by Carrie Dunn
He is also excited at the potential for inter-gender matches in the future. Kay Lee Ray, one of EVE’s stars, took on CJ Banks at PCW’s first anniversary show, and Read was delighted. “I remember when [Steven] Fludder [the owner of PCW] first spoke to me about it, and I said: ‘Mate, f***ing do it. It’s the way to go.’ If you can get people to accept it straight away – it always depends on where you are and what the audience is – go for it. And don’t do it as ‘can the little girl really do it?’, let her go all out.
“Kay Lee can do that, Kay Lee’s awesome. She’s phenomenal. She should be in there with guys as well as girls. She’s not ‘good for a girl wrestler’, she’s good, period. Carmel Jacob is another one – Carmel is probably the most underrated female wrestler. People know she’s good, but I don’t think they realise how good she really is. Jenny Sjodin – she’s phenomenal. You’ve got the Alpha Female and she looks like she could crush most of the guys in the wrestling industry. Nikki Storm – there’s another one who’s had a constant battle to prove herself. And there’s a lot of girls coming through on the scene as well. There’s so much talent.”
Read is another promoter who enjoys the network of contacts available to him via other promotions. He is cautious about the amount of collaboration that he permits, though. “I talk to Ben Auld at Southside, Greg Lambert at XWA, he’s a friend of mine,” he says. “But I do my own thing, because once you start getting involved with a lot of other people...you hear the word ‘politics’, but I don’t believe in politics – I believe you allow yourself to get submerged in politics; you’re around too many situations and you allow yourself to be too involved. If anyone thinks that I do anything for anything other than what I think is for the benefit of EVE, then they’re just delving for something that’s not there.”
One of the ways that Read and EVE work with other promotions is through providing women’s matches for men-only cards. “It’s very simple. I provide them with girls’ matches. I don’t get involved with what [the other promotion does], and they don’t get involved with what I do. They want a women’s match on the show, they come to Pro Wrestling EVE; some of them may make requests, like Ben wanted Jenny [Sjodin] to defend her title on his show, but it’s all done by me – I’ll provide a match that fits in with what I’m doing.”
Few companies, however, have the same UK-wide mindset as EVE. Most mark out a small catchment area, and concentrate their efforts on a restricted territory, aiming to attract a regular, loyal following, while staging shows that are unique – a significant challenge.
Chapter 10:
In the spotlight – London calling
The march of PROGRESS
Hammerlock’s attitude towards supporting the resurgent British scene and Read’s mindset of cooperation seems to be increasingly prevalent across the country now. Just follow any of the UK promotions on Twitter and you’ll see them linking to each other’s shows. It is not a money-making business collaboration – it’s simply mutual support. “In London there’s us, there’s FPW and there’s Lucha Britannia,” says Jon Briley of PROGRESS Wrestling. “We all do very different types of shows. There’s an obvious link there to just kind of help each other get audiences. There’s nothing more formal to it than that.”
PROGRESS Wrestling is a relative newcomer to the scene, debuting in March 2012, with undisputed king of the indy circuit Colt Cabana on their card, and boasting a quirky staff for the company’s champion rather than any old common-or-garden belt. Two long-term wrestling fans, comedian Jim Smallman and comedy promoter Briley, decided to set up their own promotion when they realised that instead of discussing their actual work in meetings they were talking about wrestling. They have settled in quickly, picking classic music venue The Garage in Islington, North London, as their home venue, creating a grungy, authentic, underground atmosphere for their shows.
Smallman’s background as a fan is very similar to all the other stories we have heard.
“I got into British wrestling as a kid in the mid-1980s, then American wrestling as a student,” says Smallman. “This was when WWE was taking off and was cool, with the likes of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
“PROGRESS intends to recapture the excitement and atmosphere of those halcyon days of British wrestling, giving UK-based talent a chance to showcase their abilities. We’re not going to be import heavy. The promotion is about the progression of British wrestling: that’s what we want to do.”
And with the talent on display, they are hoping to demonstrate that British wrestling can be better than a lot of the televised international promotions. “Everyone here is booked based on talent, and that brings people in. We know that people are travelling to see the show – we have people coming from Cheshire, Wales, France – and we want to get people who once watched, who have maybe forgotten about why they liked wrestling, and get that excitement back by watching a great show in a cool place with guys who are talented.”
Interestingly, they have recently launched their own training school, affectionately nicknamed ‘the Pro-Jo’, in homage to the Japanese camps called ‘dojos’. They do not, however, concentrate solely on in-ring technical skills, bringing in other performers to teach the students how to entertain as well as wrestle.
“What we hope to offer is something over and above in-ring skills – although those are very well catered for too,” says Briley. “We bring in guest tutors from non-wrestling backgrounds – comedians, West End actors, etc – to teach about acting techniques, working with cameras, working with a live crowd, character development and lots more. Knowledge of and competence in these things is as much part of being a successful pro wrestler as having a great in-ring technique, and they’re areas that in a very broad sense we felt were perhaps being overlooked in today’s UK wrestling landscape.”
The future for PROGRESS, then, looks exciting, as they settle in for the duration at their venue in Islington.
“I think that we’re putting on shows that people want to watch, and in between shows we’re building to matches in such a way that the outcome really matters to people. Without the support of the fans, we wouldn’t be doing as well as we are,” adds Briley.
“There’s obviously lots more we’d like to do in and out of the ring, but for us the key is to grow it slowly. We’ve come to a great arrangement with The Garage – we’ll be there exclusively for the foreseeable future, which gives us some stability and security.”
The IPW Revolution
Away from Islington, and further afield in the south-east, Andy Quildan ran IPW:UK before moving on to found Revolution Pro Wrestling, two of the most respected UK promotions, and agrees with Smallman.
“For it to be taken seriously, we have to show we can attract big crowds and that we have high production values. It’s important to evolve and move forward – it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We want to expand the fan base and run bigger mainstream shows – but we won’t sacrifice show quality in order to do this.
“Making matches is the most important thing – we will guarantee the high quality of our shows. They are and will always be about using the best talent from around the world.”
IPW:UK has had an interesting recent history. Daniel Edler founded the promotion in 2004, and over the next three years he promoted shows in Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire and Hampshire as well as further afield.
“This was the prime time for IPW:UK in my eyes,” says Edler. “Every show was must-see; no fan dared miss a show. I get so much feedback, even to this day, asking about those shows or our wrestlers from that period of time. Our international stars were additions rather than the requirements to ensure people came through the door. We developed our own talents who you weren’t really seeing elsewhere, but were better than those that you were.”
However, after that, Edler began to lose interest in his project, resulting in him being involved in just a handful of shows in recent years, mostly in Swanley, Kent. He admits: “I was burnt out and promoting wrestling wasn’t a passion for m
e any more.”
From 2007, Edler’s old university colleague Quildan began to run all IPW:UK’s main shows.
“The team behind RPW over the past four years have run over 100 shows,” says Quildan. “It’s the same team that were behind ‘Revolution’ at the Troxy, our summer camps, all our Sittingbourne events.”
Revolution, the show that gave Quildan’s promotion its new name, was intended as a collaboration with the European company NWE, who have run huge events for years. Unfortunately, a few weeks prior to the show date in April 2012, NWE withdrew from the agreement, leaving Quildan with a decision to make – forge ahead alone regardless, or cancel. He opted to go on with the show.
“I learnt so much from that, taking the show over at such short notice. The worst thing we could have done is cancel the show. I stand by my decision to run with the show,” he says. “I lost some money on the show but I personally think that for the good of British wrestling I did the right thing in going ahead and running the show and making the most of it. There are so many lessons learnt from that. NWE had that big show experience, and as time went on, I learnt it was more by luck than judgement that they had that big show experience.”
He thinks that dealing with that crisis stands him in good stead for the future. “Fear was the factor preventing me from taking the next step and trying to run a bigger show. Now I’ve come across the worst possible scenario, and I coped with it, and we delivered. Now we’ve overcome that – that fear is now gone. I have a lot more knowledge and more experience.”
In 2012, Edler decided he wanted to return to running shows, but that resulted in a split with Quildan. Edler retained the IPW:UK name, and Quildan started his own promotion.
“If you look at the show results and the set-up [between Edler’s main shows in Swanley and Quildan’s in Sittingbourne] there was a noticeable difference,” says Quildan. “It was a decision that was made so we can both move forward in our own chosen directions. I’m a strong believer I don’t want any restriction, I want to do what I feel is best, and keep promoting what I feel’s the best. It’s all in my court now, which is fine by me.
“I would have liked to have kept the IPW initials, but it’s one of those things that if it were to happen, it [the split] would have been stretched out over a long period of time. It seemed as if it was best to make the clean break.”
“Wrestling is again my main focus and as a result, I needed to return IPW:UK to my core values,” says Edler, and describes his priorities as “everything having a logical reason, clear good guy and bad guy, and pacing a show differently”.
Unsurprisingly, Quildan objects to the implication that his shows ignore the importance of storylining. “I think a misconception about our shows might be that it’s all kind of match-based, but I personally would argue that there’s great storylines as well, there’s great characters, it just so happens that the great characters and the great storylines happen to be framed by great wrestling matches. It’s very rare that you’re able to get that balance, and I think we’re able to do that.”
As far as he’s concerned, nothing has changed apart from the name of his promotion. “I’ve been financially involved in all those events, branded it all, managed it all, promoted it all, so we’re moving forward. It’s business as usual for us as we continue to produce pro wrestling at its best.
“It’s been our shows that the storylines have developed on, so we still recognise all our champions. Literally all that’s changed is the three initials above the door. It’s not the letters that make a promotion, it’s the hard work and dedication of everyone involved as well as the fans who make it all possible.”
Future Pro Wrestling: a family thing
When you walk into the Wallington Hall, it’s a state of organised chaos. Something about it is reminiscent of an end-of-term disco, as a clutch of boys huddle together in the corner, and the grown-ups march around setting out the furniture, with a group of men wiring up the lights and a group of women in the kitchen laying out the wares for the tuck shop.
Except this is February 2013, not the height of summer before six weeks of holidays, and this is the venue that Future Pro Wrestling have declared home.
Wrestlers out of their natural habitat between the ropes are surprisingly hard to recognise; Mark Haskins, for example, has a new darker hair colour since his release from TNA and were it not for that tell-tale fake tan you wouldn’t know that this is a man who has starred on television and wrestled in front of thousands.
If you look a little closer at those boys, you’ll notice that hidden under that dark green hoodie is Noam Dar; slumped back in his chair sporting merchandise from PROGRESS is Darrell Allen; lurking near the tuck shop in the hope of securing some chocolate is much-vaunted high-flyer Will Ospreay.
All around them the ring for the afternoon is being constructed, and the chairs are being set out in rows.
FPW have come a long way in the past two years since their foundation; and certainly in the past eight months, after their big charity show FutureMania was cancelled due to those much-documented licensing problems. Now they have all the correct paperwork in place, and an excellent working relationship with the local council – illustrated clearly by the huge banner advertising their shows that hangs by the roadside on the high street.
Phil Ward scurries in, and promptly embarks on the round of handshakes and appropriately manly hugs that are deemed the correct etiquette in wrestling. It is a bit like a royal greeting fly-past: everyone gets a decent amount of time as they say hello, but nobody gets too much, and most significantly, nobody is ignored – from the in-ring talent to the backstage technicians. Douglas Rockefeller – here a heel manager rather than a ring announcer, as he is at Lucha Britannia – follows shortly afterwards, and the pattern is repeated.
Two hours before show time, the wrestlers start sneaking out in pairs and threes, running across the road to the supermarket to secure themselves some lunch, and mooching back in with tell-tale carrier bags filled with carbs and sugar.
Allen and Ospreay, meanwhile, wait for the ring to be put together, and then they start to test the ropes’ suitability for their high-octane moves – running from side to side, leaping up to the top turnbuckle, and hanging from the bottom rope by their ankles, with Ospreay losing his phone and wallet in the process.
Steve ‘Heavy D’ Evans, one of FPW’s founders, looks as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders as he strides around the building barefoot. Not only is he running this event, he is also returning to the ring today having suffered a badly broken ankle last year.
“It’ll only be three minutes in the ring,” he hastens to add. “Part of a six-man tag. Three minutes, I’ll get kicked in the face, then that’s it.”
Though some of the wrestlers head backstage to the locker room an hour and a half before the crowd begin to trek in, some leave it to the last minute, preferring instead to stay in the ring acclimatising themselves for as long as possible. Ospreay has stayed put pretty much since the ring was put up; since Allen opted to have some lunch, he has been running drills with RJ Singh, the other half of the Bhangra Knights.
Evans calls the roster backstage 20 minutes before doors open. By this time he has found both of his socks but only one of his boots; the other is still in the hot little clutches of JD of tag team The London Riots.
Marty Scurll, fresh from his TV appearances with TNA, shuffles in five minutes later, with a box of his brand-new t-shirts to sell from a table in the corner. When the audience begin to file in, there is a lot of merchandise on show – some WWE shirts, as you would expect, some honouring the wrestlers in the ring today, but by far outnumbered by plain black shirts bearing the FPW logo. Evans is keen on talking about the company and fan base as “a family”, and the community feeling is obvious as the audience fill the hall.
In fact, this is FPW’s first sell-out in their two years of life so far. Nearly 400 people are in attendance – an excellent draw that any of the UK promoti
ons would be proud of – and the main event is a fascinating and fun over-the-top-rope royal rumble featuring stars including Scurll and eventual winner Greg Burridge. Yet FPW find themselves scorned from time to time from those who prefer their wrestling with bloodshed, near-the-knuckle storylines and no children in the audience.
“We came across a podcast who posted on Twitter that they wouldn’t try us because we weren’t their cup of tea,” admits co-founder Matt Burden. “That’s the equivalent of my six-year-old daughter claiming that she doesn’t like pasta without trying it. But surprising parents at the quality of British wrestling, growing a new fan base, showcasing the best the UK wrestling scene has to offer? Guilty as charged.
“New fans are shoulder to shoulder with our regulars, getting infected by the atmosphere and making it quite clear they will now come back and bring a friend. The future’s bright.”
Chapter 11:
In the spotlight – heading north
IN contrast to FPW, another of the UK scene’s leading lights is aimed mostly at over-18s, and is firmly established in Lancashire, in the north of England – traditionally one of the hotbeds of wrestling.
Preston City Wrestling: blood, sweat and beers
PCW’s promoter Steven Fludder began running the company after seeing some less than good shows (“some dreadful tribute shows”, he complains) in the UK, and deciding that he could do better. And how did he begin to book his shows? By drawing on the contacts he’d made as a fan. Well, they weren’t strictly “contacts”.