Making Cents...

Now that I'm done with writing papers and taking finals, I'm going to start an occasional theme in my blog, and that's focusing on wrestling as a business. If you're the owner of a small time company, this is aimed at you. It's a way I can give back to the business. Sometimes it will seem like common sense, but I hope to offer up some nuggets here and there.
I'm going to start by talking about advertising. This is the place where I've seen lots of mistakes by promoters of smaller companies. The basic form of advertising in the wrestling business is the flyer/poster. Every time you go to see any of the "bigger" companies, you'll walk out to your car and find it covered in handouts for smaller companies. The last few times I've been to ROH, I've collected flyers for companies like "Fireworks Championship Wrestling." In my opinion, posters and flyers are the best bang for your buck, advertising wise. They're cheap, and they can go just about anywhere. You can put them on drink machines, convenience store windows, grocery store bulletin boards, local sandwich shop windows, etc. You can canvas a large area of people with just a little effort and a little cash.
The other area in which you can expose your product to a large audience with little effort is TV. But I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that advertising your small company on television isn't exactly the best idea. If your ad runs during a wrestling show and features footage from your smaller company shot on a camera bought at Best Buy, how do you think it's going to look compared to the footage of WWE's programming, or even TNA's programming, both shot on professional quality cameras? It makes your company look bad, as it's not on par with the wrestling program it's up against. Fans are going to immediately connect your company with a lower level of quality than what they are used to. Of course, they're going to recognize that if they come to your show, but you can win them over with atmosphere and heart. Not to mention that they've already paid.
To give it a little perspective, lets say you are a fan of Alien with Sigourney Weaver. While watching Alien on cable one day you see a commercial for Hybrid (check here for a review). At first sight, they're both alien movies, they both take place in outer space, and they both have female protagonists. Even though by that definition, they're equal movies, if you were to see an ad for Hybrid while watching Alien, you'd hardly want to check out the movie because Alien is obviously higher quality. This is what happens when you advertise your smaller company during RAW. As with everything, there are exceptions. ECW could advertise during RAW specifically because it had the perfect devil may care attitude about production quality. Beware, though, that attitude like that is rare, and your company is probably not able to reproduce it. Not knocking your product, it's just that ECW is a once in a lifetime kind of deal.
Finally, a great form of advertising that comes dirt cheap is available, and that's the internet. If your company doesn't have a MySpace account, or a FaceBook account, it should. MySpace and FaceBook are great ways to connect with your fans for free, as long as you have internet access. Sending bulletins on MySpace only costs the time in which you take to post it, and can alert anyone interested enough to become a "friend" of what is going on with your company. Having a website is a bit like TV advertising. If you can have one made that looks phenomenal, then do it, but if it looks like your cousin Eddie did it for you ten years ago on Geocities, then don't. It will hurt you much more than it helps.
Remember that advertising is supposed to help your company look better. Make sure to get the best bang for your buck without making your company look cheap and low-profit. When people make the investment to come see your company, they want to believe it's going to be around for the next show.

4 things to help TNA

Somehow, unintentionally, this is becoming a TNA oriented blog. That hasn't been my intention. But, like good ole WCW, TNA gives me so much to say about what they're doing wrong that I can't really help talking about it. I'm going to try and be positive and give TNA 4 solid ideas on improving their show and their ratings.
My first idea is really simple: Re-establish Kurt Angle as a wrestling machine. At this moment in time, the TNA title doesn't really have what we like to call "prestige." It's a vanity plate, basically. It doesn't mean anything. That can change, and it can change quickly by making Kurt a crazed man obsessed with out performing his opponent. It wouldn't take much, either. Just have Kurt take on someone in the next main event, looks like either Petey Williams or Scott Steiner, and nearly lose. Let him win because AJ or Tomko helped him. Then have him determined to prove that he is better than the other wrestler, and take to training behind closed doors. Let Tomko guard the door, while Kurt and AJ (Since he was such a great amateur in Region 3) train. Have AJ scream like he's being stretched by Stu Hart, and even let him get a sprain or "broken bone." For the next PPV, show how much Kurt has improved. Then let him go on a "Killing Spree," choking out or making others tap out with some new MMA style submission holds. Keep this up for months, and you have a credible titleholder and a belt with "prestige."
The next idea is in a similar vein, and that is for TNA to take their time before Booker T gets a title shot. Have Cornette offer Booker a chance at the title, and have Cornette say it's because the management want to increase the buyrate for the next Pay Per View. Then Booker T comments on how he wants to be a champion because he's earned his spot, not because he's a famous name. He wants to respect those who have been in TNA longer than he has and let them have their chance. Then have someone like Robert Roode mock Booker for considering himself famous. Let them feud for a while, and hopefully they are both elevated by the feud, even though Booker T comes out on top. THEN give Booker a title shot. Don't let him win it the first time, though. Make the crowd get on their knees and beg for Booker to win. THEN give it to them. We like it like that.
The third idea is to re-establish the X Division title as a wrestling belt. For too long it's been based around gimmicks. It has been especially bad since the Jackass angles. Let the guys wrestle Jr. Heavyweight matches that blow the socks off of the fans. Have a few TV matches with time limits, and let the guys just get going when the time runs out. Then give them tons of time on the PPV's to just wrestle. The fans will buy the PPV just to see what they can do without a short time limit. Then you've also shown that the guys in the X Division can go just as good as the Heavyweights, just at their own speed and with their own style.
Finally, and this is a good one: Let the fans think Joe is going to leave. This is the hardest to do without hurting the company, but it's a rewarding one. Since Joe did his "shoot" promo Sunday night, let him keep going with the idea that he's unsatisfied. Let him establish that he loves the TNA fans, and that he doesn't want to offend them, but he's losing his passion for wrestling because of guys like Kevin Nash and Team 3D. Have Cornette tell him to "Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way." Joe decides that he really doesn't know what he wants to do, and ask for a few weeks to go home and think it over. Before he leaves, let Booker T say something heartfelt about getting from the business what you want. In the following weeks, continue the Team 3D feud with the X Division. Have 3D boasting that they dominate the midgets in the X Division, and that there isn't anyone who can take the X Division belt from them. Have them set up a match at the PPV with Team 3D vs Any two X Division stars who think they can take the belt. Introduce the first, Eric Young. Already having jumped Lethal, Shelley and Sabin, have 3D ask for his partner. Young says that he couldn't get Lethal, Sabin or Shelley because Team 3D demolished them. So he had to call in a favor. Is it Sharkboy? No. It's Joe. Not the Samoa Joe we've been seeing, but the Samoa Joe that held the ROH title for 2 years. The Joe that held the X Division title for so long. The Joe that doesn't back down from Bubba Ray or Devon. The crowd goes banana!

These aren't guaranteed, but they're worth a shot. It would help establish a few months of television that would actually satisfy every grouping of fan. Now if I could just move to Nashville and get in on the ground level, I'd work my way up.

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