The Other Side Of The Ropes - If a Tree Falls...

ukevents.net · Joined: 15 Dec 2003 Posts: 2439

Hello, hello, I'm back, it's me
The atom bomb of misery... - KMFDM

I could never resist throwing a KMFDM lyric in at the beginning of a piece. Anyway, I figured I get this thing going while I have enough brewing on my mind. Next week I'm headed back to Deustchland and no sooner than I come back, I have jury duty. Watch how short-lived this winds up being; I seriously doubt that they'll allow a man of color with 5 visible body modifications (including earlobes that are gauged to 3/4") above the neck with locks (Philly may still be skittish about MOVE even after 22 years, you never know) who not happens to be a professional wrestler on the side but could care less about litigation. Yeah, I'd say I'll be out of there faster than George "The Animal" Steele cuts a promo. Anyway, I'm not about to switch formats here, this is still a wrestling column, first and formost, so that's what we're sticking to...

I've become extremely disgusted and disenchanted with the US scene lately, and it seems to grow worse right after I come back from the EU. Don't get me wrong, the EU scene has it's fair share of hang-ups too, but they have the US beat by far when it comes to organization. I caught that on the very first trip exactly one year ago. Since I usually end up gravitating to a venue in Germany in every trip (but never the same town twice thus far) I've observed that for all of the promotions there are in Germany alone (there's roughly 10 or 12) they all seem to communicate with each other. They pretty much share the talent, so there's a balance of exposure. The biggest shows are usually later in the year (Deutsche Wrestling Alliance has Harley Night in Wittorf and European Wrestling Promotions runs the Bremen Catch Cup for example) when there's new talent to scout, the promoters usually work on each other's shows in some capacity or have one of their people work the shows and scout for them. Of course it's notjust limited to German wrestlers, because I've seen guys from Ireland come over, like Joey Cabray who runs No Limit Wrestling, Jay Phoenix from Scotland, Pro Wrestling Holland's Tommy End is the first lightheavyweight champion of Westside Xtreme Wrestling of Essen, Holland's Mot van Kunder and Louis van Eden hold tag titles in DWA, The Bull, Homeless Tom and Dr. Gangreen of Belgium have come to Germany, and the Germans have wrestled in the Dutch and Flemish countries, so the talent cross-pollinates quite frequently over there.

Oh wait, doesn't that happen here in the States? Sure it does, but guess what? It's a humungous Chinese fire drill over here though. It's like a huge bomb went off and there's promotions and wrestlers everywhere except for one small thing - there's not a lot of people that notice. If I was to walk down a street and tell somebody that I was a wrestler, I guarantee you that the next thing I hear would be "really? Do you wrestle for WWE?" or the variations "then why aren't you in the WWE?", "You should try out for the WWE or TNA", "do you work for TNA or WWE?", "You look like that guy Booker T!" or my favorite "isn't that fake though?" Those questions are the result of a common factor: the masses at large have no friggin clue that the Independent circuit exists. To make matters worse, I've even come acroos a smattering of folks who claim that they wrestle until they slip and mention the dirtiest word an actual worker could ever hear - Backyard. Now, chances are I already know that the kid in question isn't a wrestler for the simple fact that a) the minute he makes the claim, I ask him where he trained or who trained him in basic lingo, and watch his glaze over in temporary confusion, and b)he comes up with a promotion name that no one ever heard of. The minute I call him on the error, he stops dead in his tracks. I personally don't care for backyarders unless they take the time to actually find some place or someone to train them correctly, otherwise I think they're part of the problem. The other part are the promoters (I use that loosely) who allow them to work, thereby undercutting the guys who busted their butts to get somewhere only because you don't have to pay a backyarder as much, and guys don't really see that much money as it is.

The promoters in the EU do communicate with each other - frequently. Promoters during the Territory era did too via telephone. Now what I don't understand is this; we live in the so-called Age of Information (I call it Disinformation, to be honest with you), so with all the cell phones, emails, instant messaging, chat rooms, and other leisurely forms of communication we have, why is it so damned hard for promoters to network with each even here in the States? Have we gotten so petty to disavow the existence of others, or is it because there are more egos than there are business-minded people out there? We can't cull the herd but we can better organize what we have. Granted I know every other promoter is emulating Vince, and it needs to stop. Vince can do what he does because he has the money to do it and he's been doing for over 20 years. Most indies have a hard enough time trying run consistently with minimal advertising. Which leads me to what I call the Poison of the Internet...

Message Boards - If there was ever a potential pain in the arse, it's one of these little buggers. They have proven to be the bane of many a promotion, due to fan and wrestler alike, because someone has air some dirty laundry or broadcast some drama just to feel some sense of validation from someone acknowledging them and the subject matter doesn't even have to be wrestling! You'd think that all the energy that gets invested into all the nonsense on these things, you could have a strong enough voice to support a promotion instead of bitch and moan about how So-and-So doesn't measure up to That Guy in TNA or if This Guy was that good, then why isn't he in the WWE or something? Well, here's some news kids (yeah, I failed to mentioned that most of your garden variety Message Board pundits are likely to be in High School) should the wrestler you're berating or another wrestler ever manage to make it past a WWE tryout, then chances are that when you see them on TV, they will NOT be who you expected to be anymore, at least until their contract runs out or they get released, because they'll become a creature or McMahon's design, and only you and bunch of others will really know who they were and try to wonder why they're not the same anymore. If they go to TNA, they may or may not come back to work where they started only because the TNA booking guys may not authorize it (to the guys in TNA; if that info is wrong I apologize, but then none of you may even know this column exists, but just in case you do, this is just an example and observation, not a shoot on TNA) and send them somewhere else, provided they get paid the alloted amount they're guaranteed.

Sounds like credibility is all but out the window now, because for all the hoopla I hear about 'Tradition' and the like, it seems that cred went out the window with tradition. Good example; when I went to Belgium last year, I also ran a seminar. What I didn't know was that some of the students actually researched MY background and caught on that I held a remnant of the NWA 6 Man title. Nevermind the fact that no one in the States really gave a flying flop about that sort of thing, but to these guys, that was all they needed to prove that I was valid, despite the fact that not even fans across the pond acknowledged it (and it was published in PWI, by the way, so I'm wondering if wrestling fans even read anymore). Point is, you can have titles, you can book established names, but without proper advertising or booking, none of it means jack. Seems the Europeans have a better sense of history than we do, admit it. There was a time when wrestling shows didn't run in stadiums named after corporations. Vince has to watch what he does because alot of these places are also his sponsors. If the fans are wondering why they don't see indie shows in a place like the Wachovia it's simply because the average promoter has a hard enough time trying to pay for the insurance where they currently run, plus if you can't fill a building that seats 500, how in the Nine Hells do you expect to fill a venue that seats 5,000? As for the fans themselves, it's the same with musicians here in the States; US fans have absolutely NO LOYALTY as a whole. The minute they catch a flaw if someone doesn't point it out first, they'll boycott the singer at the drop of a dime; you think it hasn't happened to any star athlete? Think again. This is not a love song to my counterparts in the EU, I'm just saying that if anyone here in the States expect to get any farther in this business, then we have a lot to learn over again. Chances are no one of significance will read this (via the Tree in the Woods scenario) Confused? Take the Zen koan - 'if a tree falls in the woods with no one to hear it, does it make sound?' or if tweak that in media nuance it would read like this - if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to make a press release, then it didn't happen. Guess what? I've been doing this press release for over 2 years. It did happen, so the question is now this - was and is anyone listening? If they are, does it matter? Answer that, and you'll find the answer to the question of this sport's future...

That said, I'm off for Germany next week, and after jury duty, I'm going to catch up on some ink. Aus...

Harold 'Redd' Reddick Jr/Shaka