Features
Jason Helton: Quantity Doesn't Always Equal Quality
Published January 25, 2012 at 6:23 pm by Marek Indyka
Written by Jason Helton
When I arrived in Australia and started wrestling every show I went to was treated like a Pay per view. On the one hand it was good with everyone trying to put on the best matches possible and everyone going full throttle to entertain. The bad part was these shows went for hours. Usually I was on the upper card and I usually got tired and bored waiting for my match. If the wrestlers in the back are tired and bored imagine how the fans watching feel. I understand giving people their money's worth but quantity doesn't always equal quality.
Like it or not most Aussie wrestling shows are attended by families. When I take my kids to the movies I usually take them to shows like The Lion King or A dolphins tale. Get them in and out with a entertaining little story and I'm home in 2 hours and the kids are happy. You might think that you are getting a better value for the dollar by giving your audience a gripping plot filled story like Braveheart (2 hours 50 minutes) or Titanic (3 hours 14 minutes) instead of giving them a bit of a fluffy light adventure like The Lion King 1 hour 27 minutes. You would be wrong and its a common mistake. Anyone knows that kids wont sit still for 3 hours and will be looking for the exits after 2 hours. Most Aussie wrestling fans will be new fans and if you want to draw new fans you are asking a lot to get them to commit 3 and a half hours out of their life to commit to an Aussie wrestling show. You can usually talk me into going out and trying something new if it takes 90 minutes. If you ask me to make a 3 hour commitment chance are I'm turning you down as I have stuff to do and I cant make a 3 hour commitment all the time. I was working at an Aussie wrestling event a few months ago and it was just starting when I arrived at work and was just finishing about 30 minutes before I finished my shift. It was over three hours long. Parents were carrying out sleeping children of the club at 11 pm. If I was those parents I wouldn't have been coming back as its too hard to bring to bring kids to such an epically timed show.
This brings me to a show I went to where they got it right. Newcastle Pro Wrestling had a championship crowning show 2 weeks ago. They had an 8 man tournament 4 qualifying matches, a women's match intermission and a 4 way elimination match for the title. The 4 qualifying matches were all good matches told a story and got the people involved. They were each about 10 minutes long. They were hard hitting quick entertaining no nonsense matches. It established the characters and set the stage for the main event. The womens match was a nice change of pace and Harley Wonderland made a successful return to the ring after injury and put on a fine match. Intermission was fun with the raffle and then the main event was quite entertaining and about 20 minutes. A new champion in Jay Law was crowned and the middleweight championship tournament was announced for the next show. I looked at my watch and the whole show was complete in about 100 minutes just a little longer than the Lion King. Everyone left wanting more instead of the usual "Thank goodness thats finally over I'm starving and we have to get the kids to bed" that you hear after most other shows. I really like that they gave the fans a reason to come back to the show next time. Too many shows leave the stories closed and don't give the people incentive to come back. When I worked for SWA that was the detail I tried to impress most on management there. Give them a reason to go back to the next show. They finally started to do that recently and I think the next show featuring an SWA title match between the champion Matt Bailey and The Gianyt Kyote should do very well. I know the kids and I will be at Newcastle Pro Wrestlings Middleweight title tournament 11 February at 19:30 at New Lambton Community Centre because the shows are entertaining (Ryan Eagles beard is worth the price of admission alone) the matches are great and I will be home within 2 hours. I hope to see you there as well because NPW is getting it right.
Happy Australia Day!!!
