Wrestling.ie review

Wrestling.ie offer up a wrestling A-Z

By Phil Allely

Whilst we all love it when the WWE or TNA three ring circus comes to the UK/Ireland (for a series of live shows) it’s always good to remember that whilst the big two are only here a few times a year, there are many small time local Indy promotions who plug away each and every week to give us all our wrestling fix, each one hoping to win our attentions and support.

Wrestling.ie is a fledgling promotion based in Northern Ireland, with just over a year under their belt so far.

The company are currently touring towns in NI offering Irish fans the chance to see some homegrown/US influenced grappling.

I caught up with them as they opened the tour off in Lisburn, County Antrim, with a charity show in aid of Multiple Sclerosis. The 250 fans in attendance were pumped up for a night of highflying and faced paced action, as the posters promised and they certainly got it.

The show featured a nice mix of singles matches, gauntlet style brawls and a over the top battle royal, the real story was that the promotion did exactly what it said it would on it’s promotional material. Young in-ring talents like Duncan Disorderly, Bingo Balance and Shawn Maxer may not be on TV each week or household names like their big league counterparts, but they do have the ability and experience to perform at their level, pulling off some spectacular moves and storytelling both in and out of the ring.

As organiser Stephen Muldoon told me ’What we want to do is offer family-based sports entertainment, give the older fans some flashy moves and high-spots, whilst keeping the kids entertained with some good old fashioned face/heel characters and storylines’.

One of the biggest obstacles Indy wrestling promotions have to overcome is badly organised competition who offer inferior products and poor performances. ‘One thing we find is that if a company has been to town before us and stuck the picture of say someone like Hulk Hogan etc on their posters and went on to basically rip off the fans (with their card), it’s tough for a genuine company like us to win their support back again.’ ‘It’s an unfortunate situation, but we have to live with it.’ Said Stephen.

With stars such as Brutus Magnus, Doug Williams, Drew McIntyre and Sheamus all riding high in the WWE and TNA today , it’s sometimes hard to believe that they started off in small local shows run by companies such as Wrestling.ie, perhaps some day we can say we saw the newest UK star to sign for the WWE live in our local leisure centre, a few years before he made the big time?

Visit www.wrestling.ie for full details of the companies roster and tours.