For tonight’s Fight Club in Glasgow, Scotland with Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW), ICW owner Mark Dallas had promised a surprise opponent for Mikey Whiplash, saying he called in a “BIG favor” from the WWE, who were in the UK on their Live Event tour.
https://twitter.com/InsaneChampWres/status/1061241985095344128
Killian Dain Returns to ICW on Sunday Night
Well, it was indeed a BIG favor and a BIG return, as the WWE Superstar turned out to be a former ICW World Heavyweight Champion in SaNitY’s Killian Dain. Dain previously competed for ICW (and throughout the UK and Irish indies) as Big Damo, before signing with the WWE in 2016.
Well the @WWE superstar at @InsaneChampWres is @KillianDain #BeastOfBelfast #BigDamo #ICWFightClub pic.twitter.com/MXY6PaS8H2
— Louch (@StephenLouch) November 11, 2018
As Big Damo, Killian Dain was arguably the best big man in the UK indie scene since his debut in the mid 2000s with Scottish Wrestling Alliance (SWA). By 2014, he was a regular with ICW, as well as other promotions like Ireland’s Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Ulster (PWU), and UK indies like PROGRESS, IPW, and RevPro. He was an early star with WhatCulture Pro Wrestling (WCPW, now Defiant Wrestling) and was the company’s first World Heavyweight Champion in 2016.
Killian Dain’s appearance for ICW continues a new attitude in the WWE of late, loaning out stars to other indies within their collective alliance, as seen with recent NXT and 205 Live stars appearing for EVOLVE this weekend, as well as Apollo Crews with Preston City Wrestling (PCW) earlier this year. ICW also announced that 205 Live (and NXT UK) star Noam Dar would also be returning to ICW in December at Fear & Loathing XI.
https://twitter.com/InsaneChampWres/status/1061778688260390914
Interestingly enough, current Smackdown Tag Team Champion Sheamus was interviewed by the Irish Mirror today and praised the state of Irish indie wrestling, in particular, OTT and it’s owner, former WWE Developmental talent Luther Ward. “Joe Cabray (Luther Ward) is doing a phenomenal job. He spent some time in FCW [WWE’s old Developmental territory], but obviously he’s an entrepreneur and he had a bigger vision,” Sheamus told the Mirror. “He wasn’t comfortable in America and he just loves wrestling and knew what it could be capable of in Ireland.” When asked if Sheamus would like to work a match with OTT, similar to Dain’s return to ICW tonight, he replied he’d “love to go, but it’s just a matter of actually getting home. I don’t get the chance to get home much, and when I do my mam is in Clare and my dad is in Dublin so it’s hard when you have a few days to travel all the way around the country.”
https://twitter.com/InsaneChampWres/status/1061771209136840705
