5 Star Wrestling Cancel All Future Events

5 Star Wrestling has announced it is to close its doors and will not honour their remaining UK shows.

The British promotion’s collapse came despite being in the middle of a UK tour boasting stars such as Rey Mysterio, Rob Van Dam, John Morrison, Jack Swagger and UK talent such as Zack Gibson and Grado.

Shows in Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle drew disappointing crowds; the Newcastle event had 600 attendees at 20,000 capacity venue. Those who did make it complained of poor production values with all wrestlers sharing the same entrance music, malfunctioning equipment and a poor ring setup.

In Liverpool, native son Zack Gibson, known for his firey promos, laid into 5 Star before his match with former WWE Champion Rey Mysterio.

Even a lucrative television deal with UK channel FreeSports couldn’t prevent 5 Star from throwing in the towel. In a tweet, the burgeoning broadcaster wished 5 Star well in their “future endeavours”; a nod and a wink to a stock WWE phrase.

In the fallout of the promotion’s end, co-founder Dan Hinkle published a statement claiming the decision to not go ahead with remaining shows in Aberdeen, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham and fold the company was made by business partner Jason Noble.

In an attempt to plug this new and sizeable breach in the hull of British wrestling, Preston City Wrestling offered to honour 5 Star ticket holders for Manchester and Leeds free entry with proof of purchase to their April 8th show at Preston Guild Hall.

5 Star’s death rattle and ignominious end is at odds with the promotion’s history of bullish and garish marketing tactics.

From signing big money names such as Morrison, Carlito, Ricochet and AJ Styles, offering CM Punk $1m to fight (which he summarily refused) and launching three video games before a show had even been booked, 5 Star’s corner cutting market strategy raised suspicion among many in the British wrestling community.