[androinv3]

Do you think this would or could ever work? Just brainstorming here.

Is the fanbase there?
Would the wrestlers and company be willing to live there year round?
Tour the European countries and cater to a live TV show in their primetime?
Why hasn't a major promotion ever tried to upstart in the UK? (forgive me if there is one I haven't heard of)

I have always thought that the UK and surrounding countries would completely embrace the crap out of a local promotion. I never understood why this hasn't ever been tossed about in TNA.

 

[Dub]

I highly doubt the talent would want to make that kind of commitment, plus you have to factor in cost, visas, sponsorship, etc.

 

[Mr.King]

Would never happen.

 

[sean 590]

There's a much bigger market in the USA and more TV revenue, they get big numbers for tours in Europe because it's a one-off big event, but if they were doing shows over here every week, the attendances would probably be similar to in America, plus almost all their talent is American and probably wouldn't want to move to Europe.

 

[Tna General]

tna would be out of business less than a year

 

[Chismo]

It could work, but it's not gonna happen.

 

[UltraPanda Black]

Doesn't UK have enough home grown talent to produce a wrestling promotion of their own? It wouldn't be hard to bring in a couple "Talent Enhancers" as well.

 

[sean 590]

Doesn't UK have enough home grown talent to produce a wrestling promotion of their own? It wouldn't be hard to bring in a couple "Talent Enhancers" as well.

Yeah TNA in the UK would never work, it is strange though that the UK/Ireland has never had a mainstream wrestling company, there's certainly enough talented guys and the sport is at least popular enough to have a company the size of TNA, if not bigger.

 

[MrBelfield]

There was/is a promotion called 1PW that started a couple of years back in Doncaster. Was an indie promotion running shows every month or two, and had guys like AJ, Raven, Abyss, Joe etc. coming over. But it did really badly financially and stopped altogether after like 2 years. Its restarted but only with local talent who have no where near the star power.

 

[acracker]

We've been over this before

the euro tours worked because tna only come round once a year and we brits have been left out in the cold since summslam 92

 

[PushShelton]

TNA and WWE only care about Canada and USA.

 

[Loopee]

I don't believe it'd work. It only works so well because we only get it once a year. Give us any more and interest will die down.

 

[S23]

We've been over this before

the euro tours worked because tna only come round once a year and we brits have been left out in the cold since summslam 92

Insurrextion and Rebellion?

 

[Red Dead]

This one is in the bag with the list of other dumb threads which include "what would you do if you hypnotized eric Bischoff?" and "why Is Samoa Joe really fat?" amongst others.

 

[acracker]

Insurrextion and Rebellion?

dont make me laugh, glorified house shows they were, irrelevant and unentertaining

 

[Bobby Brainbuster]

Yeah TNA in the UK would never work, it is strange though that the UK/Ireland has never had a mainstream wrestling company, there's certainly enough talented guys and the sport is at least popular enough to have a company the size of TNA, if not bigger.

England has a rich history of wrestling (All-Star promotions springs to mind). Legends like Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki, Rollerball Rocco, Giant Haystacks, Les Kellet, The Royal Brothers, Adrian Street, Catweasle, 'Cyanide' Sid Cooper, Jackie Pallo and Mick McManus all competed in the UK and were given exposure every Saturday afternoon on TV on 'World of Sport'.

The WWE's Finlay had been wrestling for years under the name Dave 'Fit' Finlay in the UK before moving to the US to WCW. He had a moustache back then and went around with a female manager who looked like a Native American Indian.

UK wrestling was a bit different to the US style. The UK, boxing like, went over a series of rounds rather than a fight to the finish.

'World of Sport' ended about 1988 when it couldn't compete with the flamboyance and exposure of WWF (to show how low it sunk to compete, I recently saw a Kendo Nagasaki vs Clive Myers disco ladder match on Youtube *shudder*).

I remember watching the last ever World of Sport and it showed flashbacks of wrestling matches from years gone by - it featured quite a funny match between Johnny Kwango and 'Beautiful' Bobby Barnes.

 

[Bobby Brainbuster]

There was/is a promotion called 1PW that started a couple of years back in Doncaster. Was an indie promotion running shows every month or two, and had guys like AJ, Raven, Abyss, Joe etc. coming over. But it did really badly financially and stopped altogether after like 2 years. Its restarted but only with local talent who have no where near the star power.

That's right, I had a couple of 1PW DVDs before I got rid of them. The promotion was typically UK styled, built around humour rather than vendettas and did have some great ideas (one guy who comes to mind was called 'Mad Man' Manson. He walked to the ring with one boot on and the other boot drawn on his foot, lol).

Curry Man, Steve Corino, Tracey Smothers, Ulf Herman and Goldust have made appearances too (though Goldust was called 'Goldustin'). I hated the way they booked their barbed wire match. It was Steve Corino vs Abyss and after they spent some time doing untold damage to each others bodies, Steve Corino out of nowhere shifts out of kayfabe and cuts a promo thanking the fans as if he wasn't injured! I don't mind a shift out of kayfabe but not after a barbed wire match.

The talent in 1PW, for the most part, looked amateurish and skinny.

 

[ElTerrible]

Not permanently, but I don´t see a reason they can´t have a PPV there every year. They are obviously very popular and a PPV in front of an actual audience makes your product look much better.

 

[Fufflefuff]

I would like to see something like this. I mean, it doesn't have to be TNA, but there would seem to be decent potential for profit in a company catering exclusively to a UK/Euro audience. It would have to be big time right out of the gate, though, backed by someone with money and connections who can get TV immediately on a relatively good channel in an acceptable timeslot, promote like crazy across major media outlets and possibly bring in 2 or 3 recognizable "names". But then, success is speculative. There are more stable ways to make money from money. So until that very rich, eccentric fan of wrestling or crazy, risk-taking tycoon shows up, it probably isn't likely. Then again, the MTV family of channels has been trying to do something with wrestling for years now, maybe some youth-targeting channel over there looking for original programming may consider it at some point as well.

 

[Gorias]

There was/is a promotion called 1PW that started a couple of years back in Doncaster. Was an indie promotion running shows every month or two, and had guys like AJ, Raven, Abyss, Joe etc. coming over. But it did really badly financially and stopped altogether after like 2 years. Its restarted but only with local talent who have no where near the star power.

Funnily enough, the same company has signed Kevin Nash, HBK and the New Age Outlaws for appearances this year.

I'm assuming Nash - like Michaels - is non-wrestling, but still. Pretty impressive considering what happened to them before.