Non-music, obviously.
... wouldn't save wrestling, but what the heck, I'm up for some public ridicule so here's what someone who's never been involved in the business would do...
So after I win the BIG lottery...
Purchase/build an 'arena', 2000-2500 capacity... basically a gymnasium with bleachers to function as the training/workout facility as well as home base, would also include business office.
Purchase/build a small apartment building/dorm room complex in the immediate area.
The workers:
Roster of full-timers would be 40. Downside guarantee would be $20k a year, but rent (if you choose the dorm) and 3 meals a day are paid for as well. Some scheme of graduating payscales for main eventers as the promotion grows would be in effect, but as this wouldn't ever make money who cares about that at this stage, haha. Also full time would be the trainers (both pro-style AND amateur style trainers, we'll get to why in a bit), physical therapist type, business lackeys to do legwork, and cook for the meals. Refs in their too... idea is to keep payroll as $1.25M/year downsides...
I figure like this, we'll get some hungry and hopefully skilled indie guys, plus have a pick of top young prospects wanting to learn (picking really athletic types instead of taking anyone's money who wants to be a 'pro wrestler'), and be able to start presenting cards within a few months of first training sessions. But the idea is to take guys who aren't set on existing pro wrestling styles and make a new way of presenting a match from the ground up, with new guys.
The style:
Pro wrestling, basically, with a focus on amateur and UWF basics. Pro wrestling personalities will be encouraged but not forced, lucha style acrobatics not discouraged, but the fundamental style would be mat wrestling and whatever can be added, that's fine. That's the idea of the amateur wrestling trainers... I want my guys to be legitimate athletes in that arena as well, to have a real foundation for their foundation for worked matches. With some quirks to the style of course:
No punches. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever a punch thrown in the ring. Not an 'official' rule that causes a disqualification, it's just going to be a rule for the workers. No punching, and it's a real fine from your paycheck if you do.
No running the ropes. Not really a hard and fast rule (especially if I want to see some lucha from some of my guys!), but as a common transition device for a match, no way. Flyers and things can be explained "They know they can hit one of their moves if they use the ropes for their own momentum", but guys being thrown into the ropes seemingly against their wishes is something I would do away with.
No foreign objects. Heels cheating through 'dirty tactics' is fine, but never will someone pick up a chair, have salt, etc. If guys REALLY hate each other, then that's what gimmick matches are for. "You know Bob, that's the first steel cage match I've ever seen where the wrestlers never went into the ropes, let alone used the cage." Not really, but what a fun idea for a spot show? hah!
Referees will not be portrayed as clueless putzes who miss everything, nor brittle and falling at every bump they take. In fact, the idea would be that the referee or anything that happens to a ref will never sway what happens in a match.
Booking ideas:
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, wears the exact same wrestling gear. Same color singlet/boots, very basic 'uniform'.
The first shows are a giant round robin tournament that would take 40 shows to complete with 40 guys on the roster. Winner becomes champ, with the champ and the 3 runners up in the tournament get to use choose their own costume/entrance kind of stuff...Really separate the 'stars' and the 'non-stars', and maybe give some drama to the 'rookie' types in winning their way out of the singlet and becoming a 'name'.
The only way to advance from the 'uniform' to a unique look is to beat someone who isn't required to wear the uniform. A tag round robin tourney would happen as well, with the winners (but no runners up) getting to get out of their uniforms.
All matches end in 100% clean pinfall or submission. No run-ins, interference, managers, 'disputed' endings. All 100% clean.
Anyone booked has to go through the 'uniform' phase and adheres to the same pay schedule as everyone else. If Chris Benoit or Kurt Angle shows up, sure, just book em to beat a 'name' in the opener of some out of the way spot show so they can use their real gear thereafter, but they will wrestle that first match in the uniform. Anyone that has a problem with that isn't someone I'd want infecting me 'system' and anyone complaining about the pay is either someone that A- isn't going to be able to pop houses to their expected payscale and/or B- isn't someone I can afford.
The schedule:
Runs 7 days a week. Lots of 6-mans on a show as necessary to have all 40 guys work nightly and have shows be around 3 hours. Lots of 6 man matches mean less each guy has to DO physically in a match so hopefully that'll keep injuries down running this schedule. And it's really easy to make the cards different every night by mixing and matching people out of 6 mans, so people don't work the same guys every night and learn to do more improvising than settling for well rehearsed spots. If someone's really hurt or needs time off or whatever, no problem, hell half the roster could have a night off and there's still enough guys to work a show. Actually, set up a work schedule so everyone has two consecutive days off a week, never a Fri or Sat though.
At first, when we're ready to start out, it's 7 days a week at the home base. Attendance will be **** but hey, the guys are learning. After a bit, a circuit of 5 towns, all within 5 hours drive of home base, will be set up and there's the territory. The Sunday and Wednesday shows will not have 'set' towns, and there's where we try out new areas every week.
Revenue streams:
Ticket sales, of course. Merchandising, as every 'name' wrestler immediately gets a T-shirt and a 'best of' tape of their quest to get out of their 'uniform'... plus all cards are taped, with 6 hour 'best ofs' being produced every month from all the shows that month.
Hopefully soon enough we'd start a TV show for the core cities. Also, with the style being more 'in-house' and not really a general pro wrestling style, I figure it would be a lot more difficult for anyone who was becoming a star to just be hired away if what I selected as 'the look' (athletic but hardly bulky, and any sort of bodybuilding look would be discouraged) didn't match the rest of the business' ideas, and ring style certainly wouldn't transfer well (no punching? Matwork as a universal base? No running the ropes? Really good guys should have no problem adapting there though...)
I of course would be head booker. My dreams in wrestling don't involve lacing up the boots, they don't involve making money, and they involve the creative end and making a product I can be truly happy about and make sure the right guys always win, and I would never delude myself into thinking I could survive in the business as-is, and nobody in their right mind would or should hire someone with no current connection to the business to be the creative dictator, so therefore the grand new idea where I'm the boss...
So there's my pipe dream. Should be good for at least a 10-20 year run til the money runs out, and at that point I figure at least I've created something that at least a cult audience of fans can truly believe in and enjoyed, as well as creating a good number of true stars of pro wrestling, whether through my promotion or people who used it to greater fame.
The only thing I can't figure out here, who in the world would be the trainers, but other than that, wants to donate a few lottery tickets? And if I did hit the big one, tell me, where am I flawed in this plan(recognizing I am looking for artistic, not financial, success)?
... wouldn't save wrestling, but what the heck, I'm up for some public ridicule so here's what someone who's never been involved in the business would do...
So after I win the BIG lottery...
Purchase/build an 'arena', 2000-2500 capacity... basically a gymnasium with bleachers to function as the training/workout facility as well as home base, would also include business office.
Purchase/build a small apartment building/dorm room complex in the immediate area.
The workers:
Roster of full-timers would be 40. Downside guarantee would be $20k a year, but rent (if you choose the dorm) and 3 meals a day are paid for as well. Some scheme of graduating payscales for main eventers as the promotion grows would be in effect, but as this wouldn't ever make money who cares about that at this stage, haha. Also full time would be the trainers (both pro-style AND amateur style trainers, we'll get to why in a bit), physical therapist type, business lackeys to do legwork, and cook for the meals. Refs in their too... idea is to keep payroll as $1.25M/year downsides...
I figure like this, we'll get some hungry and hopefully skilled indie guys, plus have a pick of top young prospects wanting to learn (picking really athletic types instead of taking anyone's money who wants to be a 'pro wrestler'), and be able to start presenting cards within a few months of first training sessions. But the idea is to take guys who aren't set on existing pro wrestling styles and make a new way of presenting a match from the ground up, with new guys.
The style:
Pro wrestling, basically, with a focus on amateur and UWF basics. Pro wrestling personalities will be encouraged but not forced, lucha style acrobatics not discouraged, but the fundamental style would be mat wrestling and whatever can be added, that's fine. That's the idea of the amateur wrestling trainers... I want my guys to be legitimate athletes in that arena as well, to have a real foundation for their foundation for worked matches. With some quirks to the style of course:
No punches. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever a punch thrown in the ring. Not an 'official' rule that causes a disqualification, it's just going to be a rule for the workers. No punching, and it's a real fine from your paycheck if you do.
No running the ropes. Not really a hard and fast rule (especially if I want to see some lucha from some of my guys!), but as a common transition device for a match, no way. Flyers and things can be explained "They know they can hit one of their moves if they use the ropes for their own momentum", but guys being thrown into the ropes seemingly against their wishes is something I would do away with.
No foreign objects. Heels cheating through 'dirty tactics' is fine, but never will someone pick up a chair, have salt, etc. If guys REALLY hate each other, then that's what gimmick matches are for. "You know Bob, that's the first steel cage match I've ever seen where the wrestlers never went into the ropes, let alone used the cage." Not really, but what a fun idea for a spot show? hah!
Referees will not be portrayed as clueless putzes who miss everything, nor brittle and falling at every bump they take. In fact, the idea would be that the referee or anything that happens to a ref will never sway what happens in a match.
Booking ideas:
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, wears the exact same wrestling gear. Same color singlet/boots, very basic 'uniform'.
The first shows are a giant round robin tournament that would take 40 shows to complete with 40 guys on the roster. Winner becomes champ, with the champ and the 3 runners up in the tournament get to use choose their own costume/entrance kind of stuff...Really separate the 'stars' and the 'non-stars', and maybe give some drama to the 'rookie' types in winning their way out of the singlet and becoming a 'name'.
The only way to advance from the 'uniform' to a unique look is to beat someone who isn't required to wear the uniform. A tag round robin tourney would happen as well, with the winners (but no runners up) getting to get out of their uniforms.
All matches end in 100% clean pinfall or submission. No run-ins, interference, managers, 'disputed' endings. All 100% clean.
Anyone booked has to go through the 'uniform' phase and adheres to the same pay schedule as everyone else. If Chris Benoit or Kurt Angle shows up, sure, just book em to beat a 'name' in the opener of some out of the way spot show so they can use their real gear thereafter, but they will wrestle that first match in the uniform. Anyone that has a problem with that isn't someone I'd want infecting me 'system' and anyone complaining about the pay is either someone that A- isn't going to be able to pop houses to their expected payscale and/or B- isn't someone I can afford.
The schedule:
Runs 7 days a week. Lots of 6-mans on a show as necessary to have all 40 guys work nightly and have shows be around 3 hours. Lots of 6 man matches mean less each guy has to DO physically in a match so hopefully that'll keep injuries down running this schedule. And it's really easy to make the cards different every night by mixing and matching people out of 6 mans, so people don't work the same guys every night and learn to do more improvising than settling for well rehearsed spots. If someone's really hurt or needs time off or whatever, no problem, hell half the roster could have a night off and there's still enough guys to work a show. Actually, set up a work schedule so everyone has two consecutive days off a week, never a Fri or Sat though.
At first, when we're ready to start out, it's 7 days a week at the home base. Attendance will be **** but hey, the guys are learning. After a bit, a circuit of 5 towns, all within 5 hours drive of home base, will be set up and there's the territory. The Sunday and Wednesday shows will not have 'set' towns, and there's where we try out new areas every week.
Revenue streams:
Ticket sales, of course. Merchandising, as every 'name' wrestler immediately gets a T-shirt and a 'best of' tape of their quest to get out of their 'uniform'... plus all cards are taped, with 6 hour 'best ofs' being produced every month from all the shows that month.
Hopefully soon enough we'd start a TV show for the core cities. Also, with the style being more 'in-house' and not really a general pro wrestling style, I figure it would be a lot more difficult for anyone who was becoming a star to just be hired away if what I selected as 'the look' (athletic but hardly bulky, and any sort of bodybuilding look would be discouraged) didn't match the rest of the business' ideas, and ring style certainly wouldn't transfer well (no punching? Matwork as a universal base? No running the ropes? Really good guys should have no problem adapting there though...)
I of course would be head booker. My dreams in wrestling don't involve lacing up the boots, they don't involve making money, and they involve the creative end and making a product I can be truly happy about and make sure the right guys always win, and I would never delude myself into thinking I could survive in the business as-is, and nobody in their right mind would or should hire someone with no current connection to the business to be the creative dictator, so therefore the grand new idea where I'm the boss...
So there's my pipe dream. Should be good for at least a 10-20 year run til the money runs out, and at that point I figure at least I've created something that at least a cult audience of fans can truly believe in and enjoyed, as well as creating a good number of true stars of pro wrestling, whether through my promotion or people who used it to greater fame.
The only thing I can't figure out here, who in the world would be the trainers, but other than that, wants to donate a few lottery tickets? And if I did hit the big one, tell me, where am I flawed in this plan(recognizing I am looking for artistic, not financial, success)?
My lottery dream would have been to buy Fulham footbal club and take them from Division three to Premiership glory, but someone already beat me too it (hail Mohammed Al-Fayed!).
