The death of British Wrestling?

Hi guys,

Hasn't the world of professional wrestling been crazy over the last few days.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about the resurgence of British wrestling (http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/040778118-analysis-resurgence-british-wrestling) but nowadays it seems as if I can't wake up without seeing a 'British wrestling is dead' tweet somewhere - crazy right?

It's all stemmed from some rumours centring WWE UK and the sudden closure of Defiant Wrestling. In my opinion, the only thing that's dead is Tuesday Night Graps but that's being sorted now so it's fine with SCHADENFREUDE.

I've voiced my concerns when the promotion started in terms of what it could do to the independent scene and we saw from the word go that WWE started monopolising on the industry in a pretty devious and toxic way. We've had so many wrestlers from BSS, Grizzled Young Vets, Viper and Kay Lee Ray being signed to exclusive contracts, Jim Smallman of Progress leaving the promotion he helped build to focus on NXT and more recently and controversially the issue of streaming sites. According to new rumours, WWE UK talent will no longer be able to appear on shows that will streamed and can only participate in dark matches. This will no doubt have an impact on the British scene as many of our favourite wrestlers won't be on some of our favourite promotions across the country.

Because of these changes and rumours, people have been criticising the talent who have signed to WWE UK and of course, talking about the death of British independent wrestling. I think a lot of these are unfounded and I want to talk about these points.

I saw a post saying that the only people holding up British wrestling was Aussie Open and David Starr. While I agree that these guys are major figures in the scene and I don't want to underestimate what they are doing, I think it's unfair to make that statement. UK wrestling wasn't founded by these guys and it definitely will not just be on the back of these 3 guys, it's a scene held up by so many diverse and amazing wrestlers from across the world coming to the UK to call our wrestling scene their home.

I didn't want to be boring and list all of the amazing wrestlers, but I'm going to do it anyway:

We've got guys like Martin Kirby, Joe Hendry, Lana Austin, Rampage Brown, Anti-Fun Police (Deputy Dunne, Santos and Joe) Nina Samuels, Millie McKenzie, MOJO, Cassius and Rhia O'Reilly who were all bred in the UK scene and that's only ones I can think off from the top of my head. Then there are people from across the globe coming to the UK, fighting on our shows and becoming part of our wrestling culture. Even with guys like ZSJ, Chris Brookes, Chris Ridgway and others flying the flag in Japan, they're still British talent who appear on shows here. If you look at these names along with hundreds being trained in the schools, there's no shortage of amazing wrestlers to keep the scene alive - not dead!

It's easy to forget that British wrestling is not just the wrestlers themselves, it's a lot about the promotions themselves and the training schools. We take all of these places for granted but, without the promotions, we wouldn't have these wrestlers to start with and WWE wouldn't have had a base to springboard off. Even though people said Progress started it all, they're not the only places to see good wrestling and they have so many wrestlers not part of WWE. In the North, we have FutureShock, ICW and NGW. In the South, we have Revolution Pro, RipTide, Pro-Wrestling:EVE and Frontline as well as those in other countries like ICW and Attack! We've also got SCHADENFREUDE making their mark and throwing their first ever independent Frog and Bucket show in Manchester (which sold out before I got tickets - Sad Sonal).

As fans, we need to continue to support our local promotions, because then it's impossible for it to die out. The scene managed to thrive and build momentum when WWE was taking over so why can't that still happen? Even though WWE have planted their feet here, there are still so many young wrestlers embracing the UK scene and promotions giving talent the best platforms to perform.

On a more personal level, I've never had any fears about the British wrestling scene as I see it continue to get even better and stronger. I have faith in the wrestlers and in the fans to hold up this scene and keep independent wrestling alive amongst not only the WWE invasion but also the emergence of AEW nabbing some of our talent like Kip Sabian and Bea Priestley.

So, as long as the fans are there and schools keep moulding the future talent, everything's going to be fine. People need to have more faith and stop being so negative!

BRITISH WRESTLING IS NOT DEAD!

What is everyone's view on this? Do you think that British wrestling is dead or are people over-exaggerating and making a mountain out of a molehill?

Like always, let me know and to keep up to date with all things wrestling and be first to know when I post something new on here or a new podcast (or even when if you just want to chat), follow me on social media (@Wrestling_Chat on Twitter and Wrestling Chatter on FB and WrestlingChatter96 on IG)!

Until next time,

Bye