Wrestling

FEATURE: The Wrestling Streaming World Tour Part Three

FEATURE: The Wrestling Streaming World Tour Part Three

The UK and European Scene
When I was a
kid watching wrestling and a wrestler showed up from Europe in general or
especially the UK I knew one thing, this person was going to beat the hell out
of people.  You need not look any further
than Stephen “William” Regal and Fit Finlay to see why.
The European
style is often referred to as Strong Style, which means there’s less
high-flying and more striking and submission holds.  Strong Style wrestlers often gain a
reputation as being especially tough.
In the late nineties
and early 2000s the scene went through some down years but has enjoyed a
renaissance in the 2010s and that can be credited in large part to three big promotions
in the UK:  Revolution Pro Wrestling, PROGRESS and Insane Championship Wrestling.
Revolution Pro Wrestling or Rev-Pro is actually one of the younger
promotions on the scene but under the leadership of Andy and Quildan and Andy
Simmonz they’ve quickly found prominence.
It didn’t hurt that they were able to build working relationships with
ROH, CMLL and New Japan (There’s that name again, you’ll see why when we talk
about Japan.) But where Rev-Pro really were able to get their foothold was by
building around British Sensation, Zack Sabre jr.  Rev Pro runs an on-demand service here.
Then there’s
another newcomer that took the world by storm, PROGRESS.  Progress bills themselves
as the “Punk Rock of Pro Wrestling” and it could be argued that the resurgence
of pro-wrestling in England started with them.
Most of their shows are run out of London and they really do boast a who’s
who of not just UK Wrestlers but wrestlers from all over.  Some of the bigger names that have called
Progress home are former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champions Will Ospreay and Marty
Scurll, the a fore mentioned Zack Sabre jr and current WWE UK Champion Pete
Dunne.
Progress’
runs a service called Demand Progress, and I can tell you it’s one of the
better services out there not just for streaming but there’s a great back
catalogue of fantastic wrestling.
Heading
north from London we can turn our attention to Insane Championship Wrestling.
Not to be confused with Juggalo
Championship Wrestling
, the company ran by the Insane Clown Posse (I’m dead
serious,) ICW comes out of Glasgow.  They’re
actually one of the older promotions on the scene and they boast not only
impressive wrestling but a lot of familiar names.  Finn Balor, Drew McIntyre, Tommy End (now NXT
Champion Aleister Black) and even Triple H have appeared in ICW.  They can be found primarily on their
streaming service, ICW on Demand.
Lastly,
while I am a big dumb American, I know enough geography to know Germany is not
in England but I did say Europe and that’s brings us to Westside Xtreme
Wrestling.  Don’t let the “Xtreme” fool
you, WXW is not stuck in the nineties like far too many promotions and they
boast an impressive top guy in Walter “WALTER” Hahn.  Hahn is one of the best super-heavyweights
(wrestlers over 265 pounds but more often meaning wrestlers over 300
pounds.)  WALTER is a beast, and he works
a very, very strong style (his chops have been known to bust people open!)  WXW offers wXwNOW.
It’s time to
leave Europe behind and continue east, but I saved the best for last as we
finish up in the Land of the Rising Sun in Part Four.

Just another guy on the internet.