Background ITV transmitted professional wrestling for over 33 years from November 1955 to December 1988. The bulk of this was screened on Saturday afternoons or lunchtimes (although other slots including midweek late evenings, midweek lunchtimes and
bank holiday Monday afternoons were also used). Throughout
World of Sport lifetime, the Saturday afternoon coverage was generally incorporated into the package show as a slot.
Joint Promotions held exclusive rights to ITV television coverage until the end of 1986, when they rotated with tapings of
All Star Wrestling and occasional
WWF special editions. The distinct British wrestling style of
Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules has persisted in the United Kingdom to the present day. Since the early 1990s, an additional strand of wrestling promotions has emerged that were producing more American-styled shows. The two genres have become known commonly as "Old School" and "New School", respectively, after the names used in an invasion angle run by the
FWA promotion around 2001. Over the years, numerous attempts were made to relaunch professional wrestling on British television, with various promotions covered on a single local ITV franchise or satellite/digital channels; often touted as the "revival" of British Wrestling. ITV screened
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) programming in the early hours and from 1992 to 1995 in their old Saturday afternoon slot, but no homegrown promotion ever received regular syndicated coverage. In the 21st century, vintage ITV coverage was repeated as
World of Sport on digital channels such as
The Wrestling Channel and
Men and Movies, resulting in the name "World of Sport" becoming a frequent
retronym for the traditional, old-school style of British wrestling.
Development and relaunch A pilot for a television series called
World of Sport Wrestling was filmed at the
Fairfield Halls,
Croydon in November 2013. Branding itself as a direct revival of
World of Sport on its old slot,
WOS Wrestling was hosted by veteran ring announcer Lee Bamber. After it was rejected by ITV, the pilot was eventually uploaded to
YouTube on 12 June 2015 by creator John Chapman. It would later be reuploaded in 2023. On 19 October 2016, ITV commissioned a two-hour, one-off,
World of Sport Wrestling special. The show would featured
independent wrestlers such as
Grado and
Sha Samuels, and commentary from former
WWE announcer
Jim Ross. The special was taped on 1 November 2016 from
dock10 studios in
Greater Manchester., and would premiere on 31 December 2016. The main storyline running through the show focused on Grado's quest to become WOS champion. He would lose to
Dave Mastiff in a match to become inaugural champion before eventually winning the belt in a rematch at the end of the broadcast. On 23 March 2017, ITV announced that they had commissioned a ten-episode series of
WOS Wrestling in partnership with Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling (then known as
Impact Wrestling). Then-Impact CCO
Jeff Jarrett would serve as an executive producer, along with Tom McLennan and Simon Marsh. A TV taping was scheduled to take place at
Preston Guild Hall on 25 and 26 May. On 28 April,
Pro Wrestling Insider reported that the
WOS tapings had been postponed.
2018 Series and live tour In April 2018, ITV announced the return of
WOS Wrestling as a ten-part series. The series was taped at Epic Studios in Norwich, on May 10, 11, and 12. WOS's first series was broadcast from July 28 until September 29, and was hosted by
Alex Shane and
SoCal Val. Its main storyline focused on the championship reign of Rampage, and his pursuit by challenger Justin Sysum. Sysum competed in Rampage's Triple Threat title match with Grado. After a controversial countout loss in episode 3, Sysum defeated the champion in a tag match in episode 7. In the final two episodes, Sysum earned himself a title shot and ultimately defeated Rampage to win the title. Other storylines saw the establishment of a women's championship, a Tag Team Championship tournament, and Grado's running battles with disapproving WOS executive
Stu Bennett. Recurring characters have included masked monster heel Crater, treacherous heel Martin Kirby and his former partner, singing babyface
Joe Hendry. At the conclusion of episode 6 (transmitted 1 September 2018) a six-date live tour was announced for January 2019. On May 8, 2019, upstart American promotion
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) reached a media rights deal with ITV. When asked about this on
Twitter in-regards to ITV,
Wrestling Observers
Dave Meltzer responded in a tweet on 28 May 2019 that
WOS Wrestling had been cancelled. On 13 December 2019, the WOS Twitter account uploaded a teaser video.
2024 revival At 09:00
BST on 28 June 2024, a short teaser video was posted announcing the promotion's return with a TV taping event called "WOS: The Return". The event will be held on 14 September. Narrated by Sha Samuels, the video showed the WOS Heavyweight Championship, and the WOS logo with "The Return" written underneath. Advertised as appearing were
Adam Maxted, Iestyn Rees,
Joel Redman,
Eddie Ryan, Sheikh El Sham, Niwa Niwa,
Nathan Angel, Jake McCluskey,
Ashton Smith,
Session Moth Martina, Nightshade and
SoCal Val.
Fightful reported that, due to trademark issues with ITV, the official name of the promotion would be shortened to
WOS Wrestling. It was also announced by WOS that the promotion's programming would be broadcast through online platforms, rather than on ITV's television networks. Talent announced for the event included Grado, Sha Samuels, L.A. Taylor. On 2 August 2024, it was announced that NORTH Wrestling and
Progress Wrestling announcer Tom Campbell would be providing commentary. ==Programme sales==