Aaron Undercover

Aaron Undercover: Why British Wrestling Is Forgotten

I have just finished watching England’s 1-1 draw with Sweden when it suddenly hit me about how in every sport the top players are what are needed to make a successful team. This goes not just with football but also with tennis, golf, motor sports and wrestling. Why does wrestling come in to this matter is what you’re all asking? Well read on and you will find out.

Welcome to another edition of Aaron Undercover.

Every wrestling promotion in the world as its own top stars on the roster, this goes for NJPW & AJPW in Japan, AAA & EMLL in Mexico, WWE & well that’s about it in America, and in Britain you have?

Well that’s the point here who do you have? British wrestling has its fair share of top wrestlers, but who are these wrestlers and is there a top promotion for them to wrestle in?

Lets take a look back at Japan and its main promotions are All Japan Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, followed by promotions such as NOAH, MPW, BJPW to name a few. In the States you have WWE, which is not just Americas most dominant promotion but also the worlds most dominant wrestling promotion. But even in America you have a lot of other promotions good promotions that are creating names for them-selves including CZW, XPW, ROH, HWA, OVW to name just a few. The bottom line here is that America, Japan & Mexico, Canada to name just a few countries have promotions that are known to most wrestling fans. What about Britain? Does Britain have any promotions that are known to fans outside this country? More importantly do we have wrestlers known outside of Britain?

Well let’s start with the latter question with do we have wrestlers that are known outside of Britain? The answer is yes we do, but sadly they aren’t household names, and sadly there is very little interest in these wrestlers. But the wrestlers that have or are going to make names for themselves in other countries are Doug Williams, Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm, and Gary Steele. Maybe there are a few more, but at the end of the day Britain as no more than a handful of stars that will wrestle in known promotions around the world. What about promotions, does Britain have a promotion known to other fans around the world? Well after the emails I receive from fans around the world I would have to say no we do not.

British wrestling has over 20 plus promotions and just recently a few of these promotions have agreed to work with each other, but really do you think these groups working together will make any difference to British wrestling? In my opinion I would have to say NO. I have to say no because 70% of wrestling fans in this country would rather not go to a British wrestling shows, some that have been will more than likely not go again, and the following 30% go to just a few shows a year. And the only reason some of the fans who are not interested in British wrestling go to the shows for, and that’s because someone like Jake Roberts or Jim Neidhart is on a show.

I have said this many times over and this is that British wrestling needs to take a step back rather than 2 steps forward and try to catch up with the WWE. I was speaking to jack Halewood who informed me he had asked a few questions to FWA Promoter Mark Sloan. Jack asked Mark why he doesn’t teach technical wrestling, and why he doesn’t teach his wrestlers real wrestling, and mark Sloan’s answer was the way to go is Sports Entertainment with spot fests after spot fests. Now back in the glory days of British wrestling a wrestler would go out and wrestle, and he would wrestle a technical match and finish his opponent off with a move that would mean something. Today’s wrestlers are trained spot fest after spot fest and will hit 3 or more moonsault’s before finishing his opponent off with another moonsault. Now if you watch the old school wrestlers, these are the likes of Robbie Brookside, Drew McDonald, Alan Kilby, and Steve Grey to name a few and these guys will wrestle a match with meaning and substance. Has it is these guys that know how to wrestle has they were trained by professional wrestlers, you don’t think William Regal made it to the WWE by doing moonsault’s and other high risk moves do you? He was brought to the WWE because he has a wrestling style and a style that means something. Same thing goes for Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith. Then you had the likes of Adrian Street and Marc Rocco, who didn’t make it to the big time promotions, but they did have a long and successful career In the States and Japan.

Today’s British wrestlers can only dream of wrestling in the states & Japan, some have wrestled their already and a few more will do that trip shortly. But many more will never get the opportunity to wrestle internationally, and those that do can consider themselves very lucky.

Britain does have some great wrestlers, yet some of these wrestlers aren’t even known to many British wrestling fans. Britain also has some very good promotions that aren’t involved with the southern Promotions and their link-up. It seems to me that the promotions joining together to have a new Universal Champion only seem to think they are the major players, and to be honest without naming any promotion by name, it seems that even some of these promotions only think they are really that good of a promotion.

Why then does all this link to other sports? Well it links to other sports because for instance to have the best football club you have to have the best players, to have the best basket ball team you have to have the best players, yet in Britain when it comes to wrestling you can have the best but at the end of the day it means nothing to the fans. What the fans appreciate the most is that you offer them a good night of wrestling action, and I believe if you offered more substance, and more wrestling instead of the sports entertainment you can also offer the fans a good night of wrestling action.

Some may agree and some may not, but the people I talk to agree with me that wrestling in this country needs to go back to its predecessor and put the W back in wrestling. British wrestling needs its own unique of wrestling, British wrestling needs to go back to the days of Giant haystacks, Big daddy, Marc Rocco, Johnny Saint, Steve Logan, Adrian Street, Alan Kilby, Dynamite Kid, Kendo Nagasaki, Bert Royal, Billy Two Rivers and many more and produce its own brand of wrestlers and not wrestlers that are going out there to copy there idols. British wrestling needs its own gimmick, it needs its own style, and sadly that where wrestling today fails to wrestling of latter years.

Next week I will be back with a look on the best promoters in this country, and why they are successful.