You might remember that some time ago, I did a post entitled "A beginners guide to all 32 NFL Teams" (read that here: http://anotherquestionofsport.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/something-little-different.html) in which I gave a brief overview of each of the teams that compete at the very highest level of American Football, in the hope of inspiring people to get into the sport. Well almost a year on and I feel compelled to do it again, however this time I will be trying to convince you to start keeping tabs on a different form of entertainment; Professional Wrestling, and to tune in to the hottest new British promotion: What Culture Pro Wrestling (or WCPW for short).
N.B. I'll try to keep the article relatively spoiler free, but there may still be SPOILERS ahead.
What is WCPW?
The first question you may have, assuming you've decided to let me try and convince you and not clicked off the page and got on with your life, is simply; "What is WCPW?". Well, WCPW is a British Wrestling promotion based in Newcastle, England, that was started in early 2016 by prominent Internet news website, WhatCulture (see: www.whatculture.com). The formation of WCPW followed the success of the WhatCulture website and YouTube channels, most notably their wrestling channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq8jp0E99ELBvmBxjJ-JLgA) which, as of the time of writing this article, has nearly 900,000 subscribers. The channel is best known for its "Top 10" lists, but also showcases a number of shows run by different personalities that have become popular over time with the hardcore fans. These shows include Adam Blampied's "How WWE should have booked/should book", Simon Miller's "Why...", Jack the Jobber's "Fast Count", King Ross' "WTF Moments" and of course " Adam (Blampied) vs Adam (Pacitti)". These shows helped develop characters with distinct personalities on the show, along with an established fan-base that gave the promotion an early boost. The personalities themselves have appeared on the show; Adam Pacitti is the general manager, Adam Blampied, Jack the Jobber and Suzie Kennedy were all managers in the early days, whilst Simon Miler and King Ross were the commentators for the first few episodes (before being replaced by AAA commentators Dave Bradshaw and Alex Shane) and Kenny McIntosh and Ben Potter act as interviewers backstage. However, over time the personalities have began to take more of a backseat, especially Ross who doesn't appear on-air at all anymore. There has been a lot of criticism levelled at WCPW for the involvement of the YouTube characters, however, they provided a key early boost and attracted attention for long enough to establish the roster, meaning they can now begin to appear less and less, which is not to say that some, especially both Adams, have not been very entertaining themselves in their respective roles.
The promotion airs weekly on YouTube in the form of an episodic show called Loaded, alongside special events such as 'Built To Destroy' and 'Stacked' coming around roughly once every month or so, which are also free on YouTube. Recently, the show aired it's first ever IPPV (Internet Pay Per View) on Thursday October 6th, titled Refuse to Lose which was $14.99 on the Fite TV app, or $6.99 on the newly launched WhatCulture Extra, which is a recently founded paid service that gives subscribers extra WhatCulture content (including live and on-demand WCPW IPPV's and episodes of Loaded 24 hours before they are available for free on YouTube) for just $6.99 a month.
Now that you have a basic outline of the product, I am going to present to you my top five reasons that you should watch WCPW.
1. British Brilliance
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| Brand...The WCPW Logo |
N.B. I'll try to keep the article relatively spoiler free, but there may still be SPOILERS ahead.
What is WCPW?
The first question you may have, assuming you've decided to let me try and convince you and not clicked off the page and got on with your life, is simply; "What is WCPW?". Well, WCPW is a British Wrestling promotion based in Newcastle, England, that was started in early 2016 by prominent Internet news website, WhatCulture (see: www.whatculture.com). The formation of WCPW followed the success of the WhatCulture website and YouTube channels, most notably their wrestling channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq8jp0E99ELBvmBxjJ-JLgA) which, as of the time of writing this article, has nearly 900,000 subscribers. The channel is best known for its "Top 10" lists, but also showcases a number of shows run by different personalities that have become popular over time with the hardcore fans. These shows include Adam Blampied's "How WWE should have booked/should book", Simon Miller's "Why...", Jack the Jobber's "Fast Count", King Ross' "WTF Moments" and of course " Adam (Blampied) vs Adam (Pacitti)". These shows helped develop characters with distinct personalities on the show, along with an established fan-base that gave the promotion an early boost. The personalities themselves have appeared on the show; Adam Pacitti is the general manager, Adam Blampied, Jack the Jobber and Suzie Kennedy were all managers in the early days, whilst Simon Miler and King Ross were the commentators for the first few episodes (before being replaced by AAA commentators Dave Bradshaw and Alex Shane) and Kenny McIntosh and Ben Potter act as interviewers backstage. However, over time the personalities have began to take more of a backseat, especially Ross who doesn't appear on-air at all anymore. There has been a lot of criticism levelled at WCPW for the involvement of the YouTube characters, however, they provided a key early boost and attracted attention for long enough to establish the roster, meaning they can now begin to appear less and less, which is not to say that some, especially both Adams, have not been very entertaining themselves in their respective roles.
The promotion airs weekly on YouTube in the form of an episodic show called Loaded, alongside special events such as 'Built To Destroy' and 'Stacked' coming around roughly once every month or so, which are also free on YouTube. Recently, the show aired it's first ever IPPV (Internet Pay Per View) on Thursday October 6th, titled Refuse to Lose which was $14.99 on the Fite TV app, or $6.99 on the newly launched WhatCulture Extra, which is a recently founded paid service that gives subscribers extra WhatCulture content (including live and on-demand WCPW IPPV's and episodes of Loaded 24 hours before they are available for free on YouTube) for just $6.99 a month.
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| Loaded... WCPW's free weekly show |
1. British Brilliance
The British wrestling scene is the hottest it's been since the World of Sport days of the 1970's, where stars like Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks graced British television sets every Saturday afternoon. The rise of promotions such as Progress, ICW and many others has given rise to a new generation of British wrestling talent. The United Kingdom has arguably the best independent wrestling scene in the world right now and WCPW has come along and tapped into that hotbed of talent at just the right time. Simply put, there has never been a better time to watch British wrestling, and WCPW's sudden emergence and rise shows that the company is set to be at the forefront of this scene for a long time to come.
2. Growing by the minute
As stated above, WCPW has had quite the rise since it was formed in May 2016. The first tapings for WCPW Loaded and Built to Destroy were done in June 2016 in Warehouse 34 in Newcastle in front of a crowd that was under 200 people. Last weekend, on Saturday 8th October (that's just four months later) WCPW: True Legacy was taped in front of 2,600 fans at the Silver Blades arena in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.That crowd was twice as big as the crowd at TNA's "Bound for Glory" PPV and is one of the biggest crowds for Professional Wrestling in the UK by a British promotion in the past decade. This is an insane growth for a company that's still in its infancy, and with shows in Nottingham and London still to come, it is only going to continue. Many of the wrestlers themselves have spoken about the special feel of the company, and I'd strongly advise you to get on board and watching, as the company continues to get bigger and better.
3. Overseas stars
To see evidence of how quickly WCPW has grown, look no further than the list of guest talent that WCPW has had at their shows. For the first set of tapings they had then-Ring of Honour World Champion, Jay Lethal who even defended his title at Built to Destroy against Noam Dar. At the second stint of shows there were appearances by former WWE star Aaron Stevens, NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 2016 winner Will Ospreay, former TNA wrestler Doug Williams and TNA's very own Grado. The third set of shows saw returns from Ospreay, Grado and Williams whilst we also got to see former American Footballer and now TNA powerhouse Moose, 2016 Battle of Los Angeles winner Marty Scurll, TNA superstar EC3 and former TNA world champion Drew Galloway with legendary former WCW GM Eric Bischoff also making an appearance. The next shows saw Drew Galloway return, whilst there was also debuts for former WWE women's wrestler Katarina Leigh and former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Alberto El Patron (Del Rio). Finally, the Refuse to Lose PPV (and subsequent tapings) saw Doug Williams once more return along with El Patron, with first appearances from WWE Hall of Famer Bret "the Hitman" Hart, Olympic Gold medallist Kurt Angle, new TNA and former WWE star Cody Rhodes, Japanese legend Minoru Suzuki, Suzuki's student El Desperado and Chikara's own former Grand Champion Kimber Lee, with the whole event being called by the legendary commentary team of Jim Ross and Jim Cornette.
The good thing about the appearances of these stars is that they have been able to build up the WCPW brand and provide key exposure in order to get eyes on the product, without burying any of the regular roster members. Furthermore, with red-hot current TNA Tag Team Champion "Broken" Matt Hardy already confirmed for the November 30th and December 1st shows, along with Ospreay and Rhodes promising to return whilst Doug Williams is now seemingly a regular roster member, I would continue to expect to see the hottest independent talent in Pro Wrestling to continue to appear in WCPW shows for a long time to come.
4. Reliable regulars
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| Capacity... 2,600 WCPW fans in Manchester |
As stated above, WCPW has had quite the rise since it was formed in May 2016. The first tapings for WCPW Loaded and Built to Destroy were done in June 2016 in Warehouse 34 in Newcastle in front of a crowd that was under 200 people. Last weekend, on Saturday 8th October (that's just four months later) WCPW: True Legacy was taped in front of 2,600 fans at the Silver Blades arena in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.That crowd was twice as big as the crowd at TNA's "Bound for Glory" PPV and is one of the biggest crowds for Professional Wrestling in the UK by a British promotion in the past decade. This is an insane growth for a company that's still in its infancy, and with shows in Nottingham and London still to come, it is only going to continue. Many of the wrestlers themselves have spoken about the special feel of the company, and I'd strongly advise you to get on board and watching, as the company continues to get bigger and better.
3. Overseas stars
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| Popular... Jay Lethal makes his entrance at Loaded |
The good thing about the appearances of these stars is that they have been able to build up the WCPW brand and provide key exposure in order to get eyes on the product, without burying any of the regular roster members. Furthermore, with red-hot current TNA Tag Team Champion "Broken" Matt Hardy already confirmed for the November 30th and December 1st shows, along with Ospreay and Rhodes promising to return whilst Doug Williams is now seemingly a regular roster member, I would continue to expect to see the hottest independent talent in Pro Wrestling to continue to appear in WCPW shows for a long time to come.
4. Reliable regulars
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| Flying... El Ligero is one of WCPW's finest regular talents |
As great as it is to see big stars like Kurt Angle, EC3 and Aaron Stevens appearing in the WCPW ring, no show is made by its guests, rather it is judged on the quality of its regular roster, and WCPW is just as strong in that regard. Currently, the show has a set of around 22 performers who wrestle for the company on a regular basis. Despite the loss of original members Noam Dar and Big Damo to WWE, the roster is still a very strong one that features the like of "Iron Man" Joe Coffey, "The Mexican Sensation" El Ligero, "Local Hero" Joe Hendry, Rampage, Joseph Conners, Nixon Newell, Bea Priestley and the insanely popular Martin Kirby, who has perhaps the greatest theme song in all of wrestling right now, perhaps second only to Bobby Roode's "Glorious". This regular set of wrestlers has been able to develop their characters since the formation of the company, and now they hold just as much appeal to some of the fans as the overseas talent does, and with the company continuing to grow, expect this regular roster to not only expand but also improve and develop.
5. Quality wrestling
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| Quality... Dar, Ospreay (Pictured) and Ligero put on a classic in July |
All of the points above are all well and good, but the crucial reason that we tune in to see a certain wrestling show or not is the quality of the wrestling itself. Now I'm not going to claim that WCPW is at the level of performance that shows like NXT are at, however, the wrestling that is showcased every week for free by WCPW is anything but poor. Most matches are, at the very least, very solid and botches are not as prominent as you might expect. In fact, WCPW has already produced matches that promotions the world over would be proud of. Jay Lethal's matches against El Ligero and Noam Dar were brilliant technical spectacles, Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll was a match that certainly met the very lofty expectations that those two have laid with their rivalry, and recent Refuse to Lose match between Joseph Conners and Martin Kirby told an excellent story in the ring. Finally, the Triple threat between El Ligero, Noam Dar and Will Ospreay is a match that you just have to watch (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydt8wFyQQps ) and should genuinely be considered as one of the very best matches in the whole of wrestling this year. Furthermore, it isn't just technical or aerial wrestling at WCPW, with the likes of Primate, Joe Coffey and Rampage putting on brilliant brawling style match-ups. All-in-all there is something for everyone at WCPW, and I strongly advise you to tune in and find the type of match that suits you.
So there are my five main arguments to tune into WCPW. I must also admit that there have been some early obstacles, mostly technical, but as a young promotion those were inevitable and will surely be ironed out as the promotion progresses. I hope I have been able to convince you to take a look at the new kid on the British wrestling block, because something very special is happening at WCPW, and this is the chance to get on the roller-coaster early, and experience the continued meteoric rise of a company that is destined for the top.
I you are indeed now interested then you can watch the newest episode of Loaded at 8pm tonight on the WhatCulture wrestling channel. For more information about WCPW visit wc.pw. You can watch past episodes on the WhatCulture wrestling channel (Episodes 1-4) and the WCPW YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAl6NLC0tnubiCMzYXawG3g (Episodes 5-11, and the special events). To sign up for WhatCulture Extra go to: https://whatculture.com/extra.
Hope you enjoyed the article, thanks for reading,
James
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