Wednesday, February 22, 2012

New-age territories...

Hope everyone is ready, because I am about to drop another nugget of wrestling knowledge onto each and every one of you.  This is a topic that I have put quite a bit of thought into, and I feel that it is actually the future of independent wrestling as a whole.  So definitely give it a good read and let me hear some of your feedback on it, as I really am interested in hearing it.  As always, you can reach me at these lovely online locations:


So this idea for a new-age solution to somewhat bring back territories has evolved over the years from listening to both the ideas of promoters, as well as wrestlers.  Territories are completely dead, and do not let anyone tell you differently.  There are some people out there really trying to pull them back together, but they will never be as strong as they were back in the day.  The solution is not to build actual "territories," but to build working relationships between promotions.

Most people are probably saying "that is what a territory is you dumb ass!"  Well, I think of it a little differently I guess.  See, the idea is to get 4 promotions to work together, use much of the same talent, and book one weekend a month each.  This does somewhat build a tiny territory I guess, but it is between 4 completely different places, in 4 completely different areas.  Each promoter can have their champs and do whatever the hell they want to.  The idea is to make sure that no one is essentially running the same days as another person.  Each promoter chooses one Saturday of the month and runs their show accordingly.

This working arrangement would work out great for everyone involved.  The promoters are not running against each other, so they have their choice of talent, and the fans can go to all of the promotions rather than choosing between a few that are running the same day.  The wrestlers are now booked for 4 shows, and really don't need to worry about finding work each month, unless they want to pick up a Friday or Sunday show.  This whole thing will also build continuity between the promotions, and eventually help spread the word about independent wrestling as a whole throughout a given area.

I will give you an example.  Let's say that there is a place running in a centralized part of Ohio.  This promotion may run however many towns on their own, but only does one show a month.  Well this promoter strikes up a working agreement with other promotions in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Michigan.  Now, these 4 promoters can pull wrestlers from the same talent pool, and each promoter will run a designated day of the month, so that no dates interfere with each other.

They key to all of this, as I have said before, is getting the word out there.  Use the Internet for things like promoting on the actual promotion's website, social media, forums or message boards, youtube, and whatever else you can find.  Shit, contact popular websites and see how much it is to purchase ad space on their.  Basically any website that you feel wrestling fans would visit in your area or something.  Hit the pavement an get yourself some sponsors to help cut down intial costs, and put up fliers wherever you can.  It's all about the prep work people.  The more planning and promoting you do, the better return on investment you are going to have.

So I guess my challenge here is to find a few other promoters that you can work with, and start implementing this system for 6-12 months to see if it makes a difference.  I personally feel that this is the future of indpendent wrestling, and is the best way to get the word out about independent wrestling as a whole.  We all need to remeber that "normal people" have no fucking clue what independent wrestling is.  It is our job to let them know that there are alternatives out there to the crap that is currently on TV.  #LetsChangeWrestling

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