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

[PBWFan]

On 26/09/2017 at 11:39 AM, Tim R-T-C said:

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.

It begs the question though

 

why start up at all? When there are companies out there building a brand and have been working hard for years to build a reputable scene?

 

when you exclude the website and advertising revenue of WCPW it very clearly loses money as a standalone business.

[The Dart]

56 minutes ago, PBWFan said:

when you exclude the website and advertising revenue of WCPW it very clearly loses money as a standalone business.

Doesn't sound like you understand how business works.

[PBWFan]

WCPW as a stand alone entity's financial output far outweighed the income generated by WCPW. I mistyped..I meant to say WhatCulture.com and the advertising revenue from the non-WCPW content revenue. 

I know how business works, it just shows that the website and journalists decided to set up a wrestling show for a fuck about, and with no prior experience.

Granted, everyone starts at a certain point, but If you look around at the most successful promotions in the UK/Ireland, those who are involved have been involved in the business (or the events/marketing business) for a number of years. 

 

[Your Fight Site]

13 hours ago, PBWFan said:

WCPW as a stand alone entity's financial output far outweighed the income generated by WCPW. I mistyped..I meant to say WhatCulture.com and the advertising revenue from the non-WCPW content revenue. 

I know how business works, it just shows that the website and journalists decided to set up a wrestling show for a fuck about, and with no prior experience.

Granted, everyone starts at a certain point, but If you look around at the most successful promotions in the UK/Ireland, those who are involved have been involved in the business (or the events/marketing business) for a number of years. 

 

Following on from The Dart’s comment, I think he was insinuating that WCPW was set up for the same business reasons as 5 Star Wrestling.

[BomberPat]

WhatCulture's wrestling channel is the most watched non-WWE wrestling content on YouTube - it's not like they came out of nowhere to create that show; they had a hefty following and financial backing behind them before their first show. Anecdotally, I know people who might. at a push, just watch Wrestlemania, or who don't follow wrestling at all, who still know who Adam Blampied is.

WCPW was pretty obviously not making money - but I don't know how it compares to the income of WhatCulture as a whole, or how within the company they offset the losses of the wrestling promotion. They may be able to take the hit, who knows? It raises the question of what they hoped to achieve with the wrestling product - in conversation with Adam B, he has openly admitted that he thinks it's ridiculous they have a wrestling promotion but he's hardly going to turn down the opportunity to work for it, and I'd do exactly the same in his position.

A cursory Google search lead me to this - https://companycheck.co.uk/company/07243682/WHAT-CULTURE-LIMITED/companies-house-data - which estimates WhatCulture as a whole to have a net worth of over a million.

[PBWFan]

Absolutely not the fault of the employees/personalities.

If you look at newcastle for example, as a wrestling town/venue..I don't think WCPW ever run there without at least one import/Indy name. The audience is now accustomed to that and if any other company tries to run the area with local/uk talent only then the audience are likely to wait until WCPW come back to town. Which is fine in theory because arguably they made it their town. The problem I can see arising is when WCPW inevitably disappear, local companies are going to struggle to draw there because a lot of fans may give up on attending due to the lack of star power coming into the town. 

 

Example le could also be used for Manchester where they run regular

So yes in the short term their business model is good for fans but long term it could be detrimental.

i know of at least one London venue who do not want wrestling back again (from any company) because WCPW did not deliver on their promise of a sell out and they do not want their venue looking a third full. They want it to be buzzing a create a buzz about their venue. 

this will also be an issue when 5 star run arenas and do not sell out which will deter the arenas from booking uk companies and sticking to an established brand.

 

[The Dart]

21 minutes ago, PBWFan said:

 

i know of at least one London venue who do not want wrestling back again (from any company) because WCPW did not deliver on their promise of a sell out and they do not want their venue looking a third full. They want it to be buzzing a create a buzz about their venue. 

 

 

At least one venue?  Haven't they only ran one venue in London?  (Which when I went it was full)

And another promotion is running a show there next week.

[Your Fight Site]

40 minutes ago, PBWFan said:

If you look at newcastle for example, as a wrestling town/venue..I don't think WCPW ever run there without at least one import/Indy name. The audience is now accustomed to that and if any other company tries to run the area with local/uk talent only then the audience are likely to wait until WCPW come back to town. Which is fine in theory because arguably they made it their town. The problem I can see arising is when WCPW inevitably disappear, local companies are going to struggle to draw there because a lot of fans may give up on attending due to the lack of star power coming into the town.

As someone who actually lives in Newcastle, this isn’t the case. WCPW isn’t the household name in Newcastle you think it is as say, Grado is in Scotland. NGW just held a show sans import this weekend in Newcastle and they did alright attendance-wise. ICW also travel to the Toon on a semi-regular basis. And in homegrown promotions, Main Event Wrestling and ABSOLUTE Wrestling hold regular shows in the region with good attendances (for the size of venues they run) and without imports.

[BomberPat]

I get the concerns around venues more than anything else. WCPW's audience is, for the most part, people a little more "smartened up" than someone who solely watches WWE, but not quite the "going to an indie show every other weekend" type - the majority of the fans they're picking up that are in the "slightly more knowledgeable than just WWE" camp probably aren't going to go out of their way to see any other BritWres stuff anyway, and those in the other camp are probably already familiar enough with the scene to know that WhatCulture aren't the only game in town.

So long as you have a reasonably informed fanbase, if you put on decent shows, you can weather the storm of a "bigger" promotion coming to town - because chances are you'll still have something to offer that they don't. Whether it's consistency, familiarity, or even just lower ticket prices. The problem comes with the venues and outside agencies who don't know their What Culture from their NGW or anywhere else - in that case, all it takes is one promotion to run a show that fails to cover costs, or one show that garners complaints, and you start to get the people who own venues saying "bloody hell, I'm not going to bother with The Wrestling again, it's not worth the effort", and your casual punters thinking, "I'm not going to see The Wrestling again, it was awful last time".

But I've not really seen any evidence of that happening with WhatCulture, because - in my limited experience - they always seem to have sold pretty well, and I'm not aware of them actually having had a detrimental effect on any local promotions.

 

And, as @The Dart said, WCPW have only run Coronet Theatre in London, and Lucha Forever are running there next Thursday.

[BrodyGraham]

Whatculture aren't damaging any local scenes from what I can see. If anything the guys who work primarily in the North East have benefitted from WCPW putting more eyes on them. Ask Jason Prime or Drake if he's suffered because of them.

And from what I can gather North et al are pulling decent crowds up there with UK talent. In Manchester WCPW seem to occupy a weird space of running a bunch of shows that do decent attendances without anyone really going head over heels for the product. I chiefly go to thier shows because it's nigh impossible to get Progress tickets and Future Shock run on nights I can't make. Lucha Forever also run in a venue that appears to hold about 30 small kittens once the ring's in. 

Having been to WCPW the only complaints I've got are that their Manchester venue is in the arse end of Trafford and a bit of a 'mare to get to and that the crowd seems to be chiefly comprised of teenagers who've just discovered drinking. I personally hope they keep going just long enough to train people that not every Boston Crab needs a 'Stupid Idiot' chant.

[Carbomb]

That Manchester venue's an odd one, the Bowler's Centre or something like that. Converted warehouse slap-bang in the middle of a business estate. Still, I guess if you're looking to get lots of people in, there aren't going be many of those Skydome-capacity mid-level places around that won't cost the Earth to hire. But it is rather difficult to get to if you haven't got a lift or a taxi.

[PBWFan]

I once walked from Old Trafford and had to basically walk along the motorway, took a wrong turn. Was mental. 

[C-Rock]

Austin Aries appeared at Defiant Wrestling last-night the new rebranded WCPW 

[gadge]

As part of an IPW:UK invasion with Mark Haskins and Chris Ridgeway, from what I saw.

[machinegunn]

I went to see these guys when they were in MK with Angle V Del Rio. Awful show.

I watched some of their TV before this but cannot understand why the management think we want to see them as General Managers. Thankfully that Blampiad got what he deserved for his manipulation of his female fans. As for Panchetti, the guy whores himself out over social media with his latest 'stunt'. Get something about yourself that I can invest in instead of quick cheap, get me some twitter comments and facebook likes, gimmick. They are all that is wrong with modern wrestling.

DIVE.