WWE fighters slam council planners over wrestling school KO

The school currently trains at a martial arts site in Maghull

Two WWE stars' plans to beef up their wrestling school have been dealt a blow by council planners.

Tag team partners James Drake and Zack Gibson are the founders of Fighting Spirit Wrestling in Maghull, Merseyside.

The pair, known to millions as the Grizzled Young Veterans, want to open a new wrestling school in nearby Bootle.

But planning officers at Sefton Council have recommended their plans be rejected.

Fighting Spirit, which bills itself as "the most in-demand training school in the UK", currently shares a building with a martial arts centre.

It wants to move to a new school in a larger venue on an industrial estate on Berry Street.

The owners have sought permission to change the building's use from business into leisure - a bid that has won support of local residents.

Sefton Council said it received a total of 227 comments backing the plans, alongside a petition signed by 28 residents.

Locals told the council the planned wrestling school would keep young people away from crime and anti-social behaviour, and improve health and wellbeing.

But a council report recommended the plans be turned down, mainly due to concerns over a loss of employment space "without adequate justification".

The document, submitted in a report to the authority's planning committee, said there would be "no significant community benefits that differentiate the business from any other private venture".

Zack Gibson (left) and James Drake (right) were recently crowned tag team champions

Zack Gibson said he felt "logic isn't prevailing".

"Wrestling is a unique performance - the individual casts themselves and they create their own escape - and it can have a massive impact on mental health issues," he said.

If the school could not expand, he added, it would "impact our trainees and potential trainees."

The plans are to be discussed at a meeting on 25 September.

Gibson, real name Jack Rea, and Drake, real name James Dowell, won the inaugural NXT UK Tag Team championship in January.