MORE American wrestling stars could grace Hereford, a city promoter has said.

Ironfist Wrestling staged a successful outside show at the Black Lion pub last Saturday afternoon - the first of of its kind in the city.

Their next big event is at the Richmond Club on October 24 and promoter Jake Gittens says talks have been ongoing with a couple of wrestlers from across the pond.

"At the moment, it's being billed as a steel cage main event, which is the big attraction at the moment, but we are talking to a few Americans," said Gittens, who wrestles as "the pirate" Killian Jacobs.

"We've had Doug Williams from TNA (Total Non-Stop Action), who is probably one of the biggest wrestlers in the UK.

"Once he finished his contract with TNA, he came to us and that kind of opened the floodgates to ex-WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) guys coming over from America.

"We've had Gangrel, who was a former member of the Brood, teaming with Edge and Christian, and said it was a great little wrestling promotion over here in Hereford.

"Juventud Guerrera came over in May, who is one of the living Lucha legends in Mexico and I got to wrestle him, which was a great experience for me.

"And we've also had Georgia Smith, who is the daughter of the legendary Davey Boy Smith."

Dozens of grappling fans were entertained to six bouts at the free show at the Black Lion, which also included a free barbecue.

Gittens said he was delighted with the turnout, especially as the event was only advertised two weeks previously.

"The turnout we had was exceptional, I don't think many other companies in the UK could advertise a show on such short notice and get as many people here as we did," he said.

A heavy downpour during a four-on-three handicap elimination tag-team match raised concerns that the show would have to be pulled.

"We were checking the weather forecast all week and it's been saying cloudy, rainy, sunny, so we didn't know what to take in," said Gittens.

"In the second match, there was a heavier downpour and there was talk of cancelling the show, but we held out it was gone in 10 minutes."

That match featured Hereford wrestlers Alan Morgan, who competes as Cyborg, and Steve Daw, known in the ring as Kaiden Rouke.

"It's a great feeling when I came out and hopefully more people will now start to recognise me and I'll be more familiar with the crowd," said Daw, who was victorious alongside Italian stars Gino and Paulie Denucci

"My daughter came for the first time and I saw her clapping and getting involved.

Morgan, who teamed with Viktor Romanov, Andy Hendrix and Kieran Young, was competing in his third match.

"I was warned it would be different [wrestling outside] and it was," he said.

"But it's a hell of a turnout after two weeks advertising."

Paulie Denucci, meanwhile, said Hereford is one of the nicest places he has wrestled in.

"I think this is my third time here, I did the Richmond Club before, and it's a really great wrestling promotion," he said.

"If you live in Hereford, it's definitely worth coming out because it's a great family show.

Other matches saw Maddog Maxx beat "the Prince of Punjab" Harry Mahal, Danielle Hunter overcome "the Superhero" Jesse Sapphire and El Custodio securing a win against fellow masked wrestler El Casador.

Gittens lost his match against Xander Cooper in the final of the King of the Ironfist tournament.

"I wanted to do a bit more crowd work because there a lot of new fans, so I wanted to make sure they would go away with the experience of what wrestling should be, which is like a pantomime almost," said Cooper.

"I'm hoping to get down here more and entertain the fans of Hereford.

"One of the things I like about this crowd is they're very family orientated."

The final match saw  Chris Brookes beat "Superbeast" Dan Moloney to become the number one contender for the Ironfist Wrestling British Championship.

Training takes places at the Black Lion every Sunday from noon to 4pm, with Ironfist's academy stars set to hold a show at the pub on August 15.