''Pro Wrestling Pride'' (Sometimes referred to as ''Pride Promotions'', or simply PWP) was a pro wrestling company based in the South West of England, established in 2012 by professional wrestler Darren 'Saviour' Ferguson. Since its inception in 2012 until its demise in 2017, the company promoted a range of shows; utilizing events through

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...

, and occasionally in wider

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Style

The promotion is well known for its liberal use of United Kingdom-based wrestlers, and international stars (Such as

Jim Duggan James Edward Duggan Jr. (born January 14, 1954), better known by his ring name "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE on a Legends contract. His best-known character is that of an American patriot, which ...

, Mr. Anderson and

Rob Van Dam Robert Alexander Szatkowski (born December 18, 1970) is an American professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam (frequently abbreviated to RVD). He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

). The style of the events can be best described as traditional

sports entertainment Sports entertainment is a type of spectacle which presents an ostensibly competitive event using a high level of theatrical flourish and extravagant presentation, with the purpose of entertaining an audience. Unlike typical sports and games, whi ...

, with events designed to be 'fun for all ages', suitable for families, as opposed to the more 'extreme' or alternative style which is marketed at older viewers (See

Extreme Championship Wrestling HHG Corporation, doing business as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), was a professional wrestling promotion and media company that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wrest ...

Catch Division Wrestling

The company is also different from other similar wrestling companies for its 'catch division' championship. Rather than a midcard title based on a weight (Such as

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba ...

's Junior Heavyweight Championship, or

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nati ...

's Cruiserweight championship), and is more in line with

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promo ...

X-Division The X Division is a high-flying, high-risk, fast-paced style of professional wrestling seen in Impact Wrestling (formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) and since then in various NWA member promotions. Its tagline is that "It's not about weight ...

Championship; which stated the division was 'not about weight limits, it's about no limits!" The catch division, was likely originally designed as a showcase of

catch wrestling Catch wrestling (originally catch-as-catch-can) is a classical hybrid grappling style and combat sport. It was developed by J. G. Chambers in Britain . It was popularised by wrestlers of travelling funfairs who developed their own submission ...

; rather than high-flying wrestling, with well known grapplers

Johnny Kidd (wrestler) John Lowing (born 20 September 1955) is a retired British professional wrestler best known under the ring name Johnny Kidd. Kidd was best known for his work during what was known as the Golden Era of British Wrestling. Professional wrestling ...

and Doug Williams winning the title. The style however, has changed over the duration of the belt's longevity; with the aforementioned catch style, with a mix of luchador,

Puroresu is the predominant style of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of , which is shortened to puroresu. The term became popular among English-speaking fans due to Hisaharu Tanabe's ac ...

and even more 'extreme styles'. This is reflected in the match types contested for this championship; with "catch as catch can" wrestling style (See Mountevans Rules),

Luchas de Apuestas Lucha libre (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term used in Latin America for professional wrestling. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form ...

and even

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

matches. The division's prize is a catch division trophy, and not a traditional belt.

History

Formation

Pride was founded in 2012 by Darren Ferguson. Having been an independent wrestler since 2009 under the ring name 'Darren Saviour' wanted to create a brand of pro wrestling for the South West of England. The name of the company was designed not to be territorial, and thus given the name Pride; in direct comparison to the local companies Devon Wrestling Association, and Plymouth Wrestling Alliance (Now Association). The companies first show was actually not an official production under the Pro Wrestling Pride banner. It was a mixed boxing and professional wrestling show based in the Plymouth Guildhall named 'Plymouth Prizefighters 2'. The event was not advertised as a Pride event; however the event was agreed as

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

in the companies history as it was featured on the companies YouTube channel and could be considered a pilot episode. The 'Prizefighters' name would go on to be used for the companies annual knockout tournament (See "Early Years") The first show advertised under the Pro Wrestling Pride name took place on 13 May 2012, in Fergusson's home town of

Teignmouth Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at th ...

; which featured the companies' first championship match; with Tyler Hawke besting 'Wild Boar' Mike Hitchman for the PWP Catch Division Championship. It was also notable for local Devon wrestler

Joel Redman Joel Pettyfer (born 21 February 1987), is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Joel Redman. Pettyfer is best known for his work on the independent circuit in the United Kingdom, where he is a former Unified British Tag ...

having his last match in the UK on the show before signing with

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

under the

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * ''WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * ''NXT UK'', the British spin- ...

brand. Redman would later return to the UK in 2015 having been the first NXT Tag Team Champions with partner

Adrian Neville Benjamin Satterley (born 22 August 1986), better known by his ring name Pac, is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he was the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Champion. He is one-third of the ...

Early Years (2012-14)

PWP would run two more shows in 2012, the events taking place in the Carlton Theatre, Teignmouth. These events would take place on the 25/26 August weekend; and would feature US based wrestler Josef Von Schmidt. Schmidt would defeat Tyler Hawke for the championship during the weekender, and defend the championship in the United States against A. R. Fox. The PWP Heavyweight Championship was also established won by Crediton wrestler Chris Andrews in a fatal-4 Way Match. In 2013, the company would branch out to new towns, cities and venues. Running shows in Exeter (Exeter Corn Exchange) establishing the PWP Tag Team Championships, Totnes (Totnes Civic Hall), featuring the companies first No Disqualification Match - With a Texas Tornado Tag Team Match and

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

( Town Hall.) This trend would continue through 2014; with the 'adrenaline rush' tour, with three new locations in three days; before the brand's first venture outside of Devon. The show was to take place in

Saltash Saltash (Cornish: Essa) is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Corn ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, and would be the first instance of the annual 'Prize Fighters' Tournament, an 8-person

Single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

in the span of one night; reminiscent of the

King Of The Ring King of the Ring was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event produced by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. The PPV event was held annually in June and was established in 1993 when the promotion ...

Tournament. May 2014 had to date the companies' only

match; with a championship vs mask "I Quit" match for the Catch Division Trophy. However, the match ended with a traditional title change, and not an unmasking. The match would take place at 'Pride and Glory 2014', an event that has marked the companies spiritual anniversary every year, if not its chronological anniversary. Before the end of 2014, Pride held an event featuring former

alumnus Raven, promoting the show as the stars final event in the UK. At the time, the star had not wrestled for over a year, and had considered retiring. Raven would actually return to Pride two year later; having only wrestled in the United States in between.

Heroes and Legends

Late in 2014, Pride would return to Saltash, and promote a match between then Catch Division Champion Dick Riley, and Ring Of Honor Television Champion

Jay Lethal Jamar Shipman (born April 29, 1985), better known by the ring name Jay Lethal, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Dubbed "The Franchise" of Ring of Honor, Lethal is a two-time ROH World Champio ...

for both championships. Despite neither championship changing hands, this is the first instance of an outside championship being defended on a Pride wrestling event. This would be followed by a TNA Tag Team Championships Match in 2015, with

The American Wolves The American Wolves are a professional wrestling tag team which consisted of Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. They are seven-time world tag team champions being five-time TNA World Tag Team Champions and two-time ROH World Tag Team Champions. ...

defending. With the size of crowds escalating, the next project had been conceived; known as 'Heroes & Legends' (Sometimes shortened to ""H&L", an event with multiple high-profile wrestling stars, and

WWE Hall Of Fame The WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame which honors professional wrestlers and professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Originally known as the "WWF Hall of Fame", it was created in 1993 when André the Giant was posthumously i ...

members. Featuring

Rockstar Spud James Michael Curtin (born 30 January 1983) is an English former professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE as a writer on Raw. During his time as an on screen performer in the company, he worked under the ring name Drake Maverick. ...

Chris Masters Christopher Todd Mordetzky (born January 8, 1983) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) under the ring name Chris Adonis as a member of Strictly Business. He is a former two-time National Ch ...

Roderick Strong Christopher Lindsey (born July 26, 1983), better known by his name Roderick Strong, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand, as the leader of Diamond Mine, but is currently inactive due t ...

the event was a success; with over 800 in attendance, over double the size of any Pride crowd before it. The event also saw multiple time TNA World Heavyweight Champion Mr. Anderson win the Pride Heavyweight Championship, although he would lose the championship four weeks later in Truro. With the success of "H&L"; the second titled show was designed for later that year. This event featured a main event of

Rhyno Terrance Guido Gerin (born October 7, 1975) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Rhyno or Rhino. He is currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he is one-half of the Impact World Tag Team Champions in his secon ...

against Steve Griffiths for the championship, as well as a plethora of talent, including Hall Of Famer

Ted DiBiase Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is currently signed to WWE working in their Legends program. DiBiase achieved championship ...

. The event would catch on, and become a bi-annual event.

Growth, Hiatus & Eventual Demise (2016-2017)

Towards the end of 2015, Pride would do its first show outside of Devon or Cornwall, where they would appear in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

; which would then hold three shows in January with

Kenny Omega Tyson Smith (born October 16, 1983), better known by the ring name Kenny Omega, is a Canadian-born professional wrestler. Omega is an executive vice president of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), in which he also performs. Omega is a former one-ti ...

(who would be awarded a 5-star match by Pro Wrestling Illustrated that year) and WWE Hall of Famer Tatanka, July featuring

in front of over 800 people, and in October with

Adam Rose Raymond John Leppan (born 20 July 1979) is a South African retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE under the ring name Adam Rose. Making his debut on the South African independent circuit in 1995, Leppan signed with ...

Pride would promote 25 shows in the year of 2016, despite taking the month of November off. Pride would also introduce a female only championship; with Nadia Sapphire winning the Pride Women's Championship in October 2016. However, despite crowd attendances growing and United Kingdom wrestling being its strongest since the 1980s, increasing competition and heightened number of events required more events to feature international wrestlers than ever before. This in turn effected Pride and in September 2017, the company fell into hiatus as owner Darren Ferguson placed the company in a state of hiatus owing to debts surrounding the shows. Despite saying that he would be "closing down all future live events", he has also stated that the company would start up again once issues had been resolved. The company's last shows before the hiatus included a three-day tour with shows in

, Launceston and Plymouth, with the last being the 5th iteration of the Heroes and Legends event. These shows included guest appearances from

Simon Gotch Seth Lesser (born October 18, 1982) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Simon Gotch. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he held the NXT Tag Team Championship as one-half of The Vaudevillains along with A ...

, Carlito and Joey Ryan.

International Events

Despite being a regional touring product; based in the South West of England, Pride has promoted shows in Europe outside of the UK. The first of these, being the 2015 international Brussels Tattoo Convention, and then again in February 2016 taking a team to co-promote two shows in Lisbon based Centro De Treinos De Wrestling. The team they would take included regular Pride members Saviour himself, Jigsaw,

Ultimo Tiger Glen Ferguson (born 4 June 1990) better known by his ring name Ultimo Tiger is a Scottish professional wrestler currently active in the United Kingdom. Ferguson, originally from Glasgow, Scotland started his in-ring career in 2013 in Devon. Ferg ...

, Cy Gregory and even Senior Referee Ed Dyer.

Championships and accomplishments

Pro Wrestling Pride Championship

*Current champion:

Bram Bram may refer to: People * Bram (given name) * Bram (surname) * Bram (wrestler) (born 1986), ring name of professional wrestler Thomas Raymond Latimer * Bram Tchaikovsky (born 1950), stage name of British musician Peter Bramall * Bram Stoker Iris ...

Pro Wrestling Pride Catch Division Championship

*Current champion: Tyler Hawke

Pro Wrestling Pride Tag Team Championship

*Current champion: The Professionals (Joshua Knott &

)

Pro Wrestling Pride Women's Championship

*Current champion: Bobbi Tyler

Pride Prizefighters Tournament

*2017 Winner: Eddie Ryan *2016 Winner: Eddie Ryan *2015 winner: Steve Griffiths *2014 winner: Darren Saviour

References

External links

Pro Wrestling Pride official website

Pro Wrestling Pride official Facebook Page

Pro Wrestling Pride official Twitter account
{{Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom British professional wrestling promotions 2012 establishments in England