Running my own promotion.

[Guest Shane Legend]

So after booking for a few indies around Florida, I've decided to jump into it and start my own promotion: New School Wrestling. I need peoples opinions of what I need to do to get people interested in this promotion. I'll be using some bigger name talent at large cards - but I'm gonna stick with trying to push my own talent, rather then book giant names all the time. Tell me what you wanna see in an indy.

[Guest Jay Z. Hollywood]

Is the promotion IN Florida?

[Guest Shane Legend]

Is the promotion IN Florida?

yes

[OldSchoolWrestling 0]

CLEAN pinfalls. Man I hate nothing more than a cheap ending to a good match no matter if I'm watching WWE, TNA, MLW, AAA, IWA-PR. Its needed in some cases but in this day and age is way overused. Limit the hardcore crap. Also overused these days. Psychology. Not used much anymore but if you can get some young guys to learn this, it will payoff.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

1. Get me a plane ticket to Florida.

2. Pay for my motel/hotel room.

3. Give me a ride to/from the shows.

4. Let the L-A-Z preach about metal.

[Guest Jay Z. Hollywood]

I'm assuming you know the big indy names in Florida:

 

Justice

Jerelle Clark

Steve Madison

Shane brothers

Strong brothers

Agent Steele

Naphtali

Billy Fives

 

etc. -basically, most of those guys should be available to work for you.

 

If you can get a couple of minor guys from ROH/CZW/MLW /IWA/Wildside as semi-regulars, that would be great. Not sure if Tony Mamaluke still lives in the area, he'd be a good choice. Guys from the major Southern indies (IWA, Wildside) would probably be willing to drive and would save you some money. These guys also work for virtually nothing, so whatever you pay them should be no prob.

 

IWA- JC Bailey, Jimmy Jacobs and Nate Webb are instant heat machines

NWAW- Same goes for Sal Rinauro and Altar Boy Luke (who I'm pretty sure has worked Florida before.)

 

And of course, one old WWF or WCW name (think along the lines of Koko B. Ware or Duke Droese-who works in Florida- not somebody recent like Crash, who probably commands a high fee) every few months, or a Tough Enough kid, should help draw some mark gate.

 

Also, can't be stressed enough, you NEED video cameras. Not even for TV. But wrestlers NEED their matches documented for their own purposes, and they appreciate it when indies do it for them. Also, cameras are needed if you ever want to try and sell tapes off the fed's website or something.

[Nevermortal 0]

Also, don't go crazy getting big indy names and blowing your budget on the first few shows.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Advertising. And I don't mean just on the internet.

[Guest Markingout]

FLORIDA! Where in FL? Bring in Justice and David Babylon. Lex Lovett would be nice too. FL is becoming the new Philly :|

[Guest ToddRoyal]

Don't run an "xtreme" fed, that's getting ridiculously overplayed.

 

On the same token however, ROH-esque "workrate" feds are a pretty niche thing and probably won't go over well with a general audience.

 

Don't do the "evil figurehead" thing like almost every other indy ever. Also, clean finishes are good.

 

Basically, be an alternative to the WWE, but don't be so opposite from them that you turn away casual fans. Build a base from WWE fans with story-line elements and keep them there with the more athletic alternatives.

 

Oh, and HAVE FUN.

 

Goodluck.

[Guest Markingout]

Workrate like ROH in a front of a big crowd like MLW dosen't go over well in FL. If you have a small crowd go for workrate. You should post this on the IPW board BTW

[Guest Shane Legend]

You should post this on the IPW board BTW

I'm staying away from IPW - I'd rather not get on Ron's bad side.

[Guest bigdunn20]

Get ready to lose alot of money.

[Sandman9000 0]

Whatever you do, don't hire Shane Douglas.

 

Or Sean Waltman.

[Guest Jay Z. Hollywood]

Or Vampiro. Or Konnan. Or Jeff Hardy. Or New Jack (he'll threaten to kidnap and rape your family.)

[bob_barron 0]

I know this doesn't apply directly to you but this is something SK wrote a while back-

 

You know, I don’t know if the horridness of the WWA PPV has been beaten into the ground enough yet, but on a slightly more positive note about the show I think you could have saved it quite easily just by following a few simple steps and rearranging the card a little. So with that in mind, here’s Scott’s Guide To Promoting Your First PPV.

 

1) Always remember: No one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the wrestling audience. Always assume that your core demographic is Matt Hardy and build from there. For instance, I know who Kronic are. You know who Kronic are. Did any of the heavily-papered crowd at the arena know who they were? Doubtful. Why should the audience care when there’s no basic heel-face alignments being given to them? Trust me, aspiring promoters – the WWF can get away with trying storylines that are a little more complex because they have a loyal audience and several somewhat-competent writers. For you, Joe Promoter, the key is to have one guy come out and insult the hometown, and the other guy defend its honor. Then they fight about it. That’s all. Don’t try anything more cutesy than that because that’s how WCW went out of business. Which leads to my next point…

 

2) Keep the matchups simple. 6-way and 3-way cruiserweight matches? Forget it, I watch more wrestling than almost anyone and even I can’t into those things most of the time because it’s such a chore to follow what’s going on. Stay with either one-on-one, non-gimmicked singles matches or tag matches. Especially tag matches – start the show with one, and put one second from the top. Get a pair of pretty boys and put them against your hulking monsters and do the standard “One guy gets beat up for 5 minutes, hot tag other guy” formula, and then whatever finish you want from there. Make sure your heels put their feet on the ropes at least once, because that’s a universal sign of a heel and it costs you nothing. Keep it under 10 minutes, and I guarantee the crowd will be into it by the end and you may even create defined heels and faces from it.

 

3) If you don’t have episodic TV, ignore the storylines and just worry about having good matches and creating heels and faces for when you do get TV. It’s far more important to define your characters, and make the fans want to see more of them, than it is to show how witty you are. Keep the talking to an absolute minimum outside of pre-match promos to establish who the bad guy and good guy is. Case in point: They give Allen Funk a pre-match promo to establish the Funkster character. He wrestles babyface. Reno is specifically introduced as being from Nevada. He wrestles neutral. Who do we cheer for? Answer: No one, because we don’t know whether we’re supposed to cheer the old Hulkster out of nostalgia or boo him out of ironic detachment. Characters that require that degree of thought by an audience of morons are death.

 

4) Flying in guys to cut promos is a waste of money that could be spending on your production values. Flying in guys to job in a squash is a waste of money that you could be spending on your production values. Flying in a manager is a waste of money that you could be spending on your production values. Flying in Hiroyoshi Tenzan from Japan to push Disco Inferno around in a throwaway moment is a waste of money that you could be spending on flying Disco Inferno anywhere else in the US. A color commentator is only useful when you have storylines to push, which the WWA doesn’t have. So don’t use one. Commisioners are useless, so don’t use them. T&A is useless on a show that people have already paid for, so don’t use it. Injured wrestlers are useless, so don’t use them. A 4-way Cruiserweight match might as well be the same thing as a 6-way, so dump two of the Cruiserweights and save some more money. This is not an insignificant amount of cash we’re talking here – all the above things cost money and none of them add one single red cent to the bottom line on a show that is basically being sold on a few names. Cut costs wherever you can and pump it into production values if you want to look “big league”.

[Guest The Masked Avenger]

The devil is in the details. Don't get so caught up in the booking that you forget to briefe the announcer properly, or forget to tell the gorilla guy when to que the wrestlers. Never forget the principle of KISS; Keep It Simple, Stupid. This may sound trivial, and indeed it is, but a fuck-up here will make you look like an utter bush league.

As you've already mentioned, use mostly your own guys, as they generate local interest and are cheaper.

Depending on the amount of other indy feds nearby doing crazy spots, I reccommend that you go light on the top-rope suicide things as well as table bumps, and rather build towards them in a meaningful way.

 

The Piledriver is still concidered a potential career-ender in Mexico because it has been built like that for a long time. If your guys do twenty shooting star presses and balcony dives on the first show, your gonna have a hell of a time topping that without getting someone hurt.

 

Always, always, have qualified medical personel on stand by.

 

Good luck and keep us updated!

[JustJoe2k5 0]

Do you have any idea when you may begin booking your first show?

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Find a guy you see money in.....and run with it. Plan everything else around that. And make you titles mean something, if they don't obviously nobody will care. Don't book your cards in buildings that are too big, and too expensive.

[Jingus 0]

Half the success of a promotion is often just due to their building. Try to find one in a heavily populated area, near an interstate offramp if you can.

 

Make damn sure it's got air conditioning, or be prepared to bring a hell of a lot of plug-in electric fans. Make sure you've got adequate parking space for at least fifty cars at the bare minimum, preferably a hundred or more. Oh, and if you're planning on bringing in a bunch of cruiserweights, make sure that the ceiling is high enough that they can do all their wacky top-rope shit.

 

Check out the building owner. Make sure they're not a crook, that they don't have a reputation for making false promises or writing bad checks. Make sure the building is properly zoned to hold a wrestling event.

 

Get a beer license. Sell beer. Make your concessions more expensive than they would be in a gas station, but don't go overboard. Don't be charing three bucks for a coke or anything dumb like that.

 

Make sure you've got decent security. You'll need two big guys at the very least, maybe more if you've got a rowdy crowd. The last thing any promotion needs is getting the cops called on them because some fan tried something stupid.

 

And for God's sake, please try to provide the workers with their own bathroom.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

I would say always open your shows with a good spotfest between a couple of cruiserweights. Their moves always pop a crowd and should get the crowd into the show.

[Jingus 0]

In my experience, I'd say do the exact opposite. I've seen many a crowd sit on their hands and keep silent during an opening match that had a lot of highspots. Keep the workrate & hardcore matches in the midcard. Open up with a comedy match, or a match with some local guys who are really over with the crowd; something that they'll connect with emotionally, but won't be going "ooh" and "ah" over. Then move on to your spotfests, and then close it up with your main event, which should always be either 1. The best match of the show, or 2. The most important angle running, if not both.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

Jingus is quite on the money in my opinion.

 

Make the Piledriver everyone's finisher. I don't know how the crowd would take it, but I personally would appreciate it.

[Guest Duncan Eternia]

Make Paul E. Normous the champion.

[Guest trickstyle_360]

Try to keep the booking simple, keep from having the same kind of matches every show whether it be highspots, hardcore or comedy. You want to have a variety of styles on your cards. Have clean finishes. Like the other guys said, don't do 4 or 6 way matches, they're a huge waste. Tell your guys to not overload on the highspots or stiff suplexes, but rather try to bulid up to a certain stiff suplex or crazy highspot to keep the audience's interest. Use local guys, so-called "names" won't draw shit . A card I watched in 2000 in Toronto had Terry Funk vs Sabu, one of the Quebecers vs Nova, Matt Borne and Ted Dibiase....it drew 80, tops. Estabilish your own stars, always look for new and good talent to feature in your promotion, keep the card fresh.

[Guest Gatornibs]

THE ICON SCOTT HOTSHOT. 'Nough Said

 

Scotthotshot.com

Edited September 25, 2003 by Gatornibs