Dave Meltzer quote about old British wrestling

[kralcdxela]

Well, Meltzer has never given a British match five stars has he, and there have been plenty of classics back in the day. I think the big grudge matches were saved for the big shows at the RAE or Wembley or Cup Final day on telly, but they didn't do as many angles like has been said, the big matches were mainly tournament finals or championship matches, they generally had more matches on the major shows.

 

As for wages, I read that it was generally 30 quid for non-televised, and 50 for on telly, Jackie Pallo said the most he ever earned was

[JNLister]

As Tommy Atkins says, wrestling in Britain wasn't about building to occasional big shows that everyone traveled to, it was about being a regular form of live entertainment. Size wise you had everything from several 5,000 or so seat venue down to small halls. Most big towns or cities had a weekly show at the minimum and virtually every town of any size had a show at least once a month. Joint Promotions were running 15 shows a night at times, so it made no sense to build up a single star (which was one of the flaws of the Daddy era.)

 

One of the things that's forgotten in the UK to US comparison is that the venues were much closer together because of geography. In most US territories the major weekly venues were several hours drive apart, so you'd be picking up fans from a wide radius. In the UK, most people could get to regular shows on a local bus, so the idea of everyone driving to a supershow doesn't make any sense.

 

You've also got the limitation that the TV show didn't allow for any direct hype of live events, so it was more a case of making people stars by being on TV, but promoting their appearances locally.

 

Ratings wise, the wrestling didn't actually spectacularly better than a show in that slot would have been expected to do, but that still meant the stars were well known -- you're talking between 15% and 20% of the population watching the show.

[gmoney]

Here's an answer Meltzer gave to a question about British wrestlings popularity:

 

 

Thoughts? Thought it would be worth discussion for the BritWres~ fans on here.

 

Are you sure it wasn't more like

 

[simonworden]

Another thing to mention in argument to meltzers comment about the stadiums is that we didnt have many indoor ones and of course you cant be in old trafford in december with people standing wet on the pitch.

 

We also did not have as many of these massive indoor arenas back in the day with tiered seating, however certain town halls/ guildhalls etc I know of can hold 2000-5000 people and would have been filled back in the day.

 

What about all the territories back in the 60's 70s and early 80s they all taped in small venues most of the time to.

[Whiskey_Jim]

As Tommy Atkins says, wrestling in Britain wasn't about building to occasional big shows that everyone traveled to, it was about being a regular form of live entertainment. Size wise you had everything from several 5,000 or so seat venue down to small halls. Most big towns or cities had a weekly show at the minimum and virtually every town of any size had a show at least once a month. Joint Promotions were running 15 shows a night at times, so it made no sense to build up a single star (which was one of the flaws of the Daddy era.)

 

One of the things that's forgotten in the UK to US comparison is that the venues were much closer together because of geography. In most US territories the major weekly venues were several hours drive apart, so you'd be picking up fans from a wide radius. In the UK, most people could get to regular shows on a local bus, so the idea of everyone driving to a supershow doesn't make any sense.

 

You've also got the limitation that the TV show didn't allow for any direct hype of live events, so it was more a case of making people stars by being on TV, but promoting their appearances locally.

 

Ratings wise, the wrestling didn't actually spectacularly better than a show in that slot would have been expected to do, but that still meant the stars were well known -- you're talking between 15% and 20% of the population watching the show.

can you imagine a single promotion running fifteen different shows in a the same area of distance in America? Meltzer is only telling half a story here I think.