The ‘World of Sport Wrestling’ press conference descended into total chaos on Wednesday (29.03.17) when a brawl broke out amongst the competitors.
Following the success of the New Year’s Eve ‘WoS’ special, which attracted over a million viewers, ITV has commissioned a 10-part series which will feature the UK’s top grapplers with ITV Studios Entertainment Manchester teaming up with American company ‘IMPACT Wrestling’ – a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. – to create the programme.
And fans got a taste of the action that is to come on Saturday afternoons at the launch event for the series held at TV studios in Media City in Manchester.
Scottish fan favourite Grado – who is the current WoS Champion -was declaring that British wrestling is "back where it belongs" when he was interrupted and insulted by the ‘East End Butcher’ Sha Samuels and after Grado branded him a "big Cockney dafty" all hell broke loose.
The London hardman blindsided Grado with a vicious right forearm – knocking him to the floor – before Ashton Smith, Johnny Moss and Rampage Brown joined in with the brutal beat down to the champ.
Efforts from the ‘Mexican Sensation’ El Ligero, Liverpool’s Zack Gibson and Kenny Williams to help their pal resulted in them being pummelled too, but Grado was able to rally a comeback to send the aggressors running to safety backstage.
There was also another surprise when former IMPACT World Champion Nick Aldis, from Norfolk, was unveiled as the newest member of the ‘WoS Wrestling’ roster which will have a "nucleus" of British competitors with international talents from ‘IMPACT’ in the US and Japan and Mexico set to supplement.
Speaking at the press conference, wrestling legend Jeff Jarrett – who is acting as Executive Producer for ‘IMPACT’ on the ITV series – announced that ‘World of Sport Wrestling’ is a "full-on wrestling promotion" with plans for live tours, merchandise and even pay-per-views already being discussed.
Former WWE and WCW grappler Jarrett, 49, said: "Being a part of this opportunity is great, but from the very beginning, it’s a full-on wrestling promotion. It goes with everything. This show is already being shopped internationally around the world. We are going to look at live touring, merchandise, licencing, who knows, maybe a pay-per-view in the future. But it’s a full-on wrestling promotion. It’s not going to just be a television show. The British scene is red hot, so ‘IMPACT’ will have its influence, but ‘WoS Wrestling’ is going to have its own flavour."
The 10 new episodes are to be filmed in front of a live audience at the Preston Guild Hall on Thursday 25 May and Friday 26 May with tickets going on sale at Gigsandtours.com / Ticketmaster.co.uk and Prestonguildhall.co.uk on 7 April at 9am.
‘World of Sport’ was originally a sporting compilation show that was broadcast by ITV from January 1965 until September 1985 in competition with the BBC’s ‘Grandstand’ programme.
Although it featured a variety of sports wrestling was a prominent part of it every week and the British public fell in love with the larger than life characters such as Rollerball Rocco, Mick McManus and Kendo Nagasaki and were gripped by the long-running feud between fan favourite Big Daddy and the villainous Giant Haystacks, making the behemoth pair household names.
Brawl breaks out at ITV’s World of Sport Wrestling launch
