Hey everyone, my name is Phil Colvin and I’ll be doing some semi regular pieces here for Pro Wrestling Ponderings. I’ve been involved in the business for close to eight years now working for AAW Pro Wrestling out of Chicago as the play by play man. I’ve also worked on some shows for DGUSA back in 2009/2010. I feel very lucky to have worked for reputable promotions and learned from some great people along the way but I have also heard and seen firsthand many horror stories about the indies and how they are run. For my first piece I want to take a look at why so many in the biz want to start their own promotions. We’ll look at the good and the bad. This will be mostly aimed at the Midwest but I’m sure some if not all of it will apply to anywhere in the country.
In the Chicago area alone right now there are approximately fifteen promotions currently running monthly events. I know the readers here follow the indies closely and know the good from the bad so I feel I can go ahead and tell you that out of the fifteen there are maybe four or five that are running quality shows with decent draws. So now the question must be asked. Why are there so many guys that feel the need to start a wrestling promotion? Let’s look at some scenarios.
YOU LOVE THE BUSINESS
This one should go without saying. Regardless of the era, you grew up watching your favorite grapplers on television and you never grew out of it. There is nothing wrong with that. Everyone reading this can identify with it. I never grew out of it and it is the reason I choose to get involved in the business knowing full well I did not have the physical gifts to actually get in the ring. It should go without saying that if you start a promotion you love the business. Even if you suck at it. I suck at Basketball and would have no idea how to run a league so you don’t see me starting the Colvin Basketball Association. Although I do know some tall guys that like to shoot hoops. They must be ready to play in a league right? Hmmm……
YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE, CONNECTIONS AND A GOOD REPUTATION
These are big prerequisites to anyone who is even thinking about starting a promotion. If you have been working in the wrestling biz for a number of years and getting booked by or working for reputable companies there is a good chance you have learned a great deal about the inner workings of indie wrestling. On the flip side, if you have been working for crappy promotions and clueless people you will start your fed and you will just be spreading the disease. Let’s stay positive though and assume you know how much building rental, ring rental, insurance, advertising, etc costs. You know the pay scale of the boys and you have the means to cover all of your costs. Just recently there was a local show run by a start up group where they had a low draw and I was tipped off that the majority of the boys were not paid. To make it worse the “promoter” went on a message board claiming how his show was a success since he had not lost any money (what a great thing to brag about). This is the type of behavior that is inexcusable but probably happens all the time. If the workers knew they were not going to get paid going into the show there is the possibility they did the show as a favor to the promoter. There is also a possibility they are guys who are willing to work for no pay just because it’s the only booking they can get. That’s a whole different article.
Connections and reputation are also important. If you want a successful fed you need good workers first and foremost. If you’ve made good connections and have a good reputation you have a phone full of contacts and will most likely be able to get some solid talent booked. If you are known as a huge douchebag you may still be able to get good talent but they will not respect you and they will be there only for the pay day. I’ve learned that there are many circles of friends or colleagues on the indies and I often see or hear someone put over as “a class act” or a “stand up guy” and think to myself that in my experiences with this person they have been a complete jack ass. Dozens of people that I respect usually have the same opinion. The bottom feeders usually stick together and these feds usually churn out garbage. Yet again spreading the disease, but in their minds they have good experience, connections and reputation. There are plenty of delusional people on the indie scene.
YOU ARE A MONEY MARK
You love the business but you don’t have any experience, connections, or reputation. What you do have is some money in your bank account and you are either foolish enough to believe there is profit to be made on the indie scene or you know you are throwing this money out the window to be involved in something you love so dearly. I personally know all about this as many years back I “invested” quite a bit of money into AAW (quite a bit of money for me at the time anyway). I was fully aware there was little to no chance of a return on this investment. I just wanted to keep the train rolling so to speak. Nowadays the term “money mark” often has a negative connotation and most of the time it is just but there are times where quality feds would be going under if not for the help of these “investors”. Hell if you have the cash and you know the potential loss involved and still decide that you are passionate enough in a project to fork it over more power to you. Just make sure the product you are investing in is not spreading the disease of shitty wrestling. Once again I must state there are plenty of delusional people on the indie scene.
There are plenty of negatives to money mark feds. Often times the people working for these promoters know that they have limited knowledge of the business and take advantage of them at every turn. Perhaps they deserve it but the end result is almost always crappy wrestling shows and crappy wrestling shows hurt the good wrestling shows. This is one of my favorite theories on the indie wrestling. Say Joe Blow sees a flyer advertising wrestling for ten dollars at the local VFW and decides to bring his two kids since they love WWE and a former star is going to be there. He plops down thirty bucks to get in plus another ten to fifteen for concessions and another thirty for a former WWE stars autograph. They watch the show. What they get is fat guys in t-shirts, barely trained skinny kids, and a former WWE star who could give two shits about being there are as long as he gets his mark money. There is no kind of logical booking, no production value or anything of the sort. Just weekend warriors “livin the dream”. They leave disappointed. The next week Joe Blow sees another flyer but this time it is for a fed that has a very good product. Guess what Joe Blow does? He says “fuck that, I’m not blowing anymore money on indie wrestling. I went to the one last weekend and it sucked.” Now the good fed as lost a potential customer thanks to the crappy fed but the money mark promoter is happy because he was able to put on a show and live out his teenage fantasy of hanging out with Road Dogg or Billy Gunn. The nuclear bomb of this scenario is when you have the crappy fed running the same venue as the good fed. This scenario makes me want to punch my keyboard right now so we’ll just move on.
YOU CAN’T GET BOOKED ELSEWHERE
This one is my favorite. You are a worker who has been working for a certain promotion most of your time in the biz. You have a falling out with the promotion for whatever reason and they are no longer going to use you. You make a few phone calls to try and get some bookings or a spot on someone else’s roster but you are not having much luck. It’s possible you have a bad reputation, you are a shitty worker, or just as simple as no one has a spot open. Now you’re in a bind. How are you going to get your monthly fix of performing in the ring? Then the light bulb goes on. You’ll just start your own promotion! You find a handful of guys that are not happy with the promotion you just left and some other guys hanging around looking for bookings and you split off to start your own thing. Often times your goal is to hurt your former promotions business so you flyer their shows and talk some smack on the internet. If you split from a crappy fed to start another crappy fed you have just spread the disease of crappy wrestling. You don’t see it that way at all though. You think your new fed is kick ass and is going to start making money hand over fist. There are plenty of delusional people on the indie scene.
YOU ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE BUSINESS WITH REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS
You’re in the business but you are bored with the tired indie scene. You think you can do things better. You’re going to start a promotion to revolutionize the business. Your ideas range from basic changes in booking strategy to the use of trampolines and other gimmicks in matches. I’ve seen many feds come and go that were going to change the business but just fell flat on their face or turned out to be the same old same old with no unique characteristics whatsoever. In many cases people who start feds for this reason are at least doing it for a noble cause. In some cases there are some small successes in this area. However the fact remains that the business has not been radically changed in years and I hate to tell anyone thinking of trying it that it may cost them some money in the long run and the chances of success are slim. But hey, there are plenty of delusional people on the indie scene.
In summary; at least most people who start their own promotions love the business. The problem comes when promoters pop up and think they are doing the right thing when in reality they are just spreading the disease of crappy indie wrestling and actually hurting the business they love. I’ve often said it is ultimately up to the fans to weed out the crap. Do some research before you give a promoter your hard earned money and don’t settle for crap. I’m sure there are some promoters who will read this and say “yeah I’m not one of those guys, I don’t run bad shows.” but I have to say it again… There are plenty of delusional people on the indie scene.
Until next time, I’m Phil Colvin and I’ll see you at ringside.
Follow me on Twitter: @Phil_Colvin