ITV's Celebrity Wrestling S01E08

Sun, Jun 12, 2005
Celebrity Wrestling is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in 2005. It involved two teams of celebrities, competing against each other in wrestling style events. The series was presented by Kate Thornton and Rowdy Roddy Piper. British mixed martial arts fighter Ian Freeman was the show's referee.
The aftershow programme on ITV2, called Celebrity Wrestling: Bring It On was presented by Jack Osbourne and Holly Willoughby. The winning team was The Warriors and the winning wrestlers were Annabel Croft (Solitaire) and Iwan Thomas (The Dragon).
It was received with a feeling of derision by professional wrestling fans, due to the lack of actual wrestling content. The show featured heavily upon games which involved grappling and the real life interactions of team members in training (and usually not the training process itself).
After five weeks the show was moved from its primetime Saturday evening slot to a graveyard Sunday morning slot due to its extremely poor ratings and being comprehensively beaten in audience share by Doctor Who on BBC One.
Crusaders
This team was trained by wrestler D'Lo Brown
Celebrity Ring Name
Jeff Brazier Pocket Rocket
Tiffany Chapman Princess of Power
Leilani Dowding The Vixen
Mikey Green Wild Boy
Michelle Heaton Inferno
James Hewitt Gentleman Jim
Jenny Powell The Avenger
Lee Sharpe Sharpe Shooter
Scott Wright Snake Eyes
Warriors
This team was trained by wrestler Joe Legend
Celebrity Ring Name
Marc Bannerman El Diablo
Annabel Croft Solitaire
Kate Lawler The Brawler
Shauna Lowry Tigress
Victoria Silvstedt Ice Maiden
Oliver Skeete Rebel Rider
Iwan Thomas The Dragon
Phil Turner The Handy Man
Mark Speight The Quickdraw Kid
Masked Celebrity
Each week there was a "mystery celebrity" who joined in the wrestling. The celebrities included:
Fatima Whitbread
John Fashanu
Neil Ruddock
Antonia Okonma
Terri Dwyer
Fran Cosgrave

[@RoyStantz]

According to an interview he did while appearing on The Sportsmen podcast as a guest in April 2022, D'Lo Brown said:
"For me, it was nice to be around guys like Roddy Piper and Joe Legend, and it was good to be around the celebrities on the show. I just know the concept of the show... most of the things we recorded and what made it to TV were two different things. I was proud of the show in the fact that they chose me to be part of it. I was not proud of what was played to the country.
I think we could have done a much better job. That wasn't Celebrity Wrestling, it was Celebrity American Gladiators. I think we cheated the British public by building one thing and giving them something else.
There was a little more, but it was more that when I got the concept of the show, I kind of pitched a couple ideas that got shot down which I thought would have been a little more appropriate for Celebrity Wrestling. But you know that's water under the bridge and that show faded like a shooting star. One week great ratings, then Doctor Who came out and we went... (whistles and points downward)
Doctor Who had been in this hiatus for years and in week two, boom, Doctor Who drops. Doctor Who is the dude in America, we think James Bond, Doctor Who, and Austin Powers represent England."

[@johnadams20132013]

remember watching this

[@capitainedr1952]

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