Wrestling has always had a real following, it was fascinating to see the BBC documentary a few weeks back about a televised match that got millions of viewers in the UK. At one point World Of Sport was as much a part of British weekend culture as a Sunday Roast.
I would have been about 6 when I met my first wrestler at Burton Latimer Annual Fair - It was Fit Finlay when he was a heel with Princess Paula and while they clearly had to kayfabe around the adults and play up to his image he still took the time for at least a wink to the kids. For a tiny village in Northants it was a pretty big star to be coming and people came out to see him (we also had another couple of local guys like Blondie Barrett)
The "grannies with their handbags" or women like Diligaf describe were always there and it was as much part of the show as the smoke and pintglasses. It was normal to have "local" wrestlers - people your dad worked with or knew from the pub, especially the 70's and early 80's. Where a lot of the "mick taking" came was for liking the WWF-American style as that was more "ballet dancing" where as the UK sport still had some semblance of a contest with rounds etc.
ONL was perhaps the last major show we had of it's PPV size and quality, after that we tended to get lesser shows with questionable guest appearances... I can remember attending when Vinnie Jones was the "guest enforcer" doing his "Big Chris" gimmick from Lock Stock... rubbish run in and an "It's been emotional" and the card was pretty bad but as ever, the crowd lapped it up.
The kind of pops Owen and their ilk got from British fans isn't surprising as they always were drawn to cheer handsome, younger, exciting workers - hence why Davey Boy Smith was always so popular and Summerslam 92 was such a big deal - it wasn't because he was the British Bulldog in the WWF, or even part of the tag team but he had been on our screens since he was 15 as Young David teaming with Big Daddy, that he had gone on to be a star just added. Dads could take their kids and remember going to see Young David now headlining Wembley - Most England football games don't get near what that show got.
One thing that struck me one of the last RAW's I attended was how people I talked to on the night thought it odd that Ric Flair was SO over. I went to the Battle Royale At The Albert Hall in 91 and he was massively over then as well. Whenever British fans see someone who was that good, be they blue-eye or heel, British or American they would always respond...
Even now the independent scene is not huge in the UK, many shows I have seen recently are populated with guys who don't lack any desire to put on the best show they can but the scale, budgets and small crowds they draw will always make it seem "bush league". It's interesting that one of the better prospects on NXT is Paige/Brittani Knight who is part of perhaps the closest the UK has to the Hart family.
Personally I think TNA could do far worse than open a UK branch - get some guys like Burchill and Finlay involved with some name recognition and get a regular show onto Challenge - the TNA stuff at the moment is doing great guns,a UK regular promotion would at least raise the prospects for those who are putting shows on and working to improve and some of the cash/exposure could then trickle down and raise their production values and thus crowds.
