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ITV, a major broadcast network in Great Britain, will present their World of Sport Wrestling special today at 5 PM GMT (11 AM EST), a two hour broadcast featuring commentary from Jim Ross and Alex Shane.

 

World of Sport was a sports anthology series that ran for 20 years on ITV and regularly featured pro wrestling personalities and matches from Europe. When the decision was made in 1985 to cancel the series, it crippled homegrown pro wrestling in that region for many years, setting the stage for the then-WWF's already growing popularity in the region to flourish just a few years later.

 

The interesting back story here is that WWE has, over the last several years, opened communications with ITV with the idea of purchasing the pro wrestling-related material from old ITV World of Sport library for their own use, without success. In 2013, John Chapman licensed and filmed a World of Sport TV pilot that ITV opted not to pick up. The online attention to that pilot led to WWE reaching out to ITV in 2014 to open communications about purchasing the library. The acquisition never went down, but those two events may have started the process of ITV opting to launch their own pilot taping earlier this year.

 

Scheduled for the special:

 

*Grado vs. Dave Mastiff for the World of Sports Wrestling championship.

 

*Battle Royal to crown top contender for the WOSW championship.

 

*Ladder Match: Match 1: Danny Hope vs. Kenny Williams vs. Sam Bailey vs. CJ Banks.

 

*Mark and Joe Coffey vs. Rampage and Ashton Smith

 

*Viper Kimbery Benson vs. Alexis Rose

 

*El Ligero vs. Zack Gibson.

 

*Special appearances and interviews with Mark "Rollerball" Rocco, Klondyke Kate and other former stars of the British wrestling scene.

 

The two hour special, taped in November, is designed as a pilot for a potential World of Sport series revival. The special and the potential series revival has led to a lot of mainstream media attention in Great Britain:

 

Digital Spy: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjf9oWN8p3RAhXGYyYKHfR2DJQQqQIIHDAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalspy.com%2Ftv%2Fnews%2Fa817925%2Fworld-of-sport-wrestling-jim-ross-tease%2F&usg=AFQjCNGD2fNJ1xbC_lymWa67GR6Au4PpTQ&sig2=GSP5e-grbnA1TDOE-emdpw&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE

 

Liverpool Echo: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjf9oWN8p3RAhXGYyYKHfR2DJQQqQIIIDAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liverpoolecho.co.uk%2Fnews%2Ftv%2Fworld-sport-wrestling-returns-itv-12383892&usg=AFQjCNFKjmc5jZiFd5LAAdUpk9oEzvOzHg&sig2=92t-XkgPIrL4Hy9E-DkLpA&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE

 

Mirror.co.uk: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjivYvI8p3RAhVE7yYKHYF1CYcQqQIIMigAMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-news%2Fworld-sport-wrestling-legend-klondyke-9513044&usg=AFQjCNEKoI8crgmP-cxrt8Ik2Re4Wh0wfg&sig2=7Qz_r80IlLob8Ngw6dtmXw

 

Daily Mail: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjivYvI8p3RAhVE7yYKHYF1CYcQqQIIOCgAMAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fvideo%2Ffemail%2Fvideo-1383537%2FWorld-Sport-Wrestling-makes-comeback-New-Year-s-Eve-ITV.html&usg=AFQjCNGrUCzBmC5L7mjztXE0fbFZ-HrdOQ&sig2=1S4IQRUHv695Db_gdEc4rw

http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=106820

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Enjoying it so far, great hearing JR calling matches again. I think there's a lot of promise in this as a series.

JR's been calling matches for NJPW for about a year now on AXS TV. But yeah, good to see him get more opportunities.

 

It's a shame I recognize maybe four names on this, but I hope they do well.

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Enjoying it so far, great hearing JR calling matches again. I think there's a lot of promise in this as a series.

JR's been calling matches for NJPW for about a year now on AXS TV. But yeah, good to see him get more opportunities.

 

It's a shame I recognize maybe four names on this, but I hope they do well.

 

 

Yeah, I think it's fairly obvious that WWE have snapped up the A-List names of British wrestling, but this could carve out a niche as a developmental promotion of sorts.

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Enjoying it so far, great hearing JR calling matches again. I think there's a lot of promise in this as a series.

JR's been calling matches for NJPW for about a year now on AXS TV. But yeah, good to see him get more opportunities.

 

It's a shame I recognize maybe four names on this, but I hope they do well.

 

 

Yeah, I think it's fairly obvious that WWE have snapped up the A-List names of British wrestling, but this could carve out a niche as a developmental promotion of sorts.

 

 

For that UK special? Not at all, maybe British Strong Style but aside from them they got no big names for that tournament.

 

El Ligero, Zach Gibson, Both Coffeys, Rampage Brown, Grado and Dave Mastiff are all much bigger names on the UK wrestling scene

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5PM was a bad time lol, I was still at the football and so were hunderds of thousands of others

 

I think it will be on ITV Player.

 

That was so cool when

Davy Boy Jr showed up

 

 

I ought to look more into the UK wrestling, might check out the next local show.

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It was pleasing to have wrestling back on terrestrial television in the UK, and it would be nice if this was to lead to a full-blown revival of World of Sport Wrestling, but apparently the show only drew half of the ratings that ITV were hoping for, so at the moment it appears to be unlikely that there will be a series to follow on from last night's show.

 

5PM was a bad time lol, I was still at the football and so were hundreds of thousands of others

Including myself. Liverpool vs. Manchester City being on at the same time would not have helped matters, either.

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but apparently the show only drew half of the ratings that ITV were hoping for,

 

Shit time slot with the footie, should've done it at 8-10, so it was after the matches and before MOTD

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I think the reason for putting it in the 5-7 slot is that the show was meant to be something for all of the family, as was the case 30 years ago, rather than something that would be more fitting for a post-watershed time slot, where adults would be the main audience.

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Grado's one of the worst wrestlers I've ever had the displeasure to watch.


5PM was a bad time lol, I was still at the football and so were hunderds of thousands of others

 

You could say that about any TV show.

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I think the reason for putting it in the 5-7 slot is that the show was meant to be something for all of the family, as was the case 30 years ago, rather than something that would be more fitting for a post-watershed time slot, where adults would be the main audience.

 

In it's heyday it was on at around 1:00 - 3:00, football wasn't viewable in the UK at 3:00 (still isn't) due to broadcast laws (designed to protect highlights) and there were only 2-3 other channels. So really you had a much more captive audience.

 

The thing is, nowadays there's so much more alternate entertainment, especially on a Saturday afternoon. Viewing figures can't really be anticipated any more.

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No, that was pretty much the sole reason. It also gave them the opportunity to air a few videos during the show featuring a number of the wrestlers from the World of Sport's original run - some of whom were also in the audience - in which they discussed the past.

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I got half way through and fell asleep, I'll watch the other half tomorrow.

 

The way they talked during the Grado-Mastiff match was like they're going to try and create the Big Daddy - Giant Haystacks rivalry back then.

 

It's quite enjoyable so far. I got as far as the women's match.

 

This was just a pilot, I hope they run with it. Pretty sick of the crap reality TV shite they put on.

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I haven't finished the show but I couldn't get past hearing the name "Delicious Danny" for what felt like every 5 seconds in the match. I swear JR kept repeating it because he couldn't believe it himself.

 

He said it the same way he used to say "Grandmaster Sexay" when Bryan Christopher started using the gimmick. A mixture of disbelief and disdain.

 

As for World Of Sport, if I recall correctly the original was a multisport magazine show, like Grandstand is on BBC - the wrestling was merely the highlight and the best remembered part of it. Used to watch it on Saturday afternoons at my Grandparents, World Of Sport till about 5:00 and then Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazard, A-Team or Airwolf to follow.

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Then on top of that he comes out looking like a poor mans Macho Man, everything about it just annoyed me.

 

The show made me miss JR greatly and I'm still waiting for the day he's a guest at PWG where he and Excalibur commentate a match together.

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