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

[Mark Sloan]

 

Well done to Linus. He was great on that show.

 

Agreed - the commentary actually stood out on that show as excellent. A lot of times, commentary is just 'there'.

 

According to Greg Lamberts book Uprising III lost £24,000. That's an unreal amount to lose over a British Wrestling show. 

 

 

That's why I found it a bit irritating in Greg's book where he said that International Showdown was "essentially an FWA show". We hired their ring & crew - that was it.

but sentimentality can't supersede the facts. 

 

Revival was always referred to as "essentially an FWA Show" because outside of the the talksport promotion and funds, it was all FWA,

 

I can see why people would think that about "Showdown" from both sides of the curtain, but as far as I knew Alex didn't think that and the majority of the actual FWA crew didn't think that either. Wishful thinking maybe, just undoubtably the biggest crowd the Skydome with over 3240 tickets paid, plus the skyboxes and comps attended.

[Linus]

I should add that, as International Showdown was designated RIMup, I was very drunk.

 

Revival was an odd one - and thanks for the kind words about my commentary, by the way - because it felt like the start of something, or at least the next big step of something we'd been building for a year, and then - at least for me - it was the beginning of the end. There were a few of us who, when the big chance of actually making it work on TV didn't pay off, decided to get on with real life. Can't say if it was the right or wrong decision, but I wouldn't change what I've got now!

 

It was also a big card designed to put British - and the odd German - talent over as genuine stars to people who didn't really know them. In that, it succeeded, as well as being a financial success.

[wrestlingmad]

I guess the overall winner between International Showdown and Revival goes to the most profitable. Nobody is going to have a clear answer to that either.

 

ICW has to be mentioned here for their upcoming Barrowlands show. Legit sold out over a month in advance with a believe around 2,200 sold at £18.50 a pop. I don't think theres any imports either, unless you count Drew Galloway. It must take the most succsesful Scottish show title?

 

Wales on the other hand..

[AVM]

International Showdown was certainly a great show, and I remember it being more or less full. The meet and greet beforehand was fantastic too, even though I was 14 and shouldn't have been allowed in. I think entry was something like £2 and Foley was the only person who charged for autographs and even then he only charged £5 or so. Incredible value given I got autographs from Mick Foley, AJ Styles, CM Punk, Christopher Daniels, Raven, Samoa Joe etc. To put it into perspective, I went to Wrestlecon this year and would have spent all in all around $60 on entry and getting photos with the Steiners, Jeff Jarrett and Al Snow. Interesting to see how much meet and greets have been monetised over the past decade.

[ICW#1FAN]

I attended skydome shows, reason they were successful is due to all imports. ICW have sold 2200 tickets for Barrowlands, southern shows rely on Japanese and American Imports.

[The Cutting Edge]

Is Drew Galloway considered an import or local? I know he was a local guy but surely now alot of his appeal and drawing is being an ex-wwe star

[tiger_rick]

I attended skydome shows, reason they were successful is due to all imports. ICW have sold 2200 tickets for Barrowlands, southern shows rely on Japanese and American Imports.

 

Bit of a sweeping statement. There are quite a few promotions doing well using home grown talent or the odd yank who is here for the medium term.

[knightmare]

The WAW Fightmare show was in 2001 we drew 2000 paying fans and turned away 400-500, we had 40 wrestlers on the show with two Amercans, Tiger Steele and P N News both residing in the UK at the time, 6 months later we drew 1400 with the old TWA V WAW Tournament at the same venue.

[Rob Lowe]

 

According to Greg Lamberts book Uprising III lost £24,000.

 

The Revival show I'd say was a historically up there. It drew about 2000 (If memory serves), it was on telly and broadcast live on radio. Not just that, it seemed everyone who was in attendance ended up getting into the business. In terms of hype and just the sheer ideas of what British Wrestling good do after it, its hard to beat that show. There was a proper sense this country wasn't a shithole whose only stars were fake X-Pac's in dinner halls. I definitely remember by perception of British Wrestling went from "oh its shit" to "oh its quite good" overnight. Well done to Linus. He was great on that show.

LOL £24,000 - I still smile every time Ian quotes this fiction.

 

Please give us the truth then Mark! I read Lambert's book too, through repetition that figure will slowly become 'fact' in a few years.

 

Whats the truth about Uprising 3?

[Mark Sloan]

 

 

According to Greg Lamberts book Uprising III lost £24,000.

 

The Revival show I'd say was a historically up there. It drew about 2000 (If memory serves), it was on telly and broadcast live on radio. Not just that, it seemed everyone who was in attendance ended up getting into the business. In terms of hype and just the sheer ideas of what British Wrestling good do after it, its hard to beat that show. There was a proper sense this country wasn't a shithole whose only stars were fake X-Pac's in dinner halls. I definitely remember by perception of British Wrestling went from "oh its shit" to "oh its quite good" overnight. Well done to Linus. He was great on that show.

LOL £24,000 - I still smile every time Ian quotes this fiction.

 

Please give us the truth then Mark! I read Lambert's book too, through repetition that figure will slowly become 'fact' in a few years.

 

Whats the truth about Uprising 3?

 

Well, simply put FWA never, ever, ever had £24,000 to lose. If that quote had of been close to accuate then Greg, Doug and Alex would still be being pursued for the money now.

 

There was a limited company in place at some points, but I am pretty sure that used primarily for the TV, so it isn't as if the debts could be written off if there was £24k owed

 

Let's just imagine the 1800 crowd at an average of £15 per ticket would generate £27,000, and a further £24,000 was lost. That is £51,000 the show cost. Did we buy the Coventry Skydome instead of renting it?

 

Uprising 3 Card

Spud def Ross Jordan & Aviv Mayaan

Hade Vanson def Jack Xavier

Mark Belton def D'Lo Brown

Burchill/Paul Travell & Terry Funk def Drew McDonald/Thunder & Raj Ghosh.

Hampton Court def Mark Sloan & Stevie Knight

Alex Shane def Doug Williams to become the NEW FWA Champion

AJ Styles def James Tighe 2-1.

 

As you can see, 3 US talents, rest is all UK talents.

 

You don't need to have the accounts book to do the numbers. The Skydome was less than £4k to hire and there were sponsor money, merch cut etc.

Uprising is unlikely to have made money, and as you know Alex went on to work on the Showdown event and then on Uproar. I would be surprised if either one of them came close to costing £51,000 infact it is possible that BOTH shows didn't even cost that. As already covered multiple times already both Uproad and Showdown were extremely well attended and profitable events.

 

********** Edit, also while Greg's book is full of inaccuracies and is it is solely his views on what happened during his time working alongside Alex on FWA. It is entirely plausable that he was told or did genuinely believe that the show lost £24k. ************

[Ian 86]

D'Lo Brown

Terry Funk

AJ Styles

 

As you can see, 3 US talents, rest is all UK talents.

 

 

Weren't Colt Cabana and Jimmy Hart there as well from memory?

[Mark Sloan]

 

D'Lo Brown

Terry Funk

AJ Styles

 

As you can see, 3 US talents, rest is all UK talents.

 

 

Weren't Colt Cabana and Jimmy Hart there as well from memory?

 

Jimmy Hart was there. Cabana was in the Dark Match, neither of which would have been a costly addition.

 

Cabana being in the Dark match would lead me to believe he was already over here on tour. Jimmy Hart, I can't remember why he was there!

[WyattSheepMask]

Is Drew Galloway considered an import or local? I know he was a local guy but surely now alot of his appeal and drawing is being an ex-wwe star

Isn't he still living in the US? I'm sure he said on Jericho's podcast that he is represented by Bill Berhans and he has a green card thanks to his marriage.

If that's the case, I think you can class him as an import

 

Re: Cabana at Uprising 3, he was touring over here before the show. I saw him the second (and final IWP show (which I think was run by Stevie Knoght). Can't for the life of me remember who he was against that night though

[herbie747]

 

 

D'Lo Brown

Terry Funk

AJ Styles

 

As you can see, 3 US talents, rest is all UK talents.

 

 

Weren't Colt Cabana and Jimmy Hart there as well from memory?

 

Jimmy Hart was there. Cabana was in the Dark Match, neither of which would have been a costly addition.

 

Cabana being in the Dark match would lead me to believe he was already over here on tour. Jimmy Hart, I can't remember why he was there!

 

 

 

Jimmy Hart was over for a TWC meeting with his XWF crew anyway - so FWA had no flights to pay and he was a late addition to the show since he just happened to be over. I also believe he wavered his fee and just sold some gimmicks. FWA never booked him.

 

Edit: funny story re the XWF & TWC meeting. We're all sitting at the table about to get started - everyone exchanged business cards, etc; there was myself & Jody from the TWC Dublin office (huge wrestling marks), Jimmy Hart & 2 of his XWF guys (a backer & a lawyer) and then 2 guys from Dolphin TV who had no interest in wrestling, but funded the channel and ended up in more bizarre situations over the coming years than I'm sure they ever imagined being in.

Anyway - so Jimmy says: "I have a little present here for ya'll" and slides a signed Brooke Hogan CD across the table to each of us. The guys from Dolphin didn't know WTF was going on.

I don't know whether he was trying to woo us with gifts or took us all for marks or what - but myself & Jody thought this was hilarious - watching the old carny world that we were familiar with, collide with 2 airtime sales execs who spent years working at ITV and SKY. The Dolphin guys still have fond memories of their first meeting with Dino Scarlo (he came in with Alex & Doug) too, in a "WTF have we gotten ourselves into?" kinda way.

[Mark Sloan]

 

Is Drew Galloway considered an import or local? I know he was a local guy but surely now alot of his appeal and drawing is being an ex-wwe star

Isn't he still living in the US? I'm sure he said on Jericho's podcast that he is represented by Bill Berhans and he has a green card thanks to his marriage.

If that's the case, I think you can class him as an import

 

Re: Cabana at Uprising 3, he was touring over here before the show. I saw him the second (and final IWP show (which I think was run by Stevie Knoght). Can't for the life of me remember who he was against that night though

 

It was against Dirk Feelgood.

Stevie's IWP shows were fantasic business, too, doing very large crowds with very few large costs