Kelly Kelly or Jushin Liger

[NEWM]

Just something I thought of when the two names sat near each other in the Wrestlemania thread. Basically, imagine you're a promoter, be it for some little British fed, one of the larger BritWres big boys, TNA or ROH. I'll let you decide. Kelly Kelly, WWE front-facing stalwart for 6 years and will guarantee you a great deal of little kids and randy old Dads, or Jushin Liger, ace old Jap wrestler who's never made any dents on the biggest stage and might get overlooked by the casual but will put over anybody you like in a 3* match. Who do you anticipate would be a better draw for you making one advertised appearance in your promotion of choice?

 

I'm imagining being a local British promoter, and Kelly Kelly drawing you three times the house as Liger. She's still really fresh off the telly, probably impossibly fit in real life and will kiss the dads after having pictures with the kids. And as the booker, she might even suck you off if you look like ShortOrderCook. Which, if I'm fantasy booking my life, I might as well have that as well.

 

So which direction do you go in? Japs or Flaps?

 

 

[neil's bitch]

Flaps, all the way.

 

I like Jushin Liger,as a wrestler, but in the hopes Kelly would being doing nasty things with me........its Kelly.

[simonworden]

Great point for discussion.

 

Personally I would go in this instance for Jushin Liger, although to the casuals he is a relative unknown he is a huge name who has not been over for years and I would expect him to draw a good crowed of pureso and general internet fans as well as some casuals with the right promotion. Dick Togo for 4FW was a good success so I would expect an even bigger one for Liger.

 

Kelly Kelly on the other hand I personally couldn't see being a great draw past what normal advertising would do, although she was a name the Divas were in her time normally treated as an after thought and her appearance from my perspective would be nothing more not to miss. Perhaps I am bias but even looking at it objectively and including the fee for either of them which I would guess as similar if not more for Kelly and Liger just seems more value for money...then again if I was on a promise then Kelly all the way.

[NEWM]

Sorry, yeah just to clarify: they cost the same but you can only afford one.

[Whiskey_Jim]

Flaps every time. Promoters are trying to make money and Kelly Kelly is recent memory in the biggest promotion in the world. Kelly is a reason for fair weather fans and families to come through the door. Im guessing since the promotion (hypothetically) has the money for either of these that they have money for a decent roster to make the in ring action of a pretty good standard anyway so you dont really need Liger to entertain between the ropes. Let the fanboys wank all over Liger all they like but there is only one choice realistically.

[gadge]

Depends whether you're trying to build a regular audience that will attend for the wrestling and hopefully come back based on the rest of your show, or draw a one off house for the attraction you're bringing in this time.

[DCW]

Kelly.She'd draw more kids and teenagers in and would sell more photos/autographs and merch that you'd presumably get a cut of.

 

You could also try and re-create that Vince/Trish bark like a dog segment with her.

[Reznor]

If you wanted both, you could always cough up for Kelly, buy a cheap mask and suit, and stick one of your regular guys in it as Justin Lyger.

[Up Chuck]

Just for clarity's sake, in my experience working the merch table at IPW when they had imports...

 

photos... that you'd presumably get a cut of

 

Yep.

 

autographs and merch that you'd presumably get a cut of

 

Nope.

 

 

Anyway, it massively depends on your audience, but Kelly would be the better call for the majority of promotions out there. The recent familiarity with your target audience isn't even close. Personally I wouldn't bother with either. If I had enough money lying around to book either of them, I'd either re-invest it in promoting slowly, or pack it in and keep the cash.

[AJS269]

It would depend. If the company had a training school for example, Liger could do a training seminar as well, something you wouldn't do with Kelly.

Personally I would go with Liger, but thats partially because I'm not a Kelly Kelly fan.

[JNLister]

My guess would be more people would recognise Kelly Kelly, but more people would pay to see Liger. That's more so if you're a promotion that has expensive tickets or charges extra for ringside.

[I Bent My Wookie]

As with what most people have said here, Kelly every time.

 

Liger is phenomenal and there are people who would kill to see him live. However for example if I chucked a show on in the two places I live right now (university student) being Bath and Hereford I can guarantee 95% of people who watch wrestling only know TNA or WWE. If you're forking out a massive amount on one person you want to get as much back as possible, merch/photos/tickets can probably pay for it.

 

Of course if you're somewhere like 4FW for example that has its own training facility, develops its own talent and has a hardcore fan base that has grown through a use of Japanese imports in the past then by all means Liger would be a great choice for the school and the show and would be a great benefit for them.

 

However, Kelly just has more of a mainstream appeal that would probably help me break even after fucking everything else up along the way.

[Up Chuck]

My guess would be more people would recognise Kelly Kelly, but more people would pay to see Liger. That's more so if you're a promotion that has expensive tickets or charges extra for ringside.

 

This is a great point, actually. Liger does have some value in that he's not wrestled over here under the gimmick and won't be around much longer. He's probably the only Japanese import left who has that kind of value (People could point to Muta as an example of that not working, but 1PW and RQW fucked that up in succession by being a fucking shambles and being on a crusade to run really expensive shows with no advertising, respectively). You would get people traveling to see him. Whether that'd recoup the cost of booking him is questionable, though, and that whole import-supershow buzz seems like it's had its time. I'd say the best place for Liger would be as part of the Dragon Gate shows.

 

And as to whether or not Kelly would draw, it's difficult, because former divas are completely unproven in that respect. Eugene drew big for IPW once, but not twice. Scotty 2 Hotty did alright in Bognor Regis but pretty poorly in Broxbourne on consecutive days, despite those being far apart enough to virtually guarantee no audience overlap (and as such, have people picking one show over the other). So even the guys are hit-and-miss. It's a really tough call, and probably quite a significant risk.

[air_raid]

I'd go Japs personally.

 

I think anybody that gives a shit about Kelly Kelly or 90% of the ex-Diva population is likely to be so "WWE or nothing" that they wouldn't pay money to see a little Indy/BritWres show regardless of who you book that used to be on TV anyway, other than a star of Batista calibre for instance. As in, they loved her when she was part of "THE SHOW" but now she's not in it, she's dead to them. They might not even be aware of the show going on, whereas nerds like us who come on forums like this to talk about the rasslin mostly regard Kelly and her ilk as the piss break match and probably aren't more inclined to get off our arses to go to a show just because she's on it. We're much more likely to stay in with Spankwire than pay to see a particular set of clothed T&A, no matter how pert.

 

Liger on the other hand... well, there's probably a decent enough number that would think "how many more chances am I really going to get" to see him wrestle live - talking now about the fans that lean slightly towards wrestling over entertainment, if you will - and I think you've been a tad harsh on Liger's dents in the big stage. You've got everyone that saw him have those great matches in WcW sporadically through the 90s at the time, then another bunch of fans exposed to him since on the Nitro and Pillman DVDs.

 

Using myself as an example of someone who will get off my arse for various things and traverse the length and breadth of the country - I've done it for Johnny Saint, the Dragon Gate crew, for Lance Storm, for Bret Hart waving at me and saying a few words, and for Beer Money & Desmond Wolfe. I'd do it for Liger, I wouldn't for Kelly Kelly. I wouldn't even for Maria or Eve Torres if she'd got given the push, and we're talking serious RSI there.

[Arch Stanton]

Good topic. My initial thought was 'Kelly please!', but having read the responses so far and considered it a little more I think Liger would probably be the better bet from a promoter's point of view. As lovely as it would be to have Kelly Kelly around, I think if you're looking to make a few quid there is still enough of a nerd market out there to guarantee a decent house with a Puro legend like Liger making his UK debut.