THE FIRST wrestling event in which matchmaker John Freemantle was involved was on December 14, 1987. It was a charity event held at Hove Town Hall.

The wrestlers appearing on the show were Big Daddy, Greg Valentine, Drew McDonald, Rasputin, Steve Grey, Kid McCoy, Andy Blair, Sid Cooper, Ray Steele, King Ben, Barry Cooper and Tony Grant.

Since then Premier Promotions have staged shows at more than 100 venues involving nearly 400 wrestlers, including top stars from America, Japan, Europe and Scandinavia. A number of the shows have been watched by 1,000-plus crowds.

The list of stars who have appeared on Premier Promotions shows reads like a "Who's Who of British Wrestling" over the last quarter of a century or more and also includes The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, Giant Haystacks, Pat Roach, Dave Finlay, Rollerball Rocco, Kendo Nagasaki, Steve Regal, Dave Taylor, Tony St Clair, Marty Jones, Danny Collins, Johnny Saint and Brian Maxine.

Recent shows have included appearances by international stars including Doug Williams, Robbie Brookside, Jonny Storm, John Walters, Christian Eckstein, Mark Haskins, Heddi Karaoui, Chasyn Rance and Paul Tracey.

Overseas stars to appear in Premier Promotions rings include The American Dragon, Colt Cabana, Kendo Kashin, Ross Hart, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Kojima Satoshi, Cannonball Grizzly, Tiger Steele and Chad Collyer. 

More recently, Paul Birchall, Nigel McGuinness, Ricky Marvin, Muhammad Yone, Takeshi Morishima, Go Shiozaki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, James Mason, Martin Stone and Chris Hero have all featured on Premier Promotions shows.

Premier Promotions shows are traditionally British, similar to the ones shown on TV on Saturday afternoons during the golden era for British wrestling.

Contests are decided by the best of three falls over six or eight five-minute rounds, with championship matches over ten rounds.

Premier Promotions do not stage extreme bouts like hard-core matches, cage matches, ladder matches or chain matches.

They do, however, often include rumbles and tag team contests and are followed and enjoyed by a large number of fans.

John Freemantle has been connected with wrestling since the 1960's when he wrote for the magazine, The Wrestler, interviewing the top wrestlers of the day and covering the biggest show in British wrestling history attended by the Duke of Edinburgh at the Royal Albert Hall in 1963.