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

[Keith Houchen]

They're going for a single seater mode of transport, clearly.

[BrodyGraham]

They've registered as a new company, Cultaholics something or other. That'll be the C and there's 5 of them.

We still don't know if any wrestlers are gonna show up for 5 Star, I wouldn't worry about these lads.

[Carbomb]

I did a bit of announcing for the first (and probably only) time in ten years for WCPW a couple of months ago, in Manchestoh for the Japanese leg of the World Cup. I've not been to a proper BritWres show for quite some time, and I have to say I was impressed: ten years ago, it would not have been possible to get the size of crowds they do so regularly, but, more importantly, it wasn't possible to be a global indy fed, both in terms of popularity and logistics. Starting off as an online cultural content company is probably one of the best bases I've ever seen for a wrestling promotion, it makes a lot of sense. Couldn't comment on the wrestling or the booking, as I was running around backstage a lot, but the production values, the crowds, the global reach, the regular viewership - these are all things that promotions "back in my day" would've killed for, and that a lot of British fans were clamouring for. I haven't really read much about them until recently, but I am surprised that they're apparently so disliked, not to mention unsure as to why. In terms of being a wrestling business, they seem to be doing most things right (and I have to say that that did include backstage: I've never worked for a promotion before that not only paid me up front, but also did everything in an organised, professional, business-like, almost corporate manner).

EDIT: Bear in mind I'm referring to the hatred they got prior to these revelations as to how the writers are treated. 

 

[AshC]

Mate, I was at that show (the lure of the Liger!) and thought the bilingual ring announcing was a FANTASTIC touch. Great job.

I was impressed tbh that they managed to complete that tournament. With all those guys involved (64?), from promotions all over the world, I wouldn't have been surprised to see it fall apart. But, no... aside from shipping in Joe Connors to replace Elgin (was it?), they nailed it. Must have been a ton of work, so props to those who pulled it off.

[The Dart]

Only been to one of their shows and it was one of the best indy shows I've been to in 16 years of going to shows.  Not the best in terms of match quality, but everything else.

[Chris Brooker]

18 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

They're going for a single seater mode of transport, clearly.

This deserved more.

[Carbomb]

5 hours ago, AshC said:

Mate, I was at that show (the lure of the Liger!) and thought the bilingual ring announcing was a FANTASTIC touch. Great job.

Ah, thanks for that! Tell you something: I was nervous as hell, it was literally ten years previous I'd last announced. And I haven't watched wrestling for some time, so this "ONE FALL" business caught me completely by surprise (got me a little bit of criticism on Twitter too).

[Jon-Carr_92]

On 21 September 2017 at 4:13 PM, AshC said:

Mate, I was at that show (the lure of the Liger!) and thought the bilingual ring announcing was a FANTASTIC touch. Great job.

I was impressed tbh that they managed to complete that tournament. With all those guys involved (64?), from promotions all over the world, I wouldn't have been surprised to see it fall apart. But, no... aside from shipping in Joe Connors to replace Elgin (was it?), they nailed it. Must have been a ton of work, so props to those who pulled it off.

Yeah. It was Elgin due to a CMLL commitment that had priority and they couldn't get another Canadian in time. Brings the question what's his WWE status if they couldn't do live stuff for other people as the Finals week was done live? PCW did their live show last night and the main event Last Man Standing Match between T Bone and Bubblegum wasn't on the live portion because I imagine he's still with them obviously.

[BrodyGraham]

Apparently, they rang up and promised favours. WWE were apparently very strict in how they wanted him portrayed and how strong he had to look, which probably explains why he went over one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world right now.

Dunno how applicable those favours are now, considering at least 2 of the most prominent guys running Wcpw are gone.

[PBWFan]

I assume you mean WCPW offered WWE "favours". If that's what you mean, then it is hilarious to suggest that WCPW can offer WWE anything all in the way of a "favour"

If that's not what you meant, apologies as I have misread.

 

WWE have been very clear (without naming them) that they want companies like WCPW to get to f*ck. Because they simply throw money at independent names or international names and use them as the backbone of their shows, as opposed to utilising talent and building their own talent.

WCPW is also nowhere near as important as they themselves like to think.

 

[Rosler28]

WCPW are like 5 Star but less offensive

[Carbomb]

On ‎24‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 11:19 AM, PBWFan said:

I assume you mean WCPW offered WWE "favours". If that's what you mean, then it is hilarious to suggest that WCPW can offer WWE anything all in the way of a "favour"

If that's not what you meant, apologies as I have misread.

 

WWE have been very clear (without naming them) that they want companies like WCPW to get to f*ck. Because they simply throw money at independent names or international names and use them as the backbone of their shows, as opposed to utilising talent and building their own talent.

WCPW is also nowhere near as important as they themselves like to think.

 

The bit in bold is a bit puzzling. I don't think I've ever seen any independent promotions "building their own talent" in any significant way; whether it's the early 2000s or now, most promotions I've seen don't have exclusive wrestlers - not, at least, the ones that are any good. I must've seen Dave Moralez/Mastiff, Spud, Jack Storm, Dragon Phoenix, Martin Stone, Stixx, Saul Adams, Bubblegum, El Ligero, DDL, Joey Hayes, Danny Hope, Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Zack Sabre Jr., Robbie Brookside, Paul Robinson, Sha Samuels, Terry Frazier, RJ Singh, Jon Ryan, PAC, Zebra Kid, Zack Knight, Sweet Saraya, Ricky Knight, and fuck knows how many other wrestlers working at least three promotions simultaneously at some point or another. I'm not overly familiar with Will Ospreay, Rampage, the London Riots and a lot of the newer guys, but I understand they're similar. Obviously, these guys all trained somewhere, and therefore one could argue their "home" promotions are the ones building their own talent, but most of the ones I've listed got big in promotions they didn't start in, or the promotions they got big in no longer exist (I'm thinking FWA), not to mention that most workers seem to train up in the basics in one promotion, but then polish and refine their abilities in various other promotions.

I haven't seen any other WCPW shows other than the one I MCed, so I don't know if this was an exception, but outside the World Cup bits, they seemed to have quite a few UK guys on the card. Only non-Japanese foreigners I remember seeing were War Machine, Kyle O'Reilly, and Matt Riddle.

Besides, let's be honest here: WWE can get to fuck with that logic. Prior to the dawn of their virtual monopoly of the global wrestling industry in 2001, they were doing the exact same thing with wCw and, to a lesser degree, ECW, and those promotions were doing it right back. There's no extra nobility or good practice in bringing up your own talent, the fans don't care, as AJ Styles' recent success would demonstrate (marketed for years as a TNA Original, yet even he started in WcW and was on their programming in their death throes).

I do agree that WCPW are nowhere near as important as they think themselves, but then it's been my experience that no promotion ever is, except WWE, and maybe New Japan at a pinch.

One thing I am glad about from briefly sticking my toe back in the water is seeing just how far the UK scene has come along, and how much better promotions are in terms of presentation, production, and, well, promotion. Like I said before, the idea of a global indy promotion back in the mid-2000s was completely inconceivable, and now we've got WCPW, ICW and Progress all doing shows abroad, and, more importantly, their products reaching a significant global fanbase that will actually pay money to them. Chuck in RevPro and PCW, and I have to admit to being very impressed and quite hopeful.

Really not liking these reports coming out about how WCPW treats its writers, though. If it's true (and I've no reason to think otherwise), I hope Blampied & co. are successful in their bids to provide an alternative under their own auspices. Power to the workers.

 

[Coles84]

Fight Club Pro have been excellent at building their own talent. Yes they get imports in but most their line up consists of names they have built, okay they are not exclusive to FCP but they certainly look at the promotion as a home of sorts. Same goes for Attack and Progress. Progress may be a best of, of the rest of the UK but they still bring through their own. 

[Tim R-T-C]

On 9/24/2017 at 11:19 AM, PBWFan said:

WWE have been very clear (without naming them) that they want companies like WCPW to get to f*ck. Because they simply throw money at independent names or international names and use them as the backbone of their shows, as opposed to utilising talent and building their own talent.

Have you watched WCPW? Although they use big name stars as headliners on occasion, they use a lot of UK talent as well: Gabriel Kidd, Martin Kirby, Liam Slater even Johnny Moss and Joe Hendry are established UK names, but they have been given headline roles and won/defended titles against international talent.

For a company only a year old, expecting them to build talent from scratch is rather a stretch, but I see them using international names to get viewers, then boosting their UK talent to those viewers.

[Carbomb]

1 hour ago, Coles84 said:

Fight Club Pro have been excellent at building their own talent. Yes they get imports in but most their line up consists of names they have built, okay they are not exclusive to FCP but they certainly look at the promotion as a home of sorts. Same goes for Attack and Progress. Progress may be a best of, of the rest of the UK but they still bring through their own. 

Yeah, but what I'm getting at is the assertion that promotions for some reason should be utilising their own talent as the "backbone" of their shows instead of international talent. Of course promotions will bring through their own talent - I never at any point said they shouldn't - but this idea that a promotion is somehow bad for using international imports or non-"home" British wrestlers is ludicrous; take that logic to its extreme conclusion, and every British promotion would have an exclusive roster of wrestlers that would never appear anywhere else.

The only promotion I ever had a problem with as regards imports was the original incarnation of 1PW, which booked show after show of import vs. import, very little exposure given to British talent, and one could even say they damaged the UK scene, because the British wrestlers were more frequently booked in the dark matches or the curtain-jerker sections, and thus made to look bush-league in comparison to the big American stars. They eventually started putting the British guys in matches with the imports to give them the rub, but those early shows were really counter-productive from an industry perspective.

I'm aware that my posts are coming across as if I'm a WCPW fan, but there isn't really much I can say other than I did one show for them, for which I was paid well and extremely well treated in a professional, courteous, and efficient manner, and I was incredibly impressed with their production values, operational ethic, and global reach. I don't know much about their product from a fan perspective, but, as a bit of a BritWres Rip Van Winkle who's just taken a peek after years away from following the scene, it does seem odd to me that WCPW are drawing the specific criticisms they're getting, because they seem to stem from things that the promotions I used to follow and work for would have chewed their arms off to have back in the day. If the criticisms were of how they treat the fans, or the quality of the wrestling or the booking, I could understand (what little I did catch of the in-ring product, I found a bit too spotty for my tastes), but none of that's come up in the last couple of pages.