This past weekend, What Culture Pro Wretling held a press conference in England for the first ever Pro Wrestling World Cup. Longtime friend of the site Michael Hogan was served as our live correspondent and sent int he following report:
WhatCulture Pro Wrestling.
Is there a more divisive brand in independent wrestling today? OK, aside from Raw. As someone who takes great pride in the amazing scene our small nation of tea and crumpets has cultivated over the last 5 years using home grown talent, it’s been interesting, to say the least, to see the reaction and impact WCPW has made on the scene in barely 6 months. Detractors will say it’s down to an over reliance on ex-WWE guys, fans will point to workers like Martin Kirby and Joe Hendry as an example of domestic stars they have built the company around.
I “love the graps” as they say over here, and you’ll often find me at PROGRESS or Fight Club: Pro, but up until Sunday’s True Destiny iPPV; I had never experienced a live WCPW show in person. Not to say their cards haven’t intrigued me, I think any promotion booking talent such as Will Ospreay, Ricochet, Zack Sabre Jr & Travis Banks, and putting it out there for free on the internet deserves everyone’s attention. I had heard their crowds could be a bad example of a wrestling crowd, there was an abundance of the YouTube channels on-air personalities during the shows, but when I received an invite to attend Milton Keynes’ Planet Ice Arena on Sunday, I wanted to keep an open mind.
But before the show, there was the press conference for WhatCulture’s Pro Wrestling World Cup. Tournaments are having a renaissance in professional wrestling, from WWE’s recent Cruiserweight Classic & UK Championship Tournament to the annual wXw 16 Carat Gold and PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles. It seems the best wrestling this year has been in this environment. And WCPW seem like they are aiming to not just meet the standard that has been set in the last 12 months, but surpass it.
64 men, with 8 qualifying tournaments (for 8 different regions), with the top 2 from each meeting in a live, 2 night finale in Newcastle on 25 & 26 August. None of it on iPPV, all free to view on YouTube. And not just content with 8 different tournaments, but WCPW have announced partnerships with Canada’s SMASH Wrestling for the Canadian qualifier and Germany’s GWF for the German qualifier. In addition to those 2 countries; England, Scotland, USA, Japan, Mexico and a Rest of the World bracket will make up the Pro Wrestling World Cup.
WCPW brought in the big hitters to add legitimacy to proceedings, with Jim Ross and Matt Striker leading the panel. Both men were commentating that night’s event, and will be calling the final in Manchester. As well as the voices of the tournament, Zack Sabre Jr and Alberto el Patron appeared briefly on the panel to hype this. It’s clear WCPW are putting a lot of eggs in this basket. It’s ambitious, with the first qualifying tournament coming next month. It’s a tough ask to keep fans engaged over something so long term, but listening to these men speak did ease some worries.
You’d be forgiven for thinking with a 64 man tournament there may be, for lack of a better term “cannon fodder” padding it out. We didn’t get the full list of entrants, but we did get confirmation of the English, Scottish, Mexican and German qualifiers. Surprises included Axel Dieter Jr and Bad Bones in the German qualifier, 2 guys more famous for their work in wXw, the biggest promotion in mainland Europe. Mixed in with bigger Scottish names (not only in WCPW but worldwide) such as Drew Galloway & Joe Coffey were Lewis Girvin & Kenny Williams.
The Mexican bracket did spring some surprises. In what is likely the closest thing the UK will get to a Lucha Underground show, with people such as Rey Mysterio, Penta del Zero M, Drago and Ray Fenix were Caristico and El Ligero, which got a good response from the crowd. Obviously, with over 1 million subscribers to their YouTube channel, WCPW have the financial backing to go and get these big names, and the ambition is there. From talking to some of the WhatCulture personalities myself, it seems like the passion is there too, but this could be an expensive failure if it doesn’t shoot off like it planned.
For me, the most surprising of all was the announcement Jimmy Havoc would be making his WCPW debut during this tournament. Some have described him as the most important British wrestler since Big Daddy in the 1980’s, for his hand in building PROGRESS Wrestling into where it is today, and I could see his announcement making some British wrestling fans changing their opinion on WCPW as a whole. Not to mention the other 7 competitors – Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, Rampage, Zack Sabre Jr, Martin Kirby, Nick Aldis and Zack Gibson – and it’s looking like it will become harder to deny WCPW their seat at the table.
The main takeaway from this announcement, besides the sheer scope they are going for, was that this is designed to bring us all together. Both Matt Striker and Zack Sabre Jr made reference to this tournament being a way to unite wrestling fans, and promote positivity in a time where many things are dividing us. While some may argue that pro wrestling and politics should stay far away from each other, regardless of what world leader is in what hall of fame, the sentiment was nice. I think it also speaks for WCPW itself. It’s made by fans, who want to run their shows and be accepted by the masses, yet it doesn’t seem to be uniting everyone just yet.
I came away from the press conference surprised by it all. None of the tongue in cheek aspects of their YouTube videos, but I got a sense of their professionalism and vision for this tournament. They are taking the momentum of the last 6 months, going from 200 capacity venues to 2,000 and looking to build on that, to something I feel they want to be an annual, legitimate event on the pro wrestling calendar. First part of the day down, so far, so good. I still hadn’t seen any wrestling yet though. Or experienced that crowd…
Summary: Pro Wrestling World Cup ’17 Tournament Details
- The entire 64-man tournament will available to view for free via the What Culture Pro Wrestling Youtube channel.
- There will be 8 nations represented in the Tournament: England, Scotland, Germany, Canada, USA, Mexico, Japan and the ‘Rest of The World’.
- There will be 8 Qualifying Legs, one for each nation. These will feature single elimination matches.
- The finals will feature 16 performers and will be held over 4 days (August 23rd – August 26th). The final two nights will take place at the Newcastle Sport Centre.
