|
Andy Quildan
|
Crowning One Champion
It was recently announced that Scott
Conway’s, The Wrestling Alliance
(TWA) will be promoting a very special
card emanating from the Southampton
Guild Hall. That card is infact one
to crown the very first Unified or Undisputed,
if you will Heavyweight Champion amongst
British Promotions.
In theory this is a very good idea and
Scott has done something, or is about
to do something which no other UK promotion
has ever attempted to do so thumbs have
to be put up at this effort to finally
get UK promotions working together.
As simple as the theory behind the idea
is, there is a lot more issues which
arise from this situation than I guess
anyone can imagine. In this article
I will look at these issues drawing
on the pros and cons of having one undisputed
champion.
It seems that after the success and
then ultimate failure (assuming Tommy
Boyd doesn’t wish to try his hand
at promoting again) of the whole SWAT/FWA
collaboration that promotions have suddenly
began to realise that the only way forward
is to work together.
It’s a well known fact that there
are hardly any workers in the country
who remain strictly apart of one promotion
(with the exception of members of the
NWA UK Hammerlock roster) you will see
guys working an FWA show one night,
a TWA show the next and then an All
Star show the following. So why was
it so hard fro the promoters, and people
behind the promotions to put their heads
together and realise that to combat
the continual lack of interest in not
only British wrestling but in the wrestling
scene as a whole, what with the WWE(E)
boom period well and truly over that
teamwork will always win the fight.
Obviously what with wrestlers competing
for many different promotions there
is always a sense of a working relationship
between promotions but the directions
of each individual promotion are completely
different, examples being All Star who
were purely in it for the business aspect,
with very little (or seemingly little)
thought going into the booking process
and then a look at an FWA show which
has a very strong emphasis on furthering
British Wrestling and working toward
the future with very high production
values and in ring content. Granted
the All Star booking has since improved
dramatically with Chic Cullen taking
over booking and additions of fresh
blood such as, Robbie Dynamite, Nigel
McGuiness, Dean Allmark, Jonny Storm
and the re-emergence of Robbie Brookside
to All Star rings, however that just
demonstrates two very extreme directions
and on top of that it just goes to show
how far the scene has advanced in a
span of even 2 short years.
Coming off the heels of Revival, there
was almost a fresh feel amongst the
scene and everyone was very upbeat and
optimistic. But Revival although billed
as a big night of British wrestling
didn’t really feature talent from
EVERY UK promotion as many of you may
know that every single person on that
card had competed in an FWA ring at
one point or another with the exceptions
of Eddy Gurrerro and Brian Christopher,
so only one small section of UK’s
talent were on display.
The first glimmer of hope toward amending
this came from FWA highlighting the
fact that they would recognise an undisputed
womens champion in WAW and TWA Womens
Champion Sweet Sarya. They also sent
out an invitation for her to defend
the title on their own shows.
This statement prompted WAW owner Ricky
Knight to respond by stating his desire
for all promotions to work together
and giving a big thumbs up to his wives
participation in any capacity with any
future FWA show.
The next source of inspiration for
promotions to join came from an unlikely
pair, the tag team of Bulk and Big Dave
Waters, The UK Pitbulls as they made
their presence felt at a FWA show named
Urban Legends where they grabbed the
FWA Tag Team Championships to go along
with 3 belts which they had previously
nabbed on their journeys around the
country. This was then followed up by
The Pitbulls showing up at Lings Theatre,
Northampton for BRAWL’s monthly
offering. It was at this show they won
the BRAWL tag gold and added it to their
collection, seemingly unifying the belts.
The Pitbulls then took it a step further
a week or so later when they captured
K-Star tag gold and then EWC Tag Gold,
leaving them with only three belts (sorry
if there’s more which I haven’t
counted!) which they don’t own.
Those being the WAW Tag Belts, which
they are at current time number one
contenders for, Premier Promotions Tag
Belts, as of yet they have not to my
knowledge competed for the old school
promotion so that one for now looks
out of the question and finally TWA
tag gold, which I don’t believe
have been defended since they were reintroduced
to the company way back in February.
So for those of you sitting there wondering
exactly what I’m going on about
and trying to get at, I will let you
out of your misery! All of these belts
from all of these promotions, in the
possession of one team surly means that
they become somewhat undisputed champions,
in a very similar manner as a boxer
would do in his chosen division.
Now if the Tag team belts are unified,
the European title being recognised
by TWA and FWA, the TWA and WAW womens
championships being in the possession
of the same lady who the FWA choose
to recognise as the undisputed champion
there only really remains/remained one
belt to go.
That being the British Heavyweight Champion
of each division…
This is where Scott Conway steps in,
by doing something which was the talking
point of British wrestling for years
he joined with WAW, FWA, Premier Promotions
and All Star Wrestling Of Mersyside
for what is set to be one of the biggest
and most historic nights of wrestling
action ever!
I wish the controversy ended there,
however there are still a lot of questions
which remain left open to be answered
which I will take a quick look at now.
Firstly out of all those promotions
named there is one glaring hole, that
coming from a promotion which are held
in very high regard by many, and recognised
all over the world. This promotion being
NWA-UK Hammerlock.
I’m not sure why but Hammerlocks
relationship with other promotions has
been virtually non-existent as I try
and think back to when Hammerlock talent
has appeared on another promotions show
without breaking loose from the company
itself, I can only think of one example.
That being the recent SCW show in Scotland.
It was on this show that Majik made
an appearance. So if talent was allowed
on this show (even when FWA names, Scott
Parker and Alex Shane were originally
on the bill) why not allow talent to
work for any other UK Promotion?
Maybe because they had no interest in
looking at the Scotish market?
To tell you the truth, I don’t
know. I really don’t know. Hammerlock
are one of those promotions that keep
themselves to themselves and are very
much independent in every sense of the
term in regards to the way they operate.
I hate to say this but unless Hammerlock
can unite and join with the other promotions
then it looks like the WHOLE of the
UK Scene will never be joined as one
operating body.
Then there’s promotions who were
not ‘invited’ to join. Such
as BRAWL, K-Star, WAR, PWA, UCW, and
many more…. The question which
is raised from this is why?
Well Scott Conway didn’t attempt
to answer it as with all credit to him,
he came back by announcing this tourney
is an open one and therefore ANY UK
Promotion can join this just goes to
show that Scott is really serious about
making a go of this.
However so far none of these promotions
to my knowledge have signed up, I feel
the reason for this is the attitude
of others about the whole situation.
But that isn’t to say that the
Undisputed Champion can’t go and
defend on everyone’s respective
shows.
This once more leads on to more and
more questions.
Can this title be taken seriously if
many promotions have been left out and
although the offer is open why won’t
they join?
Is it critics? Is it the fact they
are scared of unfair booking? Or is
it just a wish not to work with other
promotions?
Then leading on from this, if there
were this undisputed champion, would
they be willing to travel to ‘minor’
promotions shows? As in some areas promotions
can sometimes draw as little as 50 fans.
Also will the crowning of an undisputed
champion lead to the devaluation of
each promotions respective British Heavyweight
Championship?
The ending of this article may have
seemed a little rushed, however in all
truth it is not. I have no answers to
these questions and I’m sure not
even Scott Conway as organiser of this
tournament can predict where the future
will lead.
It seems that in every attempt at
a rebirth of British wrestling a lot
of questions are left to be answered
but unfortunately things rarely progress
far enough to draw to some kind of reasonable
conclusion.
All I can say at the moment is that
at this early stage it looks promising
but I will leave you with one more final
question to answer for yourselves.
Can this event generate enough interest
amongst wrestling in Britain in order
to call it a success, and should an
event which looks to be so historic
be saved for a greater occasion?
Thanks for reading
Andy.
|
