Life is incredibly difficult for so many of us right now. Costs are soaring while wages remain static. It feels like it costs £70 a day just to wake up and go to work, never mind thinking about doing something fun.

Gigs, live sports and even comedy should come with the proviso that you’ll have to “do without” something over the next fortnight if you buy a ticket.

When someone can promise you a night of entertainment for an entry fee of five Great British pounds, it makes you sit up and take notice. When it’s a British wrestling show, at a time when other companies are charging a hefty portion of a weekly shop to attend, it grabs your attention.

The National Wrestling League announced themselves with a lot of fanfare earlier this year promising big names and innovation. The latest endeavour of the artist formerly known as Dragon Aisu, among others, the NWL were going to blend the excitement of professional wrestling with the sporting aspects and tribalism of football.

Yes, you heard that right. Wrestling and football. I was incredibly skeptical, too. How are they going to attempt that? Well, strap yourselves in…

There are six “teams”. The North East Outlaws, the Yorkshire Titans, the Manchester Maniacs, the Glasgow Hitmen, the London Executioners and the Midlands Destroyers. Very Pro Evolution Soccer.

The six teams will compete across a season (hence the matchweeks) to determine the league winners. There’s potential for relegation and new teams to enter the league should the format prove successful.

Each matchweek will see a range of singles and tag matches between the six teams. You with me so far? Cool, this is where it gets a little tricky.

Every match, whether it is singles or tag, are held under the same ruleset. Each contest will last for 15 minutes with a half-time “break” at the 7 and a half minute mark. The winner is decided by who can accrue the most “decisions” – pinfalls, submissions, count outs or disqualifications.

Referees are able to dish out yellow and red cards for rule breaking. 2 yellows or a straight red will hand a “decision” to your opponent.

At the end of the match, the team with the most decisions wins. Winning gets you 3 points, a draw gets you 1 and losing gets you nothing.

It’s a lot of information to take in. Even the announcing team of Tom Campbell and Joanna Rose got a bit muddled up when informing the crowd beforehand.

Once you’ve seen one match, it’s actually quite simple to follow, but we’ll get onto that shortly.

The other thing that had me extremely skeptical, outside of the concept, was the fact that NWL have gone BIG on venues. In their first slate of shows they will visit the Vertu Motors Arena (Newcastle), the Bowlers Exhibition Centre (Manchester) and the Playsport Arena (East Kilbride).

I’ve been to a lot of boxing and MMA in the Newcastle and Manchester venues. They’re capable of holding thousands of people. You get some incredibly hostile, rowdy atmospheres in them when they’re full up. When they’re not, it’s like being in a ghost town.

Hence the £5 tickets. There were “premium” options for floor seats but the vast majority of bleacher seating was available for £5 a pop. Even with the £3.65 service fee on the arena website (mental), a family of four could’ve had a night out at the wrestling for £25.60.

Just for a quick comparison, it’d cost £41.34 for two parents and two kids to watch the new Paw Patrol film at my local cinema.

That level of financial accessibility paid off in terms of attendance for the show in Newcastle, with *at the very least* 1600 people in the building and some of the talent quoting 1800-1900.

That’s likely going to be the second biggest independent wrestling attendance we will see on these shores this year. Kudos.

There isn’t an independent company leaning more heavily into merchandise than the National Wrestling League either. They’ve got it all. Official footy shirts for each team, hats, posters, matchday programmes and trading cards, THE LOT.

That’s how they’ll offset the low ticket prices. The trading cards especially looked popular, with the bleachers littered with opened packaging.

Anyway, onto the show itself.

Preseason Friendly: North East Outlaws 1- 2 Midlands Destroyers

Before the season officially kicked off, a “preseason friendly” was held between George Hunter and Riley Nova.

Not only did this give the crowd a clear goody vs. baddy dynamic to get the ball rolling for the night, this also served as a really good introduction to the concept and ruleset.

We saw how the card system would be enforced when Nova was booked for failing to break a hold, and how the timings can be manipulated when Nova “time wasted” after being pinned by Hunter to make it to half-time. This halted Hunters momentum, with Nova gaining the upper hand in the second half and going up 2-1 after a GTS.

The match ended with Hunter setting himself up for a top rope attack but Nova managed to roll out of the ring as the time elapsed further highlighting the importance of clock management.

This kind of introductory match is a must-do on every show for the promotion with them spreading themselves out between different areas. They are going to be in front of fresh eyes each time.

Matchweek 1: London Executioners 3 – 3 Manchester Maniacs

The first season of the National Wrestling League then officially kicked off with the Godfather and Prince Ameen leading the London Executioners to the ring. The Godfather is bankrolling the Executioners and Ameen is their manager. Yeah, every team has a owner and manager as well.

Rather than the match itself, which ended in a 2-2 draw between the Executioners and the Maniacs, the main point of interest in this contest was the surrounding cast of characters particularly Ameen and Godfather.

I wouldn’t normally be supportive of a wrestling match where the least important people were the wrestlers in the ring, but it did highlight some of the pathways that NWL can go down from a storyline angle.

With the Manchester team of Ricky Regan and Nathan Fisher holding a 2-1 lead at the break, Godfather threatened to fire Ameen as manager during the half-time interviews if performances didn’t improve.

A bit of hair dryer treatment from the WWF cult hero sparked the Executioners into action, with quick pinfalls for both Smashing Mike and Levi Muir. It worked a bit too well on Ameen though who, with his side 3-2 to the good, decided to slide a chair into the ring to finish the job.

When the ref spotted Muir with the chair, he quickly brandished a red car, tying things up at 3-3. Proper own goal stuff.

As the match ended in a draw, Godfather gave Ameen further stick and demanded that he rectify his mistake later in the night as the crowd chanted “you’re getting sacked in the morning”.

Matchweek 1: Midlands Destroyers 1 – 2 North East Outlaws

It’s funny to me that Tim Strange is both a deathmatch specialist and a family crowd favourite. The duality of man indeed. Brady Phillips, representing the Midlands Destroyers, could walk into any company in Europe and you wouldn’t bat an eyelid so this made for a really strong contest.

The first-half was all about how Brady, who is usually cast as the powerhouse in the majority of his matches, simply couldn’t budge the big-ass cowboy.

1-0 down at half-time, Phillips switched tactics after a discussion with his manager Frankie Sloan and went for the underhanded approach. He attacked Strange’s leg with his own cowbell, leaving the big fella compromised for the rest of the match. That led to Strange being unable to beat the ten count, giving Phillips a decision via countout.

Brady then sacrificed a yellow card to hold onto an ankle lock in spite of the rope break, further compromising Strange. While a red card can obviously sway the outcome of a match, crafty veterans like Phillips can exploit the system, in the same way a footballer might make a “professional foul” to give their side the upper hand in the long run.

This felt like the first bout where the crowd cared, outwith the geography or simply boo/yaying about the outcome so it was good to see Strange score the win with a huge lariat.

Matchweek 1: Glasgow Hitmen 2 – 2 Yorkshire Titans

Grado is still the GOAT. Nobody has got more out of British wrestling in the 21st century. He doesn’t have to wrestle and when he pops in from time-to-time, he’s still the biggest deal on the scene. The Council Estate Big Daddy.

This match should’ve been Grado, BT Gunn and Kez Evans against the Titans team of Nsereko, Vusyk and D-Lo Brown, but D-Lo was dealing with an injury so he had sent replacements to compete in the match and to manage the team in his stead. The replacements were Eugene and Andre Chase.

Booking Eugene in 2026 is a weird one. There is of course the discussion about whether it’s “right” to even have him on a show at all – with RevPro receiving heavy criticism for featuring him in their Rumble last year -and I understand both sides of the argument.

Nick Dinsmore is pretending to have some form of impairment. That will make a lot of people uncomfortable, angry and hurt.

I’ve also got first-hand experience of working with young people with special educational needs and difficulties who have been able to identify with the Eugene character.

There’s also a bit of “who is this for?” with him. NWL are clearly targeting families with their presentation and prices, so the old WWF guys like D-Lo and Godfather make sense for the nostalgia hit. Andre Chase is fresh off being released by WWE so he’s a name for the younger/newer fan. I guess Eugene is a nostalgia hit now? (GOD, I’M OLD).

Your mileage is going to vary on Eugene. For me, it was an excuse to beat the crowds before the interval, go to the toilet and grab some food + drink. As each fall is announced by Joanna Rose or Tom Campbell, it wasn’t hard to keep track of things while I waited for my refreshments (the half flat pint of fruity cider cost more than admission).

A 2-2 draw ended in some post-match handbags which at least added some spice into the Hitmen vs. Titans match later in the night.

Matchweek 1: Manchester Maniacs 1 – 2 London Executioners

I’m not sure if the whole Eugene thing had left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth or if it was the bad pint, but this match felt like all of my misgivings around the National Wrestling League were bottled up into one 15 minute spectacle.

Despite setting up the Executioners as primarily bad guys in the opening match and with Ameen’s job security hanging in the balance, it was actually Joey Hayes of the Maniacs who took on the baddy role here.

Outside of the context of the previous match, this would’ve been enjoyable because Joey Hayes is class at what he does and Tommy Tanner looks the business. It just didn’t click with me because I don’t want to cheer anyone on Ameen’s team. I want him to get the sack.

Papa Shango turned up at halftime and got involved in the decisive decision, attacking Hayes and Maniacs manager Nathan Fisher, allowing Tanner to get the pin. Seeing Papa Shango was cool, at least.

Matchweek 1: Yorkshire Titans 3 – 1 Glasgow Hitmen

Rampage Brown is some fella. If Rampage Brown hadn’t been involved in the next match, I genuinely might’ve darted for an earlier train, but I would watch Rampage Brown wrestle thin air.

I don’t think anyone “got” the concept as well as Rampage Brown and his partner in this match, Luke Menzies (FKA Ridge Holland). They were a constant threat to score decisions and they looked to wrap up as many as possible, using their power moves from the off.

The handbags from the previous Hitmen vs. Titans fixture led to a heated match-up that got me right back into things.

There were yellow and red cards aplenty as the ref lost control of the contest, with interference from both Hitmen manager Kenny McIntosh and Titans caretaker Andre Chase, before Rampage was given a red card for putting his hands on the ref in frustration. This sparked a full team brawl, with Wolfgang also receiving a red card for attacking Chase.

Both Chase and McIntosh were sent off and ejected from the touchline, before the Titans truly took over the match, scoring two quick pinfalls to get the most decisive win of the night.

Rampage and Menzies could’ve “parked the bus” so to speak at 2-1, but getting that third decision might end up being incredibly important as the season goes on.

Matchweek 1: Midlands Destroyers 3 – 2 North East Outlaws

If the other host teams are as popular as the North East Outlaws were in Newcastle, NWL are onto a winner. In the main event, Martin Kirby faced Joseph Conners, where a Kirby win would see the Outlaws claim top spot in the league at the end of the first matchweek.

This was widely marketed as a nod to Conners and Kirby’s match in WCPW a decade ago.

Cards on the table, I was never a WCPW/Defiant Wrestling fan. I have no idea about that particular companies’ history or lore.

However, plenty of people in Newcastle were – Martin Kirby had more partisan support than Grado here – and they were entirely bought into the Outlaws topping the league.

When Kirby hit Kirby’s Dreamland (his version of the Famouser) and pinned Conners to tie the scores at 1-1, it was the first moment of the night that was cheered like a goal.

Easily the best match of the night because of how captivated the crowd were and how Conners and Kirby capitalised on that, the momentum swung this way and that keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats.

Kirby scored another pinfall to make it 2-1 before Destroyer’s manager Frankie Sloan distracted the referee, which allowed Conners to shove Kirby into the ref. The ref, believing Kirby had hit him on purpose, gave the Outlaw’s star man a red card to make it 2-2. PROPER GOOD SHENANIGANS.

In my opinion, Sloan was the most effective manager on the night and he genuinely pissed me off when he prevented Kirby from hitting the Zoidberg Elbow.

I’ve not seen Martin Kirby live in years. All I wanted to see was a Zoidberg Elbow. That hurt, Frankie. That hurt.

My annoyance was nothing compared to the rest of the crowd when Conners rolled Kirby up to take the lead at 3-2. Then to cap it off, as Kirby landed another Kirby’s Dreamland as the clock ticked down, Conners smartly rolled out of the ring and scored the win for the Midlands Destroyers.

Brave move to build up the hometown team all night, with the most popular man on the team poised to put them top of the league, and send the crowd home unhappy. Dig it.

Kirby got a manner of revenge on Sloan afterwards but revenge doesn’t equal points.

Final Whistle

Overall, I found the first matchweek of the National Wrestling League to be an enjoyable experience. It might become tiresome to constantly talk about the price, but to have seen the likes of Rampage Brown, Martin Kirby, Grado, Joey Hayes and Brady Phillips for a fiver can’t be knocked.

There are promotions with far worse production values charging far more to watch talent that isn’t as well-known, experienced or frankly, as talented.

The variety in managers and how they can effect proceedings is one of the most interesting aspects to me. Frankie Sloan, as a storied veteran who has seen and done it all, knows all the tricks of the trade whereas North East Outlaws’ manager Stevie Aaron as an announcer by trade, isn’t likely to get physical.

Nathan Fisher being in charge, while also competing, gives the Manchester Maniacs a clear disadvantage especially when they come up against Prince Ameen who’d scam your Gran out of her pension.

It’s also a major thumbs-up if the company can act as a platform for the next wave of talent like George Hunter to perform in front of massive crowds.

There are certainly things to they need to tighten up, with timekeeping being one. They were late to start, had a nearly 30 minute interval to account for Meet and Greet photos and then finished past the advertised 9pm finish time.

Though the crowd was at its loudest for the main event, hundreds of people left following the Titans/Hitmen tag as we closed in on 9pm. That needs sorting especially with them running on a Sunday in Manchester, outside of the school holidays, in a venue that is a carry-on to get to and from.

Whether they’ll convert the flocks of fans in Newcastle into a band of hardcore, tribalistic “footy fans” is another thing. I certainly won’t be having an awayday to Manchester or Scotland but I am contemplating taking my Grandma to the show in Middlesbrough later in the year.

The shows are going onto YouTube but I imagine their long-term future is more likely to be as a special “night out at the wrestling” for families that rolls into the local area every six months rather than a go-to regular destination for hardcore fans. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

When you get past the wacky concept, the cheesy team designs and the suspect music, what the National Wrestling League are doing is making professional wrestling accessible for everyone.

You can’t argue with that.

Image Credits: The National Wrestling League