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Whats been the most successful british card in the last 25 years?


RancidPunx

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Non WWE but promoted by a British company.

Whats been the most successful card in the last 25 years and ,more recently, in the last 5 years?

 

 

I'm pretty much totally out of the loop when it comes to British wrestling. I do seem to remember that FWA seemed to be headed in the right direction about 8 years ago or so but i've not heard much about them at all. 

ICW seems to be getting great reviews but i'm not sure what kinda numbers they are doing.

 

 

What measures success i suppose is a good question?

 

 

I suppose the best measure is how many people paid to watch the card..

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All-Star have done some big crowds at times, I remember a show near me with Earthquake on it in the late 90s/early 00s that drew about 1500 people. I'm sure they'd have made more money than any of the various "Supershows" packed full of Americans. There was also a WAW show about 10 years ago that did a crowd of 2000.

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The last 3 Progress shows in London have been 700 sellouts, and the upcoming one in November is already sold out too.

 

PCW doesn't always draw that many, but they did last month with Team 3D on the show.

 

Rev Pro have been drawing similar numbers to York Hall as well.

 

I did hear ICW might have a 2100 crowd imminent..

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Was gonna mention International Showdown, great card from top US indy talent of the time like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels etc, relevent ex- wwe stars like Mick Foley and Raven and top UK talent like James Tighe, Doug Williams and Alex Shane and Jonny Storm

 

I always thought it was a shame that Joe vs Punk didnt go longer but I can see why it wouldnt with such a massive line up

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International Showdown and Universal Uproar were two that immediately sprung to my mind, taking into account the houses they drew, the amount of attention they gained, the quality of the matches and the exposure they gave to the good mix of UK and top international talent on the cards. Those shows are fondly remembered by many fans almost a decade later and for a lot of fans those supershows might well have been their way into the UK independent scene, which seemed to get pretty hot for a little while in the years that followed.

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I'd put forward The Wrestling Channel's International Showdown - 3,490 in the Coventry Skydome on March 19th 2005. A loaded line-up and amazing reviews.

Was that a sell out? That's about what the venue holds, isn't it?

 

 

Yeah, around 50 or so seats were left in the "nosebleeds". A sell-out for all intents & purposes. Has any UK indie show ever come close to that number?

 

As far as the supershows go, Showdown sold far more tickets than Universal Uproar, and I personally think the match quality was far better. 

http://411mania.com/wrestling/the-furious-flashbacks-twc-international-showdown/

http://411mania.com/wrestling/the-furious-flashbacks-universal-uproar/

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The two SkyDome shows were big enough but there's no way there was anything near 3,000 people at either of them. I was at them both and the bigger of the two - the first, IIRC - had 1,800 tops. That's still a fantastic crowd.

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The two SkyDome shows were big enough but there's no way there was anything near 3,000 people at either of them. I was at them both and the bigger of the two - the first, IIRC - had 1,800 tops. That's still a fantastic crowd.

 

You are 100% wrong about International Showdown. 100%. I have the exact figures & accounts - Paypal receipts as well as the Skydome box office receipts. It was 3,291 paid (including Sky Boxes @ 10 per box) + anywhere from 150 - 200 comps. The comps were harder to keep track of as I issued a lot of these to Alex, so not sure how many were left over, etc. But all of the paid went through the TWC accounts.

 

Venue capacity was 3500, allowing room for merch tables on the floor as well as fire safety compliance. Those are the seats numbers & allocations we were issued with.

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If you have the receipts then I guess I must be wrong. I guess a lot of people could have been in the toilets/at concession stands/smoking at the same time :)

 

I'm not exaggerating; I have no need to - I know exactly what we sold. This wasn't a typical "brown envelope" type of wrestling show where everyone gets paid in cash, the gate money is mostly cash, and the attendance figure is overstated - all the crew got paid by cheque (and I got receipts). The talent were paid by wire transfer to either them or their agent. Every ticket went on the TWC books - all taxes were paid, everyone had a working visa, every performer signed a release form, and we even filed PRS returns. Dolphin TV (the main TWC owner/backer) insisted it be done right & above board, which is why everyone involved got paid in full on the night.

We were 50-100 shy of a sell-out, yet we never claimed a sell-out which anyone else would have done. Those are the legit numbers - no idea why you'd think there were less people there unless you counted them all, which you didn't - because then you'd be agreeing with me. Uproar did around 2000, I believe.

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There's been a few other UK shows in recent years with crowds as big or almost as big as International Showdown, but I doubt they were as good or got as much coverage, and probably didn't make as much money. I would say International Showdown should win the argument for this century, but not sure about the last 25 years.

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