All Star Wrestling

Acronym	ASW
Founded	October 1970
Style	British wrestling (Mountevans rules)
Headquarters	Birkenhead, England
Founder	Brian Dixon
Owner	Joseph Dixon
Formerly	All Star Promotions Big Time Wrestling Super Slam Wrestling Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead
Website	linktr.ee/allstarwrestlinguk

All Star Wrestling (ASW), also known asSuper Slam Wrestling (SSW), is a Britishprofessional wrestling promotion founded by Brian Dixon in 1970 and based inBirkenhead, England. Founded asWrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead in October 1970, it has also been known over the years asAll Star Promotions andBig Time Wrestling. ASW tours theatres, leisure centres, town halls,holiday camps, and similar venues, many of which are the same locations that were used for televisedwrestling in the UK from the 1950s to the 1980s.

ASW is the oldest active wrestling promotion in the UK and the longest-running British promotion in history,^[1] a record it has held since September 2013 when it eclipsed the 42 years and 11 months tenure ofJoint Promotions (1952–1995). It is also the fourth oldest professional wrestling promotion still in existence in the world, after the Mexican promotionCMLL (founded 1933),WWE (founded 1963)^[1] and longtime US independentECWA (founded 1967).^[2]

ASW contributed to the final two years ofITV's regular televised wrestling programme in the UK in (1987 and 1988)^[3][4] and some ASW matches were included on VHS and DVD compilations and repeated as part of the World of Sport programming onThe Fight Network until it stopped transmission in 2008.^[5] They were then repeated on the now defunctMen & Movies channel.

In July 2022, Dixon bequeathed all road management duties to his grandson Joseph Dixon (aka Joseph Allmark,the son of wrestlerDean Allmark), while continuing to lead the company in a purely office based capacity. The elder Dixon died 27 May 2023, leaving his grandson as sole proprietor. Brian Dixon's office duties were taken up by Laetitia and veteran wrestlerDanny Collins.

Brian Dixon, areferee and former head of the Jim Breaks Fan Club, established Wrestling Enterprises inBirkenhead during October 1970 initially as a vehicle for his girlfriend (and later wife) Mitzi Mueller, who was the British Ladies' Champion but had difficulty getting bookings from Joint Promotions.^[6] One of the company's earliest claims to fame was rebranding the wrestler Martin Ruane, formerly known as Luke McMasters, as new characterGiant Haystacks. Originally called "Haystacks Calhoun", he was patterned after the similar Americanwrestler of the same name, about whom Dixon had read in imported American wrestling magazines.^[7] Haystacks would go on to achieve household fame in the UK after he moved to Joint Promotions in 1975 as the tag team partner – and later the archenemy – ofBig Daddy.

During the late 1970s, Wrestling Enterprises held regular major shows at theLiverpool Stadium and organised a version of the World Middleweight Title after the previous version became extinct with the collapse of the Spanish wrestling scene c. 1975.^[8][9] This title continued until championAdrian Street emigrated to America in 1981.^[9][10] Wrestling Enterprises also collaborated heavily with another independent promoter, former middleweight starJackie Pallo. Neither promoter was able to gain a slice of ITV coverage however, as the 1981 contract renewal negotiations resulted in a five-year extension on Joint Promotions' exclusive monopoly of ITV wrestling.^[11]

By the early 1980s there was increasing dissatisfaction among both fans and wrestlers with the direction of Joint Promotions (which was increasingly centred onBig Daddy), which resulted in a steady flow of top UK talent into All Star Wrestling (as it was by then renamed) and away from Joint and the TV spotlight. Title-holders such as World Heavyweight Champion Mighty John Quinn, rival claimant Wayne Bridges, British Heavyweight Champion Tony St Clair, World Heavy-Middleweight ChampionMark Rocco, British Heavy-Middleweight Champion Frank 'Chic' Cullen and World Lightweight Champion Johnny Saint all defected to All Star taking their titles with them, as did many non-titleholders.^[11] By the mid-1980s All Star was running shows head-to-head with Joint Promotions and had its own TV show on satellite channelScreensport.^[12]

When Joint's five-year extension on its monopoly of ITV wrestling expired at the end of 1986, All Star, along with the WWF, was also given a share of the televised wrestling shows for the two years 1987–88.^[11] The beginning of this period coincided with the return to full-time action for legendary masked wrestlerKendo Nagasaki under the All Star banner. At the end of 1988,Greg Dyke cancelled wrestling on ITV after 33 years. Whereas Joint dwindled downward as a touring vehicle for Big Daddy (and laterDavey Boy Smith) before finally folding in 1995,^[11] All Star had played its cards well with regard to its two years of TV exposure, using the time in particular to build up the returning Nagasaki as its lead heel and establishing such storylines as his tag team-cum-feud withRollerball Rocco and his "hypnotism" ofRobbie Brookside.^[13]

The end of TV coverage left many of these storylines at acliffhanger and consequently All Star underwent a box office boom as hardcore fans turned up to live shows to see what happened next, and kept coming for several years due to careful use of show-to-show storylines.^[11] Headline matches frequently pitted Nagasaki in violent heel vs heel battles against the likes of Rocco,Dave 'Fit' Finlay, Skull Murphy and evenGiant Haystacks or at smaller venues teaming with regular partner "Blondie" Bob Barrett to usually defeat blue-eye opposition.^{[14][15][16][17][18]}

All Star's post-television boom wore off after 1993 when Nagasaki retired for a second time. However, the promotion kept afloat on live shows at certain established venues and particularly on theholiday camp circuit. Since the mid-1990s, the promotion has mainly been focussed on family entertainment. After the demise of Joint/RWS, All Star's chief rival on the live circuit was Scott Conway's TWA (The Wrestling Alliance) promotion, founded as the Southeastern Wrestling Alliance in 1989.^[19] By the late 1990s, many smaller British promoters were increasingly abandoning their British identity in favour of "WWF Tribute" shows, with British performers crudely imitating World Wrestling Federation stars.^[11]

Although All Star never descended into a full-fledged 'tribute show', by the turn of the millennium, many of these tribute acts such as the "UK Undertaker" and "Big Red Machine" were nonetheless headlining All Star shows.^[11] Disaffected with this and other matters (such as the inclusion of former WWF World ChampionYokozuna on advertising posters over a year after he had died, the continued advertising ofDavey Boy Smith months after his planned tour fell through and the use of a photo of the original WWFKane to depict the tribute performer "Big Red Machine"), Conway cut his links with All Star and declared a promotional war.^[20] He began to promote his TWA as an alternative, featuring more serious wrestling (in much the same way as All Star had previously targeted Joint fans disaffected with Big Daddy). All Star duly adapted to meet the challenge, recruiting a new generation of wrestlers such asDean Allmark andRobbie Dynamite^[21] and signing up such stars as "American Dragon"Bryan Danielson. The promotional war came to an abrupt end in 2003 when Conway relocated toThailand, closing down the TWA (which he briefly tried to transplant to his new country as the "Thai Wrestling Alliance"). Conway returned to the UK 2021 planning to revive TWA, but ill health curtailed this and he died 20 April 2025.

During this period, All Star's touring schedule generally consisted of monthly residencies at theFairfield Hall inCroydon, theVictoria Hall inHanley and theColston Hall in Bristol as well as one or two tour stops each year in various town centre venues and a summer season at variousButlins resorts. A major storyline during these years was a long running feud between former tag partners Allmark and Dynamite, mostly over theBritish Mid-Heavyweight Championship which the promotion revived in 2002, 21 years after the death of previous championMike Marino.

As the 2000s wore on, All Star reached new heights of activity not seen since the post-television boom of the early 1990s, reactivating many more old TV venues, and in the summer 2008 season revived the old tradition of wrestling shows at Blackpool Tower, with a Friday night residency there. All Star re-established old links with promoters in France, Germany, Japan and Calgary. All Star wrestlers were widely used to represent Britain by major American promoters, for example the Team UK inTNA's 2004 X Cup which featured four All Star Wrestling regulars James Mason,Dean Allmark,Robbie Dynamite and Frankie Sloan. Mason would also guest onWWE Smackdown in 2008, defeatingMVP.

On 24 April 2010, ASW joined the Union of European Wrestling Alliances and recognised theEuropean Heavyweight Championship.^[22] They hosted two title changes withMikey Whiplash defeatingRampage Brown and James Mason defeating Whiplash.^[23] ASW hosted several of Mason's title defences^[24] before leaving the UEWA on 30 November 2013.^[22]

In April 2014, ASW established a relationship with Japanese promotionWrestle-1.^[25]

Throughout the 2010s, ASW would continue to bring in younger talent from popular UK promotions (Insane Championship Wrestling,Progress Wrestling,Revolution Pro Wrestling) as well as veterans and international talent, such asZack Sabre Jr.,Fit Finlay Junior,Dave Mastiff,Jack Gallagher,Noam Dar, Andy Wild,Kris Travis,Marty Scurll,Sweet Saraya,El Ligero,BT Gunn,Shinya Ishikawa,Harlem Bravado,Mark Haskins,Xia Brookside,Kay Lee Ray,Gangrel andJay White.^{[26][27][28][29][30]}

The promotion runs aschool in Birkenhead, originally with Allmark and Dynamite as chief trainers, replaced in 2023 withJoel Redman. Redman also runs an affiliated wrestling school inSalisbury which runs its own trainee shows, both of these operating under the banner "ASW South". Dixon's daughter Laetitia is a popular ring announcer for the promotion and was married to Allmark until January 2022. In July 2022 the company announced that their elder son, referee Joseph Allmark, would be taking over day-to-day operations on the road, while the elder Dixon moved to a back seat role from the company's Birkenhead office until his death in 2023, at which point Joseph Allmark took over full control of the company. Since 2024 he has been known as Joseph Dixon.

TheMountevans committee was an independent committee which met in 1947 to establish a set of rules and championships for theBritish professional wrestling scene. Four of the six current titles listed above were set up by the committee. All Star Wrestling hosted many other such championships in the past, some of which have since been moved to or revived by other promotions.

These championships were established at later dates (but prior to the 1990s) for fields of competition (tag teams, women's wrestling) not envisaged by the Mountevans Committee in 1948.

The below list of various championships previously featured on All Star shows but not recognised under the UK'sMountevans Committee rules include company-only championships as well as titles from American promotions defended by visiting champions. As with the previous list, some of these remained active outside of All Star.

• TNA World Tag Team Championship

Defended on All Star shows by then-championsDoug Williams andNick Aldis while on a UK homecoming tour in October 2009. Title still active, mostly in its promotion of origin (now Impact Wrestling).^[47]

• WCW World Television Championship

Brought to All Star briefly byLord Steven Regal while on a World Tour in 1996, returned to home promotion subsequently. Abandoned by WCW in 2000.^[48]

• Pan Pacific World Heavyweight Championship

Claimed on All Star shows byJoe E Legend c. 2005–2007.

• All Star Peoples Championship

Title originally created by All Star in 2003.^[49][50]

• "All Star Wrestling UK" website

• British professional wrestling promotions
• 1970 establishments in the United Kingdom

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