Reviving British Wrestling

[Sheffbag]

All Star do numbers like that all the time. Of course, the posters do usually say "American Wrestling".

Serious? Well done to All Star then - i didnt think they were getting 750?

[Your Fight Site]

i woudl class Nagasaki as an "import" though as the majority of the crowd woudl be there for a "one-off" appearance by a non regular competitor.

Well say special attraction and not import then.

 

An import is actually that: a foreign wrestler brought in, whether for a one-off appearance or a tour.

 

Imports also refer to any wrestler that is booked for a company that isn't a home-grown talent for example IPW: UK booking someone who is LDN trained.

Well by that logic most British wrestling shows feature mostly imports.

[steve rayson]

Resurrect this fatso:

[The Dart]

It seems strange to me that Mexico, Japan, and of course America have thriving wrestling scenes with National promotions yet Britain struggles to move a promotion past regional level.

 

Britain does have a national promotion.

 

It is hard to believe that the other wrestling hot spots, Mexico, Japan, and the USA didn't suffer similar problems. Summerslam 92' and the continued WWE interest indicates a potential interest in the mainstream if the product was there.

 

Interest in WWE yes.

 

 

I'd imagine there are plenty of shows that draw 700-1000 without imports here. All Star probably gets crowds like that a fair bit, but will more often than not have an import or two, although they are usually just another one of the roster, not a specific attraction. I'm sure they get 1,000 for their shows in Birkenhead. There was that show in Manchester a couple of years ago that allegedly drew 3,000. LDN did indeed get 800 for a show in Margate in 2009 with just Brits.

[Ravenhill Promotions]

Wrestling in Britain is thriving, ask Vince.

[Big Rob]

All Star do numbers like that all the time. Of course, the posters do usually say "American Wrestling".

 

Do they now? Wow. I knew they ran a successful racquet for their area of the market, but only assumed numbers around 400 tops. Once again, I have learned something today!

I've seen an All Star show in Southend a couple of years back pull 1700 people on a school night with Southend football club playing a home game at the same time. There were a couple of Americans on the bill, but they wouldn't have been specifically advertised, apart from maybe on the website a couple of days before hand. I believe they also got 2000 in Liverpool a couple of years back. LDN have hit about 800 in Margate before with no imports, and drew 850 for the show with Naggers in Wolverhampton.

[Quentin]

Is it just me or do we have this same debate every month now?

[robbo9292]

It seems strange to me that Mexico, Japan, and of course America have thriving wrestling scenes with National promotions yet Britain struggles to move a promotion past regional level.

 

Britain does have a national promotion.

 

 

Just a quick question, sound completely retarded here but who is the National Promotion?

[Your Fight Site]

It seems strange to me that Mexico, Japan, and of course America have thriving wrestling scenes with National promotions yet Britain struggles to move a promotion past regional level.

 

Britain does have a national promotion.

 

 

Just a quick question, sound completely retarded here but who is the National Promotion?

All Star?

[pshango]

I think without major money co-operation amongst promoters is needed by way of an annual alliance similar to the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) to promote an annual branded wrestling show similar to Wrestlemania or the Jan 4th Tokyo Dome show. The event should be promoting British/European Wrestling with the added addition of one or two performers from America and Japan.Now I know the money wouldnt be there to produce a standard similar to WrestleMania or the Tokyo Dome Show, but with effective marketing and use of the internet a healthy crowd could be pulled as the show grows year by year.For an investor wanting to invest in British wrestling at the moment what would he invest into?

[Hyperion]

Is it just me or do we have this same debate every month now?

Its not just you. It's now a tiresome debate but every new guy thinks its a great topic to get over with.

[King Pitcos]

If you could have any tools at your disposal, all the resources you needed, and the contacts necessary, what are your ideas as to how a British revival could be achieved?

Buy WWE and relocate it. It'd go tits up fairly quick as well. There's no possible way for any new company to come along and not look like an amateur hour shithouse in comparison to WWE. And even if there were, it's very unlikely you could run the NEC and O2 etc once a month.

[simonworden]

I think without major money co-operation amongst promoters is needed by way of an annual alliance similar to the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) to promote an annual branded wrestling show similar to Wrestlemania or the Jan 4th Tokyo Dome show. The event should be promoting British/European Wrestling with the added addition of one or two performers from America and Japan.Now I know the money wouldnt be there to produce a standard similar to WrestleMania or the Tokyo Dome Show, but with effective marketing and use of the internet a healthy crowd could be pulled as the show grows year by year.For an investor wanting to invest in British wrestling at the moment what would he invest into?

 

 

Like international showdown in 2005? Yes that worked and drew approx 3000 people but then the sequel Universal Uproar had a crowd under 2000 I believe, and then the supershow concept died out in favour of imports doing multiple shows and also the promotion tours from USA/Japan.

 

Even in world of sport days it was only the local halls that were filled with people not arenas. I think they got 2-3 good croweds at the albert hall and wembley. The other thing is comparrison which has been mentioned. Even prime time UK shows dont have as good production as WWE and TNA in some cases. So why would a low budge wrestling show be taken seriously.

 

Finally IF and its a big IF you had a few million and could afford to do something pretty darn good using it. Why would you when you could live off it yourself without the shit of running a promotion losing money

[Vamp]

This is too easy a question. First of all you'd have to reverse digital expansion so that there are less channels on television and you wouldn't have various forms of competition such as major game consoles or the internet, then you'd have to make sure that the WWE died out, then you'd have to find some good looking British wrestlers who actually demonstrated some charisma, then you'd have to invest a hell of a lot of money into the product, blackmail a major television executive, hire a think tank to work out how to actually present your shows, pay off an advertising firm to get people to actually bother to tune in and then, finally, you'd need to get compromising photos of God sleeping with Lady Luck.

 

I'm willing to give it a go? Any other takers?

[Kenny McBride]

A return to the good old days is most likely impossible, but the reasons nothing has been achieved despite numerous attempts (including a few TV opportunities with fairly decent stations) is that no-one - and I mean NO-ONE - in British wrestling has the first fucking idea about marketing their product and very few seem to have much of an idea about things like financial controls or attracting investment. Massive investment isn't required at the early stages, but the pieces have to be put in place to make it a viable investment when the right time comes. The product has to be right too, but there's no-one around who has a clue about how you might do that either.

 

The talent IS here. You can see that much from how many guys have gone to New York and TNA from here and become pretty huge stars more or less instantly. Everyone knew Drew Galloway looked like a star and Sheamus was well known to those who had seen him, but who knew Nick Aldis and Stu Sanders and PJ Black could all be viable international superstars? There are plenty of guys bubbling under who are not so far off that level and when you bear in mind the lesser need for height and bulk in the kind of smaller venues used here, that's not even such a big issue.

 

Without a smart marketing brain behind it all though, it will never matter. British wrestling is a dead duck until someone with a brain gets involved at a high level, and that will never happen because people with brains are not generally welcome in wrestling circles.