World of Wrestling archives

I first discovered wrestling late on a Friday night, way back in 1989. My parents had not long invested in Satellite television, and I was flicking through the channels when I came across Wrestling Challenge on Sky One I believe.

My Dad had always been an avid fan of ITV’s World of Sport, so I had a cursory knowledge of what wrestling was, but the WWF was a different beast and it wasn’t long before I was regularly tuning in to see my favourites, The Hart Foundation, Mr Perfect and Macho King Randy Savage in action. 

Wrestling has of course changed a lot since those early day’s and I have been along for the ride all the way. I have witnessed the WWF’s lean years, the rise of the Attitude Era, the re-branded WWE and gradual slide into the products current manifestation. I have witnessed the Rise and Fall of ECW, the collapse of WCW, the many ups and downs of TNA/Impact wrestling and more recently the breath of fresh air that is AEW. 

Like many long-term fans 3- hour Raw’s proved to be a step to far and so I reluctantly swayed away from my regular viewing habits in favour of various podcast reviews such as the numerous Live Audio Wrestling outputs and now Post Wrestling, Ministry of Slam and Conrad Thomson Multiple shows! 

I was lucky enough to attend Wrestle Mania 17 in Houston, although sadly missed out on Summer Slam in 92, have attended multiple UK tours from the WWF/E, TNA and even a WCW event in 93 and my magazine folders are jam packed with old Pro Wrestling Illustrated and Power Slam magazines.
 

 So what is the world of Wrestling? Well back in early 1990 as I properly embraced my love for the sport I decided to use my creative impulses to create my own wrestling federation and along with my friend Richard created a group of characters and pay per view events. 

In the interests of re-enacting what I had created I took my ‘Guess Who’ board game box, decked it out to look like a wrestling ring and then began to paint my Masters of the Universe figures to look like my creations. With the addition of an NWA style ramp entrance and hanging event logos dangling from the ceiling I was ready to go! 

Over the years I would come to update the names and events to sound more serious and to incorporate my knowledge of real wrestling events until I settled upon something very similar to what will be presented here on the World of Wrestling Website. 

In essence the WOW started as a California based promotion in the territory days but much like the WWF would go on to cover the whole of the US and become a Global phenomenon. I named the company the World of Wrestling as it would include a mix of my own stars and top stars from other promotions all competing in a super bowl style promotion. 

Since then of course there has been a short lived WOW magazine in around 1999 and a real life company by the name of Women of Wrestling, however amazingly no one has yet laid claim to the world of wrestling website, which happily is where I step in!

I had continued to write weekly shows and events up until mid 2017 when work and life commitments proved to great for me to continue with my little hobby! So clearly I have a lot of content that I can gradually download. With assistance from some of my friends I will also be looking to introduce regular podcasts covering the WOW, in which we will discuss retro events and the current day product which I will be starting shortly and bring up to date. Then I can post my weekly events whilst uploading the vast history of the WOW.

With the recent changes in the wrestling landscape it will be interesting to see how the WOW would adjust to a pandemic and the emergence of AEW and NXT on Wednesday Nights, which happens to be the WOW time slot since 1992 with Wednesday Night Warriors. 

As I write this it's 2024 and I'm looking to start work on two archive years, separated by a decade. So strap in and lets take a look at the the start of the Golden Era with 1984 and the first full year of the World of Wrestling New Wave with 1994!  ! A simpler time and a really historic era in Wrestling. In 1984 the WWF was entering the mainstream with the Rock and Wrestling Era and the NWA was enjoying a popular streak before it’s eventual decline in 1988 and there was still an abundance of regional territories in operational around the states. In 1994, the industry was in declined, rocked by scandal and a diminished audience. The WCW benefitted from an influx of old WWF talent whilst the WWF looked to it's 'New Generation', creating new stars to see them through the remainder of the decade. 

Howard Stolber

CEO of the World of Wrestling