British professional wrestling returns to mainstream television in 2018 as World of Sport/WOS Wrestling gets a 10 episode series on the UK's most watched commercial TV channel. That is in itself remarkable, but is also something of a problem for this programme - with the 5pm Saturday afternoon time slot causing a few headaches for the producers.
All of the bouts shown across the 10 episodes were recorded at a three day TV taping at the Epic Television Studios in Norwich in May 2018 for broadcast on ITV during July to September. Which is again a problem.
So is WOS Wrestling any good? Well, yes there are certainly some things to like about this show. The presentation is very good with the WOS Arena looking good, the actual staging of the shows looking slick and professional and the commentary team doing a good job. The in-ring action is to a decent standard - okay there are a few poor matches here and there, but generally it is not bad. It is not going to revolutionise pro wrestling but the bouts tick along nicely. However, the delays in getting this 10 episode series commissioned by ITV have allowed WWE to come in and sign up a slew of Britain's top wrestlers (including one or two who appeared on the WOS Wrestling New Year's show in 2016) to exclusive contracts for their own NXT UK promotion. Sadly this leaves the roster a little thin and we quite quickly get into seeing the same wrestlers appearing in episode after episode.
Each episode has a 1 hour running time including commercials which equates to about 47 minutes per episode and WOS have taken the decision to try and cram as much actual wrestling into each episode as possible. This means the episodes are split into four segments with usually one bout in each segment. However, this leaves very little room for anything else. There are a few interview segments scattered across the 10 episodes, but most of the build up has to be done by the commentary team. In fact there are lots of interviews with the wrestlers before and after the bouts but these are only available to view via the WOS Wrestling social media platforms - which makes the fact that there are no on-screen hashtags or links to the company's website/twitter/facebook really glaring.
Sadly, that is not the only glaring problem with the show. The early time slot and short running time mean matches are heavily edited with cameras cutting away to crowd shots during bouts. Action replays are used a lot and are rather intrusive. Despite the heavy editing of bouts, inexplicably, botches are not edited out. The TV studio setting allows some interesting camera angles to be used (between the turnbuckles shots and overhead cameras etc.) but the cutting from camera to camera is frenetic at times.
With no promos, few interviews and bizarrely no on-screen graphics showing the wrestlers names (!) viewers don't get much of an introduction to the wrestlers. WOS have signed up a mixture of recognisable names - Grado, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Joe Hendry, Viper & Doug Williams plus some newer less familiar wrestlers like Gabriel Kidd, Adam Maxted, Justin Sysum and Ayesha. Storylines are kept fairly simple and for the most part work well.
The episodes are pacy with plenty of in ring action per episode, the wrestling is of a decent standard and the whole show has a slick style to it but dammit there are a lot of annoying things about this show. At the time of writing it is not known if a second series will be commissioned, so sit back enjoy the 10- episodes for the fast paced rollercoaster ride they are.
All of the bouts shown across the 10 episodes were recorded at a three day TV taping at the Epic Television Studios in Norwich in May 2018 for broadcast on ITV during July to September. Which is again a problem.
So is WOS Wrestling any good? Well, yes there are certainly some things to like about this show. The presentation is very good with the WOS Arena looking good, the actual staging of the shows looking slick and professional and the commentary team doing a good job. The in-ring action is to a decent standard - okay there are a few poor matches here and there, but generally it is not bad. It is not going to revolutionise pro wrestling but the bouts tick along nicely. However, the delays in getting this 10 episode series commissioned by ITV have allowed WWE to come in and sign up a slew of Britain's top wrestlers (including one or two who appeared on the WOS Wrestling New Year's show in 2016) to exclusive contracts for their own NXT UK promotion. Sadly this leaves the roster a little thin and we quite quickly get into seeing the same wrestlers appearing in episode after episode.
Each episode has a 1 hour running time including commercials which equates to about 47 minutes per episode and WOS have taken the decision to try and cram as much actual wrestling into each episode as possible. This means the episodes are split into four segments with usually one bout in each segment. However, this leaves very little room for anything else. There are a few interview segments scattered across the 10 episodes, but most of the build up has to be done by the commentary team. In fact there are lots of interviews with the wrestlers before and after the bouts but these are only available to view via the WOS Wrestling social media platforms - which makes the fact that there are no on-screen hashtags or links to the company's website/twitter/facebook really glaring.
Sadly, that is not the only glaring problem with the show. The early time slot and short running time mean matches are heavily edited with cameras cutting away to crowd shots during bouts. Action replays are used a lot and are rather intrusive. Despite the heavy editing of bouts, inexplicably, botches are not edited out. The TV studio setting allows some interesting camera angles to be used (between the turnbuckles shots and overhead cameras etc.) but the cutting from camera to camera is frenetic at times.
With no promos, few interviews and bizarrely no on-screen graphics showing the wrestlers names (!) viewers don't get much of an introduction to the wrestlers. WOS have signed up a mixture of recognisable names - Grado, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Joe Hendry, Viper & Doug Williams plus some newer less familiar wrestlers like Gabriel Kidd, Adam Maxted, Justin Sysum and Ayesha. Storylines are kept fairly simple and for the most part work well.
The episodes are pacy with plenty of in ring action per episode, the wrestling is of a decent standard and the whole show has a slick style to it but dammit there are a lot of annoying things about this show. At the time of writing it is not known if a second series will be commissioned, so sit back enjoy the 10- episodes for the fast paced rollercoaster ride they are.
