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World of Sport resurrected on ITV


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Is this April 1st? Strangest news in a long time. I wonder which UK feds are involved? And which talent are they going to use? It could be really fun. Wonder if it will air on ITV itself? Seems something they would throw on ITV4.

 

This country has easily enough people and enough interest to sustain a weekly television show - just look how well TNA draws over here, both in ratings and attendance. If somebody got their act together and resources were pooled, it could be pretty lucrative.

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It's an LDN show run by Sanjay Bagga who does more shows than anyone not called Brian Dixon around the UK. He's made a few enemies along the way but I like him personally as he's always worked his cock off as a promoter. Puts on a family friendly show, runs pretty much all over the UK now, although Wales is mainly ran by the company I work occasionally for and Bagga just does the odd show there, but they've a good relationship Afaik.

 

So yeah, the reaction amongst most of the Britwres scene has been one of anger as they'd probably rather Alex bastard Shane ran it and they'd get on the cards.

 

In Britwres people would rather everyone has nothing than someone has something. Personally I hope he does well.

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The only thing stopping me from getting too excited about this is that it's ITV so, wrestling aside, it'll almost certainly be a terrible production, probably presented by Davina McCall.

Celebrity Wrestling Part II?

 

You'd think if ITV are going to give this any kind of a decent spot they will need a big name or two. I have full confidence that it will be a complete and at times hilarious failure, but hopefully they prove me wrong.

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Just had a little look Butch -- seems a bit thin for a TV show. I suspect he'll have to do some talent raiding.

 

Also, if this has any sort of success at all, it could become a destination promotion for American wrestlers too. What would it even need to do to become better than TNA overnight? Simply "not fuck up", assuming ITV don't stick it in a graveyard slot.

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He probably will need to get some more talent, but if that's the case personally I'd be looking for people with plenty of experience of working Mountevans rules. People from Premier and the like. I don't think it needs too big a roster at this juncture really. Skeleton for the first taping to iron out any kinks.

 

Lister and Rob Brazier are probably going to be the ones to ask here.

 

Here's the LDN Wrestling press release.

 

LDN Wrestling becomes part of all-new “World of Sport Wrestling”.

 

LDN Wrestling has been contracted by WOS Wrestling Ltd for ITV’s all-new “World of Sport Wrestling” at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls on Sunday, 17 November 2013 in London, UK.

 


The comeback event at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls—which is being taped for ITV—will feature current LDN wrestlers, but promises to be in the spirit of traditional World of Sport Wrestling, utilising the Mountevans rules. A number of the original World of Sport Wrestling legends will also be making a special appearance, including the masked man of mystery Kendo Nagasaki, and the man many considered to be the world’s greatest technical wrestler: Johnny Saint.

 

“LDN Wrestling has been providing live British wrestling events for ten years; this year we are promoting over 150 live events throughout Great Britain,” said LDN Wrestling Managing Director Sanjay Bagga. “WOS Wrestling Ltd have chosen our services because of our history of promoting family friendly live wrestling events, in the spirit of traditional World of Sport Wrestling.”

 

Fairfield Halls have been showcasing British wrestling events since the venue opened in 1962; the venue regularly appeared on television as part of ITV’s World of Sport Wrestling throughout the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Great Britain’s most famous wrestling legends have wrestled at the venue, including Mick McManus, Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, and Mark “Rollerball” Rocco. 

Tickets for this family-friendly event are priced at £12 adults, £10 concessions, and £40 for a family of four. Tickets may be purchased via the Fairfield Halls website www.fairfield.co.uk, or alternatively telephone the Fairfield Halls box office on 020 8688 9291 (booking fee may apply). Tickets will also be available on the door, subject to availability. Doors open 2pm, and the event commences 3pm.


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If I was ITV I'd be looking to develop my own sports channel. They already have good coverage with cycling, motorsport, and a reasonable amount of football (one Champions League game per round, some Europa League and highlights to various things such as the Bundesliga). They must also have a ton of archive footage they can recycle. The new World of Sport would fit nicely into that environment.

 

I really don't see the point of a one off show. It isn't as if all the old stars will be there, and people will be watching to get nostalgic and weepy eyed. The roster is completely new and completely unknown to almost the entire viewership. Nobody is going to care about a one night show with random wrestlers, it needs to be a run of shows to get anyone invested.

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I think the disaster that was ITV Digital still probably looms large among ITV top brass and it's easy to imagine them being very risk averse when it comes to launching new channels.

 

That said ITV Sport runs as a semi-autonomous production company, so it's not such a giant leap. Also they've utilised ITV 4 especially for overspill and that would be a natural home for any WoS B-show and also to re-run original WoS.

 

By the looks of things, this one-off show will serve as a pilot. It's hard to see how that is going to be successful.

 

The weirdest thing about all this for me is the timing. Why now? I don't get the impression there's any groundswell of nostalgia for the old product. The boat for THAT sailed a long time ago: the core market would be mainly men in their 40s.

 

We're now sort of past the point of peak 80s nostalgia and 80s kids nostalgia (I'd point to about 2005-6), so god knows when peak 70s nostalgia was. People are starting to look back to the 90s fondly. I reckon there are probably two waves of nostalgia for a given period -- when people hit their early 20s and look back on their childhoods and then again when an older set of people hit their 30s and look back on their teenage years. I'd posit that from the general nostalgia for a given thing, you then get a core of people who develop it into a hardcore interest, in much the way many of us on this board have done with wrestling.

 

I think WoS is at the stage in its life cycle where you're mainly left with just those hardcores.

 

So that's what I'm not getting here: who is this aimed at?

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We're definitely into 90s nostalgia Parv. I'll give you a similar example that I know you'll appreciate. The retrogaming world has shifted to the 16-bit era now. Where the 90s were nostalgic for Atari, and last decade was pretty heavy towards the NES - the shift here is the disposable income of now-adults who were at an impressionable age from 91-95.

 

I think your 05-06 peak is pretty spot-on.

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WOS reruns on the Wrestling Channel and then on Men & Movies both did great ratings by the standards/status of the channel. On Men & Movies in particular, they found they could show several hours in an afternoon without the audience dropping. I don't know if they get demographic breakdowns in UK ratings (or how useful they'd be for such small-scales channels), but the theory was that it was retired people who are happy to sit in front of the TV all day and reminisce.

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