Mark Dallas

Mark Dallas
Mark Dallas enters The Garage
Born	Mark Hugh Dallas (1985-07-27) 27 July 1985 Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation	Majority owner, Chairman, and Managing Director of Insane Championship Wrestling, promoter, producer, booker, writer, actor
Years active	2006–present
Title	Managing Director (2006–present) Chairman (2015–present)
Children	1
Website	www.insanewrestling.co.uk

Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Mr. Dallas Dallas
Billed height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Billed from	Glasgow, Scotland
Debut	2006 (promoter)

Mark Dallas (born 27 July 1985) is the majority owner, founder, promoter and booker of wrestling promotion Insane Championship Wrestling.^[1]

Insane Championship Wrestling (2006–present)

History in Glasgow

The Barrowland Ballroom, venue of ICW Fear & Loathing VII and Barramania^[2]

Dallas ran his first Insane Championship Wrestling show on 15 October 2006 in the Maryhill Community Central Halls. The inaugural show promoted by Dallas featured journeyman American professional wrestler Tracy Smothers^[3] and in the main event Drew Galloway was crowned the companies first Heavyweight Champion (now known as the ICW World Heavyweight Championship).^[4] Dallas ran a handful of over 18's events aimed at hardcore wrestling fans but the concept failed to catch on in the infancy of the Scottish professional wrestling scene so he decided to put the company on hiatus in mid-2007.

Mark Dallas backstage at O2 ABC Glasgow with former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Rhino (wrestler)

ICW would return however for a one off event called 'Fear & Loathing 2'^[5] in 2009 at the same venue in Maryhill (which was now referred to as the ICW Arena). This event saw the debut of ICW mainstays Chris Renfrew^[6] and Jack Jester.^[7] This one event convinced Dallas to attempt to run ICW events more regularly and he confirmed 5 dates for 2010 all of which he recorded for YouTube show 'ICW Online'^[8] which was filled with a more adult orientated, profanity laden content than other wrestling promotion's at the time gaining ICW its first real attention from the wrestling world and leading to the promotion running and selling out shows in Glasgow city center nightclubs such as Apollo 23, The Classic Grand, The Garage (nightclub), O2 ABC Glasgow and the historic Barrowland Ballroom.^[9]

Dallas announced on 31 May 2015 that WWE legend and former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Mick Foley would be the commissioner for Insane Championship Wrestling's biggest show to date called 'Fear & Loathing VIII'^[10]^[11]^[12] which is scheduled to take place on Sunday 15 November at the SECC, Glasgow.

Touring the U.K

The first time ICW ran outside Glasgow was at Studio 24 in Edinburgh which was followed by a show at the Edinburgh Picture House called 'Dave's Not Here, Man' on 25 August 2013. This was the first time the promotion had sold 1000 tickets in advance for a show. Dallas ran several more shows in Edinburgh returning to Studio 24 in 2014 (including four sold out Edinburgh Fringe Festival shows) and City Nightclub in 2015.

After this ICW promoted events at the O2 Academy Islington in London^[13] then Riverside Nightclub in Newcastle with both shows selling out and the later being headlined by Finn Bálor making his final appearance for Insane Championship Wrestling losing in a title match against then ICW World Heavyweight Champion Jack Jester. Footage of that bout including post match farewells by Mark and the ICW roster featured briefly on WWE NXT episodes highlighting Prince Devitt's career.

ICW then embarked on its first U.K tour in late 2014 running shows at O2 Academy Newcastle (5 October), O2 Academy Liverpool (11 October), O2 Academy Leeds (12 October), O2 Academy Birmingham (19 October). The tour was covered in Episode 2 of BBC Scotland series 'Insane Fight Club'. Also during the tour former WWE Tag Team Champions Paul London and Brian Kendrick briefly held the ICW Tag Team Championships^[14] winning them in Newcastle and losing them the following month in Glasgow at the Barrowland Ballroom .

In The Ring

Refereeing

On 7 April 2013 Dallas was made the special guest referee of the main event at The Garage (nightclub) between B.T Gunn and Chris Renfrew^[15] which resulted in the later knocking Dallas out with a kendo stick and turning his back on him and ICW reuniting heel group The New Age Kliq in what won 'Moment of the year' at the 2014 ICW Awards voted for by the fans.

Wrestling

On 14 July 2013 Mark Dallas faced off against Jackie Polo^[16] for control of ICW in the main event of a sold out show at The Garage (nightclub).^[17] Despite being battered from the opening bell Dallas managed to defeat Polo with assistance from Lionheart, Mikey Whiplash, 'International Sex Hero' D.C.T (who was refereeing the match) and Mark Sweeney who ejected Jackie from the building after the bout (he was not seen again in ICW for several months).^[18]

Insane Fight Club - BBC Scotland (2014–present)

Episode 1

The first episode of Insane Fight Club^[19]^[20] aired 11 March 2014 on BBC One^[21] and focused on Mark and two top performers for his wrestling promotion, Grado^[22] and then ICW Heavyweight Champion Jack Jester. Over 1 million viewers around the U.K tuned in^[23] with #InsaneFightClub trending on Twitter^[24] and several hundred thousand more watching repeats on BBC iPlayer, BBC Three and BBC Scotland. The first episode also featured international professional wrestler, Colt Cabana as he made his debut for the promotion at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a match against Grado. On the same event Jack Jester also faced and defeated Sabu.^[25]

Episode 2

The second episode first aired 21 January 2015 on BBC Scotland^[26] followed by BBC Three on 25 June 2015. On this episode Drew Galloway returned to Insane Championship Wrestling at the O2 ABC Glasgow^[27] and Mark embarked on a promotional tour with Grado, Jester, Davey Blaze, Chris Toal and Jimmy Havoc followed by ICW's first U.K Tour and 'Fear & Loathing VII' at the Barrowland Ballroom.

Behind the scenes of Insane Fight Club

Dallas, Grado and Jack Jester appeared as guests on a 1-hour Q&A about the 'Insane Fight Club' series hosted by comedian Carl Hutchinson in the BBC Tent during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on 30 August 2015 .^[28]

In the media

Dallas had a small role as a pizza delivery boy/drug dealer in Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen^[29] at the age of 15. He has featured in several wrestling documentaries out with Insane Fight Club including interviews in VICE (magazine) documentary 'The British Wrestler'^[30] and Prince Devitt's RTÉ biography 'Smack Em' Up Devitt'.^[31] He also appeared briefly in a WWE Network special on Finn Bálor alongside several ICW performers.

Scot Squad (programme) BBC Scotland (Series 2 Episode 3)

On Episode 3 (Series 2) of Scottish comedy show following round a police force known as the Scot Squad Mark appeared as a drug dealer named Liam Riddle. Liam attempted to smuggle drugs in the backpack of his dog Loophole under the assumption that the stop and search laws didn't apply to canines.

BBC Scotland Short Stuff

On Wednesday 3 February 2016 the first 'Short Stuff' comedy sketch written and starring Dallas and Grado was released online called 'Grado Gets A Day Job'. Since then Mark has written and starred in several 'Short Stuff' sketches with 'The Wee Man'.

In wrestling

Nicknames
- "Dallas"
- "Mr. Dallas"
Entrance themes
- "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley^[32]

References

External links

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