ROH to hit PPV

[Hawk 34 0]

I'm really impressed by the business model set in place by ROH. Learning well from the failures of past companies and maintaining their own style. Keeping their top stars and preventing a situation of losing them to the other companies was great.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

"Learning well from the failures of past companies and maintaining their own style."

 

ROH has its own feel which is unique, so congrats to them. They're the new ECW, just not as cool yet. However, the annoying fans, who're the same fans that TNA have, suck balls with their non-stop claps and unoriginal chants for every little thing. I really hate ROH fans.

 

"Keeping their top stars"

 

Eh. Have to disagree here. They lost CM Punk. They lost Christopher Daniels. They lost Cabana. They lost Homicide. They lost Joe. Joe is the "The Rock" of Ring of Honor in terms of overness and delivering awesome main events, as well as elevating younger talent. That's a huge loss. Just because he hasn't figured predominantly in ROH storylines as of late (because he couldn't, Joe chose TNA over ROH) doesn't mean that Joe shouldn't still be a main eventer in ROH. Plus, ROH is losing 1/2 of the best ROH tag team of all-time in terms of matches and overness - Aries and Strong.

 

Besides those two, what "top stars" does ROH have? The World Champ isn't on the ROH roster, he's a special attraction. The tag champs, who are very good, aren't as over as Aries and Strong were. There's no mid-card title to help elevate anyone. There's no one left on the roster now who, if they left ROH, would cripple ROH, IMO.

 

I think ROH, business-wise, is ran tremendously. Great matches. But it's not like the main stars there, whoever they are now, wouldn't jump to TNA if given the chance and promised the opportunities that Joe, Homicide, and Aries have all been given. Come on.

 

ROH has lost 5 of its most 10 over stars ever. Every promotion loses talent. ROH is no different.

 

In closing, I would like to say that Women's Erotic Wrestling has the same deal as ROH does. InDemand PPV, $15 for a 2-hour PPV. Multiple airings every month.

 

And Women's Erotic Wrestling has to give free tickets away to get fans there.

 

PPV doesn't mean jack shit. It's all about national TV.

[theintensifier 0]

They have to start somewhere, and they're taking the least amount of risks going this route in my opinion. I do agree that they've lost a tremendous amount of talent over the last few years, but they've been able to rebound and recover each and every time. I'd compare Punk to Rock, and Joe to Austin, its more fitting that way. It really sucks that Aries is being lost through this though.

[Hawk 34 0]

I think ROH, business-wise, is ran tremendously. Great matches. But it's not like the main stars there, whoever they are now, wouldn't jump to TNA if given the chance and promised the opportunities that Joe, Homicide, and Aries have all been given. Come on.

 

There are exceptions such as Danielson and Briscoes, whom have turned down offers from TNA and WWE.

 

ROH isn't just following the actions of ECW but other promotions that tried to shoot high but fell fast. Gabe is a great creative mind that isn't burdened by running a company and Cary is a fantastic businessman who was quite aware that the current model had reached its peak. Instead of just going for a television deal, which is criminally stupid right now, they still manage to expose their product to potential new viewers while keeping their current fanbase intact and best of all, they keep their product as they want to be and don't become compromised by corporate structure and policy. They will continue to make profit and that's crucial for any business but especially in a industry where that doesn't come quite easily.

 

They were smart to lock their top talents into contracts to avoid the mistakes ECW had in losing top stars. Yes, they lost big names. They lost Paul London and Spanky. Samoa Joe came in. Daniels and Styles left. Punk, Homicide and Aries stepped up. Punk left. Danielson and a host of new talent took up. The damages of Daniels and Styles' departures are minimal for the product. Homicide does hurt to an extent. Aries is a huge question due to the dissension between Aries and TNA right now. Joe was a bad situation that got ugly with TNA forcing him out. That happens in the course of a pro wrestling company. A wrestler gets stuck in legal troubles or injury. The mark of a good company is being able to recover and continue and ROH has always done quite well in losing talents but replacing them. None of these guys are intended to be national names. Which is why you sell quality wrestling as the focus of the promotion.

 

ROH isn't looking to become a mainstream entity but looking to expand their fanbases by attracting those whom haven't heard of the name and wouldn't be willing to order the product over the internet. It's win-win here for ROH. They lose nothing over this and can only gain from it. The business model is well-crafted, well-worked and they have a product that is solidly in place.

[Scroby 0]

"Learning well from the failures of past companies and maintaining their own style."

 

ROH has its own feel which is unique, so congrats to them. They're the new ECW, just not as cool yet. However, the annoying fans, who're the same fans that TNA have, suck balls with their non-stop claps and unoriginal chants for every little thing. I really hate ROH fans.

 

"Keeping their top stars"

 

Eh. Have to disagree here. They lost CM Punk. They lost Christopher Daniels. They lost Cabana. They lost Homicide. They lost Joe. Joe is the "The Rock" of Ring of Honor in terms of overness and delivering awesome main events, as well as elevating younger talent. That's a huge loss. Just because he hasn't figured predominantly in ROH storylines as of late (because he couldn't, Joe chose TNA over ROH) doesn't mean that Joe shouldn't still be a main eventer in ROH. Plus, ROH is losing 1/2 of the best ROH tag team of all-time in terms of matches and overness - Aries and Strong.

 

Besides those two, what "top stars" does ROH have? The World Champ isn't on the ROH roster, he's a special attraction. The tag champs, who are very good, aren't as over as Aries and Strong were. There's no mid-card title to help elevate anyone. There's no one left on the roster now who, if they left ROH, would cripple ROH, IMO.

 

I think ROH, business-wise, is ran tremendously. Great matches. But it's not like the main stars there, whoever they are now, wouldn't jump to TNA if given the chance and promised the opportunities that Joe, Homicide, and Aries have all been given. Come on.

 

ROH has lost 5 of its most 10 over stars ever. Every promotion loses talent. ROH is no different.

 

In closing, I would like to say that Women's Erotic Wrestling has the same deal as ROH does. InDemand PPV, $15 for a 2-hour PPV. Multiple airings every month.

 

And Women's Erotic Wrestling has to give free tickets away to get fans there.

 

PPV doesn't mean jack shit. It's all about national TV.

PPV actually means a lot to any indy promotion trying to make it big and boraden their fanbase, your a complete idiot if you think otherwise. The whole argument that your making of "well ROH has no big stars", yeah and? ROH will reach new markets that have never seen a ROH show nore doesn't know who their wrestlers actually are, so ROH having "no big stars" as you put it, shouldn't be that much of an issue, as ROH will need to showcase all of their talent to have repeat PPV buyers.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

How odd

 

ROH do a TNA, TNA do a WWE and WWE do... something.

 

How hard would it hit Starr if he turned his back on TNA and rejoined ROH? Or is it set in stone that he wants to work for TNA, no matter how much they misuse him?

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

The thing is...he can't.

 

He's under a contract.

 

TNA has the right to bench him AND keep him off of RoH shows at this point...because he signed away that right.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Any idea how long the contract Aries has is? And the terms... like, can TNA stop him from taking any indipendent bookings or just stop him taking ROH bookings?

 

The thing with the names is, corny as it sounds, Ring Of Honor is as much about the company concept as it is the people in it. Aries not being around just when the gang wars storyline was picking up is a blow, but they can easily regroup and find another group to run against NRC (Jack Evans?) Homicide not being around is a blow, but at least they got through the World Title storyline. Losing to Morishima so quickly kinda knocked him down the pecking order real quick, it's nowhere as big of a loss as it would have been 4/5 months ago.

[Papacita 0]

I seem to remember reading something about Aries' contract with TNA expiring in July, but don't quote me on that.

[SamoaRowe 0]

The whole argument about ROH losing stars is true in that it hurts to an extent, but they've never had a problem making new ones with relative ease.

 

And to anyone who doesn't want to order ROH because they don't know any of the guys, that is such a terrible excuse. You mean you don't want to discover more wrestlers, some of whom you might become fans of?

 

I remember seeing my first ROH show, which was Death Before Dishonor. Before that show, I had never seen BJ Whitmer, Colt Cabana, Samoa Joe, Homicide, Tom Carter, a slew of Special K guys, Doug Williams, Briscoes, etc perform. I had heard of many of them from the EWR game and from indy results, but I was clueless as what to expect from the majority of them. And you know what happened? I was absolutely blown away by what I saw. I became an instant fan of Homicide, Cabana, and Joe, and gave big props to guys like Low Ki and Styles who I had previously only seen in TNA.

 

Why people are so afraid of seeing new performers, I'll never know.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Re: not ordering because of not recognizing any workers

I ordered my first ECW show without knowing who anybody was outside of Bam Bam Bigelow. I was hooked right away. Of course, that was Heat Wave '98, a show that's considered to be ECW's best PPV (that and Anarchy Rulz '99), but who's to say some young, 12 or 13-year-old fan that buys PWI and other Apter-esque mags and sees the RoH name and ads for RoH tapes and articles on RoH talent won't ask his folks to buy a PPV for him? Then, they all watch it, see how great the talent actually is, and bam: three new fans (or: one new fan, and two who can at least watch it without completely hating it).

 

Good move. I wish I had cable, though by July I likely will. Rock n' fucking roll.

[The Flamboyance 0]

I'll be there this Saturday.

 

Can't fucking wait!

[JustJoe2k5 0]

Should we expect different storylines for the PPV shows or will they attempt to catch everyone up on their current storylines and continue from there?

[The Flamboyance 0]

Should we expect different storylines for the PPV shows or will they attempt to catch everyone up on their current storylines and continue from there?

 

I think they might just air their current youtube/rohvideos.com newswire(s) before the event so that new viewers can have an idea of what's going on and the commentators can do the rest.

[Hawk 34 0]

Gabe on the PPV.

 

Torch Talk with Gabe Sapolsky

Originally Published: May 5, 2007

Torch Newsletter #966

 

Ring of Honor announced Wednesday, May 2 that it would be premiering on PPV on July 1. The PPV, pretaped on May 12 in Manhattan, N.Y., would be the first time ROH is available widely on TV in the U.S. ROH will provide inDemand with a new PPV every two months, and use that PPV to drive new fans to its website and hopefully to purchase DVDs and live event tickets, both of which are ROH’s life blood.

 

ROH has been around for five years, content to run live events in small venues in front of several hundred fans, then tape and sell those events on DVD to an even larger customer base across the world. PPV, though, brings ROH to the next level. In this exclusive half hour interview with ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky conducted May 2, he details the terms of the PPV deal, explains the motivations behind it, and addresses how this will and won’t change what ROH has stood for and presented as a product the last five years.

 

Wade Keller: How long has this been an idea and where did you first hear about it, or did you come up with it yourself?

 

Gabe Sapolsky: It was basically done by Cary Silken and Sid Eyk in our office. Cary was looking for a way to expand our customer base basically. This all happened since Fall of last year. I’m not sure of the specific year. Basically, we got to the point where every fan who is willing to shell out for a 15 or 20 bucks and send it to a website of small company for a DVD, we got all those fans. We showed growth, but it was slow. You pick up a fan here or there, you lose a fan here or there, too. They get burned out or tired or whatever. So we needed a way to get more exposure. What this pay–per–view deal does is give us a way to get more exposure and at a real affordable rate. The business plan of ROH has not chnaged. We’re still going to be a company that lives or dies on DVD or live ticket event sales. The pay–per–view is just basically a way to get more exposure, to get the ROHwrestling.com name out there or the Ring or Honor name out there and reach an audience that otherwise isn’t going to buy our DVD.

 

Keller: What do you picture at this point being the cross–promotion other than someone happening to flip across ROH pay–per–view on their onDemand channel guide?

 

Sapolsky: There’s lots of plans for promotion. We have a very big guy with Ken Gelman involved in all of this who’s handling all of this. He has a very good background. He really, really knows what he is doing. I have a lot of trust and faith in him. He has a lot of good ideas. He’s a real go–getter. He’s going to have a lot of ways to promote this pay–per–view.

 

Keller: There will probably a lot of people seeing ads for ROH after WWE pay–per–views conclude, too. There are a lot of ways being on pay–per–view raises your profile. My first reaction to this is there are going to be a lot of people who are not in the habit of buying DVDs thorugh mail order. They’ll see the pay–per–view option and they’ll order it and then want more of that product than once every two months.

 

Sapolsky: It really is all of that exposure. Very important to us was the price point. These pay–per–views are going to be priced between $9.95 and $14.95. That’s a very affordable price. And it’s a price where you don’t have to watch on Sunday at 8 o’clock to sit and watch it or you miss it. I always thought TNA had a good idea with the Wednesday pay–per–view and it didn’t work out for whatever reason. But, you did have to watch on a Wednesday night. With onDemand, it will be on all month. You might be sitting there at one in the morning and you have nothing to do, and you want to spend ten bucks, it’s not a big deal, you go ahead and buy it. It’s going to be very convenient for the people and very affordable. That’s the main thing. I think it will attract a lot of impulse buys that way and we’re also hoping there are casual fans. We’re not asking a whole lot. You’re not going to have to shell out a whole lot. It’s not thirty or forty dollars. It costs ten or fifteen dollars for two hours of your time.

 

Keller: Is there a number of buys that inDemand is looking for or a neighborhood? In your own mind, do you have a number you need to reach to make it sustainable, or is this arrangement just so cheap for inDemand and something you were already doing where there’s almost not a treshhold you need to reach?

 

Sapolsky: The amazing part of this is there really isn’t pressure for a lot of buys. InDemand has a lot of things going on and this is just another product for them to sell. For us, it’s about exposure. It’s about getting more people to buy the DVDs and come to live events and putting the ROHwrestling.com name out there and the Ring of Honor name. It’s not really a high pressure “we have to do this number of buys” or “we put this much more money into the company and it’s going to be this much more expensive to run the shows.” The fact of the matter is it’s all very affordable and it’s become a really innovative and great way to try to get some exposure.

 

Keller: The technology changes are changing the landscape for what a pro wrestling company can do to sustain itself. That’s been one of the great things about ROH. Not that you’ve reached a ceiling on growth, but you’re not expanding at a rate where you’re looking at going public in a few months. It’s nice to be able to be a certain level, be profitable, employ wrestlers, have a good time doing what you’re doing, and not grow too fast like ECW did where the next move is “make or break.”

 

Sapolsky: It’s not where wer’re going to be in a situation where we are going to be too big to be small and too small to be big, which was the famous Paul Heyman line about ECW, which was true. When Cary first came to me with the idea about the pay–per–view, I was dead set against it because I was really worried about that. I figured we’re going to take on the same problems ECW did. But the fact of the matter is, we haven’t had any of those problems and I’m 100 percent excited about it now because it really is the next logical step for the company at this point. We’re not overextending ourselves with it. We’re not drastically changing our business plan. We’re not going to have to change our product at all. We’re still going to be able to put our product out there. It really is the next logical step for our company to take.

 

Keller: Will the pay–per–view show also be sold on DVD, and if so before or after the pay–per–view airs?

 

Sapolsky: It will be sold, but after the pay–per–view airs. The pay–per–view will be first–run material.

 

Keller: From a production standpoint has inDemand asked anything of you, first of all, and second of all, will you be upgrading any aspects of production?

 

Sapolsky: There will be some small upgrades, but inDemand hasn’t said anything to us. In fact, they’ve seen numerous tapes of our product and DVDs of our product and they’re very happy with it. There will be some production upgrades because we always making production upgrades. It’s just something we always try to do. It might not be anything too noticeable, just little things here and there to clean the product up a little bit.

 

Keller: What about the ring mic?

 

Sapolsky: If you started watching the DVD from the beginning of this year, you’ll see we had the ring mic wired right into the audio now, so there’s no issues with the ring mic anymore.

 

Keller: Excellent. Other than that, from a production standpoint, the rest of it has to do with the building you’re in and the crowd you have. The lighting is consistent.

 

Sapolsky: That’s one of the reasons we wanted to do things in Manhattan because we’re going to get a tremendous crowd in there and a tremendous crowd reaction. We have to keep in mind the building we’re taping things in, we obviously want a great looking building. You’re not going to suddenly see pyro or lots of fancy things to compete with WWE and TNA. That’s another lesson from ECW. We’re not going to go the exact opposite route that ECW went, because I look back at some of that ECW stuff and it just looks terrible, but we’re going to have a nice standard of production, but we’re not going to try to compete with TNA or WWE. We’re going to have our own look and it’s a look I’m very comfortable with. It’s an old school look, but it’s updated. I think it’s very pleasant on the eye. If you want huge production, this isn’t going to be the product for you. If you want a nice looking product with all the emphasis on wrestling, that’s what we’re still going to be.

 

Keller: If you’re not at a point where you can come even close to what WWE is, you’re going to look foolish trying. ROH has an alternative look to it where I think people who have discovered it feel they’re part of an exclusive club of people who have discovered something special. I think that more than makes up for the fact that it’s not at the most up to date arena with all the pyro.

 

Sapolsky: The fans who buy this product, that’s not what they’re buying this product for anyways. It’s not something we’re concerned about. You’re not going to see a changed product. We’re not suddenly going to go on pay–per–view and you’re going to see a Randy Savage or something. You’re going to see the same product you’ve seen over the last five years. That’s the other beautiful part of this whole arrangement is that it does not change the integrity of the product whatsoever. We still have no one we really have to answer to. We just have to send a tape in and they play it. You’re going to see the same product We’re going to feature our guys, the guys you’ve seen in Ring of Honor and the guys who have signed contracts with us and those you have come to expect in Ring of Honor. You’re going to see a pure Ring of Honor product. It’s not going to have to be altered in any way.

 

Keller: Every time TNA has gone to a new network—from pay–per–view to FSN to Spike late night to Spike prime time—we saw a reset of storylines and certain things were rerun. I don’t know how many times James Storm and Chris Harris have been broken up. Is there going to be any kind of storyline reset, and if not, any kind of introduction into the product you’ll try to incorporate into the show? Or will people buying this pay–per–view who have never seen ROH before basically feel they’re picking up something mid–stream that they have to do some catching up on.

 

Sapolsky: That’s a really good question. You’re not going to see any kind of a reset for the product. You’re going to see the product evolve. What people buy us for and always sells the product from the very first show is wrestling. You’re going to see the guys get over on their wrestling. There’s going to be a reason for the matches taking place. You’re going to know what the characters’ motivations are. You’re not going to be hit over the head with it because you’re basically buying it for the wrestlng. It will stay in line with what’s been going on with Ring of Honor. The first show is going to be a show where if you’ve never seen Ring of Honor before and you have no idea who anybody is, by the time you’re watching the pay–per–view and the match goes on, you’re going to have at least a little bit of an idea of why this match is happening of why you should care about this match?

 

Keller: So there will be more pre–production perhaps than average on an ROH DVD?

 

Sapolsky: No, not at all. It will be pretty much a self–contained show. It’s going to be pretty much a self–contained show. Not self–contained in that it doesn’t lead to anything or doesn’t look at the past, but self–contained in that if you’ve never seen ROH before, you’re going to understand why everything is going on and why all these matches are taking place. People aren’t going to buy this pay–per–view to see lots of backstage promos or videos and that kind of stuff. It’s going to have that kind of thing that you’re able to follow the product, but when you buy a Ring of Honor product, you’re buying it for the wrestling and that’s not gonna change.

 

Keller: Was there any concern at all or anything you were aware of that put the long–term or short–term future of ROH in jeopardy if something wasn’t done to add to the revenue stream such as this pay–per–view and expand the audience base, or were things solid enough where you weren’t content, but you could have stayed course for a while?

 

Sapolsky: We could stay course and sputter along and gain a few customers and lose a few customers, but the bottom line is Cary’s a businessman and he’s not in this to just stand pat. He wants to see growth. He doesn’t need to see an overnight overwhelming success; he just wants to see a slow, steady growth. We kind of reached a point where we weren’t growing, but it was just so slow and we were doing it for five years and it’s just like, what does it take to get new fans, and bottom line is it we need that TV exposure. We could have gone along and kept coasting. Some months we make money, maybe some months we don’t. The bottom line is we needed this in order to not expand to the next level, but just expand our fan base a little bit and

get that extra level of exposure.

 

Keller: You can say you don’t comment on this, because I know you generally don’t, but you’ve never sold more than ten thousand DVDs of any one event.

 

Sapolsky: Yeah, I can’t really discuss that.

 

Keller: Now, for people who weren’t paying attention to DVD before, it’s worth letting them know that nobody was becoming a multimillionare on the DVD sales. I think that’s part of the reason Ring of Honor fans are so loyal and passionate about it—that it’s a passion on your part and the wrestler’s part. There aren’t ten guys making seven figures.

 

Sapolsky: Yeah, I mean, that’s all true. No one’s making millions or getting rich off of Ring of Honor.

 

Keller: How about the announcers for the product?

 

Sapolsky: It will be our regular announcers, Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. They both do a great job and they both deserve to be on the pay–per–view.

 

Keller: How does this affect your relationship with TNA? The talent crossover has almost been eliminated already.

 

Sapolsky: It’s down to Homicide and Austin Aries. Really at this time I want to keep everything focused on Ring of Honor.

 

Keller: So basically, that will be worked on behind the scenes, otherwise no comment.

 

Sapolsky: Yeah, pretty much.

 

Keller: Fair enough. It is nice at this stage that as you move to this stage that there isn’t a lot of crossover and it really isn’t an issue. I doubt there will be talent exchanges. They’ll see you more so as competition now even though you’re offering a very different type of pay–per–view product.

 

Sapolsky: It doesn’t take a genius to see that we’ve been phasing down on the TNA talent and they’ve been phasing down on us using the TNA talent. It’s been a mutal thing between us. You just have to look. First there was Abyss, then (Alex) Shelly, then A.J. (Styles), Jay Lethal was thrown in there, then Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels. You can see it was definitely something that was thought about for a year and a half or so. They wanted to do their own thing and they’ve been doing theirs. It’s been something we’ve been working on. We’ll see how it plays out.

 

Keller: Are you saying some of the talent decisions over the last four, five, six months such as Samoa Joe, this might have been in the back of your mind to sort out and separate the two rosters.

 

Sapolsky: Yeah, it was in the back of my mind even before all this just because we didn’t want to have two identical rosters.

 

Keller: Are your wrestlers under contract, like legal binding real contracts?

 

Sapolsky: This whole thing afforded us the opportunity to sign a roster of talent. We have well over ten guys signed at this point and that’s very exciting to me. I have been living the past ten years of my life waiting for that IM or email or phone call to come in saying so and so, whose having a major angle, needs to finished up or he’s gone or any kind of situation like that. I don’t have to live with that hanging over my head and I don’t have to book with that hanging over my head right now because our core roster and all our main players are signed for a period of time that will allow us to build around them.

 

Keller: Are the contracts just a flat guarantee or a WWE type of downside.

 

Sapolsky: I don’t really want to get into the terms of the contract. The guys all seem very happy. One huge compliment, and this is probably the biggest compliment possible I’ve ever received, is that we started trying to sign guys a month ago, everybody was very receptive to it, and not only were all the guys receptive to it, but they didn’t try to run to WWE or TNA first chance they got. In ECW, it seemed like anytime someone got a contract offer, the first thing they’d do is run outside and try to go to WCW or WWE to counter the offer. The guys we have and the guys we’ve signed are really committed to being here. They want to build a system here and don’t want to be part of those systems. As you know, Wade, a lot of wrestlers aren’t happy with the systems in other places. This is a chance for guys to have their freedom and build their own system and they’re completely into it. It was such a huge compliment that everyone was just so willing to sign and so committed to this cause. The sense of team that we have in that locker room is unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of. We all really believe in what we’re doing and what our cause is in ROH. I think that’s going to really carry over into the ring and give us a really special product.

 

Keller: I think you’ve found a way to keep everyone on the roster happy. For one, you’re not on TV pushing yourself so there’s not that resentment, but even more so you’ve found a way to rotate main events and semi–main events to guys and find a way to rotate guys into that spot but not keep anyone there who obviously doesn’t deserve it. Like a Samoa Joe or a Bryan Danielson, of course you ride that wave. But everyone has a chance to feel they’re contributing in a meaningful way.

 

Sapolsky: That’s I think very important to the teamwork that we have. For instance, this month it might be Brent Albright’s turn to get his half nelson suplex over big and everyone goes under for that and that sets Brent Albright up for a big match. Then it’s B.J. Whitmer’s turn. Then it’s Delirious’s turn. So, that in turn keeps everybody strong up and down the roster. While some guy might have to make a sacrifice one month, then a few months later it will pay off for him. Most importantly, nobody ever does a job for the sake of doing a job. I try to have a lot of finishes in even a subtle way lead to something, some kind of character development. Everybody is very comfortable with where things are going, and that’s kept them behind things.

 

Keller: Will the pay–per–view deal change the number of shows you run in any way. Will you take the weekend off before a pay–per–view just so guys are fresh? Has any of that stuff entered your mind?

 

Sapolsky: No. I mean, it’s not even determined if every pay–per–view is going to be taped all in one night as we’re doing in Manhattan. So there’s a lot to be determined with that. For right now, everything is status quo.

 

Keller: What other things would you do besides a pay–per–view taped at one event?

 

Sapolsky: Right now, there’s really no limits on what ’s available for us to do. I have a lot of ideas up in my head. Half of them I’ll throw out, half of them will develop into something else. It’s reallly too early to get into that. We’ll see how the first one goes and move from there. There’s a lot of good options on how we can do things, whether we tape all in one night or tape a match here and there or have a theme or spotlight some of our history, because if you make a new fan, they have over a hundred back calogue DVDs to buy from us. So our history will be a big part of things. Maybe not our first pay–per–view, but that’s something to consider. There are a lot of options to consider in the future.

 

Keller: How long are the pay–per–views?

 

Sapolsky: Two hours.

 

Keller: So when someone buys the Manhattan show on pay–per–view, there’s an incentive for them to buy the DVD to see the full show.

 

Sapolsky: Yeah, the full show definitely won’t be on the pay–per–view, but the pay–per–view will all be first–run material.

 

Keller: Do you suspect some matches will be abbreviated, or you’ll select a certain number of matches to run in their entirety?

 

Sapolsky: No, no. We’re definitely not going to give the people an edited product. The shows will be formatted to a two hour show.

 

Keller: It will feel live.

 

Sapolsky: Exactly.

 

Keller: Obviously, you’re always looking for new talent. What do you do to see who’s a prospect on the indy scene besides giving tryouts when you go to an area and there’s good word of mouth on them. Do you have a system where somebody is watching tapes regularly? How do you make sure you’re getting the top indy guys and not overlooking them?

 

Sapolsky: Really, what it comes down to now, because I don’t have the time to watch tapes like I used to, so if enough guys say I should give so–and–so a tryout, I’ll give him a tryout and see where it goes from there. We get a lot of tapes and DVDs and I feel bad because a lot of them are sitting there. Sometimes you get tapes or DVDs and they’re really low quality, or bad camera shots, and it’s tough to tell what a guy’s got if that’s the case. Usually what I go by now is if enough word of mouth from guys and if enough people say something good about somebody or somebody I trust, they’ll get a tryout and I’ll go from there.

 

Keller: Is this a six event deal where you’re almost guaranteed to have six events to let it grow, or is it possible you’ll only get one or two, or is it even more than one year?

 

Sapolsky: I think it’s for the six events. I’m pretty sure we’re locked in for six events.

 

Keller: Obviously if it’s successful enough and you do two million buys per show, you’ll be on every week.

 

Sapolsky: Yeah. Then I’ll do one show and retire.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

Sapolsky: That’s a really good question. You’re not going to see any kind of a reset for the product. You’re going to see the product evolve. What people buy us for and always sells the product from the very first show is wrestling. You’re going to see the guys get over on their wrestling. There’s going to be a reason for the matches taking place. You’re going to know what the characters’ motivations are. You’re not going to be hit over the head with it because you’re basically buying it for the wrestlng. It will stay in line with what’s been going on with Ring of Honor. The first show is going to be a show where if you’ve never seen Ring of Honor before and you have no idea who anybody is, by the time you’re watching the pay–per–view and the match goes on, you’re going to have at least a little bit of an idea of why this match is happening of why you should care about this match?

 

That answers my question. Thank you Flamboyance as well for your response.

 

I wonder where they think this will go if it is successful? At the very end, Sapolsky doesn't seem that interested in weekly pay-per-views. Could we expect more six pay-per-view blocks? Monthly pay-per-views? Live pay-per-views? They seem to want to keep the promotion on a small scale, but if they also want to consider themselves a true alternative they should take every available measure to get their product to the masses.

[EricMM 0]

Take it one step at a time, work it so that you're breaking even or making a profit with each step.

 

Don't take the leap of faith.

[theintensifier 0]

A weekly pay-per-view schedule would kill any promotion, it crippled TNA until they didn't have a choice, and had to switch.

 

They should follow ECW. Have a pay-per-view every two months, or so.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

They should follow ECW. Have a pay-per-view every two months, or so.

That's the plan, to have a new PPV every couple of months.