In 2006, unknown Mark Dallas had an idea to run a wrestling company, after attending wrestling training to learn the craft from the inside, whilst living with his girlfriend in a high rise flat in Glasgow, Scotland. Fast forward several years and that company, known as ICW, Insane Championship Wrestling, has been home to many of the wrestlers you see today in WWE and is one of the most popular wrestling companies in the world, which you can see on the WWE Network.
How did Mark Dallas do this? The ‘mad scientist’ has openly said that it was one of the hardest things he has ever done, almost going out of business several times. Now it looks like there is no stopping them.
Dallas has been extra clever when it comes to recruitment from the get go. When ICW first started he brought in Drew Galloway (best known as Drew McIntyre) Wolfgang, Grado, Lionheart, Noam Dar, and BT Gunn to name a few.
It has been very challenging for all with there being serval hiatuses in 2007 and 2009, but arguably, their big break came in the form of their ‘Vice Magazine’ documentary in 2012. From there ICW would be named ‘U.K. Promotion of the Year’ by Fighting Spirit Magazine in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018.
In 2014 ICW got mainstream publicity when BBC conducted a documentary about them call ‘Insane Fight Club’ where they would follow Mark Dallas and his stars with the ins and outs of running a wrestling company. The program was so successful that BBC decided, a year later, so film a sequel to the documentary named ‘Insane Fight Club II’ which was just as successful as it’s prequel.
BBC would then green light a series called ‘Rogue To Wrestler’ which was a three part series to determine who could become ICW’s next star in the making. Mark Dallas would let his ‘mentors’ ICW legends Jack Jester and the late Lionheart help guide eight participants who come from tough backgrounds with no wrestling experience be put through their paces similar to WWE Tough Enough with the winner being awarded an ICW Contract.
As mentioned previously, ICW has prided itself in having the best wrestlers walk through their doors and has been home to many wrestlers who you see today on programmes such as WWE Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and especially NXT UK, aswell as legends within the wrestling industry, such as Kevin Nash, Finn Ballor, Jeff Jarrett, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Kurt Angle, Dudley Boys/Team 3D, Mick Foley, Sabu, Rey Mysterio, Rob Van Dam, Pete Dunn, plus many more. Even Still Game’s own Jack and Victor have stepped into the ICW squared circle.
Due to having these famous names aswell as developing their own names within the U.K. scene, ICW has seen its crowds increase from a couple hundred in bingo halls to selling out Scotland’s biggest indoor arena, the 14,000+ seated SSE Hydro. In 2015 ICW launched its very own On-Demand service and is now part of the WWE Network.
With the U.K. scene now at it’s all time highest, and ICW’s working relationship with WWE there is no end to the rise of this fantastic company. The amount of stars ICW has already gave us excites me to think what the future holds for the wrestling scene and being born in Scotland myself, makes me proud that we, Scotland, have one of the most influential wrestling companies in the world today. We all need to take a moment, appreciate and thank Mark Dallas, and the superstars for their determination and effort in making ICW what it is today.
Check out our official store at PRO WRESTLING TEES, show us your support and buy a shirt. You can visit our store by clicking here.
Make sure to follow us on Twitter @BodySlamNet and on Instagram @BodySlamDotNet
Also check us out on Facebook and give us a like and share by clicking HERE.
