ICW Fear & Loathing VIII

From a commercial perspective, Fear & Loathing VIII was a phenomenal success for Insane Championship Wrestling before it even took place. Managing to draw a genuine sell out crowd of 4,000 to the SECC in Glasgow demonstrated exactly how big the promotion has become and how much of a clamour there was to see Grado’s bid to win the ICW World Championship in the main event. There can be no denial now- ICW is the real deal and the only question left is: how big can they get? That very question may be answered this time next year when, as was announced by ICW owner Mark Dallas at the beginning of the show, the company promote next year’s Fear & Loathing event at the Hydro Arena- a 13,000 capacity venue where WWE hold their annual shows in the city on their visits to these shores. You might argue that such a jump within a year is over ambitious for any wrestling promotion, but saying that would be to ignore the phenomenal rise the company has enjoyed over the past couple of years- and specifically in the 12 months since Drew Galloway won the ICW World Title back at Fear & Loathing VII.

ICW Fear & Loathing VII

With just a few days to go before ICW present what will be the biggest show put on by a British wrestling company in some 30 years with Fear & Loathing VIII, I decided it might be a good idea to take a look back at last year’s Fear & Loathing event which is available, for free, on their on-demand service. It is a great credit to them that they are gearing up for a show which will play out before 5,000 fans, a sell out no less, in Glasgow this coming Sunday- and shows not only the level of their success (unprecedented in my lifetime) but also the rising popularity of British wrestling as a whole. For my part, I’ll admit to not having seen very much from the company, aside from the Drew Galloway return video that went viral last year and a YouTube clip of Grado’s excellent promo where he put out the challenge to face whoever was champion come this year’s event, and so this was in many respects my introduction to the product. The show, which took place at a sold out Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow, had followed what was another runaway success of a year in the company’s meteoric rise and included their first national tour- promoting shows in England as well as their usual strongholds of Scotland. The main event would see ICW Heavyweight Champion, Jack Jester take on his long time friend, turned rival, Drew Galloway.

WCW Clash of the Champions 13: Thanksgiving Thunder

The Clash of the Champions television specials on TBS were supposed to be the NWA’s and later WCW’s answer to the WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event programme on NBC. The first Clash of the Champions had been positioned in direct competition to Wrestlemania 4, as a way of discouraging viewers from paying for their rival’s product when there was a free wrestling event also available (it was also in response to WWE running the first annual Survivor Series opposite the NWA’s Starrcade in 1987, and putting on a free Royal Rumble television special opposite NWA’s 2nd attempt at pay-per-view, Bunkhouse Stampede, in 1988).  For the most part the Clash of the Champions have a rich history featuring pay-per-view calibre contests between the top stars of the company at the time. The thirteenth instalment of the event however, subtitled Thanksgiving Thunder, failed to live up to that billing and instead featured a string of poor or insignificant matches interspersed with a number of short ineffectual promos and one of the most ridiculous pieces of wrestlecrap ever seen (and that is most certainly saying a lot). There are glimpses of quality here and there, but these are all too fleeting and overall this is a show that served only one purpose- to continue the hype for the following month’s Starrcade ’90 event.