Spandex, Screw Jobs and Cheap Pops

by Carrie Dunn

  “I basically used to stalk them,” he laughs, and agrees that he was a huge, huge mark.

  It paid off. Now the top stars on the scene get in touch with him to find out if slots are available – the retiring Nigel McGuinness put PCW on his farewell tour schedule at the end of 2011. Fludder also packs his cards with young British talent, including Noam Dar, Lionheart, Johnny Moss and Mark Haskins as well as local stars, meaning that his fervent fan base are firmly invested in the matches they see.

  That is not to say that his shows always run completely smoothly – February 2012’s Blood, Sweat and Beers had an extensive over-run, meaning that the main event between champion T-Bone, Moss and Haskins had to be rushed through, and some of the audience had to leave prior to the end in order to catch the last trains out of Preston.

  What makes Fludder interesting, though, was the degree of honesty in his apology and explanation to fans the day afterwards. He revealed that the over-run accumulated due to the late arrival of the ring announcer, an in-ring section taking too long, and then one match going for twice the length it had been allocated, meaning that the show was running 35 minutes late even before the main event began.

  “I have acted on feedback and I don’t take the events lightly,” he said on Facebook, vowing never to use one of the wrestlers again – and that’s one of the unique things about PCW; Fludder does take feedback on board to improve his shows and the rest of the products he offers.

  “It’s a learning curve. We’ve not really encountered that problem [over-running] since,” he says. “I keep quite a tight rein on the timings and I’m always chasing – ‘You need to hurry up, you’ve lost two minutes, you’ve gained two minutes.’ It’s more through learning as opposed to anything else. You can’t really plan that your show’s going to over-run, but there’s a way of getting experience to pull it back in when it starts over-running. That’s what I’m learning as I go along.”

  Having said that, he has also got an eye for an impressive publicity stunt. High standards plus some savvy makes for a very good promotion indeed.

  “In 2012, we released the world’s first 3D blu-ray – that’s a big jump for us, we’ve sold quite a few of them internationally. I didn’t think they’d sell actually, I thought it was a fad that would look good and get us free publicity, but they’ve actually sold, so I’m quite surprised!” says Fludder.

  Even with the number of shows he stages – eight a year at the time of typing – PCW still isn’t a full-time venture for Fludder, and he also relies on the help of a tiny band of helpers to keep the promotion running.

  “It’s a really small team that I have,” says Fludder. “It’s me, a graphics guy, and a multimedia guy, and that’s it, really – a couple of helpers on the day, and that’s as far as we go. Obviously the rates of growth that we’re having, the team’s not growing, so it’s non-stop, it’s madness.”

  His backstage team might not be growing, but the audiences certainly are. All PCW events are held at Lava Ignite, a nightclub in the centre of Preston, which has a limited capacity. Still, Fludder isn’t planning to expand by switching to another larger venue.

  “My liability insurance is for 500. The next stage up for liability, I think it’s for 2,000 people, and the price triples, so to actually get a higher insurance it wouldn’t work out cost-effective. So we stick to 500 tickets, but each time we’re getting closer and closer and closer, and the pre-sales are going up and up and up. It’ll be amazing to turn round and say: ‘We’ve sold out.’

  “I just want to stay where I am because 500 people gives you the budget to do a lot. It still gives me money to invest, it still gives me money to bring in imports, so why change something that’s not broken? You kind of get greedy when you start looking at venues that hold 2,000.”

  That doesn’t mean there aren’t plans in the works. The first big step looks to be a new TV show featuring PCW matches, although nothing has yet been officially announced. Fludder isn’t star-struck, though, nor swayed by the glamour of having his own television show. Practical as ever, he says: “I’m not going on TV for it to cost me money. I’m happy to go on TV if it’s beneficial to me. I’m already stretched as it is so I don’t really want any extra hassle. If I can go on TV and say, what I pitched to them is a three-hour show, with so many months’ delay of the footage. I’ll still get live audiences, I’ll still sell DVDs, and it’s just a matter of editing my current DVD, with a bit of commentary over the top, and putting adverts in.”

  That is how he sees the television shows panning out – not by putting on dozens of new shows, but by drawing on the archive of content that’s already in place.

  “What’s going to happen, because I’ve got lots of footage, what I’d do is the odd two-night show. We’re doing eight shows a year as it is, so it wouldn’t take a lot to boost it up. Say you throw in one classic match or something per show and then you add in all the talking bits. My shows are pretty cram-packed anyway, they’re usually eight-match cards, and they’re usually pushing three hours, so the amount of footage I’ve got is unbelievable. It’s all recorded in HD with stereo sound, so it’s all sat there ready to be used.

  “I think we’ve got something like 40 hours of footage, and that’s not including when the documentary team came in and made a documentary for us – we got all that footage, so although they only used 15 minutes’ worth, we’ve got 20 hours of footage to use, with different wrestlers, so we’ve kept that to one side – we thought we could do spotlights on each wrestler and screen them individually.”

  He is also planning to roll out iPPVs soon. “I’ve got a really good technology-type guy and he says we want to do that next. If I don’t have to get involved and it’s him p***ing about with a camera, that’s fine by me. If I get a payment at the end of it, I’m happy.”

  One of Fludder’s foci is his international market, which affects the wrestlers he books. In 2012, he booked Japanese star Akira Tozawa, despite being completely unfamiliar with his work.

  “I’ve got a lot of international customers for DVDs and the blu-rays. They like seeing imports. I sell loads of DVDs to Japan. I’ve just had a massive rush of interest after I’ve brought a Japanese guy in. I would say my DVD sales to Japan will now triple, so even though I might sell an extra ten or 15 to Japan for this one show, at £15 for a blu-ray, it’s an extra £150. That’s just for one show – and then they might watch it, really enjoy the quality, and then they might keep buying. Over the course of the year, that might make me an extra thousand pounds – all from a Japanese guy on the card.

  “People who say imports don’t make money – well, they don’t make money when you’ve got some kind of indy wrestling guy in front of a family wrestling audience and there’s like 20 people in the crowd. I see that time and time again. It’s got to be fit for your audience. My audience don’t want to see Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Sgt Slaughter and the Honky Tonk Man. They want to see your lower-down indy guys from America, the ones who can still perform.

  “They want a performance, they don’t want to shake hands with a pensioner. Us promoters are worst for it. It’s like feeding your ego – ‘Ooh, I want this guy working for me.’ Well, is he going to make you any money? I can go and meet him at a signing event and I’m not risking £600 flights and all that rubbish. You’ve got to get into the real world.”

  So how does he decide who is worth bringing over to the UK and who’s not? After all, PCW reaped a huge amount of publicity from booking former WWE star John Morrison for their Christmas 2012 show, Festive Fury.

  “I just see who’s knocking about cheap at the time personally,” he laughs. “I could fly anyone I want over from America, but will it pay for itself? John Morrison – that’s a publicity stunt. He’s advertising, putting himself on the map, that’s why he was advertised ten months before the actual show. I’ve got ten months of advertising and being associated with one of the hottest names about at the moment. I’ve had no hassle, free advertising for ten months – it’
s not like it’s a pain.”

  The cost of imports is a real concern. He points to other promotions who have folded due to their lavish expenditure on big names, such as 1PW.

  “With 1PW, the more I see about it, the more I think it was like a ship without a captain. I’ve had experience in managing events, managing businesses, being in charge of profit and loss, etc. If you don’t have that experience and those life skills, where do you go? I’ve been offered all sorts of names. Do I want to book Edge for thousands and thousands? No, not really. They’d go: ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll have him!’ You’ve just got to know the difference between the money you have and the money you’ll bring in. That comes with common sense. If you don’t have it, then...” he trails off.

  “That’s what many do. I did it for a bit of both. I saw a gap in the market, I know that Preston’s an ideal location, it’s just gone from there. I’ve never run a show yet that’s made a loss. There’s ways and means of doing it. There’s doing it but then still being a fan when you’re running. It’s alright in moderation, but now it’s gone full circle, where the guys I’m booking, I’ve never even heard of half of them. Akira Tozawa – I’d never heard of the guy – I’ve never sold so many tickets. I was like: ‘Who? Oh, we’ll have a try.’

  “Because I know I’ve got Japanese customers, I just thought I can’t lose from it – well, I can lose, but if it’s an expensive import and flight contributions, I don’t see it as an import, I see it as how much will that make me over a month or a period of time. I don’t think there’s anybody who books an import with that frame of mind. It’s backwards, how a lot of promotions operate. They live for the moment as opposed to a long-term plan.”

  Often on the UK circuit, the same overseas wrestler can be seen on multiple shows over the course of a few weeks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there is collaboration between the promotions to ensure the import’s comfort.

  “Generally I don’t really book flights for people for other promotions,” says Fludder. “It’s a case of I can’t be bothered chasing someone for £100. I do have promotions I have strong ties with, and I’d be happy to do it for them, but mostly I can’t be bothered with it. Sometimes a wrestler will fly himself over here, and then you’ll just book them and pay them. Because they’re making an inflated amount on bookings – they all get paid more here than they do back in America and places like that – it pays for the flight itself.”

  He points to the former WWE tag-team champion Rene Dupree, who had an extended spell travelling the UK in spring 2012.

  “Dupree had a five-month visa, so he flies over, works loads of shows, and it pays for itself. That’s why I booked him. If I get offered a cheap enough name, it works. I could easily fly so many wrestlers in, but it’s just pointless. It’s just so much hassle. You’ve got the visa hassle, which nobody even bothers with. It’s crazy. It really is backwards how some of these promotions operate.”

  As is obvious, Fludder is focused on his product and his promotion – and particularly the profit it can generate. He is scathing about the way some other companies run, but says that isn’t his concern.

  “I’ll be honest, right. I’m happy in my own little bubble. You do what works for yourself. That’s what we all do. I’m not a kids’ show person at all. I don’t even have any patience with kids. But, again, they bring in money, so my shows are just between adult and kids’ shows.

  “What people forget – it’s a business. As promoters, we shouldn’t be out to make friends – it’s not a friendly environment. Look at boxing – promoters aren’t friends, they’re competing for the best boxers, for the best time slots, for the best everything. It’s dog-eat-dog. I’m friends with quite a few promoters, but it’s business still. It’s not like we’re best mates outside of wrestling or will meet up and have drinks. We’re friends because it’s beneficial. It’s just what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to find out who you can do business with in this industry, and find out who you can’t. The ones who you can’t do business with are usually pretty obvious and make themselves clear early on.”

  XWA: it’s real in Morecambe

  XWA Wrestling, run by Greg Lambert, have historically operated not far from PCW – they are based in Morecambe, and began as an off-shoot from FWA, where he had been working closely with Alex Shane.

  “They said: ‘We want to branch out, FWA’s doing really well down south, but we want to be up north – if we find a venue how do you fancy being the promoter?’” says Lambert. “So we found this really nice venue in our home town, where we used to watch wrestling: [William] Regal, Big Daddy, Haystacks, they all used to come to Morecambe. Being a seaside town it was a massive hotbed of British wrestling, and the Morecambe Dome on the promenade was where the wrestling was, we used to go and watch it there. It was a great venue.

  “So we promoted a show in April 2003 with [Doug] Williams v [Eddie] Guerrero as the main event, and the likes of Paul Birchall, Alex Shane, Hade Vansen, guys like that on the show. It went well – we only lost a thousand pounds! That was mainly thanks to Alex – if it wasn’t for Alex I wouldn’t have done any of the other stuff, he was the inspiration, really, for all the other stuff. It just went from there.

  “The Morecambe shows were so successful because whereas down south it was quite a smart audience, I think, it was a different kind of atmosphere, it was attracting young adults, whereas the Morecambe shows, being a seaside town up north, we used to get a lot of families and that, and a lot of kids, and it was a totally different atmosphere. It almost became like the shows were like a different dimension, a different time zone, to what was happening down south.”

  As more promotions began springing up in the south, Lambert decided he wanted to just concentrate on running his shows in Morecambe, stepping back from his involvement with FWA.

  “I’m comfortable up there,” he says. “It’s my kind of wrestling crowd. I can do my kind of wrestling, which is heavy storyline, a lot of really over-the-top characters. The Morecambe audience were always the kind of fans that believed wrestling is real. They really get into it. If somebody turns heel, they hate them, they’ll bombard them with messages on their Facebook and Twitter. The phrase we coined was ‘it’s real in Morecambe’. It is. So that’s how that came about, it broke away from the FWA, and I just ran my own shows.”

  He has taken a lot of lessons from the experience he picked up while working with FWA. “Being a promoter, for me, the most important thing is to put on matches that people want to see, with guys who they care about,” he says. “They have to care about the outcome, and you end up making more money than you spend. If you go out of business, that benefits nobody. It certainly doesn’t benefit the fans. So whether you are drawing a packed-out crowd of 400 or a packed-out crowd of 6,000 or a packed-out crowd of 20,000, it doesn’t really matter.

  “In Morecambe, we’re a small seaside town, the venues are no bigger than a 400 capacity. So I think if I’m getting 300 people through the doors regularly, then that’s a success, whereas some promoters might think: ‘Oh, I got 2,000 people through the door.’ If they’ve done it by putting six Americans on the show, and they’re losing money, I don’t think that’s a success. So booking properly is making sure you do it in a budget and making sure you have matches and stories on the show that people want to pay money to go and see.”

  Lambert progressed over nine years from being an obsessive fan to writing about wrestling to a radio character to commentating to working as a wrestler’s manager to running his own promotion, so it’s not that surprising that he planned to take a break from the industry, having just published his memoirs of his time with FWA.

  “I’m doing a bit of work promoting a local band, and I’m possibly doing more radio work again. There’s a lot of things going on,” he said in the autumn of 2012. “When you’re so embroiled in wrestling, it takes up all your time, and sometimes you just need to take a step back. It’s not everything in life. People say ‘it’s in your blood, you’ll b
e back’, and they’re probably right, but for the time being it’ll just be nice to have a little rest and do some other stuff.”

  He signalled his intentions to step away from wrestling with a huge cross-promotion show, reminiscent of FWA and IPW:UK’s ‘loser leaves town’ event back in 2007. The 2012 version featured his own roster plus the men from Grand Pro Wrestling, just up the road, billing it as an invasion with the losing promotion going out of business. XWA lost – meaning that for the time being, they would not be running any shows.

  “When you blur reality and fantasy, when it’s actually real, people don’t believe it. I am actually legitimately taking a break,” says Lambert.

  As well as approaching wrestling burn-out, he had been having problems finding a venue that could be XWA’s home, with his usual options closing for refurbishment or simply shutting down altogether.

  “I basically realised we’d have to find another venue here or I could just take the opportunity – I’ve been doing this for nine years, maybe have a bit of a rest, have a look at doing some other things, but book a storyline that leaves people wanting more. And I think I’ve done that.”

  He is very proud of how the invasion storyline panned out, describing it as “perfection, absolute perfection”. He says: “We got 300 people in and had standing room only at a small venue in Morecambe, and they were going nuts from beginning to end. XWA v GPW, we’d built the storyline up in the previous three shows. Because of what we’d done, the fans really believed the two promotions couldn’t stand each other and that the wrestlers absolutely hated each other, and both of them were desperate to win. Because of that, the fans completely bought into it, and both sets of fans were absolutely desperate to see their team.

  “The show itself, something I was always told about booking a show, make sure you have a buffet. Don’t have every match a high-flying match or a cruiserweight, that’s just like going to a buffet and eating nothing but vol au vents. Have a cruiserweight match, have a heavyweight match, have a six-man tag, have a brawl, have a main event, have a comedy match – have something that is all things to all people. Not everybody likes vol au vents! Some people like sausage rolls!