Here are 10 tips for the aspiring young promoter on How to run a successful wrestling show.

1/ Careful choice of the venue is important. Choose a large cavernous hall with poor lighting and a really high ceiling. The echoing sound will then serve to remind everyone how few people have bothered to turn up. Lights going on and off whilst matches are taking place is a great way to keep the crowd awake!

2/ Seating is important. Chairs should be hard, plastic and portable; so that wrestlers can hit one another over the head with them. That’s what chairs are for isn’t it?
The fact that the audience will be sat on them for hours and hours (more of that later) is unimportant and this is another way to keep them awake. It is going to be a very long show and keeping them awake is important!

2/ Ensure that every villainous wrestler physically and verbally abuses the young delicate looking referee when they enter the ring. This will ensure that by the time the match starts his authority over them will be absolute zero.

3/ Lots of injuring of this delicate referee. He has no authority left, so what else is he there for?
Make sure that when he is “out of the way” the villain uses the opportunity to gain some evil advantage, even perhaps winning the match.
This can work several times in the same evening. It is such an original idea nobody will mind.

4/ I touched upon this earlier. Lots of matches! Quantity over quality every time!
If you have enough contests the fans will forget about all the duds!

5/ If you manage to book top quality workers like Martin Stone or Andy Simmonz remind them that we have “lots of matches” to get through this evening. With a bit of luck if their performances are short and unoriginal enough nobody will notice how good they are.

6/ Don’t forget the smokers. Allow them to stand all night at an open door, so that they can “have a fag” and still see the show.
This will ensure a strong northern gale blows through the entire hall. This freezing draught will help to keep the audience awake and it will also takes their minds off what is happening in the ring.

7/ Ensure that it is not possible to purchase any hot drinks like tea of coffee. A cold thirsty customer is a happy customer.

8/ If the wrestlers intend to spill out of the ring (more about that later) erect an iron guard-rail all around to protect the fans. Then ensure that this entire area is populated by lots of standing screaming children.
The fans that have paid £20 each for a ringside seat won’t mind not being able to see anything will they?

9/ Lots of out the ring activity. The ring has a raised position and it is designed so that everyone can see.
However this is the 21st century why bother to use it? Lots of action at ground level will ensure that most of the audience can see absolutely nothing.
The hoards of screaming kids can serve a double purpose here by blocking everyone’s view even more.

10/ Find a gimmick. The perfect one is a Cage Match. Nobody will know when they buy their tickets how long it takes to build a cage! Make sure that you don’t tell them that they will have to wait 50 very long minutes for that final contest to take place.
This carrying of cage bits backward and forward for nearly an hour is another ideal opportunity to leave the outside doors wide open and to give the place a real wintry chill.
Careful how you do this though. You do not want the “blokes building a cage”, becoming the most entertaining event of the evening, do you?

Sorry that was a typing error, believe it or not!

Those were 10 Tips for the aspiring young promoter on how NOT to run a successful wrestling show.

Here are the 10 that I meant to give you.

1/ Careful choice of the venue is important. Choose a warm welcoming building ideally with a light over the ring so that everyone’s attention is focussed on the matches.

2/ Seating is important, get soft comfy chairs for the audience to sit on.
Chairs are “out of bounds” to the wrestlers. Where do you think we are, America?

2/ Make sure that you have a referee with status and charisma. Someone, who the wrestlers will respect, an ex wrestler like Steve Grey would be perfect. This will ensure that when the match starts his authority is 100%.

3/ A top class referee will stay out of the way of the wrestling action. This will ensure legitimate finishes to all contests.

4/ Four matches in an evening is about right. These will need to be longer matches of course. If your wrestlers are up to it they can then develop these matches to entertain and impress the audience with their skill and talent.

5/ If you manage to book top quality workers like Robbie Brookside or Andy Simmonz allow them this extra time. These men are the best in the business. Let the audience enjoy the opportunity to see them at their best.

6/ This country now has a “No Smoking” law! Wonderful; at last we won’t arrive home from a wrestling show with our clothes reeking of other peoples stale cigarette smoke!

7/ Ensure that it is possible to purchase drinks like tea of coffee and alcoholic beverages. This hall is well heated and not draughty, so the customer may want a cooling drink during the evening!

8/ Ensure that all fans stay seated during the show. This not only ensures that everyone can see but it keeps the audience well away from any potential injury.

9/ Encourage little or no “out of the ring” activity. The ring has a raised position on purpose. It is designed so that everyone can see. Use it!

10/ Stay away from gimmicks. None of them ever look credible. We have paid to see wrestling, give us wrestling.

I do hope that everyone found these “tips” interesting an entertaining.

I thank John Freemantle and Premier Promotions for scoring 10 out of 10 on the second chart of “How to Run a Successful Wrestling Show. His presentation recently at the wonderfully comfortable and welcoming Worthing Assembly Hall was an evening of top class Professional Wrestling.
Well done to Premier Promotions and if anyone reading this wants to go and see “real wrestling”, then Premier Promotions is one of the places to go.

Unfortunately the 10 tips on how NOT to run a wrestling show also apply to an event that I attended recently.
I will not name the “guilty” promotion but I am sure many of you reading this will recognise much of what happened there as a regular occurrence in modern wrestling shows every night of the week, all over the country.

If only I was not an old dinosaur then there would be some point in promoters reading this. Unfortunately as a well known “senile” I do not understand the modern game and I am of course completely out of touch with modern professional wrestling and well past my sell-by date.

However as a paying customer I am still en_title_d to my opinion!

What do you think?

LOL.. If only promoting was as easy as the fans seem to think it is, good old dickie davis would sat in a warm comfy itv studio introducing the saturday afternoon wrestling!

Seriously though several of your points are common sense, but like everything , one mans chocolate is another mans poison!

I agree with every word you said David, am I senile now?

Good answer from wrestlezone as well.

No, your not senile. David does again throw up some very good points and it is a real shame that many British wrestling events now seem to tick some, or as in David's experience of a recent event, all of the negetive points time and time again.

well Old David i totally agree with everything you said. Obviously you and i were at "that show" you know the one i mean. I was very very embarrassed to be on that show you could probably tell by the way i was trying to crawl up my own orifice!!Believe me when i say i will NEVER be doing another one of those. It is hard promoting but common sense dictates you look at all angles and possibilities. When we run Weymouth we try to give our audience value for money and try to think of all the types of audience we get in and hopefully get the balance right. I am quite proud of our shows which makes it ultra painful when i work on someone's show that has missed the boat as such.I'm afraid lots of these small shows are run by people who think they know what they're doing but they obviously don't.Hat's off to all those who do run decent little shows as quite rightly they are harder to organise than most people think but David i know you know your stuff and appreciate your views.

By the way for anyone reading this this was NOT our show we are talking about! Also Old David come to one of our shows next summer you will enjoy it of that i'm sure.
Klondyke Kate.