Build the perfect wrestling promotion

[Loss]

You have a roster of as many guys or as few guys as you want, you can choose wrestlers from the past or present. Who books it, what would the focus, style and goals of the promotion be, who would be the top talent, the undercard and the announcers, the promoter, etc? Go as far with this as you want and feel free to go into everything from marketing to public relations to how you would build talent for the future. Leave no stone unturned.

 

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

What if we collectively work on one and discuss the merits of each proposed issue.

 

Like, if you were to build the perfect wrestling promotion, where would the territory be?

 

I'm thinking the following 5 are probably the most successful cities.

 

New York - large population, relatively close proximity to other large cities in the North East, various venues to run. Typically a WWE territory, and we know how that has turned out for them.

 

Tokyo - large population, several promotions have been based in Tokyo and thrived for some time, several venues to run, culturally more accepting of pro wrestling than the US.

 

Mexico City - Similar to Tokyo, though probably less promotions run out of MC (I'm not too familiar with Mexican wrestling, let alone Mexican indy companies or whatever the equivalent would be in Mexico), but the fanbase is more rabid for it. Fanbase is not typically affluent and there may be problems with the cities infrastructure and legal codes.

 

Toronto - Smaller population than the above cities, but a historically strong territory with a loyal fanbase. Culturally, wrestling is more accepted in Canada and media is more willing to treat wrestling seriously than in the US.

 

Memphis - I'm throwin this one out for those who would probably crack me over the head with a chair if I ignored it, and you know who you are. Historically passionate and good to book for.

[goodhelmet]

Well, that adds another question... should we be a territory or a national/global company?

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

A Territory would be easier to run than a National or International/Touring company. There is something to be said about simplicity, and I don't think any of us can truly grasp the logistics of what the WWE does on their international tours. It's easy to say "The Perfect Wrestling Promotion would have Television everywhere and a fanbase everywhere and the means and money to travel everywhere and would be an international promotion" but the reality is, that would be really freakin hard to do.

 

You'd have to list local promoters in each region (does the WWE even do things through local promoters any more?), book your flights, hotels, venues, check visas and insurance, find the best route/bloc to travel, talk to local media for the publicity and PR, avoid unstable regions, and market to each region differently. Granted, the WWE is living off their international tours, but would that really be necessary for the perfect wrestling company? I don't think so. There's way too much to consider, and it's not really necessary when you think about it. There is a large enough fanbase in the US, and if need be, Canada, to sustain a company.

 

Personally, the ideal wrestling company would be based in the North East of the US. You can run several large cities out of that area and expand when necessary. I think you could divide the US into 4 pieces and go clockwise from the NE to the SE to SW to NW in terms of the strength of the wrestling market. That's how things appear to me right now, at least. My perspective may be skewed.

[Guest Cam Chaos]

In terms of booking I think Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman, Eddie Gilbert and Johnny Ace would be solid choices even though all of them working together would be virtually impossible to make happen.

 

In terms of promotion Vince, Bischoff, Bill Watts and Shane I think could convince Eskimos to buy bags of ice let alone run a successful and financially sound promotion department.

 

Commentators worth considering IMO are Gordon Solie, Bobby Heenan, Gorilla Monsoon, Jim Ross, Mike Tenay, Paul Heyman and Jesse Ventura.

 

I think New York and Tokyo would be the best bets for a large scale possibly national promotion.

[goodhelmet]

Commentators worth considering IMO are Gordon Solie, Bobby Heenan, Gorilla Monsoon, Jim Ross, Mike Tenay, Paul Heyman and Jesse Ventura.

You forgot or have never heard of Lance Russell

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

Though my personal favourite team was Monsoon and Ventura, Russells commentary from the empty arena match between Funk and Lawler blew my mind. Any idea for a Colour man?

[Guest brian]

Ed Whalen has quickly become one of my favorite commentators. I think y'all would love him.

[goodhelmet]

Ed Whalen annoys me... alot.

[Resident Evil]

Ed Whalen has quickly become one of my favorite commentators. I think y'all would love him.

I really like Whalen since at times he's a straight shooter (on TV to boot!), is byist towards the lightheavyweights/Benoit and I love a good portion of his on air personality but I know that while he connects with a lot of people he doesn't connect with a lot of others.

 

Edit -- Apparantly like Goodhelmet and Brian who are on opposite sides of the fence.

 

WP -- Who would not have been able to cheer for Benoit if he turned heel in Stampede because of the devestation it would cause to Ed Whalen. Think about that for a sec. Me not being able to cheer Benoit.

I really liked his conviction to his ethics of cheering the good guys and detesting the bad guys antics except for of course his love for Bad News Brown even when he was a heel. Man, I get a kick out of that.

[Loss]

Let's look at this in phases then. I like the team idea approach. The conversation has gravitated toward commentators initially. Maybe we can make this a group of threads or something instead of just a time killer like I originally envisioned.

 

Before we decide what announcers we want, however, we need to decide how much TV we want. How often are PPVs, how many hours of weekly TV are there and how many shows are there? Do we want a different announce crew for each? I think a two-hour primetime show on Monday nights, a one hour primetime show on Saturday nights and a one hour afternoon show on Sunday nights is ideal, but we'll see what others think.

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

I think deciding which territory to run and how large that territory would extend is probably the most important issue. The audience is the overall issue, here. Then we know who we're targeting, what direction we're going, which style to push, which wrestlers to push, which channel to put TV on, what hours to put them on, etc.

 

For example, if a Family-friendly wrestling promotion is the perfect way to go, then you put television on Saturday or Sunday morning, or Saturday night - so kids can watch it and don't have to stay up late, and the parents can watch too.

[Guest EastCoastJ]

If I were opening a promotion today, I would go regional and do a total 1980's vibe. I'm talking 80's music, 80's ring gear, 80's merch, tight aisles and dark arenas, a 50 year old play-by-play guy who actually calls the matches from a logical athletic standpoint and absolutely no modern day references or anything. WWE has burnt people out so badly on the current style of wrestling and nostalgia is always such a hot ticket that it could potentially be a huge success. Look at what DVD's sell these days. Anything even distantly related to the 1980's is like a liscense to print money.

 

A few of my key concepts would be:

 

More Dundee/Lawler/Bruiser Brody/Piper style workers and absolutely none of the Jack Evans/AJ Styles style stuff that sets the bar so high that fans chant "boring" during every other match on the card.

 

Heavy emphasis on the tag team division and managers.

 

Squash matches would be short and decisive, with the wrestlers music playing from the time he walked through the curtain until the match ended and he walked out of the arenas.

 

No elaborate set, just a black curtain and a ring that looks like one the UWF or WWF would have used 20 years ago.

 

Guys who look exactly the opposite of what WWE values in the look of a wrestler.

 

No website, no pay-per-view, no national television --just syndication in the areas where shows will be run.

 

Major shows available only on VHS and in those HUGE boxes that the early Wrestlemania's came in. If people INSIST on a DVD, they'll get it in the huge fucking box anyway.

 

Maybe I'm just nostalgia happy, but I think people are so exhausted from watching World Wrestling Entertainment throw anything and everything at them at 100mph for the last seven years that a nice, relaxed, basic concept that resurrected the best concepts of the 80's could be a huge success on a minor scale.

[Loss]

I'm going to close this topic for now and start a new thread for just target audience and television programming. We have lots of seeds planted, but we'll try to discuss this in a little more orderly fashion.