PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

 
 

WHAT KILLED EXTREME RISING'S WRESTLEMANIA EVENTS

By Mike Johnson on 2013-03-27 10:31:16
Since PWInsider.com broke last night that Extreme Rising had canceled their Philadelphia and New York events Wrestlemania weekend, the number one question we've been asked has been, "Why?" How could the shows have been doing so poorly on a weekend where there are 80,000 fans in the NYC area and other events are doing well and even selling out in advance?

Here's the whys and hows.

Quite frankly, the promotion caused the demise of their own shows. Extreme Rising is headed by "Five Guys Wrestling" with there being five different partners - Shane Douglas, Steve O'Neil, Kevin Klinerock, Cody Michaels and Michael O'Neil. All decisions for the company are done pretty much via committee and in this instance, certain members of that management (Douglas specifically as there were large chunks of time he was unable to be found by others when they needed his input) kept the final decisions to run the shows at a snail's pace.

The final decision was eventually made to go forward with the shows, but by the time the company did so, just about every other major Wrestlemania weekend event was on sale, for months. So, fans had already decided where they were going and spent their money.

So, not only was Rising fighting for a small piece of a larger pie, but they were fighting over whatever pieces weren't already accounted for.

The fans that would have spent money on independent wrestling that weekend already had - Wrestlecon, ROH, etc. had been on sale forever and had gotten those fans and their money.

By the time Rising released their card details and dates, they had lost the majority of the the traveling fans. They aren't the only ones who have had this issue leading into Wrestlemania. In checking with sources at the Beacon Theater, less than a 1/4th of that venue has been sold out for the "Hulk Hogan Uncensored" event Wrestlemania weekend. Why? The event was announced long after all the other WM weekend events were on sale. The fans had already picked where they wanted to go and spent their money - and very few fans are going to eat that money to go to something else.

The other issue was that the promotion opted to run away from the hub of the Wrestlemania madness. They were going to run Philly on a Thursday and running wrestling there on weeknights (and even Friday nights) had never been a smart move in that market. ECW ran very few ECW Arena shows on Fridays and hell, the first Sabu vs. Cactus Jack match couldn't sell out the Arena when it was held on a Friday.

So, Rising lost a portion of their usual audience and without the usual support from the locals and the fans coming in from out of town for their Thursday show. Now, add in that the rent for the National Guard Armory is said to be $5000 (according to a source outside of Rising), without tickets being moved, there was no way that show was going to be the money-maker the promotion hoped for and needed.

The other Rising shows in Staten Island, in a smaller 200-300 seat venue, were likely loss leaders in order to give the talents work but weren't going to make the company big money. The idea was likely to film and sell them as DVDs, but without a good showing in Philly, the NYC shows weren't worth running....unless the company wanted to end up deeper in debt.

The promotion had also declined a slot at Wrestlecon, where they would have run a midnight show on one of the days, which in hindsight, ended up being a strategic error as Wrestlecon will be one of the sites were the majority of the fans that would have spent money on a project such as Rising will be congregating. Whether they meant to or not, Rising booked themselves too far out of the game that weekend.

So, the company started out late to the game and as they have stated publicly, they have no financial backers. Whatever money was coming in was what they were using to fund the next events. The December events led to some talents having to wait to be paid while the promotion waited for money to come in from other deals, which already stressed some relationships with talents. A planned fundraising for a potential TV show didn't come through so there's no marketing via TV. All of that meant the promotion was were relying on the money from the live ticket sales, merchandise and concessions to carry them through and all signs were that it just wasn't going to happen here based on the advances. Could there have been miraculous walk up? Sure, but who's going to take that chance in 2013 when it's their money on the line and they can't absorb the loss personally? Not you, not me and certainly, not Shane Douglas.

I noted earlier that one of the problems was that the promotion took too long to get themselves going with the now-canceled shows.

From speaking to numerous people, a major issue had been that only Steve O'Neil was truly working on the day to day while the others were off handling their own personal and professional businesses, but when it came to making decisions, the conference calls between all parties never seemed to get anything accomplished quick enough for them to work it out.

So, in a lot of ways, Rising was O'Neil's promotion when it came to the responsibility, but not when it came to making the final decisions. That in itself was a recipe for disaster, since as we've noted in the PWInsider Elite section, the Douglas side was at times in disagreement with the O'Neil side as to the direction of the company, talent booked, booking, etc. The back and forth ended up hurting the overall planning and they could never gain any of the traction needed to get fans' interest on the WM weekend events.

Even with the decision to cancel, PWInsider.com was told that Douglas was adamant the shows take place because "his name was on the line" when there was talk of canceling a week ago, which delayed the inevitable and now left a roster of talents trying to fill 2-3 dates a week before the busiest weekend of the year. Given how much Douglas publicly complains about the treatment of wrestlers from WWE, TNA, Paul Heyman, etc., there's a really sad irony there.

Extreme Rising officials have stated to PWInsider.com that this is not the end of the promotion, but they are going to have to work extremely hard to rebuild relationships with talents and with what fan base they had...if they even can.

Some will look at this as another failure of an "ECW" reunion product, but the reality was that the failure was within the decision-making process of the company, nothing more. Whether the talents were doing ECW style, Lucha, or worked MMA, the late start to the game is what caused the cancellation of those events - and possibly (maybe even likely), the promotion.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!