Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom spans over 100 years but became popular when the then new Independent Television station - ITV began showing it in 1955 firstly on Saturday afternoons and then also in a late night mid week slot. It was at its peak of popularity when the television show World of Sport was launched in the mid-1960s, making household names out of Mick McManus, Count Bartelli, Giant Haystacks, Jackie Pallo, Big Daddy, Steve Veidor, and Kendo Nagasaki. The sport remained a mainstay of British culture until World of Sport's cancellation and then finally as a stand alone programme until 1988. Despite the end of ITV coverage, a largely untelevised live circuit - with some promotions featuring the traditional British style of professional wrestling and others more fashioned after the contemporary American independent scene - survives and indeed thrives in this territory to the present day.
Famous quotes containing the words professional, wrestling, united and/or kingdom:
“... a supportive husband is an absolute requirement for professional women.... He is something she looks for, and when she finds him, she marries him.”
—Alice S. Rossi (b. 1922)
“We laugh at him who steps out of his room at the very moment when the sun steps out, and says: “I will the sun to rise”; and at him who cannot stop the wheel, and says: “I will it to roll”; and at him who is taken down in a wrestling match, and says: “I lie here, but I will that I lie here!” And yet, all laughter aside, do we ever do anything other than one of these three things when we use the expression, “I will”?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The Federated Republic of Europe—the United States of Europe—that is what must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. Economic evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Europe is to remain split into national groups, then Imperialism will recommence its work. Only a Federated Republic of Europe can give peace to the world.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)