From fairground booths and the all-in boom to Saturday afternoons on ITV, British wrestling has a history as colourful as any sport in the country. This is where it’s told: the wrestlers, the promoters, the television years and the stories in between.
Explore by era
Round 1 1800s–1930
The early years
Catch wrestling, music halls and the first great stars, from fairground booths to Hackenschmidt.
Round 2 1930–1947
The all-in era
The anything-goes boom that packed halls, shocked the press and started a wrestling war.
Round 3 1947–1975
The golden age
The Mountevans rules, Joint Promotions and the rise of wrestling on ITV.
Round 4 1975–1988
The Big Daddy years
Max Crabtree’s takeover, Big Daddy’s reign and the last years of wrestling on ITV.
Round 5 1988 onwards
After ITV
Holiday camps, leisure centres and the generation that kept it alive without television.
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