Wrestling Society X (WSX) is a short-lived American

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails mana ...

and professional wrestling-based television series created in 2006 by Big Vision Entertainment. The weekly television series formerly aired on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to shift its programm ...

, MTV Tr3s, and over a dozen other MTV outlets throughout the world. ''WSXtra'', an extra program featuring WSX matches and interviews not broadcast on television, was available on the promotion's MTV website and

Video on Demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

. WSX was presented as a

secret society A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ...

of wrestling that used a venue referred to as the WSX Bunker, complete with an artificially worn-out looking ring for its matchups. In matches held within this venue, falls count anywhere was the stipulation. The program also stood out due to its unorthodox approach to pro wrestling; this included frequent use of highly expressive

plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...

, crowd sound effects, electrical sound effects, visual effects, and camera shaking when a wrestler would fall prey to electrical weapons. Along with wrestling, WSX featured musical guests playing at the start of each television broadcast, with some band members joining the broadcast team (consisting of Kris Kloss and Bret Ernst) after the performance.

History

The WSX pilot was taped on February 10, 2006 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and all wrestlers present were forced to sign an agreement stating that they would take part in a full season if the show was picked up by MTV.

Delirious Delirious may refer to: * A state of delirium Film and television * ''Delirious'' (1991 film), an American comedy directed by Tom Mankiewicz, starring John Candy * ''Delirious'' (2006 film), an American comedy-drama directed by Tom DiCillo, sta ...

was not used at the taping due to his refusal to sign the agreement, as it would have prevented him from working for

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 prom ...

. On July 8, 2006, MTV commissioned the promotion to produce a full season of episodes for their network, and WSX taped its first season of shows between November 11 and November 16, 2006 in Los Angeles, California. The tapings were booked by head writer Kevin Kleinrock, Cody Michaels and

Vampiro Ian Richard Hodgkinson (born May 31, 1967), better known by his ring name Vampiro, is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler who most recently served as director of talent for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA). He also worked for Lucha Und ...

. The series premiered January 30, 2007 on MTV. It originally aired Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET, to compete with the second half of ''

ECW on Sci Fi ''WWE ECW'' (also known as ''ECW on Sci-Fi'' and later ''ECW on Syfy'', or simply ''ECW'') is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by WWE, based on the independent Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promoti ...

''. The WSX Championship was the only title featured and defended on the program, but announcer Kris Kloss hinted (towards the end of the series) at the arrival of WSX Tag Team Championships in the future during tag team matches and on the unaired season finale it was announced the creation of an X Division-style title for the second season. The fourth episode of the series was pulled by MTV after a

spot Spot or SPOT may refer to: Places * Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States * The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia * South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse People * Spot (produ ...

featuring

Ricky Banderas Gilbert Cosme Ramírez (born May 25, 1972) is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler, better known by his ring names El Mesías, Mil Muertes, Ricky Banderas and King Muertes. He began his career in the International Wrestling Association based in ...

throwing a

fireball Fireball may refer to: Science * Fireball (meteor), a brighter-than-usual meteor * Ball lightning, an atmospheric electrical phenomenon * ''Bassia scoparia'', a plant species Arts and entertainment Films * '' The Fireball'', a 1950 film starring ...

at Vampiro was deemed unairable by the network, but would air in edited form on February 27, 2007. On February 28, 2007, it was announced that ''Wrestling Society X'' had been canceled by MTV. A marathon of new episodes 5–9 aired on March 13, 2007, as MTV later announced that the marathon served as the season finale of WSX and was quietly removed from its scheduled slot on March 20 on MTV. A 10th episode which was set to be the original season finale never aired on television but was later released on the ''Wrestling Society X: The Complete First (and Last) Season'' DVD.

Episodes

MTV aired unadvertised previews of the first two episodes the Friday before they premiered at 11:00 pm ET. Prior to WSX debuting, this timeslot normally averaged a 0.10 rating. The first preview episode on January 26 drew a 0.43 rating, while the second preview episode on February 2 drew 0.50. MTV discontinued preview airings beginning with the third episode in hopes of maximizing ratings for the Tuesday broadcasts.

Home video

Wrestling Society X: The Complete First (and Last) Season DVD was released on November 13, 2007. The set features all 10 episodes, all 10 WSXtra episodes, deleted scenes and special features. All of the musical performances were edited out of the DVD set. Also on the DVD were scenes already recorded for the second season, including a season opener WSX Title Match between Ricky Banderas and Youth Suicide in a scaffold match and a feud between Nic Grimes and Mickie Knuckles.

WSX Championship

The WSX Championship was the only

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

in the short-lived promotion. A ten-man WSX Rumble, which aired on January 30, 2007, was held to decide the participants in the first WSX Championship match, with 6-Pac and

winning. On November 11, 2006 (aired February 6, 2007), Vampiro defeated 6-Pac with a Tombstone Piledriver inside an exploding coffin to become the first WSX Champion.411's WSXtra Report: Season 1, Episode 2
/ref> Rick Banderas defeated Vampiro on November 15, 2006 (aired March 14, 2007) with a Chokeslam into an exploding coffin wrapped in barbed-wire to win the WSX Championship. The promotion closed in March 2007, and Banderas was stripped of the championship on June 17, 2007. Statistically, Banderas held the title the longest. *A WSX Rumble match starts out as a

Royal Rumble The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming List of WWE pay-per-view and WWE Network events, event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named afte ...

match and when all the participants have arrived, the match then becomes a

Ladder match A ladder match is a type of match in professional wrestling, most commonly one in which an item (usually a title belt) is hung above the ring, and the winner is the contestant who climbs a ladder and retrieves the item. The ladder itself becom ...

Roster

References

External links

WSX.mtv.com
– Official website
MySpace.com/WrestlingSocietyX
– Official MySpace

– Ticket information

– Interview with Co-creator Houston Curtis

– Wrestling Society X DVD on Amazon * * {{MTVNetwork Shows Wrestling Society X, American professional wrestling television series 2007 American television series debuts 2007 American television series endings MTV original programming Professional wrestling in Los Angeles Independent professional wrestling promotions based in California