Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2010 7:00:34 GMT -5
This is a serious question, so anything I say that might sound insulting or like I'm hating on the promotion is not meant to be taken that way. So anyway...
It seems like whenever the indies get brought up in an online discussion, people rave about Chikara and call it one of the top indy feds. However, whenever I see a match of theirs, there's literally about 30 people in the audience, either at that place that looks like a basement (wih the 1970's faux-wooden walls) or in front of the smallest crowds I've ever seen at the ECW Arena.
I realize that not everyone is WWE. However, you look at ROH, and they can pull a decent crowd of a couple hundred, to a couple thousand. Even their very first show had a couple hundred in the crowd. DGUSA, same thing. They can fill the ECW Arena at least. PWG, while not quite as big, at least packs the tiny venues they perform in. Even CZW, which doesn't get much love from fans or reviewers, packs more fans into shows.
Now, I'm not hating on the small crowds, but it is confusing.
First off, how are the wrestlers getting paid? If there's 30 fans and 20 wrestlers, they've got to be literally starving to death.
Second, how is the promotion making money? After paying what little they made from the gate to the talent, how can they afford to book the venues and advertise the shows?
Third, if it's so popular (and it seems to be because people talk about it a lot) why is no one there? If they are mainly in Philly, a wrestling hotbed, and they are supposedly a major indy fed, then why isn't anyone there?
At first I thought maybe it was just a small but vocal fanbase, but that doesn't make sense. Surely their dvds are selling like crack or they'd be out of business by now. But if so, who's buying them? The only people that it would appeal to are smarks (who obviously aren't going to the shows, so why would they buy the dvd) and kids (who seem to be at the shows with parents, but probably don't have spending money for wrestling dvds, never mind the fact that they'd have to have a creit card to buy them online, as they aren't in stores.
Then there's the involvement of Bob Saget and Dave Coulier. I realize they are about D list (or in Coulier's case maybe even F-list) celebrities, but how can they afford them?
Again, I'm not trying to be a hater. It's just confusing to me. Does anyone know how their business model works? Is it really even popular, or is it in fact just an illusion created by a small group of vocal fans?
And for the record, yes I realized they rew a crowd of like 300 at a show that had Bryan Danielson right after WWE fired him. This however, does not appear to be the norm for their shows.
It seems like whenever the indies get brought up in an online discussion, people rave about Chikara and call it one of the top indy feds. However, whenever I see a match of theirs, there's literally about 30 people in the audience, either at that place that looks like a basement (wih the 1970's faux-wooden walls) or in front of the smallest crowds I've ever seen at the ECW Arena.
I realize that not everyone is WWE. However, you look at ROH, and they can pull a decent crowd of a couple hundred, to a couple thousand. Even their very first show had a couple hundred in the crowd. DGUSA, same thing. They can fill the ECW Arena at least. PWG, while not quite as big, at least packs the tiny venues they perform in. Even CZW, which doesn't get much love from fans or reviewers, packs more fans into shows.
Now, I'm not hating on the small crowds, but it is confusing.
First off, how are the wrestlers getting paid? If there's 30 fans and 20 wrestlers, they've got to be literally starving to death.
Second, how is the promotion making money? After paying what little they made from the gate to the talent, how can they afford to book the venues and advertise the shows?
Third, if it's so popular (and it seems to be because people talk about it a lot) why is no one there? If they are mainly in Philly, a wrestling hotbed, and they are supposedly a major indy fed, then why isn't anyone there?
At first I thought maybe it was just a small but vocal fanbase, but that doesn't make sense. Surely their dvds are selling like crack or they'd be out of business by now. But if so, who's buying them? The only people that it would appeal to are smarks (who obviously aren't going to the shows, so why would they buy the dvd) and kids (who seem to be at the shows with parents, but probably don't have spending money for wrestling dvds, never mind the fact that they'd have to have a creit card to buy them online, as they aren't in stores.
Then there's the involvement of Bob Saget and Dave Coulier. I realize they are about D list (or in Coulier's case maybe even F-list) celebrities, but how can they afford them?
Again, I'm not trying to be a hater. It's just confusing to me. Does anyone know how their business model works? Is it really even popular, or is it in fact just an illusion created by a small group of vocal fans?
And for the record, yes I realized they rew a crowd of like 300 at a show that had Bryan Danielson right after WWE fired him. This however, does not appear to be the norm for their shows.
helped $lim jinx NXT. Woops
