In 2018 the British and Irish wrestling scene is still expanding. Every week it seems a new company is popping up, each with their own vision and story. One such company that has been catching people’s attention is Breed Pro Wrestling. We reached out to Breed Pro Wrestling recently to find out their story.
Breed Wrestling is the latest addition to the #BRITWRES family. Show number one to be announced later this week. We feel we have found a venue that is the best kept secret on the scene and can't wait to showcase the very best talent this scene has to offer #adifferentbreed
— BREED Pro Wrestling (@BreedWrestling) September 24, 2018
On the 24th of September, Breed announced their arrival to the BritWres scene. Four days later they announced their debut show Sunday Night Yeet which will take place at the Abbeydale Picture House in Sheffield on February 10, 2019. While Sheffield gets the occasional PROGRESS Wrestling, Southside Wrestling Entertainment (SWE) and Defiant show, it has no major independent promotion that the Sheffield fanbase can claim as it’s own. This is something which the four friends behind Breed Wrestling want to change. We spoke with Mitch Smith, one of the Breed co-owners about why they decided to start up Breed Pro now. “We are four mates from Sheffield who love Pro Wrestling,” Smith told us. “For the last few years, our circle of friends have been jumping in the car and traveling to different promotions. We hit ATTACK!, PROGRESS, OTT, Fight Club Pro, ICW, Futureshock and lots more. We fell in love with the communities and made friends for life in each of the scenes that we hit. We would then come home to Sheffield and there was nothing, we get Southside a couple of times a year, PROGRESS come twice a year, we have EBW (Elite British Wrestling) which are great but are mainly a trainee promotion, but we have nothing which we can call our own.
#ADIFFERENTBREED isn’t a slogan or a gimmick for us. It’s something we want to use as a moral compass when promoting and planning Breed Pro. We are Pro Wrestling fans first and want to create a product that we would enjoy. Feel free to kick us if we don’t stick to our mantra. pic.twitter.com/kG1ESwzwkP
— BREED Pro Wrestling (@BreedWrestling) October 8, 2018
It is clear that a love for pro wrestling and the impact it can have on people’s lives is at the core of what the Breed Wrestling owners want this promotion to be. This became clearer when they described their aim for what they want Breed Wrestling to be. “Our aim is to bring World class independent pro wrestling to Sheffield every single month,” Smith continued. “We have found a beautiful venue in the Abbeydale Picture House and we are happy to build something special in there. The main aim is to just create a promotion that people can connect with. We want all our fans to be our scouts, we want them to feel part of our breed. Tweet us any talent that should be getting booked and we will give them a watch. We are already booking people who people don’t see much in this country”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04qigyntxqM&fbclid=IwAR00E2rlyhvZi01tdbkoDdAj3k25sxlR-Fj6RClohBXV4Pwwo0YFbSr7CLg
They weren’t lying when they said they are bringing in talent that you don’t see that much in the UK. They have already announced More Than Hype (Darren Kearney, LJ Cleary & Nathan Martin) for the World Trios league ,which also includes lesser seen talents like Curtis Murray, and the Kings Of The North (Damian Corvin & Bonesaw), as well as central European talents Dirty Dragan, Lucky Kid & Andre Carter. For their second show Never Fight A Man With A Perm (on March 17, 2019), they will bring Raven Creed and Club Tropicana (Captain Sexsea & Aiden Epic) to the UK for the first time in their careers.
https://twitter.com/IrishWrestling2/status/1055476456741130241
Not only is Breed interested in booking newer talent, but they also want to be a promotion that offers a platform for underutilized or underrated young talents. “We definitely want to invest our capital in bringing in the next big thing as opposed to the last big thing” Smith continued, and again they are not lying. Their first show, Sunday Night Yeet, will see them crown the first ever Breed Pro Champion with a tournament featuring criminally underrated names like Danny Jones, Spike Trivet, Man Like Beano and El Phantasmo, as well as more established names like Wild Boar, TK Cooper, Chuck Mambo and a newcomer in Germany’s Lucky Kid. They have also announced the New Breed Tournament, which is their effort to showcase the future and give these young talents somewhere else to ply their trade as they continue to develop. Talents such as Maverick Mayhew, Omari, Joe Nelson, Shay Purser, Alec Mikeals, JJ Barker, Connor Mills and The OJMO are featured in the New Breed division which we could look back on in a few years time as the starting point of someones rise to stardom.
We are on a crusade to bring World Class Independent Pro Wrestlers to Sheffield on the regular. Our first card is super stacked but this is a few names we want to bring to Breed Pro next year #workedforCody pic.twitter.com/xRAD74ILmm
— BREED Pro Wrestling (@BreedWrestling) October 12, 2018
We asked Mitch if Breed was looking to be a platform for the underappreciated or the unknown and he replied “it’s definitely a mixture of both. Our 8 man tournament has some of the most underrated guys in the country in my opinion. Then we have the New Breed division which I’m dead excited about. A division aimed at promoting up and coming talent, kicking off with Connor Mills vs Maverick Mayhew.”
“I want this division to build into something amazing,” Mitch continued, “we have the best scene in the world when it comes to the younger guys coming through and now we have doors opening with brands like NXT UK. I can see the talent coming through getting better and better and we hope to be a launching pad for a lot of that talent.” Breed have put their money where their mouth is, with the booking of Irish and Central European talent as well as young guys who will no doubt love the exposure of having a division built around them. This methodology is something which can help them stand out in the unbelievably crowded British wrestling scene “We just need to stand out and be different in the talent we book and how we present ourselves and hopefully we can carve our own little niche”
So, our goal was to bring World Class Independent Wrestling to Sheffield every month. Here is the main event. March 17th, St Paddy’s Day #NeverFightAManWithAPerm pic.twitter.com/LCVRUcZcFP
— BREED Pro Wrestling (@BreedWrestling) October 27, 2018
So with two shows announced and numerous exciting talents scheduled to appear Breed Wrestling is one of the most exciting new companies in the UK. They have the potential to build a fanbase in Sheffield that currently is starved of regular high-quality wrestling. If we haven’t won you over yet we’ll leave you with Breed’s closing statement to us. “We are on a revolution!” Mitch exclaimed proudly. “We are on a crusade to make the people of Sheffield as passionate about Pro Wrestling as we are when we go to the likes of Cardiff and Wolverhampton and see all the local community come together for pro wrestling. We definitely want to build a community like that in Sheffield. Pro Wrestling can be quite a reclusive hobby, it’s so niched it’s hard to find people who share that love, so if we can build that community then I will be one proud man. I have met friends for life in all these promotions and will still be going to just as many shows as I always have, but my message to the people who welcomed me into their communities whilst making towns is to pop to Sheffield and let me welcome you to my hometown. We are always on hand for travel and hotel advice. Fingers crossed on Feb 10th at the Abbeydale Picture House we can start our own legacy and give everyone a show that will kickstart something special.”
