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 2026  (nearly 2027!) and I'm turning back the clock  circa thirty years all the way back to good old 1997! It was a big year in wrestling as both the WWF and WCW continued their Monday Night Raw  feud. Monday Night Raw finally moved to two hours and the federation started to shows signs of attitude. It would be a frustrating year for the WWF who despite their strong televison and pay per view output still remained in second place firmly behind WCW.

And so mirroring reality the World of Wrestling to struck back, moving Wednesday Night Warriors to two hours, building relationships with ECW and AAA. It was a year defined by Shaun Davison, Bret Hitman Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Newer stars such as Leviathan, Rocky Maivia and Ken Shamrock would continue to make their mark. The Harts would wage war with America, D-Generation X was born and the New Power Generation would continue their strangle hold on the major TWOW titles. 

You can expect to see many debuts including D-Lo Brown, Ken Shamrock, Joanie Laura, Brian Christopher, the Patriot and a certain Goldberg styled performer by the name of Trent Silverman. The Dawn of 'Rebellion' isn't far away!

So strap in and lets take continue to look back at  the final year of the World of Wrestling 'New Wave' era with 1997!  ! A simpler time and a really historic era in Wrestling.

Howard Stolber

CEO of the World of Wrestling