What is British wrestling coming to?

[Santino_Is_Awsome]

The only downside though is when Ravenhill mentioned about the training school not having insurance, that could potentially lead to someone being injured, not being able to claim, the council would prob then have to act and it could lead to them banning wrestling in the area. Abit extreme, but you'd be surprised the things councils do to avoid bad press.

This is true. After the Nik Bali incident, Cardiff Council won't accept wrestling bookings in any council owned venue.

 

i take it thats why no-one has run cattays in a while..

[Whiskey_Jim]

The only downside though is when Ravenhill mentioned about the training school not having insurance, that could potentially lead to someone being injured, not being able to claim, the council would prob then have to act and it could lead to them banning wrestling in the area. Abit extreme, but you'd be surprised the things councils do to avoid bad press.

This is true. After the Nik Bali incident, Cardiff Council won't accept wrestling bookings in any council owned venue.

 

i take it thats why no-one has run cattays in a while..

wasnt that an old Hammerlock venue?

[Kiffy]

The problem is though, whilst a few people ( probably 1- 5% of a british wrestling audience at any given show) will know that Mark's product is to be trusted, the chap down the road who wants to take his kids to a wrestling show wont know the difference. And that is the key demographic - kids and families. So he buys tickets to the show after seeing a poster, takes his kids, it's shockingly bad with " wrestlers" in pleather, t-shirts and kickpads, and he doesnt take them again. And as the kids are put off too, they wont ask to go and see one of Ravenhills shows when they see a poster for it, as theyve been put off by their previous experience. So they just save their money and see WWE when it comes to town.

 

See my point?

 

No, I don't buy that, I think it's a fucking cop out. They go to a bad show, it sucks, kids didn't like it, poor show. But then Mr Ravenhill puts on a show so good that the kids in the classroom are fucking raving about it, "This welsh wrestling lot aren't like the shite you saw mate, it's well good, how cool was it when?" word of mouth gets around and the kids end up wanting to go again, talk dad into it, love it, and from that point on they only trust welsh wrestling.

You could apply the above scenario in some variation or other to every single entertainment business in the world. There's shit pantos out there, but good ones get invited back to town halls and parents remember, there's shit little clubs, which run once in a town then can't do it again, but one nation manages, there's shit boxing, mma events where only half the fighters turn up and you get 4 fights at an advertised 8 fight card, but bamma does more than ok, there's strip clubs with 50 year old women standing on milkfloats with their pendulous baps swinging like the fucking pirate ship at chessington. But you know ya won't go far wrong at spearmints, and you'll do ok at browns as well.

What you said above can happen to any entertainment industry anywhere in the world.

But if you have a good enough, promoted enough product, you will not only rise above it, it will actively help you, as your promotion well be the only one people can trust.

Now if you can't imagine a british promotor having that much faith in his product and his audience, then you can't imagine a decent wrestling promotor.

And that is the problem, with british wrestling, far more of a problem than the shitass's.

[Santino_Is_Awsome]

The only downside though is when Ravenhill mentioned about the training school not having insurance, that could potentially lead to someone being injured, not being able to claim, the council would prob then have to act and it could lead to them banning wrestling in the area. Abit extreme, but you'd be surprised the things councils do to avoid bad press.

This is true. After the Nik Bali incident, Cardiff Council won't accept wrestling bookings in any council owned venue.

 

i take it thats why no-one has run cattays in a while..

wasnt that an old Hammerlock venue?

 

they ran there early 2000's i thnk yea,. Caimans company Celtic Wrestling ran there for ages, and put on some really cracking shows.

[Slapnut]

Out of curiosity, who was this "shitarse" booking for his show?

[Ravenhill Promotions]

Out of curiosity, who was this "shitarse" booking for his show?

Not sure of their names, but mostly made up of guys who were told they weren't ready by a local training school

[DJ Kris]

In 1993 when I was 13 I saw an advert for a show about 8 miles from me, it advertised The Underaker, Doink The Clown and The Warrior (it may have even said Ultimate Warrior) having never attended a live wrestling show before me and a mate were quite excited by this. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a shitarse show as such, it had Giant Haystacks on who I was excited to see and a dude calling himself The Barbarian who was quite impressive. Looking back there parts of the show I enjoyed. However, I left disappointed because although The Undertaker looked quite good he didn't really hold the gimmick well in the ring and Doink looked nothing like. There was no Warrior. Going expecting the real deal and realising it wasn't was a let down.

 

Obviously this thread isn't about tribute shows (not that it was advertised as such) however the next event I attended was a WWF one around 1996 and I didn't buy a ticket for a British show again until 2001/2 after I'd already started working in Wrestling. I'd been put off until I realised for myself what was out there. I might add that next show had some terrible fakes too, Mankind, Kane, Rey Mysterio and an MC that kept telling you who and when to cheer/boo. It was packed out and fucking awful! Although it did have a good woman's match on!

 

Moving back to 1993 though, we're talking mear months/a year after SummerSlam92 and people weren't talking about Wrestling in the classroom hardly at all. You weren't getting numberous people from the same school attending live shows, it tended to be odments from all over the area. I don't so much know what it's like now, but I wanted to share this experience with you.

[AshC]

My personal view is that for a good promotion to eradicate any threat from local lads starting up a pisspot promotion, their brand needs to be established to the point that anything else BritWres coming to town is seen as inferior.

 

The problem is, by strongly defining a brand, you're immediately defining yourself as different to WWE. And in turn, inferior to WWE. And therefore you're shooting yourself in the foot regarding any attempt to draw the casual WWE fan crowd (95% of your target audience in most cases). It seems a total catch-22 to me.

 

You build up a venue and the fans will keep coming to that venue, as long as the shows are good and you give them reason to return. But as soon as someone else is running close by, you're largely fucked as your potential audience is diluted. And who suffers most in the end? The boys, as there end up being less well-paying, quality shows running for them to collect a wage from.

[TheBeard]

I get the point you are trying to make in your OP but according to your website you're company is the 'premier brand of professional wrestling in Wales', so unless the shitarse companies are already making a serious dent in your take at the gate I don't think there should be any need to worry. Even if people mistake the other companies for your shows via a poster or radio advert they'll only ever make that mistake once and attend your next event instead of going back to them.

[Surf Digby]

Part of any business is attracting new customers. I suspect Mr Ravenhill would rather prospectives came to him, rather than to someone else and form the opinion that a dozen teenagersin jeans and trainers and botching snapmares is what the standard of home grown wrestling is.

[murphys_hand]

Now as for threatening him in the street?? That's simply not true. Like i've mentioned, I own and operate a security firm, and if I was to attack/harrass somebody in the street then i'd be liable to criminal charges, which could result in me losing my SIA security operating licence. So no matter how upset I might be, i'd never do anything that stupid. All I done was approach the guy and ask him a few questions, in a friendly manner. Now he's obviously a liar because he told his mammy differently.

 

someone who owns a small security firm but not a bully boy!????

 

now you have said that i Deffinitelly choose to believe, wrong or not that you did actualy threaten the kid!

[Ravenhill Promotions]

Now as for threatening him in the street?? That's simply not true. Like i've mentioned, I own and operate a security firm, and if I was to attack/harrass somebody in the street then i'd be liable to criminal charges, which could result in me losing my SIA security operating licence. So no matter how upset I might be, i'd never do anything that stupid. All I done was approach the guy and ask him a few questions, in a friendly manner. Now he's obviously a liar because he told his mammy differently.

 

someone who owns a small security firm but not a bully boy!????

 

now you have said that i Deffinitelly choose to believe, wrong or not that you did actualy threaten the kid!

Your reasoning for disbelieving me, confirms what I first thought. You're a muppet!

[Kiffy]

That's true, owning a security firm now is nothing like running one 10/15 years ago. You need to be absoloutely squeaky clean these days. If anything it makes him less likely to be threatening people on the street.

[Ravenhill Promotions]

That's true, owning a security firm now is nothing like running one 10/15 years ago. You need to be absoloutely squeaky clean these days. If anything it makes him less likely to be threatening people on the street.

That's exactly true. If the security business was anything like it used to be, I probably wouldn't want anything to do with it.

[second hand muffler]

someone who owns a small security firm but not a bully boy!????

 

now you have said that i Deffinitelly choose to believe, wrong or not that you did actualy threaten the kid!

Your reasoning for disbelieving me, confirms what I first thought. You're a muppet!

 

Murphy's hand is a presumptuous prick! Just like Fenix, Stuart Richards and the like are the disease of wrestling, he is the disease of this forum. Abandon all rational thought and common decency those who enter here! Some people raise some interesting points and enrich this forum with their well crafted opinions. I don't always agree with them but respect the fact they have formulated opinions basd on fact and rational thinking. Then, there are others (Murphy's hand) who sully this forum with their attempts at literal communication. I hate trawling through the muck in order to get to the gold! On the subject of presumptions, I presume Murphy's hand is a 22 yr old virgin, who works part time at Wilkinsons, I bet he dips his long black fingernails in the pic'n'mix on the sly, he has a seven year-old blackhead protruding from under the bridge of his glasses and a 'no fear' tattoo on his upper arm. His favourite book is 'nuts' magazine and his last sexual encounter involved his dog and a jar of marmite. I apologise to regular readers that I have lowered the tone of this often interesting forum...it just pisses me off that such people frequent this once fine forum. Rant over!