**UPDATE***
It appears that the “World of Sport” tapings have been temporarily postponed, according to The Wrestling Observer. The tapings were originally going to take place May 25-26th. They have not been re-scheduled but PWI and WON are reporting that they could be moved to the fall.
Our take:
This is a bad sign. “Postponement” in the wrestling world almost always mean that an event will never take place. It doesn’t help that WoS is associated with TNA and Jeff Jarrett, both of which have a history of delaying and canceling events due to lack of funds. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon enough and we will see some good wrestling competition to WWE on our TVs soon enough.
“World of Sport” was a British show that ran in the 70s and 80s that featured a more “catch-style” wrestling foreign to most American audiences.
WWE legend William Regal got his start there, and stars such as Johnny Saint and Billy Robinson were hugely influential on Daniel Bryan, Colt Cabana, and other stars of the indies and WWE.
With the UK wrestling scene experiencing a renaissance, it only makes since that the original television show of classic British wrestling would come back.
The program has already taped a few episodes and crowned a champion; the initial pilot was successful enough to mean that the whole series will be getting a big run.
More via iTV:
After an absence of more than 30 years, the iconic World Of Sport Wrestling is set to return to ITV with Preston confirmed as the venue.
Three decades after legendary stars such as Big Daddy, Mick McManus, and Rollerball Rocco left British screens; the new series will feature the best of today’s wrestlers from the current UK wrestling scene.
They will compete in front of a live audience at Preston Guild Hall on Thursday, May 25th and Friday, May 26th (doors 7 pm / bell time 7.30pm).
The series will run for ten episodes and will be co-produced by Impact Wrestling.
This is great news for the British wrestling scene and wrestling as a whole.
More competition in the wrestling world is a good thing. Wrestling was at its best and most creative when WWE was battling in the ratings against WCW. We need that sort of “Monday Night War” once again. I don’t know if World of Sport will become the next WCW, but its creation already pushed WWE into producing a new wrestling competition featuring British wrestlers and aimed directly at British wrestling fans.
We look forward to watching World of Sport and seeing how the industry reacts to it.
Will you watch World of Sport? Share your thoughts.