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The history of professional wrestling in the United Kingdom spans over one hundred years, beginning in the 1920s when it was popularised under the concept of "All in Wrestling", which emphasised an "anything goes" style and presentation. Following World War II, the style and presentation of professional wrestling in the UK underwent a dramatic shift, as the Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules were introduced to make British professional wrestling appear much closer to a legitimate sport. Professional wrestling entered the mainstream British culture when the newly-formed independent television network ITV began broadcasting it in 1955, firstly on Saturday afternoons and then also in a late-night midweek slot. Domestically produced professional wrestling was at its peak of popularity when the television show World of Sport was launched in the mid-1960s, making household names out of Adrian Street, Mick McManus, Giant Haystacks, Jackie Pallo, Big Daddy, Steve Veidor, Dynamite Kid, and Kendo Nagasaki.
A championship or title in professional wrestling is a recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations. Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in predetermined rivalries. These narratives create feuds between the various competitors, which cast them as villains and heroes. The bookers in a company will place the title on the most accomplished performer, or whom they believe will generate fan interest in terms of event attendance and television viewership.
David Taylor is a retired English professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the United States with World Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2000 and with World Wrestling Entertainment from 2006 to 2007.
David John Finlay Jr. is a Northern Irish retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed with WWE as a trainer/assistant coach. He best known for his tenures with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Fit Finlay from 1996 to 2000, and Finlay in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2005 to 2010.
In professional wrestling, Cruiserweight is a weight class but also a term for a fast-paced, aerial-based style of performer. The term was first coined in the United States in 1996 by World Championship Wrestling. Prior to this, the terms "Light Heavyweight" and "Junior Heavyweight" were more commonly in use. The older term Junior Heavyweight is still favored in Japan, where many titles for lighter-weight competitors are called Junior Heavyweight titles. Prominent titles include New Japan Pro-Wrestling's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, and All Japan Pro Wrestling's World Junior Heavyweight championships.
All Star Wrestling (ASW), also known as Super Slam Wrestling (SSW), is a British professional wrestling promotion founded by Brian Dixon in 1970 and based in Birkenhead, England. Founded as Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead in October 1970, it has also been known over the years as All Star Promotions and Big Time Wrestling. ASW tours theatres, leisure centres, town halls, holiday camps, and similar venues, many of which are the same locations that were used for televised wrestling in the UK from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Robert Edward Brooks, better known by his ring name Robbie Brookside, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a trainer/producer for the NXT brand. He has toured all over the world during his career, wrestling in the United States, Japan, Germany, and Mexico. He was a regular tag partner of Steve Regal in the United Kingdom and has competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's annual tournament, the Super J Cup, in 1997, where he picked up a victory over Chris Jericho.
Drew McDonald was a Scottish professional wrestler. He was best known for wrestling in the United Kingdom since the 1980s.
Marty Jones is an English retired professional wrestler best known for his work in Joint Promotions and All Star Wrestling throughout the 1980s and 1990s. During this period, he was the predominant holder of the Mountevans World Mid Heavyweight title. Jones was also responsible for training William Regal.
Jorge Castaño is a Colombian professional wrestler who works for many promotions in the United Kingdom. He is the most recent claimant to date of the British Middleweight title. He is also a former UKPW World Champion.
Daniel "Boy" Collins is an English professional wrestler. Noted for his agile, gymnastic style in the ring, he has toured successfully across Europe and Japan and held British, European and World titles in five different weight divisions.
Mark Hussey was an English professional wrestler who competed for Joint Promotions, All Star Wrestling and the second BWF as Mark "Rollerball" Rocco and as the original masked Black Tiger in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) during the 1970s and 1980s. A fourth-generation wrestler, he was the son of British wrestler "Jumping" Jim Hussey and the father of boxer Jono "Rocco" Hussey.
John Joseph Murphy was a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Skull Murphy. He began his career wrestling in Canada and later worked at Jim Crockett Promotions and Georgia Championship Wrestling in the United States. In the 1960s, he teamed with Brute Bernard in the World Wide Wrestling Federation and won championships in several professional wrestling promotions. In his later career, he worked primarily in Australia.
José Luis Barajas Fernández is a retired Mexican professional wrestler, or Luchador as they are called in Spanish. Barajas is best known under the ring name, El Faraón, a ring name and persona he used throughout his career from his debut in 1973 until retiring around the turn of the millennium. El Fareón was originally an enmascarado but lost a Luchas de Apuestas, or "bet match" to Fishman on April 23, 1973 and was forced to unmask. Barajas' career peak came in the 1980s where he won the NWA World Middleweight Championship, NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and the Mexican National Middleweight Championship, in addition to a long-running, intense storyline feud against Sangre Chicana that saw the two face off in a series of very bloody matches.
The British Middleweight Championship is the Middleweight professional wrestling championship competed for throughout the British wrestling circuit.
The British Heavy Middleweight Championship was a top British wrestling championship found throughout the country's circuit. The title's history dates back to its foundation by Joint Promotions in 1953. Officially heavy middleweights were required to weight between 12 st 8 lb(176 lbs) and 13 st 5 lb(187 lb).
Franz Schumann is a retired Austrian professional wrestler, who was well known for his stint in Catch Wrestling Association.
In professional wrestling, a weight class is a standardized weight range for the wrestlers. The top class in almost every promotion is heavyweight, but super heavyweights exist. Weight class matches in modern-day American professional wrestling are rare, but weight class championships still exist. However, Japanese professional wrestling, Mexican wrestling and traditional British wrestling use the weight classes more seriously.
Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules were a set of professional wrestling rules mainly used in the United Kingdom in the second half of the 20th century. Introduced in 1947, they were named after Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, who ordered a unified set of rules written up for professional wrestling in the British Isles in order to re-legitimise professional wrestling in the eyes of the public and the press. Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom had become discredited before World War II due to the prominence of the preceding "All In" style, which came to emphasise an "anything goes" style of presentation. Professional wrestling promoters in the United Kingdom rallied behind the Mountevans rules and radically altered how professional wrestling was presented in the United Kingdom thereafter. The style of wrestling under the Mountevans rules was advertised by promoters as Modern Freestyle Wrestling.
Tony St. Clair is an English retired professional wrestler. He is well known for his stints in Joint Promotions and All Star Wrestling in the United Kingdom, Catch Wrestling Association in Austria and Germany, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He is also known as a trainer, with his trainees including "Gentleman" Chris Adams and Osamu Nishimura.
References
- 1 2 "Finlay". SLAM! Wrestling. 17 March 2006. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ↑ "British Light Heavyweight Title".
- ↑ "British Heavy Middleweight Title".
- 1 2 "Reference at www.onlineworldofwrestling.com".
- ↑ "British Light Heavyweight Title".
- ↑ "Reference at www.cagematch.net".
- ↑ "RBW British Heavyweight Title".