If you were going to start an indy promotion...

[JoeDirt 0]

If you were going to create an indy promotion tomorrow, what kind of one would you make? Would you load up on indy stars like IWA-MS and try and make money through tape/DVD sales? Would you go to an area of the country that has little wrestling or an area where there's already a lot of indy wrestling (like Philly) since there's already a proven audience there? Who would be the top guys you'd want to bring in or have on your shows?

 

I think if I was to start an indy promotion, I'd find a city/area where people don't have much entertainment, and maybe was a college town. I think I'd try and rent out a place where people could drink, and offer drink specials, have the show from like 10-1 on a weekend night, and maybe run twice a month. Have some T&A, some high flying spotfests, some hardcore shit, and some stuff for the smart marks, too, just to make sure the DVDs and tapes would sell on the internet. I kind of like the atmosphere IWS has for their shows, it seems like they consistently draw good, hot crowds of 300-500.

 

How would you guys do it?

[Guest jobsquad]

as far as the roster i woude load up on tag teams( I tag team wrestling)

 

id try and split the diffrence between an area with no wrestling(no exsisting promotions=no place to flyer) and an market that is over saturated with wrestling. but with enough population centers to support several promotions(becose if i do good promoters will come out of the woodwork) probably somwhere like northern virginia.

 

 

 

id probably start off promoting shows in bars(smaller venues = hotter crowd) before moveing on to semi-proper venues

[Guest TonyJaymzV1]

I'd basically rebuild MCW.

 

I'd find a damn good trainer or two, start a school, then start a promotion based around the school. Throw in some fairly recognizable names, and use the students and young talent in the under-midcard and have the main event have a big name. It'd be an old school, family oriented show, basically because theres no blood allowed in MD. I'd have a PROPER Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup, and that would be the main event of the entire year. I wouldn't expand much within the first couple years. Like I said, I'd just do MCW all over again.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Have shitloads of money to begin and be certain that the shitload of money was secure, ready and enough. Otherwise, you're screwed from day one. Obviously then you've got to think about buying a ring that isn't going to collapse on you two nights into your first show. Then there's lights, mics, camera and all that stuff. But yeah, that's a little deep.

 

Assuming that was all sorted, I'd try and secure a 'home' arena...one to hold the majority of the shows, and one that you can get on a decent enough contract. If it were me, I'd then set up in England where there's not a whole lot of competition...but, that limits the amount of workers you can get as no doubt you'd have to pay flight costs for the American workers. So somewhere in America where there's a call for more wrestling.

 

Getting a mix of young and older, experienced workers like Mid South would be first on the list before even thinking about the big name workers. Hiring someone to 'scout for talent' would be a decent idea, to look for future workers. Then basically try to get an all-round type of show, to cater to different types of fans.

[cynicalprofit 0]

Honestly, I'd invest it in drugs because it would be a smarter investment. No one but Vince really makes money in wrestling as far as I've ever been able to tell. I mean they call someone trying to start a wrestling fed a money mark for a reason.

 

However here in fantasy land.....15 man roster, stay local till you can grow. Get local tv, and build up, build up, build up. Bring in bigger name guys every once and a while, and treat the wrestlers right.

[Guest Real F'n Show]

I'd probably go midwest, maybe around Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri. Start basically the midwest version of Ring of Honor (assuming IWA-MS doesn't count since they used to be mostly just garbage). I'd bring in guys like Daniels, American Dragon, B-Boy, Arik Cannon, Samoa Joe, Spanky, etc. Plus tons of locals from the midwest and some guys from IWA-MS. I'd probably try to get a DVD deal with smartmarkvideo too, as they are the shit.

[Guest suplexmasta]

Do a either a Southwest or Northwest version of SMW/USWA. (Neither area has a huge amount of wrestling currently, and they've been proven territorries before, with Portland Wrestling and NWA: Southwest in the 80's being prime examples.)

 

Spot shows combined with a weekly TV taping in a studio. Do a weekly run around the territory and build from there. Don't go out and get top-name indy guys, but instead use homegrown talent and build stories out of them.

 

Sure it wouldn't make much money, but it wouldn't lose a huge amount either. Plus, if you could build a buzz around it, there's always the tape market, where you could sell TV blocks in month-long chunks for fairly cheap. It's all about spending very little money and getting a quality product out of it.

[theintensifier 0]

I would try to have a lot of money before I got started, like say an easy $10-20 million. I would get involved with a few big sponsers like a TV station, video game system, tape distributer like Highspots (I can get other stuff from them as well, cheaper maybe?), and others.

 

Highspots Deal:

 

Buy a few rings from Highspots for a discount price, I would let Highspots have

their own merchandise tables at my shows, so I could get deals on rings and other

stuff like belts. Highspots would also sell my wrestling companies merchandise.

 

Rings I would get: Normal 16' wrestling ring, 18' wrestling ring for a show headlined with a huge battle royal or if I had cage / War Games type matches. I might also be interested in getting a 6 sided ring. I would get all custom ring canvases, ring aprons, steel steps, guardrails, turnbuckle pads, and everything else in the ring.

 

They would make all of my companies t-shirts and apparel.

 

They would also make the title belts, which would include: Heavyweight Championship, Lightweight Championship, and Tag Team Championships. I might throw in a technical wrestling title, dunno for sure.

 

Video Game Company / System Deal:

 

Video Game Companies are really good with graphics, they would make my website with sweet graphics and designs. And when my compnay was big enough, make a video game.

 

TV Station:

 

Not sure which one I would want to go with right now, maybe FX?

 

OK, on to where I would promote. I might stay in Michigan, where I live. Don't know for sure though. I know I could probably get some good crowds around Grand Rapids / Detroit.

 

My company would be like RoH, in terms of wrestling quality, IWA:MS in terms of anything goes / in your face action, NWA Wildside in terms of entertainment and character type feuds, and last but not least, PWG in terms of high flying and comedy. It wouldn't be all wrestling all the time, but the majority of it would be, but I would spice it up with "sports entertainment" and comedy. My company would have it all.

 

Talent:

 

I would bring in a little bit of everything; strong style, technical, high flying, brawling, SE types, and everything in between.

 

Samoa Joe

Bryan Danielson

Christopher Daniels

Low Ki

AJ Styles

Homicide

CM Punk

Chris Hero

Super Dragon

B-Boy

Arik Cannon

Jamie Knoble

Roderick Strong

Jack Evans

Alex Shelley

Austin Aries

Jason Cross

Johnny Kashmere

Trent Acid

Jay Briscoe

Marc Briscoe

Colt Cabana

Ace Steel

Dan Maff

BJ Whitmer

Joey Matthews

Frankie Kazarian

Teddy Hart

Amazing Red

Jerry Lynn

Steve Corino

Messiah

Justice Pain

Raven

Chris Sabin

Spanky

 

Those are just to name a few of the top of my head.

 

I would run a few shows to see how much of an interest there is in my product, and from there, determine if I should go with a TV show right off the bat. I probably would, so I wouldn't use all the best gimmicks / angles / matches before I get on TV.

 

Rules of my promotion:

 

*Ways to win a match: pinfall, submission, DQ or forefit. There will be no countouts.*

 

*Every match will have a winner and a loser. If a match goes to a time limit draw, then the ref, announcers, and myself will determine the winner. (I will not get involved into storylines, neither will the refs or announcers, since we are not trained wrestlers.)*

 

*Time Limits are as following:

Normal 1 vs. 1: 30 minutes

1 vs. 1 title matches: 60 minutes

Normal 2 vs. 2: 30 minutes

2 vs. 2 title matches: 60 minutes

3 vs. 3 or 4 vs. 4: 60 minutes

2/3 falls: each fall has a 30 minute time limit

Iron-Man matches: Instead of 60, I'm going with 90 minutes.*

 

*Titles +must+ be defended at least once in a month.*

 

*Assaulting refs, announcers, or myself will result in a punishment. 1) If you hold a title, you must defend it at every show for an entire month. 2) If you hold no title, then you just get the crap kicked out of you in a handicap match, since untrained wrestlers are basically handicapped to trained wrestlers.*

 

*Outside interference will also be met with punishment. You won't know when it is going to happen, but a "commitee" of wrestlers will interfere in your match and you will not be awarded with the DQ victory, as the ref will know when it is going to happen and will allow it!*

 

*You are not going to see Death Matches on every show, they will be reserved for special occasions.*

 

*If a title is stripped / vacated a tournament will be held to determine the next champion. A title will NEVER be awarded to a wrestler (HHH, I'm pointing at you) a title must be earned. Also, if a champion decides to lay down for someone else (Nash & Hogan) not only will you be stripped of the title, you will be fined and suspended you will get the crap beaten out of you by the rest of the roster, as you have spit in their face and devauled the title.*

 

I would call this promotion New Pro Wrestling Entertainment. Don't really know a better name than that.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

• First, I'd open one in New England. We have one big company here, New England Championship Wrestling, and a few others that aren't as big/as good.
• I'd find a wrestling school with no formal ties to any promotion, and begin one there. Meaning that trainees would be sent to my promotion to better themselves, thus getting cheaper talent (and perhaps the next breakout indy star, as a few are in New England, namely Eddie Edwards).
• The card would be varied, but the emphasis would be on solid-to-great live wrestling, with storylines and angles that aren't too old-school, and aren't too SE.
• The top star would most likely be a local wrestler, somebody I know I could count on to not miss shows that often and wouldn't cost an arm and a leg.
• I'd try my best to cut deals with other local feds to do inter-promotional events, and even try to cut a deal with RoH so that they would not do shows in Massachusetts or Rhode Island within two weeks of my shows.
• I would immediately go for television, hence the compelling angles, and find people that can do good production for cheap (meaning either friends with knowledge of television production, or college students/gradautes that show great promise).
• The main moneymaker would be the live shows, with merchandise and DVDs/tapes sold at live events and through the website as well.

There we go. That fed should last a year at the least.