Defiant Wrestling closes down

The former What Culture Pro Wrestling has officially closed its doors as of August 1, 2019.

A promotion birthed out of the popularity of What Culture’s wrestling YouTube channel, Defiant was founded in 2016 and quickly rose to the forefront of British wrestling.

A roster of some of the most prominent wrestlers in the U.K. came together and came out of the gates swinging as the company’s show on YouTube, WCPW Loaded, gained a ton of buzz.

The initial champion, Big Damo, now known as NXT’s Killian Dain, won the the WCPW Championship in a fantastic match against Defiant mainstay, Rampage Brown. The championship was held by many notable names over the past three years such as David Starr, Drew McIntyre, Austin Aries and Marty Scurll.

The company went through a dramatic shift in 2017 when the original stars and promoters of the company left What Culture and formed rival wrestling news site Cultaholic. WCPW then rebranded itself as Defiant Wrestling and shifted their focus in a different direction.

Defiant was hit big when WWE started offering NXT UK exclusive contracts, and Defiant was labeled as a company that contracted wrestlers could not wrestle for. The company attempted to turn into the skid though, as the focus was shifted to younger and newer stars such as Rory Coyle, Visage, Kanji and The South Coast Connection.

But sadly due to the loss of so many big names, a shift in the UK indie scene due to the the creation of NXT UK, and the loss of ad revenue from YouTube, Defiant has been struggling to survive and has sadly now folded as a company.

Fans will remember the company for putting on some incredible dream matches and for its ability to create a wave of new stars. Defiant will go down in history as a place where so many great talents were able to gain momentum and make the leap to the bigger stage.

Defiant Wrestling will be missed.