machinegunn Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 In all serious there are some fair arguements for WOS. And I do accept that it is a TV show rather that a promotion although maybe my thought process is back to the 70's and 80's where a wrestling TV show was simply an advert to get in the live audience. The promotion will go where the money is. Personally I am hardcore wrestling fan so know where to seek out what I perceive good entertainment but for the casual fans then I can understand why people feel having it on ITV is a good idea. Access is important, people dont always have money for SKY or the WWE Network, I always liked the fact TNA was free to air albeit via Freeview or Satelite. The talent on the show are talented guys, if they can make some extra money then great for them. It is all down to the presentation to me, yes I know the crowd where told to wear bright colours. The commentary without JR this time around really suffered so hopefully they can work it from there. I still give three more weeks on ITV1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted July 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 31, 2018 Just now, machinegunn said: In all serious there are some fair arguements for WOS. And I do accept that it is a TV show rather that a promotion although maybe my thought process is back to the 70's and 80's where a wrestling TV show was simply an advert to get in the live audience. The promotion will go where the money is. Personally I am hardcore wrestling fan so know where to seek out what I perceive good entertainment but for the casual fans then I can understand why people feel having it on ITV is a good idea. Access is important, people dont always have money for SKY or the WWE Network, I always liked the fact TNA was free to air albeit via Freeview or Satelite. The talent on the show are talented guys, if they can make some extra money then great for them. It is all down to the presentation to me, yes I know the crowd where told to wear bright colours. The commentary without JR this time around really suffered so hopefully they can work it from there. I still give three more weeks on ITV1 Never mind all this balls, what were we watching on ITV after 1985 that was wrestling if wrestling went off in 1985? Also, do you still stand by your ITV3 point and are you going to put your money where your mouth is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
machinegunn Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 7 minutes ago, Sergio Mendacious said: What was I watching till 1989? WOS went off the air, the wrestling carried on till right at the end of 1988. Sorry, I stand corrected, it was dropped for its earlier slot in 1985 and formed part of ITV sports afternoon albeit a much shorter version. Still get a copy of The Wrestling, great book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
machinegunn Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 3 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said: Never mind all this balls, what were we watching on ITV after 1985 that was wrestling if wrestling went off in 1985? Also, do you still stand by your ITV3 point and are you going to put your money where your mouth is? ITV3 is a little highbrow for WOS so would have to change that to ITV4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted July 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 31, 2018 Wikipediaed your way out of that one, didn't you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
machinegunn Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 1 minute ago, Devon Malcolm said: Wikipediaed your way out of that one, didn't you. Sorry ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted July 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 31, 2018 26 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said: I'll put another £400 in the kitty for this. you guys are off your rocker. ITV 3 and 4 love to show repeats. I bet it will end up on the eventually. Aronud about the time season 5 airs on ITV replacing The X Factor as it's main Saturday Night TV Output* *That maybe a slight overreaction there Regardless, I am confident the show will either improve in the ratings and get a better time slot for season 2 or lose viewers and come back on a sunday afternoon slot for season 2. I am pretty sure it will get one regardless as it must cost almost nothing to make Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Really Big Shoe Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 Gave it a watch & it wasn't too bad. I actually think if they went retro and brought the old WOS style back that would have worked much better. Since there's continuity there and makes it different to normal US style pro-wrestling. An announcer similar to Kent Walton would have worked much better too. He put the matches over as legit athletic contests & for most of the audience they want that suspension of belief which now for diehard fans has been eroded because they know the matches are predetermined and watch for the showman/womanship factor. I wasn't a fan of the current WOS announcing. Val would be better suited in the backstage interviewer role I think. The camera work/action replays were gimmicky also and broke up the flow of the matches. Instead of Grado I'd have Davey Boy Jr as the top babyface. Critiques aside, it's really good to see British wrestling back on mainstream TV. Plus it's a massive step up from the celebrity "wrestling" show they had. But I do think they should have brought back the round system as a nod to its heritage and then you can tap into the lapsed fan base who were fans & viewers back in the day and who didn't get into US pro wrestling when WOS was taken off the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 1 hour ago, Hannibal Scorch said: Regardless, I am confident the show will either improve in the ratings and get a better time slot for season 2 or lose viewers and come back on a sunday afternoon slot for season 2. I am pretty sure it will get one regardless as it must cost almost nothing to make * I can’t see ratings improving. I’d love to be wrong about that, but rarely do ratings go up for something like this outside of people tuning into the first episode as it has that intrigue factor. If a repeat of a 50 year old episode of Dad’s Army beat it when it had everything going for it to make a big impression, then the chances are this will be done after one series. * Your placing a massive assumption that they’ll get a second series. If the ratings are poor for this, it will be gone. It won’t cost almost nothing to make at all, if that was the case this would have happened much sooner after the New Year special. You know does cost almost nothing to make though? An episode of You’ve Been Framed or paying someone to put a tape of Midsummer Murders in the machine. * It’s great that they got some decent brands buying the ad space, but if those ratings don’t improve, those brands will go elsewhere. I don’t want to see this fail. However, based off of that first episode, I think it is going to struggle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dart Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 1 hour ago, Really Big Shoe said: Gave it a watch & it wasn't too bad. I actually think if they went retro and brought the old WOS style back that would have worked much better. Since there's continuity there and makes it different to normal US style pro-wrestling. An announcer similar to Kent Walton would have worked much better too. He put the matches over as legit athletic contests & for most of the audience they want that suspension of belief which now for diehard fans has been eroded because they know the matches are predetermined and watch for the showman/womanship factor. That was tried and ITV weren't interested. Regarding the announcer, have you watched anything on Saturday evening on ITV in the last 15 years? There's no way they'd put something like on their channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted July 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 31, 2018 That shite Big Heads program got about 2 million viewers and that was cancelled. That was pretty much the same type of audience this lot are going for. In a small arena with commentators and silliness ensuring. We sure that there will be anymore World of Sport if this bombs? All I can see is ITV just dropping it. I dont see them going to ITV3 or ITV4 ever. Thing with this is, its just another TV show filmed from a studio with a cast and live audience. Only unlike every other ITV program there are no celebrities propping it up. It's not an institute or something with a long track record for making money like RAW or Smackdown. Its another shite ITV vehicle, sadly. With all that said, its got its good points so fingers crossed it turns itself around, but I've never met anyone in real life who has said a good word about it. My Dad said to me "I watched a bit of the wrestling on Saturday", and I said "yeah, what was it like?" and then took the piss out of Harry Smith and how shite it looked. The last thing this needed was the whole Big Daddy bollocks. This needed to be done how the WWE did their UK tournament. No jokey shite. Have an ambassador and serious matches. It was all a bit Wolf vs Vinnie Jones to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members mim731 Posted July 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 31, 2018 I saw it got a Sunday morning repeat slot this week, is that a regular thing? I could definitely see it ending up there if it tanks in the ratings. Fingers crossed it doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamura Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 3 hours ago, Really Big Shoe said: An announcer similar to Kent Walton would have worked much better too. He put the matches over as legit athletic contests & for most of the audience they want that suspension of belief which now for diehard fans has been eroded because they know the matches are predetermined and watch for the showman/womanship factor. Kent Walton may have known the names of all the holds, but at times he really was the shits as an announcer. Case in point the start of this match from 1987, when "Flying" Fuji Yamada does as advertised and goes flying over the top rope onto his opponent. Kent Walton's reaction? Absolutely nothing, he completely no-sells it. Give me passion and enthusiasm (not that the current team necessarily have much of that) over knowing the names of holds every day of the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Fatty Facesitter Posted July 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 31, 2018 4 hours ago, Really Big Shoe said: Gave it a watch & it wasn't too bad. I actually think if they went retro and brought the old WOS style back that would have worked much better. Since there's continuity there and makes it different to normal US style pro-wrestling. An announcer similar to Kent Walton would have worked much better too. He put the matches over as legit athletic contests & for most of the audience they want that suspension of belief which now for diehard fans has been eroded because they know the matches are predetermined and watch for the showman/womanship factor. I wasn't a fan of the current WOS announcing. Val would be better suited in the backstage interviewer role I think. The camera work/action replays were gimmicky also and broke up the flow of the matches. Instead of Grado I'd have Davey Boy Jr as the top babyface. Critiques aside, it's really good to see British wrestling back on mainstream TV. Plus it's a massive step up from the celebrity "wrestling" show they had. But I do think they should have brought back the round system as a nod to its heritage and then you can tap into the lapsed fan base who were fans & viewers back in the day and who didn't get into US pro wrestling when WOS was taken off the air. Think it would be tremendously difficult to completely replicate the old WOS style in a contemporary market. Although I think there should've been more character development, the match action felt well paced in Episode 1 and the quality of the wrestling on show was definitely to a good standard when compared to both the rest of the UK scene and the US scene. Although it's good to be different, I do think it's important that quality and the style of wrestling would be seen by Joe Public to be on par with something like you'd see in the US as opposed to the British stars of yesteryear. Kent Walton was fantastic for his time and his voice was iconic, but you couldn't have that type of commentary now. The lack of enthusiasm unfortunately would be a drawback. Even someone like Barry Davies in football in his latter years retained a great enthusiasm whilst commentating on what took place in front of him. The most unique thing about Kent is exactly as you pointed out - he called the bouts like genuine athletic contests. However, that cat's been out of the bag for too long and as a consequence so has the job description of a wrestling commentator. Because it's not just about commentary/play-by-play anymore - you have to tell stories in addition to that. Plus you've also got to help the audience transition into new segments, plug products, etc. It's such a multi-faceted role now, you're almost most of a host than a commentator. Similarly with the old British Wrestling rules - again they're part of the very fabric of historical British wrestling culture but to go back to that style completely would present a lot of problems, chiefly in terms of the amount of time it would take up on a show. However, I'm with you on having Bulldog Jr as the top gun. Also, there are ways that they could actually bring back some of the old WOS elements sporadically - you could bring back the stipulation on a one-off basis as a main event, and actually you could create a lot of tension and drama with it as the clock ticks down towards the end of the final round for instance. I also liked what they did with the initial pilot with the talking heads from the old timers and wouldn't be against them bringing that back on occasion. You put your points across well, mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 1 hour ago, Tamura said: Kent Walton's reaction? Absolutely nothing, he completely no-sells it. You could practically hear his distain and seething in the silence for that style of wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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