Wrestling

[The Unknown Poster]

Just now, Goalie said:

Convention center? 

Its certainly an option for a major show.  Tony Condello ran there with a guy named Nelson Meyer years ago when Nelson had grants to create an Aboriginal wrestling promotion.  I recently inquired about the rights to their footage and no one seems to know who has the masters or who owns the rights.  It might be Tony.  And Mike Davidson ran at least two shows there.

The Convention Centre provides a lot of space (lots of backstage area) but I found it included a lot of "floor level" seating which doesnt make for the best sightlines.  Its also expensive.

Tony had investors willing to fund Omega vs Jericho II in Winnipeg and he told me he planned to do it at the Convention Center or Arena (which I cant see).  People go with what they're comfortable with.  Id the choice was Convention Center or IGAC (UofM), I'd go with IGAC (because I've run a show there before, Im comfortable with it).  Both places require seating, lighting, staging.

The Marlborough Hotel was a good venue too.  Some similar issues though...all the seating is floor level so if its packed, you've got people sitting at the back with a poor sightline.  Plenty of locker room area.  Booze service.  Marlborough is tough for set up as its up several floors.  Funny story, one of my close guys was a young kid when WFX ran the Marlborough so he was on ring crew.  The ring would not fit in the service elevator so they had to carry it piece by piece up the stairs.  Well, being a very old building, the staircase got narrower as they climbed until finally the ring posts simply would not fit.

My guy called the promoter (Mike) and asked him what to do with this ring post wedged between the floor and ceiling.  He said "break a hole in the ceiling."   Suffice to say, the hotel was not amused and there was a dispute over payment and damages.  A few years later, my pal Marty Gold was organizing a benefit/memorial show for Kerry Brown and had to smooth things over with the hotel in order to run there.

Franco Manitoban is a solid venue as well and hosted several wrestling shows.  I believe they stopped when they jacked their rent for wrestling (I cant recall if there was a specific reason).  I've run into issues with venues where my competitors caused issues and burned it for everyone.  In 17 years, I've never burned a venue.

[Brandon]

The WFX place had nice sightlines but I would imagine it would only fit 500 comfortably.   It was a nice set up since they had large hall ways and a few other rooms which were good for meeting the wrestlers and selling some food. 

Convention Center easily could hold it,   I went to many Kickboxing and MMA shows and the place has everything that you would need.   I'd imagine the biggest issue is the price which is not cheap at all.   I also agree with sightlines...  lots of tables need to be sold.

The U of M place I went to for to see Kenny Omega vs Dan Severn and Billy Kidman and Lex Luger had great sight lines... that place would be the ideal venue I'd think.

 

[The Unknown Poster]

3 minutes ago, Brandon said:

The WFX place had nice sightlines but I would imagine it would only fit 500 comfortably.   It was a nice set up since they had large hall ways and a few other rooms which were good for meeting the wrestlers and selling some food. 

Convention Center easily could hold it,   I went to many Kickboxing and MMA shows and the place has everything that you would need.   I'd imagine the biggest issue is the price which is not cheap at all.   I also agree with sightlines...  lots of tables need to be sold.

The U of M place I went to for to see Kenny Omega vs Dan Severn and Billy Kidman and Lex Luger had great sight lines... that place would be the ideal venue I'd think.

 

Yeah I wouldnt do Kenny/Bucks at a 500 seater.  You'd need to make ticket $100 each...lol

Convention Centre is big, for sure.

The UofM is IGAC where I promoted a show previously and helped out with another.  The stands are 1500 per side with about 400-500 comfortably on the floor.  When we did our show, we only opened one side and got about 1750 people, which looked virtually full.   It had a great press box area as well, where I set up a camera.  And the price at the time was cheaper than the Convention Center.  It would be my first choice for an event where you expect over 1000 people.

[Brandon]

The question is....  would it be worth promoting a show like that in Winnipeg?   Would it be able to draw a big crowd?

Would it be popular enough to draw people in from Minneapolis or even Alberta/Saskatchewan?

[FrostyWinnipeg]

http://www.tmz.com/2018/09/12/ric-flair-married-wedding-wwe-wendy-barlow/

[bigg jay]

7 hours ago, Brandon said:

The question is....  would it be worth promoting a show like that in Winnipeg?   Would it be able to draw a big crowd?

Would it be popular enough to draw people in from Minneapolis or even Alberta/Saskatchewan?

If the Bucks and Kenny mention it on Twitter, I think it would have no problem drawing people from outside of Winnipeg.

[The Unknown Poster]

I think we could draw 2000 if the appropriate marketing dollars were spent.  The reality of wrestling is, the majority of marketing is 1) word of mouth & 2) through the crew.  So, the record attendance is 1750 and 1000 tickets were pre-sold by the crew.  That's why historically, when a promotion tries to spend big bucks doing big shows like that on a regular basis, attendance generally trends down, because your crew is exhausting their resources.

When we did guys like Samoa Joe, Aj Styles, Chris Daniels, Steve Corino etc at our bar venue, we'd always draw really well (400-500) vs say 100-150 for our regular show.  And what I found was, you have different categories of fans.  The diehards that go to indy shows every week/month regardless of who's on the show because they like local indy wrestling.  Occasional fans that like local wrestling but not enough to come every show, but will come when its a "big" show.  Casual fans that want to see big names.  etc.  So the idea is you can get your diehards every show, the occasional fans every few shows and the big show fans for big shows.  But for big shows, you get everyone.

The criticism from promotions that didnt bring in big names was that doing so was pointless because the show after the name was in town, you'd drop back to your regular attendance.  That, to me, showed the error in thinking by the competition.  Firstly, I always made money on the big shows so if its quarterly, why wouldnt I do it and stuff my pockets?  Secondly, the purpose was not only about generating increased attendance, it was about bringing in talent that could help your local wrestlers develop and make contacts,

When Kenny was here last November, I literally could have sold 700 tickets without even trying.  If I tried, I know I could have sold 1000.  We had over 500 people show up at our venue when they knew it was sold out and it was adults only.  And very little came from the crew because in fact, I had to take tickets back from the crew because of how much interest there was.

Plus for a show like that, you utilize your contacts that you otherwise wouldnt.  I know people in media.  You make an ad buy, which we almost never do currently, and they will absolutely cover it like crazy.  I've had Hustler cover our shows with Kenny without an ad buy.  Plus, other media contacts.  It really would be something special if we did it.  And I have no ego about it, I'd be asking for help, involving "competitors" and doing everything I could to maximize the "specialness" of it.

[ediger]

3 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I And I have no ego about it, I'd be asking for help, involving "competitors" and doing everything I could to maximize the "specialness" of it.

So what you're saying is we don't have to worry about "Mr Beautiful" getting in the ring?

[Goalie]

I have a few hot topic shirts.. 

The Superkick Club.. Vigilante Club.. Bullet Club.. A Seth Rollins shirt.. And a Jericho New Japan shirt.. 

Ive noticed recently when i wear my elite or bullet club shirts... 1 or 2 sometimes 10 ppl will tell me they know who that is. 

Went to Starbucks wearing my Vigilante Club shirt on the day of All in and 4 ppl asked me if i was watching All In... In line at Starbucks

[The Unknown Poster]

42 minutes ago, ediger said:

So what you're saying is we don't have to worry about "Mr Beautiful" getting in the ring?

I wouldn't say that 😉

[The Unknown Poster]

34 minutes ago, Goalie said:

I have a few hot topic shirts.. 

The Superkick Club.. Vigilante Club.. Bullet Club.. A Seth Rollins shirt.. And a Jericho New Japan shirt.. 

Ive noticed recently when i wear my elite or bullet club shirts... 1 or 2 sometimes 10 ppl will tell me they know who that is. 

Went to Starbucks wearing my Vigilante Club shirt on the day of All in and 4 ppl asked me if i was watching All In... In line at Starbucks

Did you buy them here?  Every time I go to Hot Topic (which isnt often) I never see any Bullet Club Merch.  I'd expect them to have Kenny Omega stuff in particular in his own home town.

The story of Hot Topic is hilarious.  Two WrestleMania's ago, Hot Topic was there and saw all the BC merch and asked WWE why they werent sending them what appeared to be their most popular items.  WWE had to tell them it wasn't theirs.  thats why Hot Topic wanted it...you can look at any WWE crowd and see a ton of BC merch.  Its really crazy.

All In was the first non-Network PPV I paid for in ages (since pre-New Japan World PPV's).  It was great.

[Goalie]

3 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Did you buy them here?  Every time I go to Hot Topic (which isnt often) I never see any Bullet Club Merch.  I'd expect them to have Kenny Omega stuff in particular in his own home town.

The story of Hot Topic is hilarious.  Two WrestleMania's ago, Hot Topic was there and saw all the BC merch and asked WWE why they werent sending them what appeared to be their most popular items.  WWE had to tell them it wasn't theirs.  thats why Hot Topic wanted it...you can look at any WWE crowd and see a ton of BC merch.  Its really crazy.

All In was the first non-Network PPV I paid for in ages (since pre-New Japan World PPV's).  It was great.

I bought 2 of them at polo. Vigilante and superkick. Got the others online

[The Unknown Poster]

I actually  just bought  my first ever wwe shirt. Undisputed Era. 

[johnzo]

So I wasn't really a wrestling fan for the first 46 years of my life, but my wife and I just fell hard for Lucha Underground, we've been binging it on Netflix for the past few weeks.  We're just hitting Ultima Lucha Dos now.

And I hear from my friends that our local promotion, 3-2-1- Battle, is pretty great so we're gonna check that out.

I have a ton of questions about how wrestling works from the inside, if people don't mind me asking 'em here.

[The Unknown Poster]

1 hour ago, johnzo said:

So I wasn't really a wrestling fan for the first 46 years of my life, but my wife and I just fell hard for Lucha Underground, we've been binging it on Netflix for the past few weeks.  We're just hitting Ultima Lucha Dos now.

And I hear from my friends that our local promotion, 3-2-1- Battle, is pretty great so we're gonna check that out.

I have a ton of questions about how wrestling works from the inside, if people don't mind me asking 'em here.

I’ve been a promoter for 17 years. And I love talking wrestling.  There are some great and knowledgeable posters here. Ask away!!

Youre in Seattle?

Edited September 15, 2018 by The Unknown Poster

[The Unknown Poster]

That sweet, sweet Saudi money.  Brock returns for a big payday and Shawn Michaels apparently returning as well, something he said he'd never do.  HBK & HHH vs Undertaker & Kane.  

Wouldn't surprise me to see the nWo there as well.

[Goalie]

As a fan... I don't care where they have shows. Reading twitter is embarassing at times... These idiot Americans bitching about Saudi when America has more problems is assinine. Yeah Saudi is behind the times a bit.. But really.. Who cares. 

[The Unknown Poster]

11 minutes ago, Goalie said:

As a fan... I don't care where they have shows. Reading twitter is embarassing at times... These idiot Americans bitching about Saudi when America has more problems is assinine. Yeah Saudi is behind the times a bit.. But really.. Who cares. 

 

You don’t have to care. Other people do.  

Edited September 18, 2018 by The Unknown Poster

[The Unknown Poster]

The concussion/CTE lawsuit against WWE by several of their oldtimers (Demolition, Road Warrior Animal, Paul Orndorff etc) was thrown out.  It was nonsense from the beginning but had a long list of former wrestlers attached (looking for a settlement payday).  The lawyer was a joke and basically, the judge told him repeatedly what was wrong with his complaints and to re-write the suit and he never did so she finally threw it all out.

I dont believe WWE was doing business with any of the people involved so hopefully now that its cleared up, they might do some legend deals with some of them.  Demolition, in particular would be a great Hall of Fame induction (though there is lingering heat between Vince & Ax).

[Brandon]

47 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

The concussion/CTE lawsuit against WWE by several of their oldtimers (Demolition, Road Warrior Animal, Paul Orndorff etc) was thrown out.  It was nonsense from the beginning but had a long list of former wrestlers attached (looking for a settlement payday).  The lawyer was a joke and basically, the judge told him repeatedly what was wrong with his complaints and to re-write the suit and he never did so she finally threw it all out.

I dont believe WWE was doing business with any of the people involved so hopefully now that its cleared up, they might do some legend deals with some of them.  Demolition, in particular would be a great Hall of Fame induction (though there is lingering heat between Vince & Ax).

Is this the lawsuit that the Greek lawyer (name escapes me)  who recruited around 100 old timey wrestlers to sign up for?   To me it was just a massive list of fringe guys trying to get an easy pay day.    

Most of those guys like Bill Eadie and Animal all had axes to grind and other reasons for why they hate the WWE ....

[The Unknown Poster]

18 minutes ago, Brandon said:

Is this the lawsuit that the Greek lawyer (name escapes me)  who recruited around 100 old timey wrestlers to sign up for?   To me it was just a massive list of fringe guys trying to get an easy pay day.    

Most of those guys like Bill Eadie and Animal all had axes to grind and other reasons for why they hate the WWE ....

Yup.  It’s a serious issue but the case was absurd. There were guys who worked for wwe like 4 years our of 20. Just totally ridiculous.  I don’t blame the workers for signing up. Why not, nothing To lose if wwe paid a settlement but it seemed like an effort to get some quick cash.  And now those guys might be on the wwe **** list. 

[The Unknown Poster]

Impact met withWWE at WWE HQ. Allegedly just a meet & greet. And impact claims neither their company nor the library are for sale. Other rumours indicate impact is for sale. 

Vince was not involved. It was Hunter’s team at the meeting. 

[Brandon]

I do feel a bit bad as I watched a recent interview with Perry Saturn and he looks really really bad and clearly has head trauma. But in the same instance these guys knew what they signed up for. 

[The Unknown Poster]

2 hours ago, Brandon said:

I do feel a bit bad as I watched a recent interview with Perry Saturn and he looks really really bad and clearly has head trauma. But in the same instance these guys knew what they signed up for. 

My issue is when old timers sue based on the idea wwe knew and they didn’t. There is common sense involved in head shots.  The company rewarded people for risks and there is merit to holding them accountable for that.  But Saturn worked for ecw and wcw for years before wwe. 

Wwe is pretty careful about head trauma now. And you accept a risk because even easy bumping could be causing issues.  

I’d like to see WWE have a pension plan but their position would be they pay enough to guys to manage their own finances.  They do provide rehab for anyone which is pretty generous. 

[SpeedFlex27]

10 hours ago, Goalie said:

As a fan... I don't care where they have shows. Reading twitter is embarassing at times... These idiot Americans bitching about Saudi when America has more problems is assinine. Yeah Saudi is behind the times a bit.. But really.. Who cares. 

Lots of people do. The Saudi regime is one of the most oppressive on the face of the Earth. But money talks, I guess. No scruples or morality for Vince.