on a five-year hiatus before announcing its return on 28 June 2024, with a TV taping to take place later that year on 14 September.

History

Background

ITV transmitted professional wrestling for over 33 years from November 1955 to December 1988. The bulk of this was screened on Saturday afternoons or lunchtimes (although other slots including midweek late evenings, midweek lunchtimes and bank holiday Monday afternoons were also used). Throughout World of Sport's lifetime, the Saturday afternoon coverage was generally incorporated into the package show as a slot. Joint Promotions held exclusive rights to ITV television coverage until the end of 1986, when they rotated with tapings of All Star Wrestling and occasional WWF special editions.[citation needed]

The distinct British wrestling style of Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules has persisted in the United Kingdom to the present day.[citation needed] Since the early 1990s, an additional strand of wrestling promotions has emerged that were producing more American-styled shows.[citation needed] The two genres have become known commonly as "Old School" and "New School", respectively, after the names used in an invasion angle run by the FWA promotion around 2001.[citation needed] Over the years, numerous attempts were made to relaunch professional wrestling on British television, with various promotions covered on a single local ITV franchise or satellite/digital channels; often touted as the "revival" of British Wrestling.[citation needed] ITV screened World Championship Wrestling (WCW) programming in the early hours and from 1992 to 1995 in their old Saturday afternoon slot, but no homegrown promotion ever received regular syndicated coverage.[citation needed]

In the 21st century, vintage ITV coverage was repeated as World of Sport on digital channels such as The Wrestling Channel and Men and Movies, resulting in the name "World of Sport" becoming a frequent retronym for the traditional, old-school style of British wrestling.[citation needed]

Development and relaunch

A pilot for a television series called World of Sport Wrestling was filmed at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon in November 2013.[citation needed] Branding itself as a direct revival of World of Sport on its old slot, WOS Wrestling was hosted by veteran ring announcer Lee Bamber.[citation needed] After it was rejected by ITV, the pilot was eventually uploaded to YouTube on 12 June 2015 by creator John Chapman. It would later be reuploaded in 2023.

On 19 October 2016, ITV commissioned a two-hour, one-off, World of Sport Wrestling special. The show would featured independent wrestlers such as Grado and Sha Samuels, and commentary from former WWE announcer Jim Ross.

The special was taped on 1 November 2016 from dock10 studios in Greater Manchester.[citation needed], and would premiere on 31 December 2016. The main storyline running through the show focused on Grado's quest to become WOS champion. He would lose to Dave Mastiff in a match to become inaugural champion before eventually winning the belt in a rematch at the end of the broadcast.[citation needed]

On 23 March 2017, ITV announced that they had commissioned a ten-episode series of WOS Wrestling in partnership with Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling (then known as Impact Wrestling). Then-Impact CCO Jeff Jarrett would serve as an executive producer, along with Tom McLennan and Simon Marsh. A TV taping was scheduled to take place at Preston Guild Hall on 25 and 26 May. On 28 April, Pro Wrestling Insider reported that the WOS tapings had been postponed.

2018 Series and live tour

In April 2018, ITV announced the return of WOS Wrestling as a ten-part series. The series was taped at Epic Studios in Norwich, on May 10, 11, and 12.

WOS's first series was broadcast from July 28 until September 29, and was hosted by Alex Shane and SoCal Val.[citation needed] Its main storyline focused on the championship reign of Rampage, and his pursuit by challenger Justin Sysum. Sysum competed in Rampage's Triple Threat title match with Grado.[citation needed] After a controversial countout loss in episode 3, Sysum defeated the champion in a tag match in episode 7.[citation needed] In the final two episodes, Sysum earned himself a title shot and ultimately defeated Rampage to win the title.[citation needed] Other storylines saw the establishment of a women's championship, a Tag Team Championship tournament, and Grado's running battles with disapproving WOS executive Stu Bennett.[citation needed] Recurring characters have included masked monster heel Crater, treacherous heel Martin Kirby and his former partner, singing babyface Joe Hendry.[citation needed]

At the conclusion of episode 6 (transmitted 1 September 2018) a six-date live tour was announced for January 2019. The WOS Women's Championship changed hands four times, while Sysum made four defences of his WOS Championship against former champion Rampage. The WOS Tag Team Championship were not defended, however, as Davey Boy Smith Jr. was not on the tour.

The TV programme received a nomination for Digital Content for the Royal Television Society's East Awards 2019.

On May 8, 2019, upstart American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) reached a media rights deal with ITV. When asked about this on Twitter in-regards to ITV, Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer responded in a tweet on 28 May 2019 that WOS Wrestling had been cancelled.

On 13 December 2019, the WOS Twitter account uploaded a teaser video.

2024 revival

At 09:00 BST on 28 June 2024, a short teaser video was posted announcing the promotion's return with a TV taping event called "WOS: The Return". The event will be held on 14 September. Narrated by Sha Samuels, the video showed the WOS Heavyweight Championship, and the WOS logo with "The Return" written underneath. Advertised as appearing were Adam Maxted, Iestyn Rees, Joel Redman, Eddie Ryan, Sheikh El Sham, Niwa Niwa, Nathan Angel, Jake McCluskey, Ashton Smith, Session Moth Martina, Nightshade and SoCal Val.

Fightful reported that, due to trademark issues with ITV, the official name of the promotion would be shortened to WOS Wrestling. It was also announced by WOS that the promotion's programming would be broadcast through online platforms, rather than on ITV's television networks. Talent announced for the event included Grado, Sha Samuels, L.A. Taylor. On 2 August 2024, it was announced that NORTH Wrestling and Progress Wrestling announcer Tom Campbell would be providing commentary.

Programme sales

Broadcasting rights to the series were licensed in India to Discovery Communications-branded channel DSport. Series 1 was transmitted on Tuesday nights at 9pm from 26 February 2019.

In the United States, Series 1 was screened on Stadium on Sunday nights 7pm EST, starting 12 May 2019, the first ever purchase of a UK wrestling programme by a US television channel.

List of WOS Wrestling Episodes

2013 pilot

New Year's Eve 2016 special

2018 Series

Championship reigns

WOS Championship

WOS Tag Team Championship

WOS Women's Championship

See also

• List of professional wrestling promotions in Great Britain and Ireland
• List of professional wrestling television series

External links

• at IMDb