Wrestle Ropes' Ready for the Weekend: December 2015 Week 2

This week's edition will be slightly different from normal as we won't be looking at one show from Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Instead we'll have a brief look at all the shows taking place. Let's get Ready For The Weekend!

On Friday night, Rock N Wrestle will be at the Ironworks in Inverness with Winter Slam 2015. The show will feature TNA & NXT star, James Storm who will be facing Kid Fite. Grado shall also be in action on December 11th as he competes against Liam Thomson. Fans will get to be involved as they choose the stipulation of the match between Aspen Faith and Crusher Craib. The Rock N Wrestle Highland Champion, Jack Jester, Big Damo & BT Gunn are also scheduled to appear during the show.


Heading south to Bristol and Pro Evolution Wrestling will be at the Merchant's Academy. Pro Evolution Wrestling have had a great year, delivering shows month in, month out. At their last show, Justin Sysum defeated Joel Redman to become the new Pro EVW Heavyweight Champion, proving that anything can happen at any show.


Another promotion that has had a killer year has been Britannia Wrestling Promotions. On Friday night they will host the last show of 2015, which marks their 7th year as a promotion. Lots of feuds and lots of fights have taken place this year. Chances are that more will take place on December 11th in the Penyffordd Legion.

Moving on to Saturday and RAD:PRO Wrestling are back at the Chuter Ede CA in South Shields with the season finale, EmbryoniX 3.9. The show will feature Mr Society defending the EmbryoniX Championship against an opponent to be announced on the night. The winner of that match will want to keep an eye on the over the top rope battle royale as the winner will be the new number one contender to the EmbryoniX Championship. December 12th will see former allies Paddy Flannagan and Vulture face off after Vulture joined the Social Order. All those matches plus James Scott, Steve The Pirate and a lot more will be in action.


Pro Wrestling Elite are at the Citadel Leisure Centre in Ayr on Saturday night with Jingle All The Galloway. They have a packed card with the main event seeing Drew Galloway face Dave Mastiff. Grado will also be in action defending the Pro Wrestling Elite Heavyweight Championship against Joey Hayes. Speaking of heavyweight, Damo, Joe Coffey, Iestyn Rees & Noam Dar will also compete in a four-way match. Action from NXT's James Storm, Wolfgang, Chris Renfrew, Mark Coffey, El Ligero and Joe Hendry guarantees a cracking show in Ayr.


Not content with one nigh of action, Pro Evolution Wrestling move on to Worchester on Saturday night with another show. As we said before, Pro Evolution Wrestling have had a great year and they'll look to end it on another high, this time at Perdiswell Leisure Centre.

Leicester Championship Wrestling are at the home of Brockington College on December 12th with their final event of the calendar. Christmas Cracker 15 will see all of LCW's championship on the line with Joseph Conners defending the LCW Heavyweight Championship against Alex Gracie. The Hunter Brothers will challenge DNA's Cy Gregory & Mark Massa for the LCW Tag Team Championship. Finally, Chris Tyler will be in action as he defend the LCW Young Guns Championship against Paul Malen. Even more action takes place with Stixx, Xander Cooper and many more in competition.


Finally finishing up the weekend and Tidal Wrestling host Silent Nightmare – End Of Days at the Leeds University Union. The show will be main event by Dara Diablo defending the TCW Championship against Liam Lazarus and El Ligero. This match would be show-stealing on any show but with the added dynamic that there shall be no DQ or count out in the match, this may indeed be the End Of Days. Speaking of championships, Sam Wilder will be defending the TCW Open Championship for the first time. His opponent is the ever growing and evolving Chris Ridgeway. If Wilder is successful in his defence then his Proven partner, Caz Crash will then defend the championship against Dan James later on in the night. It's another packed show from Tidal Wrestling with Tommy End, Rampage Brown, Martin Kirby, Nathan Cruz, Pete Dunne and Joseph Conners being just a few of those in action.


That wraps up this week's preview of the weekend's wrestling schedule. Of course, there are many more events taking place over the three days. To find out more about the shows we've highlighted here as well as all the others, check us out at www.wrestleropesuk.wordpress.com for the latest show and match announcements, British Wrestling event list and more!

Over The Border II - Wrestling with Social Media

OSWtv's Billy Strachan returns once again with the second edition of Over The Border! This time Billy focuses on how important social media can be to Scottish wrestling.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back in ye olde days of UK professional wrestling, the barren times, once World of Sport was removed from ITV in 1985, the only way to advertise your local promotion would be through posters around town, newspaper advertisements, maybe an interview on your local radio or television station if you were lucky. 

An example of the posters one could see

But this 2014...things have changed! 

Here are a few figures for you. 3 BILLION active users on the internet, 1.23 BILLION active Facebook users, 1 BILLION active YouTube users, 284 MILLION active Twitter users. Social media is the most effective way to reach wrestling fans nowadays and there are promotions that have taken advantage of this by making sure that their audience is kept up to date with all the latest news and promotion. 

Here are the top 5 Scottish wrestling company pages on Facebook:

Insane Championship Wrestling: 17,000+ Likes
Scottish Wrestling Alliance: 7,241 Likes
Premier British Wrestling: 5,921 Likes
Scottish Wrestling Entertainment: 3,479 Likes
Pro Wrestling Elite: 3,330 Likes

So keeping your website or Facebook page up to date is so important. When you set up a company page/website you are not only making a commitment to your product but also to your fan base. You can't go on once a month and go "oh aye, this is happening". We are in the age where if people lose interest they will move onto the next thing without hesitation. Social media is also the quickest and most effective way to get a wrestlers character out there be it through a fan page, YouTube promo videos, podcast or interviews.

On the subject of keeping your page up to date, this is a personal preference, but if you don't write in a professional manner or have a basic grasp of the English language, I'm not going to be reading whatever you've written to promote yourself or your show. Basic common sense really. It's a business at the end of the day. This is different if it’s built towards a character, like Switch, but a wrestling promotion should have a professional look when writing.

Don't get me wrong, posters and newspaper adverts and all the things I mentioned at the start of this piece are still effective, they bring in the casual fan that maybe isn't aware of the social media presence the promotion has. Word of mouth is also being integrated into social media with blogs and fan podcasts. 

Oop's...How did that get there? 

If you don't believe what I'm saying I'll give you an example. Grado made a name for himself through YouTube videos, through a social media campaign "Get Grado Booked", he's arguably the biggest name in Scottish and UK professional wrestling today. Without social media, there might not be a “chubby wee chancer fae the tap end of Stevenson” shouting "IT'S YERSEL!" today. 

If you don't keep on top of your social media then it could stunt the growth of your promotion and possibly your growth as a wrestler. Getting yourself out there and making a name for yourself gets you from being a name on the card to THE name on THE card. 

Over The Border - A Revolution Has Begun

2014 has been a huge year for professional wrestling. With Scottish wrestling promotions really coming into their own and at least two companies drawing over 1000 fans in attendance, it's growing at a fast rate. Thanks, in part, to the Insane Fight Club documentary on the BBC. It really helped people realise that there are local wrestling companies that aren't "WWF Tribute" shows but legitimate companies with their own identity.  

In every corner of Scotland there is a company that gives you something a little bit different, from Rock N Wrestle and Caithness Pro Wrestling in the Highlands, WrestleZone in Aberdeenshire, SWE in Tayside, Reckless Intent in West Lothian, even Target tread the borders into Dumfries and Galloway. I can't forget the central belt and surrounding area that harbours a bursting scene with ICW, SWA, BCW, PBW, Fierce Females, PWE and Pride respectively. With many companies starting in the last year, like the aforementioned Rock N Wrestle and also Discovery Wrestling, and companies touring Scotland over the year like W3L, you can't help but be swept up in the momentum that Scottish wrestling is building.

Wrestling is a serious business, no more Tribute Kanes and Tribute Mankinds rolling about and failing to fool even the 10 year olds in attendance, but now there are actual wrestlers, entertainers and something you can believe in. It's proven by how many people want to spread the word about Scottish wrestling through blogs, videos, podcasts and Facebook pages (myself included) we are all proud of this revolution happening in our country. 

Proof is shown in TNA British Bootcamp Season 2 where four of Scotland’s best made it through to the UK Finals; Noam Dar, Kay Lee Ray, Nikki Storm and Grado. This is just scratching the surface of what Scotland has to offer.

It can only get better, with the country producing the best male and female talent it is only a matter of time before we see Scottish wrestling back on TV (and I don't mean a graveyard slot on MyChannel). Insane Fight Club 2 is set for airing next year on BBC One and with the ICW On Demand service (only £3.95) available plus a whole load of content on YouTube including full events from SWE and PWE, we are in a haven of opportunity to watch the cream of the crop, the best in Europe and it is right on your doorstep.

Drew Galloway sums it up best.