If this has been brought up before I apologise and please direct me to the relevant sections. My biggest wrestling pleasure ar present is without a doubt the french site and I am awaiting the new wrestling bouts being posted on it on Wednesdays as much as Iuse to wait for the wrestling at four pm on Saturday. And it made me wonder ( sourly) what ITV had locked away in their vaults. And it also made me think.......I read somewhere a Mr Lister said they had lots certainly all their midweek televised wrestling as much as TEN YEARS worth. Most of this will be sixties and black and white. Does it not make you wonder what possible commercial value this as to ITV? I mean who would want to see it in 2021 except people like ourselves? And would it be possible to approach them collectively maybe as the Wrestling Heritage group to see if a deal could be done? The Wrestling Heritage site is fantastic and full of information of people who are dedicated to the history and social documentation of wrestling in the fifties, sixties etc. Hopefully we could set out our stall on that basis that wrestling heritage seeks to preserve this wrestling history and can we have copies of their recordings. In the past we know they have sold batches to cable channels but these have been more modern colour tv recordings. Hopefully we can appeal to them and they will understand. If they want shed loads of money then obviously this is a no go we don’t have it. But who knows? They might be willing to release them to us for an amount we could afford if we clubbed together? Or save up for if we have a target to aim for we could do it under a central wrestling a Heritage account. I know I would be willing to contribute. I know lots of you are very knowledgable and passionate about the subject is it not worth a try? You know if those recordings are deleted/ destroyed all we have left is memory which is not always the most reliable. Think about it, if my idea is pie in the sky please say I will not take personally. You know the BBC are notorious liars and are constantly when questioned say old programmes are deleted just to shut the public up. Done this with LOADS of series when the public have requested to see again, and did it with a 1971 series called SUNSET SONG by the famous Scottish author LEWIS GRASSIC GIBBON. But eventually the Lewis Grassic Gibbon Society approached the BBC and asked could they have a copy for their society and low and behold they were given it after denying it even existed any more! Now I don’t think ITV will just give the Wrestling Heritage copies but seeing this is a serious committed site might look on a request favourably and price it at somewhere we can aim to buy collectively between us anyone any thoughts?
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It happens all the time......they say it just to shut the public up! It’s more annoying with the BBC as we FUND THEM with our licence money what’s in their vaults we have a right to see. Their is a sort of poetic justice in that a lot of the DOCTOR WHO series of the nineteen sixties HAVE been deleted ( mainly the Patrick Troughton era) and now Doctor Who turned out to be a cash cow for them And they are appealing to THE PUBLIC for anyone who as by any means got recordings of sixties Doctor Who episodes. So far they have managed to get 5 or 6 episodes of a 12 part Master Plan of the Dalek‘s as you can imagine I wish them luck with that one....
It's a great idea but basically television organisations are greedy and would rather allow their assets to perish than part with them. I remember this topic being raised a few years ago on another site where a few fans had enquired to ITV directly and there reply was something like a charge of £500 per bout plus a search fee and a ban on public broadcasting. If only The Wrestling Channel had survived.
I remember quite a few years previous that ITV had always stuck to story that the early 1970s classic children's show " The Adventures Of Rupert Bear" had perished in a fire, and only 2 episodes remained. Then about 3-4 years ago Network tv released the entire series on dvd. So much for a fire eh!
I find ITV obstinacy RIDICULOUS. I was hoping we could have appealed to their better nature. Whilst I enjoy the french matches tremendously and it’s all we have of the late fifties early sixties I can’t believe they have a big audience, only interested fans and enthusiasts like ourselves! So why they are so highly priced is beyond me. Even them wanting to ‘control’ and limit licensing .....I guess that is more understandable but we are not talking about the Crown Jewels or some Spider-Man or Bat man franchise honestly I just don’t get it. I speculate and assume that when the BBC gave over copies of their filmed series SUNSET SONG ( after denying it still existed) to the Lewis Grassic Gibbon Society they had originally shown it on tv in 1971 realised it was now ‘dated’ would not be a big seller as a BBC DVD and let the GRASSIC Gibbon appreciation Society have It. They ( I assume) realised this was a society dedicated to the following of an important early twentieth century Scottish novelist just like Wrestling Heritage is for post war too eighties British professional wrestling.
Numerous wrestlers in the A-Z can only be seen in the French matches because of this ITV obstinacy
This subject comes up periodically. Story, as I understand it, was that ITV has a warehouse full of old stuff that is very much uncatalogued, although there is apparently an ongoing exercise to “digitise” it, so they probably have a better grasp now of what they actually have. Stumbling block was, I believe, that WWE wants outright ownership, whereas ITV is only interested in licensing for a fixed period.
At the time, McMahon was buying up all the wrestling tapes he could, starting with companies/promotions that he bought out. There are not many US TV wrestling shows that he doesn't own.
I remember reading that when Steve (William) Regal's character took off in WWE, McMahon thought that it would be good to buy up the World of Sport wrestling catalogue, so he could have footage of Regal, Dynamite, Finlay, Davey Boy, Chris Adams, Haystacks, etc., for compilation video's/DVD's and these days of course, streaming.
Anyway, I am sure he offered a small fortune, but was turned down.
Wow! Very surprised at the Vince McMahon as I would have thought their value was very limited In 2021, for the majority of people you could have to pay them to watch them, don’t understand why he would offer so much or why they would turn him down! But there you go! I guess that puts an end to that, what a shame. I always thought the best way to approach ITV was from an historical and cultural point of view show them with your brilliant posters etc what Wrestling Heritage is about. I always realised anything we could collect/ contribute to itv in monetary terms would not be great.
Vince McMahon, Billionaire owner of WWE Wrestling approached ITV to buy the entire catalogue of tapes for millions of dollars, and they turned him down.
I agree with the if you never ask Just mentioned, and also on the angle of this being a site that as a keen historical interest in that time, try and get them on board with ourselves and hope they will listen...sympathetically. I repeat that particularly the black and white ones I personally can’t see what commercial value they have to itv. Young folk, my nieces for example will not consider watching A black and white film! They role their eyes at films from the nineteen eighties and had not even heard of Diana Ross and the Supremes! Everything is of its time as is the wrestling. So maybe they would want loads of cash which would make it a no go.....but just maybe it could be within our grasp if we set up a fund and members saved Or gave what they could, I know I would. Hopefully they would be realistic ( ITV I mean) as I said I can’t see anyone banging down their doors for old black and white wrestling coverage even cable tv channels!
If you never ask, you'll never know. Certainly the guys over at
Wrestling Classics have done a deal on several occasions. There has to be a collective will though.
They have been approached in the past by various parties and the cost was expensively prohibitive