{"id":19098,"date":"2018-05-19T16:41:49","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T20:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=19098"},"modified":"2021-01-08T17:42:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T22:42:14","slug":"a-brief-history-of-uk-wrestling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/05\/19\/a-brief-history-of-uk-wrestling\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of UK Wrestling"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s no denying that in the past few years, the United Kingdom’s wrestling scene has emerged from being just a phenomenon on the British Isles and has transcended international stardom. Such UK stars as Zack Sabre Jr.<\/strong>, Will Ospreay<\/strong>, “The Villain” Marty Scurll<\/strong>, and the WWE UK Champion “Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne<\/strong> are fast becoming well known names to wrestling fans around the world. Promotions like England’s PROGRESS<\/strong> and Revolution Pro UK (RevPro)<\/strong>, Scotland’s Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW)<\/strong> and Ireland’s Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling<\/strong> (not UK, but in the British Isles) have seen record numbers for live attendance and international views on their respective online streaming services. After being somewhat dormant (or at least unnoticed by those beyond the English Channel) for decades, the UK wrestling scene has returned fast and furious, and are producing some of the world’s most exciting talents.<\/p>\n

(DISCLAIMER: The following historical overview is not fully comprehensive and due to space, cannot list every wrestler or promotion that has helped UK wrestling along the way from the early 1900s until 2018. We have striven to tell the best story possible, but there are hundreds if not thousands of more stories that can be told to enhance this. We encourage any readers who have interest in this to search out some of these promotions and further historical accounts to fully embrace the entire history of the United Kingdom & Ireland wrestling histories).<\/em><\/p>\n

A Brief History of UK Wrestling: The Origins<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Tom Cannon, one of Britain’s earliest stars (Photo: Professional Wrestling Historical Society)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pro wrestling took its time getting to the United Kingdom (at least in comparison to the 1800’s carnival days in the United States), but it’s rise began when an American named Jack Carkeek<\/strong> headed over to England to wrestle in his parent’s homeland at the turn of the 20th century. Carkeek travelled England with a shoot wrestling challenge to take on anyone brave enough last 10 minutes in the ring with him and after beating all-comers, he was finally answered by a Russian grappler who happened to be looking to make his name for himself in wrestling in Europe – “The Russian Lion” George Hackenschmidt<\/strong>. When Carkeek discovered who his challenger was, he quickly changed the provision to “Englishmen only”, but promoter Charles B. Cochran<\/strong> saw money in promoting the Russian phenom. In 1902, England’s top wrestler, Tom Cannon<\/strong>, was defeated by Hackenschmidt in Liverpool, winning the European Greco-Roman Championship (he would unify it with the American Heavyweight Championship in 1905 by defeating Tom Jenkins<\/strong>, becoming the first true World Heavyweight Champion). Wrestling was now becoming a viable attraction to the many classes of Britain, but it still relied heavily on foreign stars like Stanislaus Zbyszko<\/strong>, The Terrible Turk<\/strong> and Hackenschmidt himself. The love affair with these foreigns stars began to wane, and by the mid 1910’s, amateur wrestling had overtaken the pro ranks as the preferred form of entertainment.<\/p>\n

As professional wrestling in the United States began to adapt and change it’s presentation in the 1920’s (thanks to the work of three promoters, World Heavyweight Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis<\/strong>, Billy Sandow<\/strong> and Toots Mondt<\/strong>, also known as The Gold Dust Trio<\/strong>), word of this new style, which including incorporating multiple styles of wrestling, reached the British Islands and inspired British grapplers and promoters to follow suit. The most influential one of the bunch was Atholl Oakeley<\/strong><\/a>, an amateur grappler who, along with fellow wrestler Henry Irslinger<\/strong>, created Britain’s first major wrestling promotion, the British Wrestling Association (BWA)<\/strong> in late 1930. Their use of multiple forms of wrestling styles, from Greco-Roman to catch, resulted in what they referred to as “All In” Wrestling. That same year, Oakeley became the very first ever British Heavyweight Champion. In the early stages of the BWA, business was booming – some cards drew in 14,000 people in London. But once again, interest waned and the UK scene attempted new ideas, including some of the earliest recorded uses of weapons (such as chairs), plus adding women’s matches. Sadly they failed, and by the Second World War, wrestling had faded back to pub entertainment.<\/p>\n

A Brief History of UK Wrestling: The Second Wave<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Much like the BWA took some inspiration from the Gold Dust Trio in the 1930s, the UK scene again drew inspiration from their American cousins following the Second World War. With the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)<\/strong> in 1948, promoters saw a unified alliance of regions – or territories – unite under one banner and saw pro wrestling in the US begin to flourish, especially with the advent of television. Wrestling matches became prime content for these new channels and wrestlers were becoming household names in the US because of it. In 1952, UK promoters\u00a0Billy Dale, Jack Dale, Johnny Dale<\/strong>, and Les Martin<\/strong> banded together to form Joint Promotions<\/strong>, that also took in promoters\u00a0Norman Morell<\/strong> and Ted Beresford<\/strong> from the Yorkshire area, Billy Best<\/strong> in Liverpool, Arthur Wright<\/strong> in Manchester and George de Relywyskow<\/strong> in Scotland. Together they ruled the British wrestling scene. With the introduction of television into the UK, by 1955 Joint Promotions had a show on ATV and it proved to be a financial success for the wrestling alliance. In 1964, Joint’s wrestling became part of the wrestling segments for ITV’s World of Sports<\/strong><\/em> show (ATV and ABC became ITV) and over the next decade, became the arguably the most watched segments of the show.<\/p>\n