Irish News, Features & Sport

What is No Limit Wrestling?

No Limit Wrestling (NLW) is an independent wrestling group, set up in 2006, showcasing the best professional wrestling talent in Ireland and occasionally playing host to well known wrestling superstars from around the world.

In 2006, Ireland had four independent wrestling groups. There was NWA-Ireland (National Wrestling Alliance), IWW (Irish Whip Wrestling), CPW (Celtic Pro Wrestling) and in the north of the country UCW (Ulster Championship Wrestling). It was when CPW Wrestlers Joey Cabray and Alex Breslin and myself, Jamie Colman grew tired of the direction the group was going creatively, that the idea for a new, innovative independent wrestling group came about.

Back then, all the aforementioned groups had training schools. And while trainees were receiving a fine wrestling education in all four schools, they were very much restricted to performing on shows staged only by the group with which they trained. None of the groups worked together, but rather all saw one another as competition. It was almost unheard of for a CPW Wrestler to perform on an IWW show. If they did, it would be considered that the individual was “jumping ship”. The idea that Breslin, Cabray and myself had was to create a place where trained performers could work outside their comfort zone. A place where it didn’t matter if you trained with NWA or UCW. A place where it wasn’t relevant if you considered yourself a CPW guy or an IWW guy. The best talent in the country would finally be under one roof on one show.

At the time, UCW was just beginning to recognise the talent south of the border and started to recruit a handful of CPW wrestlers to spice up their shows. They brought Joey Cabray, “All Star” Anthony Idol and female wrestler Alex Breslin to a couple of their shows and featured them in matches. This began a strong working relationship between Cabray & Breslin and UCW owners/wrestlers Dunkan Disorderly and Machine. The two Belfast born grapplers were among the first to be recruited for the newest promotion, which would be known as NO LIMIT WRESTLING.

Next, myself, Cabray and Breslin approached NWA-Ireland. It was vital that they allowed their trainees to compete on NLW shows as they had some of the best wrestlers in the country. The concept for NLW was to feature Ireland’s ‘best’ and we knew in order to do that, certain NWA trained performers had to be on the cards. Head trainer Paul Tracey was happy to work with us. We threw out some names we felt would fit in well on the show, and all were delighted to be on board.

There was some bad blood between Irish Whip Wrestling and pretty much all the other groups at the time. IWW kept to themselves. IWW ran on loyalty and it became evident that IWW bosses would frown upon anyone who worked with NLW. The only person who did was Georgie Mac (brother of Joey Cabray) who had been a regular IWW wrestler up until then. After agreeing to work with No Limit Wrestling, he was barely featured on any IWW shows again. Mac wanted work on his brother’s show and we welcomed him. Other than that, we respected IWW’s policy and didn’t approach “their” talent.

There was also some bad blood between NLW and CPW since all three No Limit bosses had walked out on CPW. In addition to that, another of CPW’s top stars at the time, “All Star” Anthony Idol also walked out on the group along with Breslin, Cabray and myself. CPW were short on wrestlers and we assumed owner Blake Norton would not want “his” wrestlers performing on the NLW shows. At that time, we felt CPW’s roster was weak anyway, and there wasn’t anyone who we “really wanted” on our shows. The one person who did end up appearing on the initial NLW show was manager Max Martello, who ended up being the only “CPW guy” on the initial NLW show.

The first No Limit Wrestling show was penciled in for August 19th 2006 in Dublin. Finally, fans would get to see the best wrestlers in the country under one banner. NLW was also going for a more edgy product. We would push the envelope a little with regards to wrestling style. We wanted our product to be more hardcore, more fast-paced and more edgy. This was an attempt to stand out. We made sure our ring looked different to all the other groups. We had a black canvas while all the others where white. We had slick red ring aprons and black ropes. We wanted a mix of different styles of wrestling. We wanted comedy. We wanted hardcore action. And we had all the tools there to do it.

Our main event was ground-breaking. For the first time ever the NWA Irish Heavyweight Championship would be defended on a show that wasn’t NWA produced. Sean “Maxer” Brennan put his title on the line against Dunkan Disorderly and “All Star” Anthony Idol in a 3 Way Dance. The opening match on the night pitted brother against brother as Joey Cabray faced Georgie Mac. In the match, Cabray was power-bombed from inside the ring, through a table on the outside of the ring. Bobby Lee Harm and Machine (now Bonesaw) had a hardcore brawl. They brought a shopping trolley full of weapons to the ring and beat each other senseless. This was a new type of live wrestling in Ireland and No Limit Wrestling was the first to do it. It was edgy. It was new. It was different. And it worked.

Today, NLW still boasts the best in the country and the NLW World Title is regarded as one of the most respected titles in Europe, having been defended in France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland and Bulgaria and even held by top names like Rob Van Dam.
Last year we welcomed Scotty 2 Hotty for our 5th anniversary show in September, and then Rhino in October. If you’ve never seen an NLW show before, be sure to check one out. We take pride in what we do and try to offer fans a ‘little bit of everything’. Find us on Facebook for info on all shows and indeed check back here soon!