The National Wrestling has officially announced its first-ever fixtures, which will take place at the pre-season show in Middlesborough.
On June 21, the league will present a free event to hype the inaugural season, which will begin on August 9. At the show, representatives from all 6 teams will be in action at the show, with 2 singles matches and a tag team match set for the first-ever show under the National Wrestling League banner. The opening fixtures will see Manchester Manics vs. Midlands Destroyers, Northeast Outlaws vs Glasgow Hitmen, and London Executioners vs. Yorkshire Titans.
The pre-season matches will be friendlies, meaning that there will be no points at stake. When the league officially kicks off, representatives from each team will compete in wrestling matches similar to football rules. Contested in 2 7 and a half-minute halves, the matches will be Iron Man matches to see who can score the most falls. Competitors can score falls via pinfall, submission, count-out or disqualification.
The winning team from each fixture will earn 3 points for the league. Similar to league football, whoever has the most points at the end of the season will be declared the champions, and the lowest-scoring team will be relegated.
Speaking with Features of Wrestling about the league back in May, Glasgow Hitmen manager Kenny McIntosh gave his thoughts on the concept:
“I thought it was very intriguing. I thought it was very different from usual wrestling matches, and I think the idea of having these 15-minute Ironman matches, where you know you do seven minutes, you’ve got a minute half time essentially, then another seven minutes. There’s stakes to everything, and you can tell a lot of dramatic stories within that. So I think that that intrigued me. I think the red card and the yellow card is a fun twist. It’s not a gimmick that’s there for the sake of it. It’s there because I think it’s going to bring in the people who also like football and some of the experience of going to see a football match. So you’re going to get wrestling matches, but with a bunch of these football elements. The giant tunnel, which is going to look mental when people see it. It’s huge! We’re very aware of people going to shows and being disappointed by stuff, so we’re doing our best to make sure that when people do come along to the National Wrestling League, they’re not disappointed.”
National Wrestling League Pre-Season Fixtures:
- Joey Hayes [Manchester Manics] vs. Riley Nova [Midlands Destroyers]
- Tim Strange [Northeast Outlaws] vs. Hugo Harris [Glasgow Hitmen]
- Smashing Mike and Levi Muir [London Executioners] vs. Wesley Nsereko and Vusyk [Yorkshire Titans]
Featured image: National Wrestling League
