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Over the last 24 hours, the talk in Great Britain has been that the planned May World of Sport TV tapings, which were to film a ten episode season for ITV, bringing the World of Sport brand back to weekly broadcast television in England, have been postponed. Tapings were slated for 5/25 and 5/26 at Preston Guild Hall following a popular WOS special that aired on New Year's Eve last December. Tickets for the tapings went on sale on 4/6.
World of Sport was a sports anthology series that ran for 20 years on ITV and regularly featured pro wrestling personalities and matches from Europe. When the decision was made in 1985 to cancel the series, it crippled homegrown pro wrestling in that region for many years, setting the stage for the then-WWF's already growing popularity in the region to flourish just a few years later. The special on New Year's Eve in 2016 celebrated WOS' thirty year run, setting the stage for a new potential series.
Talent that appeared on the initial pilot included Grado (who won the World of Sports Wrestling championship on the special and would be going into the new series as champion), Dave Mastiff, Danny Hope, Kenny Williams, Sam Bailey, CJ Banks, Mark and Joe Coffey, Rampage, Ashton Smith, Viper Kimberly Benson, Alexis Rose, El Ligero and Zack Gibson, among others. WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross appeared on the taping as the lead announcer and helped with the creative end, sparking WWE to sign Ross to a new deal to circumvent his involvement in the weekly series.
Following the original taping, Impact Wrestling came on board to help produce with Jeff Jarrett announced as the Executive Producer. Impact has announced Bobby Lashley and Kongo Kong would be working the taping. One would assume other Impact talents could also be involved. Jarrett stated following a press conference announcing the series that the plan was for WOS to be a complete pro wrestling promotion, not just a TV series.
The March press release announcing the tapings touted the ITV-Impact Wrestling collaboration as "part of a comprehensive co-production agreement" between the two entities designed to "relaunch the WOS Wrestling brand, bringing British stars to ITV while leveraging the roster and creative team of Impact Wrestling along with its expertise in live event production and international distribution."
When the tapings were initially announced, Director of Entertainment, ITV Studios Manchester, Tom Mclennan stated in the press release, “Britain’s wrestling scene is thriving and there has never been a better time to bring it back to ITV after a gap of 30 years.”
The original WOS plan was to tape in May and air the series over the course of the summer, starting in July, with a late Saturday afternoon timeslot. One source believed the WOS tapings could be pushed back to July with the idea that the episodes would air in the fall.
ITV and Impact Wrestling officials did not respond to PWInsider requests for comment. Stay tuned.
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