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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Nov 27, 2014 21:10:21 GMT -5
Nearly impossible to say exactly, but I'd be curious to see some people's estimates as well as breakdowns by country and promotion.
Doubt it will be perfect, but we're FAN goddamnit! Together we can do anything!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 21:27:29 GMT -5
Guesstimates:
WWE & NXT = 80
TNA = 25
ROH = 15
Misc. higher profile U.S. indy guys = 30
Former WWE names still working indies regularly = 30
Japan = 150
Mexico = 100
Europe = 30
Other areas = 20
Then there's a ton of guys who wrestle regularly but aren't making enough from their wrestling bookings to pay the bills, and thus work side jobs. That list is probably 1,000 worldwide.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Nov 27, 2014 22:51:31 GMT -5
Guesstimates: WWE & NXT = 80 TNA = 25 ROH = 15 Misc. higher profile U.S. indy guys = 30 Former WWE names still working indies regularly = 30 Japan = 150 Mexico = 100 Europe = 30 Other areas = 20 Then there's a ton of guys who wrestle regularly but aren't making enough from their wrestling bookings to pay the bills, and thus work side jobs. That list is probably 1,000 worldwide. Some pretty good numbers. Like you said they're guestimates so I'm not criticizing just food for thought. Europe and other areas seem too low. Europe has the UK and German scenes, which alone probably make up at least 30. Other than those two there is not a lot going on in Europe as far as full-time. There is a Russian promotion, IWF that runs enough they probably have at least a few full-time who just wrestle (working there and the odd dates elsewhere). The Nordic countries have some great promotions/wrestlers, but I don't think any of them run often enough to support full-time. Unless you count people who run training facilities and wrestle. Then you might have some more. I have a feeling 1,000 is a little low or might be even really low for guys who work regularly in wrestling, but have side jobs to help with bills. This number is really tough to determine since the wrestling databases I like to look at list people who have had like one or two matches and haven't wrestled for years. Also, South Africa and South Korea both are supposed to have fairly good scenes, but info on those promotions can be tough to come by. There may be some other countries like that too. Canada might have a dozen or maybe even a few dozen full-timers thouugh a few dozen would really be pushing it. Other areas has to be more just because of Australia. A lot of Aussie wrestlers also work Japan, which helps out a lot, but if you are counting Aussies as part of Japan than the Japan number has to be a good deal higher.
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wgdj
AC Slater
Posts: 182
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Post by wgdj on Nov 28, 2014 0:25:52 GMT -5
Other areas has to be more just because of Australia. A lot of Aussie wrestlers also work Japan, which helps out a lot, but if you are counting Aussies as part of Japan than the Japan number has to be a good deal higher. Do any Australians actually wrestle full time? I ask because I'm way out of touch with the local scene, but I was pretty involved with it in from about '98-2000 and it was pretty dire, financially speaking. Nobody was doing Japan back then, so that could obviously make a difference, but it seemed like local wrestling was at its peak (well, its post World Championship Wrestling peak, at least) back then and nobody was making much money at all.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Nov 28, 2014 1:43:21 GMT -5
Other areas has to be more just because of Australia. A lot of Aussie wrestlers also work Japan, which helps out a lot, but if you are counting Aussies as part of Japan than the Japan number has to be a good deal higher. Do any Australians actually wrestle full time? I ask because I'm way out of touch with the local scene, but I was pretty involved with it in from about '98-2000 and it was pretty dire, financially speaking. Nobody was doing Japan back then, so that could obviously make a difference, but it seemed like local wrestling was at its peak (well, its post World Championship Wrestling peak, at least) back then and nobody was making much money at all. Interesting to hear from your side of it. I've never been to Australia or anything though I have interviewed and chatted with some Australian talents. Some of them work North of 100 matches a year on different continents and when it comes to Japan tours they are gone for months at a time. I couldn't imagine them having some kind of part-time job back home on top of that, but I guess it is possible. Again though the Aussies who pull this off usually work Japan a lot. Take the tag team TMDK for instance. They've been working for NOAH literally all year. I don't even think they've worked Australia this year despite starting with Explosive Pro Wrestling (a West Australia promotion) and working there for years. I don't want to imply that this is something all Australian wrestlers are doing. I might have misspoken at saying, "A lot." Still, probably a good dozen if not more who just wrestle and that's it.
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Post by Mayonnaise on Nov 28, 2014 1:48:08 GMT -5
7. There are 7 full time workers. Lucha masks have just gotten way too good.
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Nov 28, 2014 2:08:46 GMT -5
I wish there were more. I wish that every wrestler could have a "home" promotion that ran enough shows and made enough money that every worker could make a full time living, even on just a "minimum wage" level.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Nov 28, 2014 4:20:05 GMT -5
Six.
No wait...
...Seven.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 9:26:37 GMT -5
Europe and other areas seem too low. Europe has the UK and German scenes, which alone probably make up at least 30. I'd ask anyone who is very familiar with the scenes there to make a list of the guys who they think command a high enough price tag to wrestle there full time. I think my number of 30 is probably high. Making enough money to not need a side job while wrestling in front of crowds of fewer than 500 people is not something that more than maybe 3 or 4 guys on a given card can do. There just isn't the money there for the rest of the roster to also be paid a high fee. Well, that list is after crossing off everyone from the "making a good living only wrestling" list, so the worldwide total would be somewhere around the 2,000 active wrestlers range, give or take a few hundred. Specifically looking at the major cities around the world, even in areas with 3 or 4 local promotions running, in many cases the rosters include about 20% crossover with the other promotions, if not higher in some cases. The top guys work multiple places, so it's not like every indy has a unique list of 25 guys. The ROH list, Dragon Gate USA list, PWG list, CHIKARA list, Beyond Wrestling list, AIW list, etc. have a lot of crossover between rosters.
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