What Culture Pro Wrestling LIVE (Newcastle) - 27th & 28th July

[Jon-Carr_92]

Through foul means or fair. It's not the first time someone's pulled out late on and it won't be the last. It's interesting people whining about it being the second time he's no-showed even though last time it happened with WCPW, it was due to his flight getting cancelled. Can't help that. He took to social media to clarify the situation. Though he did the show the day after he was also booked for and his scheduled match with John Morrison on the one he missed took place on that one instead. I imagine he's with them a lot because they manage a decent rate as he's with WAW as well. He also had that dispute with WXW in between WWE stints over flight arrangements he pulled out of that show as well and there seemed to be a bit of finger pointing over what went wrong there.

[The Dart]

Also, he'd already been booked and advertised for the show the next day.  If he says he can do that show they're still going to use him for it, otherwise they're the ones letting those fans down.  They might choose not to book him again in the future, but you can't knock them for still using him on the Coventry show.

[Tim R-T-C]

Went to the Newcastle show on Saturday. It was a pretty good show, wrestling was solid throughout.

The booking was clever. They made a big deal on the Youtube promotion of the 30 man rumble that if Galloway retained his title, they would resort to "extreme measures" on the Coventry show to take it off him. So we of course expected him to retain. Having Kidd winning earlier in the night also made it seem highly unlikely they would have two big babyface pops.

Would have been nice to see a Coffey match against one of the other talents, but given they were running late, I wasn't overly fussed. Better to allow the rumble to have plenty of time.

The crowd was interesting, clearly most of those around us were WWE fans who enjoyed the WhatCulture Youtube channel and not British scene regulars. They popped crazy for King Ross etc. when he came out, but didn't know a lot of the British talent aside from the WCPW regulars. I think this is a good thing, getting people who might only have gone to WWE shows before, coming along to their events and introducing then to British wrestlers.

Major annoyance was people standing up on the front row. We were on the floor seats, so when they stood up we couldn't a lot of the in-ring action. For some reason the barriers were about a meter away from the front row fans, so when they wanted to high-five wrestlers they had to stand up, during the rumble they were stood up every minute as someone came out. Lack of support staff to tell people not to be d*cks!

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Tim R-T-C said:

They popped crazy for King Ross etc

That settles it, I can never attend one of these shows. I don't mind the other youtube lads so much but fuck that fucking guy

[Tim R-T-C]

26 minutes ago, sj5522 said:

That settles it, I can never attend one of these shows. I don't mind the other youtube lads so much but fuck that fucking guy

He appeared at the top of the ramp to let Primate out of his cage and that was it. No words spoken!

[gmoney]

I don't think I could be in a room with people who would see him and cheer. 

[Jon-Carr_92]

I bet they'd book an in ring talk segment with him as host and the mere sight of him in the ring alone would be the most over thing on the show. Which is a saddening prospect. He's the worst one by far. Did you know he wore that outfit to WrestleMania?

In other news, they've announced Season 2 of Loaded which is set to be broadcast live every Friday from Manchester Bowlers Exhibition Centre starting June 2nd through to August 18th. Quite ambitious to say the least, but the question is, will this actually work? What's everyone's take on this?

[ClassicsGuy]

1 hour ago, Jon-Carr_92 said:

I bet they'd book an in ring talk segment with him as host and the mere sight of him in the ring alone would be the most over thing on the show. Which is a saddening prospect. He's the worst one by far. Did you know he wore that outfit to WrestleMania?

In other news, they've announced Season 2 of Loaded which is set to be broadcast live every Friday from Manchester Bowlers Exhibition Centre starting June 2nd through to August 18th. Quite ambitious to say the least, but the question is, will this actually work? What's everyone's take on this?

Running the same venue 10 weeks in a row, charging for admission too, probably isn't a very good idea to say the least.

I think with WCPW, we're at the point now where you can't treat them like a normal business. If they were a normal wrestling promotion like PROGRESS/REV PRO/ICW or PCW, that had to draw and make ends meet to succeed, they'd have gone out of business many months ago. They have rich backers that can absorb any and all losses, they have a quite frankly carefree approach to spending money, and the people financing it simply don't care about turning any sort of profit. I don't know what their end game and ultimate aims are. Perhaps it's simply to be prepared to lose a shitload of money running shows in the hope that the buzz they generate leads to a UK tv network agreeing to give them a paying tv deal, at which point the owners would then begin to turn a profit and all the absorbed losses would then begin to pay off. It's been reported that WCPW and Anthem were the two companies vying to produce the WOS show, and ITV chose to go with Anthem over WCPW. Maybe WCPW thinks if they keep producing wrestling content and develop a track record for doing so, that it will persuade another channel to give them a deal.     

[C-Rock]

I dont understand how people assume they are running at a loss and making no money. Are people aware of the cost of a venue, the fee for international wrestlers and other charges. Im pretty sure 2.500 3.000+ attendence at even 1.5000 × by the cost of a ticket more than covers those fees especially when you throw in advertising amounts from youtube which they are making through their WCPW videos. Im sure when they started out they dipped in to funds but im confident that currently WCPW is funding itself quiet nicely and while hugr amounts arent being made, im sure they are in green instead of red when it comes to finances. No business wants to run at a loss as it defeats the point of being a business. I think fans should no concern themselves with the money side of WCPW and focus on supporting them, they are enhancing the worlds focus on wrestling in the UK and bringing a fantastic product to the table. Let them deal with the money side of things and as fans just sit back and enjoy.

[BrodyGraham]

I'd be surprised if they can fill Bowlers for 10 weeks, in fact I'd go as far as to say there's no way they're filling Bowlers for 10 weeks. It's a pretty big room and it's right in the middle of nowhere. 

They'd stand a better chance touring.

[ClassicsGuy]

8 hours ago, C-Rock said:

I dont understand how people assume they are running at a loss and making no money. Are people aware of the cost of a venue, the fee for international wrestlers and other charges. Im pretty sure 2.500 3.000+ attendence at even 1.5000 × by the cost of a ticket more than covers those fees

The fees they pay international talent particularly ex-WWE guys like Cody, Del Rio, JR & Cornette are well known & exorbitant compared to what everyone else pays guys. The economics don't add up. A few months back they had a loaded up card in Nottingham featuring the Young Bucks & loads of top international talent & drew 350 people, 200 of the tickets were priced at £15. They're very clearly running at a loss, crowds of 1000+ for their shows aren't the norm.

There are two types of fans. The fans who don't care about the economics of if things add up, enjoy the here and now & think everything's great. There are other types of fan, usually older with longer memories (although not always but generally) who remember the long term damage done to a domestic scene when overspending promotions eventually go bust, like 1PW back in the day, and how a business going bust can tarnish the whole thriving scene. Like most people on here, I love the thriving British scene and would hate to see promotions that are run properly get hurt by others who simply overspend beyond their means.

[Edgehead]

You supported them until your ippv experience was trash.

[AdamTH17]

It is a bizzare choice running Bowler's every week for ten weeks. Yeah it's a nice venue and when they set it all up it looks decent, but it's also a big venue to fill and it's not easy to get there if you aren't driving. It's nowhere near anything on the MetroLink I don't think.

It'll be a massive ask to fill it for ten weeks. I went to the last show they did there because they had imports I really wanted to see (Bucks, Riddle, Daniels) and I was more than satisfied with my fill. Trying to fill it for ten weeks on the bounce only using their regular roster probably isn't going to work too well.

[westlondonmist]

19 minutes ago, ClassicsGuy said:

The fees they pay international talent particularly ex-WWE guys like Cody, Del Rio, JR & Cornette are well known & exorbitant compared to what everyone else pays guys. The economics don't add up. A few months back they had a loaded up card in Nottingham featuring the Young Bucks & loads of top international talent & drew 350 people, 200 of the tickets were priced at £15. They're very clearly running at a loss, crowds of 1000+ for their shows aren't the norm.

There are two types of fans. The fans who don't care about the economics of if things add up, enjoy the here and now & think everything's great. There are other types of fan, usually older with longer memories (although not always but generally) who remember the long term damage done to a domestic scene when overspending promotions eventually go bust, like 1PW back in the day, and how a business going bust can tarnish the whole thriving scene. Like most people on here, I love the thriving British scene and would hate to see promotions that are run properly get hurt by others who simply overspend beyond their means.

From what I understand many of the ex WWE wrestlers that you have named charge about $3-5,000 a show. I read that back in 2015 Rey was asking for up to $10,000. I believe Swagger is asking for $4,000. They will want travel and accommodation on top of that. It amazes me that they can bring in 2-3 of these higher end guys for the smaller shows. 

I expect that the Japan tournament to sell but will the others? With Japanese wrestlers I expect that to cost a bit, although I expect they will be sharing flight costs with RPW. Also is there not loads of other promotions who operate around there with PCW (not next door but derivable) and Progress doing Manchester.  

[Jon-Carr_92]

I'd heard Rey was $20,000. I can assume he since lightened up. Obviously, it makes sense them doing the Japan leg of the World Cup in conjunction with the Rev Pro British J Cup that weekend because they can just split costs on travel expenses and with NJPW involved, they'll lighten the load even more. Maybe they'll pad it out with a couple of guys who just go to WCPW. We'll see. I agree, they'd make more sense alternating venues for this season of Loaded. Say, have 3 episodes at Manchester, another 3 in say, London at intervals. The other 4 can be at other venues and have a big show that doubles as the season finale and they could make a little profit with that when with all 10 in Manchester, it'll be a matter of when, rather than if the novelty wears off. How many on average will they need through the door every week?. They're selling season tickets as well. I cannot see them selling a lot of those. Friday is going to be tricky for a lot of people though I think paydays will be a bit more crowded.