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Brit Wrestling are we on the up


knightmare

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Well people talk about our imports but the Ligero v kirby fued we done lasted 32 months and is the proudest thing I have ever done as a promoter.

 

I'm on my phone, so sorry if my English is worse than normal.

One thing I would love to see you do is have some little screen set up, like the one you have the entrance films on, to run a highlight bit on feuds like that. Going to the Notts shows when ever I can it would help fill gaps and add hype. FWA did it, but like everything they overdid it and spoilt it.

 

I just think you'd do that well, and it would keep every one up to date so the latest development has maximum impact. It was class too, from what I saw of that series, by the way, but it's ligero who is such an impressive chap it hard to fathom.

 

 

Broxbourne Civic Hall is probably my favourite venue.

 

It's top for me, just a fantastic place. I love my local assembly rooms too, but I don't think any one runs it now and last time a checked it wasn't cheap.

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Ive been to several 'upstart' promotions and they've gone from sparsely populated to rammed within a relative short space of time, over the last two years, and crucially sustained it. Infinite Pro went from half empty to rammed over the space of 3 shows, and kept it on the strength of the shows, despite cage and other snafu's. HXC has been solid, despite grumblings. PCW has gone from around 80 odd to 700 hundred sell outs etc in the same time frame.

 

Many of these fans aren't followers of wrestling per se, they are on the look out for a good night out a bit of banter, some entertainment and so on, and through word of mouth and the product on offer they generally stay and invite their friends based on what a good time they've had and come back for more.

 

Definitely agree with that. With Infinite, they attracted a lot of new fans who I'd never seen before. They spend the whole show by the bar, drinking a lot and starting various chants at the wrestlers. Sometimes it can be a bit annoying, but generally its okay. It's better than a half empty hall with everyone sitting on their hands. If there's a really good match, they do seem to get into it.

 

The cage match show, on a Friday night, was a huge success.

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As someone who only got into the UK scene due to 1PW being my local promotion (and them having Bret Hart) in 2006, I personally feel that 2013 was the strongest I've ever seen the English scene in regards to promotions, talents and show/match quality.

 

But then I am very aware I'm part of a very niche amount of fans. I hope promotions like Southside and Preston continue to thrive, that RevPro keeps the York Hall events special and fantastic events and that Sloan does a international promotion tour a year to help put the UK guys on that level.

 

As someone who became a fan in the same way, I definitely agree with that.

 

I remember in the summer of 2006, 1PW tried to make "Darkside" appear to be on the same level as Austin Aries and The Briscoes (who looked like MEGASTARS due to ROH) and it just wasn't sticking - he didn't have the same star quality. Fast forward 7 years and James Scott can comfortably not look out of place against Rhino. I mean this as no disrespect to "Darkside", as he was then known, but in general everyone on the scene has matured and are developing looks that wouldn't look out of place in the larger Indys and to some extent, TNA and possibly even WWE.

 

The crowds in general are more into it than years past, and I'm positive if 1PW launched now, they would be able to make the british guys look just as good as their american counterparts. They'd still fuck everything up like, but whatever. So for me, regardless of whether talent has actually improved, fan reaction has MASSIVELY and it makes guys look like stars. Just look at Grado, admittedly he might not look the best but the crowd pops and sings along as soon as his theme hits in Scotland, and he looks like a god.

 

As someone who saw the whole 1PW thing from the outside, a major problem I had with the promotion was that they appeared to make no effort at all to try and push British talent. I agree that nobody would've seen them as stars from the get-go, but when you only have match after match after match of import vs. import, giving nobody any kind of rub at all, it's not surprising that no British wrestlers got anywhere - if they're always portrayed as curtain-jerkers, fit to only face other curtain-jerkers, why would anyone ever view them as potential stars?

 

To be fair to 1PW (and that isn't something that should happen often), they did seem to revise this policy after a while.

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As someone who only got into the UK scene due to 1PW being my local promotion (and them having Bret Hart) in 2006, I personally feel that 2013 was the strongest I've ever seen the English scene in regards to promotions, talents and show/match quality.

 

But then I am very aware I'm part of a very niche amount of fans. I hope promotions like Southside and Preston continue to thrive, that RevPro keeps the York Hall events special and fantastic events and that Sloan does a international promotion tour a year to help put the UK guys on that level.

 

As someone who became a fan in the same way, I definitely agree with that.

 

I remember in the summer of 2006, 1PW tried to make "Darkside" appear to be on the same level as Austin Aries and The Briscoes (who looked like MEGASTARS due to ROH) and it just wasn't sticking - he didn't have the same star quality. Fast forward 7 years and James Scott can comfortably not look out of place against Rhino. I mean this as no disrespect to "Darkside", as he was then known, but in general everyone on the scene has matured and are developing looks that wouldn't look out of place in the larger Indys and to some extent, TNA and possibly even WWE.

 

The crowds in general are more into it than years past, and I'm positive if 1PW launched now, they would be able to make the british guys look just as good as their american counterparts. They'd still fuck everything up like, but whatever. So for me, regardless of whether talent has actually improved, fan reaction has MASSIVELY and it makes guys look like stars. Just look at Grado, admittedly he might not look the best but the crowd pops and sings along as soon as his theme hits in Scotland, and he looks like a god.

 

As someone who saw the whole 1PW thing from the outside, a major problem I had with the promotion was that they appeared to make no effort at all to try and push British talent. I agree that nobody would've seen them as stars from the get-go, but when you only have match after match after match of import vs. import, giving nobody any kind of rub at all, it's not surprising that no British wrestlers got anywhere - if they're always portrayed as curtain-jerkers, fit to only face other curtain-jerkers, why would anyone ever view them as potential stars?

 

To be fair to 1PW (and that isn't something that should happen often), they did seem to revise this policy after a while.

 

They tried it. But only to an extent - they made Spud look an absolute star and Spud's match with Abyss is the best 3-minute match you'll ever see. Same with Burridge, he got over massively. But yeah, whenever they tried to deviate from import vs. import, it never clicked or had the same feel. I partly think it was presentation - why anyone would think people would cheer Darkside over a former ROH World Champion and Indy Superstar, is beyond me.

 

They should have gone with the Team SHAG approach, by having the import team with the british guy and hope the shine rubs off. OR, book the british guy as the heel.

 

Regardless, it's 2014 now, 1PW's dead and the whole scene has recovered from "Supershow Mania". I never would have thought a promotion could sell out 1500 with just Colt Cabana and Sabu in 2013, but it happened and I wouldn't be surprised if that kind of thing happened a lot more this year.

 

Once the bubble bursts on "Club Night Promotions" though, I'm not sure what's going to happen. Maybe it'll go all geeky and pop-culture influenced like ATTACK!

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I never would have thought a promotion could sell out 1500 with just Colt Cabana and Sabu in 2013, but it happened and I wouldn't be surprised if that kind of thing happened a lot more this year.

 

Why not?

 

Because in 2007, 1PW could only do it with Christian, Samoa Joe, Rhino, AJ Styles, Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels, etc. etc. It took an entire roster of Imports to do it, obviously set off by the success of International Showdown and Universal Uproar.

 

It's more to credit of ICW (and PCW & RevPro) that they could do that, given that 1PW saturated the market for years.

 

And by "Supershow Mania", I mean the International Showdown model of

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In 2008 All Star Wrestling got 1600 with 'just' Rene Dupree, so I don't see your point there.

 

Come on, dude, that's a little disingenuous. It's clear he was talking about other promotions without All Star's unique business model, i.e. being well-established and frequent for the past 50 years or so, to the point where the venues do the advertising for them and they're established with the local communities of said venues. Dupree wouldn't have been a draw for All Star in himself at all, just "American Wrestling" would have been.

 

When people on here talk about BritWres promotions, they're usually talking about any promotions outside All Star (or LDN or Welsh Wrestling), and I am certain you know this.

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I think looking at the shows already booked for 2014 I'd say it was on the up.

 

And the 3 main touring promoters - Dixon, Ravenhill and Bagga, all seem to be running more and more shows, which is a good sign.

 

Too much emphasis us put on TV tho. That doesn't determine success, revenue does.

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In 2008 All Star Wrestling got 1600 with 'just' Rene Dupree, so I don't see your point there.

 

in 2001 We sold out 2000 paying customers and turned near 500 away at Norwich sports village with just, PN News and Tiger Steele as imports who were working for Allstar at the time, i believe its how you sell THE SHOW, Rather than who is on.

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That was a red-hot period mind, wasn't it, on the gate? Hammerlock got 1,000+ crowds around then. The flood of sub-par stuff in the mid-2000s, coupled with the diminished popularity of US wrestling, put paid to that. But I definitely agree things are on the up. Wrestlingmad's first point hit the nail on the head, for me.

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That was a red-hot period mind, wasn't it, on the gate? Hammerlock got 1,000+ crowds around then. The flood of sub-par stuff in the mid-2000s, coupled with the diminished popularity of US wrestling, put paid to that. But I definitely agree things are on the up. Wrestlingmad's first point hit the nail on the head, for me.

 

A few years earlier bud we were lucky to get 30/40 people such was the decline and there was only, Orig, Scott Conway, Freemantle and WAW Left running, even Brian Dixon went out for a while, it took me three years of running Norwich Fortnightly to achieve that crowd and the 5 year cycle coming round.

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