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Welcome to New Jersey - Population: Canceled
If you’re making plans to go to a wrestling show in New Jersey these days, good luck.
In the last few weeks, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, Stars and Stripes Championship Wrestling, and International High Powered Wrestling, to name a few, all cancelled shows. Some were cancelled weeks ahead of time, others within days of the show. So anyone that made plans, and most importantly arrangements, to be at any one of these shows is now left in the dust.
This is a growing epidemic that is starting to kill the independent wrestling business in New Jersey. It’s affecting fans as well as workers who are all going out of their way to make sure they’re available to get to these shows. It’s also affecting any promotion out there that’s actually running shows on a regular basis and finding town after town burned out because of rank amateurs working totally out of their league. Since there are so many promotions supposedly running in New Jersey, fans and workers are going to look for something convenient and rewarding. These days, they’re consistently left wanting- and for all the wrong reasons.
Thanks to the state not being regulated by the athletic commission, anyone with a couple of bucks can play Promoter for a Day and pretend to run their own WrestleMania. The end results in many cases, if the shows actually come off, are some of the worst atrocities the business has ever seen. However, it’s starting to become the exception rather than the rule if a show actually goes on as scheduled.
Really- the wrestling business doesn’t need any more help when it comes to looking bad. So reliability should never come into question when you’re expecting people to spend their time and money on your product, and any legitimate, professionally run organization would be dead in the water if they pulled this nonsense in the “real world.”
Promoters need to realize that the wrestling business isn’t like it was a few years ago. Back then, the business was white hot, and people came out in droves, so promoters, despite what they’d like you to think, didn’t have to put a lot of effort into getting people to come out to see the “rasslin’.” Boardwalk shows in NJ were drawing over 1,000 a show, high schools in the summertime were bringing in 800 a pop, and even some of the smaller venues were packing them in, getting 300-400 a shot. Hell, Yardville shows drew hundreds of people, and they weren’t flying in talent from across the globe to get those people, either.
These days, it actually takes a little bit of effort in order to run a show. The public doesn’t view the wrestling business in the same manner it did back in the late 1990’s, and venues aren’t clamoring to be first on line to run a wrestling show. Wrestling’s not “money” anymore- but that’s not stopping Mr. Money Mark from trying to be the next Vince McMahon. So they’ll blow good money trying to do so, in the process embarrass themselves and the business making promises they can’t or won’t keep, and continue to saturate a market in New Jersey that’s seen entirely too many promotions come and go because they’re not treating the business like a business.
This is a big reason why shows are being cancelled left and right lately (and forget the “rescheduling” spin- if the show isn’t happening on the original date it was announced, it’s cancelled.). There isn’t a promoter out there that runs indy wrestling shows as a full time job. For them, whether they want to hear it or not, this is just a glorified hobby. Wrestling shows need to be treated like events, and they’re not. Events require planning, attention to detail, a well thought out process, and straight out footwork from everyone involved in order to get things off the ground and running in a timely, successful manner. And no matter who tells you otherwise, nine times out of ten that’s not what’s happening with most of these promoters.
One look at the front page of this Web site and you’ll see 20- Twenty!- press releases about various wrestling shows. The very idea that some of these things are actually called a “press release” is just discomfiting- what real “press” is actually seeing these releases? Has one newspaper actually received one of these “press releases?” Hopefully not- the way some of these things are worded, no respectable newspaper would print something encouraging people to get tickets RIGHT NOW!!!- all laid out in a horrible format with some wrestlers’ names in ALL CAPS, others not, various misspellings, simple grammatical errors, and no concept as to what an actual press release is supposed to look like.
For some promoters, though, their ideas of “press” are the myriad of Web sites out there where they can send these slapdash pieces of prose. So they spam these things out to whoever’s willing to take them, and certainly, they’re going to find more than a few people who are charitable enough to put them up. Hell, even with the hit ratio of shows coming off as scheduled going further and further south, anyone that really supports the indys is going to put at least a few of them up. But if one makes the mistake of actually not using one of the dozens of “press releases” they get, it’s only because of some non-existent bias or something else equally ludicrous. At least that’s what some of these fantasy league promoters would have you believe.
Herein lies the inherent laziness of most of the Money-Mark-Come-Lately promoters out there- why should anyone feel obligated to put up anything for you? You’re sending things to fan sites. These people are fans, unless they’re trying to pass themselves off as something else, which is another preposterous notion. No one’s forcing anyone to do anything, even if you wish you could- and try so hard to do so with cheap, lame attempts at making the Web site owners feel guilty or duty-bound to clutter their site with your oh-so-important card announcement.
And often the announcement of the show is it in terms of promoting the show with many of these would-be promoters. For some reason, they feel that the power of the Internet is more than enough to guarantee an influx of fans to whatever site they’re throwing a ring in. This is just unimaginably stupid and lethargic on their part- get off your ass, pound the pavement, and shill the friggin’ show. You’re a promoter- get out there and PROMOTE. If you need to be told this, you don’t deserve to run a show, and you sure as hell don’t deserve to be called a promoter. If you need to be told how to promote, you don’t deserve to read a wrestling magazine, let alone be a part of the wrestling business in any capacity.
Of course, canceling a show is sometimes inevitable, even with the proper planning and a good advance on ticket sales. Any decent promoter who’s planned for every precaution will know well ahead of time if the show is going to come off. If they see it’s not, they’ll cut their losses and try again- but they’ll do it well ahead of time. Canceling a show less than a week before it’s scheduled is just completely contemptuous, and the excuses that are trotted out are flat out insulting- if an excuse is given at all.
And make no mistake- there is NO EXCUSE for canceling a show outside of an act of God, and we’re talking an Earth-shattering event, less than a week before it’s going to happen. Issues like security concerns are handled, or at least they should be, long before the show starts. Fairy tales like “the building decided it doesn’t want to hold a wrestling show” are just insolent lies- what building all of a sudden decides it doesn’t want to take your money? And nonsense like “the city doesn’t like wrestling” is utter drivel- even if the entire city council is ticked because they got tossed through a flaming table, that has absolutely nothing to do with what goes on inside of a privately owned building.
When this happens, it impacts every aspect of the wrestling business. Fans get increasingly discouraged and disgruntled as they see yet another wannabe super fed slap them in the face one more time. Workers get stiffed out of a possible payday and exposure, and a whole night is shot when they possibly could have worked someplace else. Of course, the promoter gets off scot free. No one’s held accountable, and they should be. But they’re not- and there’s where the problem lies. Promoters get chance after chance to plan and then cancel shows because fans and workers are giving them chance after chance to do so. That’s right- fans and workers.
“The blame lies squarely with YOU, the home viewer!” - Kent Brockman
For whatever reasons, professional wrestling is a very forgiving business. People that would have been thrown out bodily from any other venture for some of these antics are practically welcomed back with open arms. Fans need to be a little more discriminating when it comes to choosing their wrestling. They have to learn what feds are the real deal, and what ones aren’t. Fans should base their decision based on what they’ve heard about the fed, or what they know about the wrestlers scheduled for the show. Therefore, the workers need to be even more discerning when it comes to choosing what shows to work, and not continuously work for someone who has a history of canceled shows. People will go to shows on many occasions just to see a certain worker- believe it or not. Even in the indys, there are wrestlers who are certified draws. Learn to say “No.”
There are entirely too many good alternatives out there in New Jersey alone for a fan or worker to make a poorly thought out decision- and it’s inexcusable for a fan or worker to go back and take a chance with the same person who stiffed them the first go-around. Some promoters have been through this, bad luck or otherwise, and have learned from their mistakes. Some feds have been around for years and have a proven track record.
These are the promotions that deserve your money and your hard work.
(Special thanks to Showtime Shawn Sheridan for the column title that was blatantly stolen from him without even asking. Check out his LiveJournal at http://triplesh.easyjournal.com)
Complaints, comments, questions?? Email Jim
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The comments and statements
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Brett Schwan and the Wrestling
Clothesline (although many times, he comes damn close!). Please
feel free to email HIM with any comments, complaints, etc.
Jim has been watching wrestling for over 20 years and has followed and reported on indy wrestling for over 6 years. He's also a fan of the New York Giants, New York Yankees, St. John's Red Storm basketball, Alabama Crimson Tide football, and the New Jersey Devils, but please don't hold that against him.
Contact Jim at BilJim2@hotmail.com
