What’s the story?
Back in 2006, when Mark Dallas founded Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW), a British promotion based in Glasgow, Scotland, he’d never have imagined a scenario where pro-wrestling giant WWE would want to associate itself with his promotion.
In 2017, the WWE-ICW partnership seems to be a realistic possibility, after several on-again-off-again negotiations. But there’s a catch, the WWE wants the ICW management to make sure it has written agreements that permit the usage of the various entrance songs that are utilised by the European pro-wrestling company.
According to several reports courtesy the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the WWE is serious about finalising a deal with ICW to air ICW’s content on the WWE Network.
In case you didn’t know...
Insane Championship Wrestling is a decent pro-wrestling promotion in the European circuit, that has seen the likes of Drew Galloway, Mickie James, Bram, Hardcore Holly, Brian Kendrick, Rockstar Spud, Sabu, Rhino and many other international pro-wrestling veterans as well as local talents, compete inside the ring.
The heart of the matter
With the advent of the WWE Network in 2014, the world’s premier pro-wrestling organisation has been securing deals with several regional organisations all over the world, giving the smaller ones an opportunity to showcase their roster’s talents to the world with the international digital platform- the WWE Network.
Now the catch is that WWE executives want ICW to streamline the usage of ‘Entrance Music’ in its events, which involves the music used in the entrances of popular international stars such as Bram and Drew Galloway, as well as mid-tier stars such as Grado amongst others.
However, ICW is known to be a bit flexible, so to speak, as far as the entrance music for its wrestlers is concerned; utilising songs played by a wide variety of artistes both international and local, at times without acquiring the usage rights from said artistes.
And it goes without saying that such an approach leads to several Music Label Trademark violations, something that wouldn’t be a good look for a global promotion like the WWE when it associates itself with ICW.
What’s Next?
With all the talk about the WWE-ICW deals potentially falling through owing to the aforementioned reason, one would think that all is lost for the Scotland-based promotion. However, the European promotion headed by Mark Dallas isn’t stupid to let a lucrative deal with WWE fall through.
Pro wrestling fans can expect an official announcement of the WWE-ICW’s new 2017 deal in the next couple of weeks.
Sportskeeda’s take
It’s essential to note that ICW is well-known for the live music played by local artistes. The theme song of ICW is ‘Crank’ by Glasgow band Psyko Dalek. Apart from the entrance music, ICW showcases some of the more decent in-ring talents on the Euro pro-wrestling circuit and a partnership between Dallas and the WWE head honchos can help showcase more European talent on an international platform.
In fact, the WWE used ICW wrestlers for its United Kingdom Championship Tournament last month. Not a bad way for ICW to start off 2017 at all. Stay tuned in for more happenings in the world of pro-wrestling and the WWE Universe.
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