Grim’s Toy Show

Grim’s Toy Show, perhaps better known these days as GTS Wrestling, is an American backyard wrestling promotion on the sillySUPERPOP YouTube channel, which has 1.3 million subscribers and over 15 million monthly viewers. It’s the brainchild of Grim himself, aka Dave Hitchens, a professional wrestler, YouTube star, and toy collector. It was the first pro-wrestling tournament to be created for an hosted on YouTube, and it certainly won’t be the last. The channel has made Hitchens a star, and his personal YouTube channel, Grim Experience, is fast approaching 800,000 subscribers.

GTS Wrestling has its roots in Hitchens’ career as a professional wrestler on the indie circuit. He began training and competing in the early 2000s, but injury scuppered his plans. Fast forward to 2011, and he launched sillySUPERPOP on YouTube, initially as a place where he could post videos about some of his favourite collectable toys, including WWE and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers figures, and skits revolving around the antics of his granddad. In 2016, with the channel a success, he bought a wrestling ring and began to host tournaments with his friends, posting videos every Friday.

Before long, Grim’s Toy Show had morphed into GTS Wrestling; the ring had been moved from the backyard into a warehouse, and more and more competitors were joining in. Over the years, it has expanded to include pay-per-views, feuds with other promotions, and Grimamania, its audience growing at every turn. Its current stars include Ace Marxman, Ellsworth the Clown, Googly Eyed Weirdo, and of course, Grim himself.