| How did you get started in the wrestling business? It was something I had always wanted to do. For several years, Brian Marchand and I talked about taking a stab at it. We did our research, found a team of investors and purchased Real Action Wrestling from Skot Gallant. What made you decide to get involved? Initially, you always go into business to make money. Why else would you try something? But there was also the lure of getting into the business. That’s what was so great at the beginning. With the investors behind us, Brian and I were allowed to run the business day to day. It gave us a chance to learn the in’s and out’s of the business, and to be honest, just how dirty this game really is. What is your main goal you wish to have by owning Real Action Wrestling? Besides keeping the investors happy, the main goal is to have the # 1 independent promotion in the country. That was our goal when we started. In many ways, I think we came close in 2001 to doing that. I don’t think you ever lose sight of your goals. Although sometimes it takes much longer than anticipated. There has been a lot of controversy around R.A.W. this summer, with many different storied floating around would you like to set the record straight on what really happened? And if R.A.W. is coming back? Well, I leave rumors to the rumor mill and those who like to chat it up on the internet and message boards. It’s no secret that the promotion ended the season in some degree of difficulty. I could go on as to the reasons, but because of on-going issues within the organization, I won’t. I will say this, the first 6 weeks of the tour were successful, and promising. It was so because we followed our plan to a tee. I think in the second half, we let our guard down, and perhaps allowed a little too much outside interference and changed our management, and deviated away from the game plan, thus causing the company some hardship. If we learned one thing in this business, mistakes cost you money, lots of money. I can’t comment any further at this time. As for 2003, I am unsure. I am pretty confident, in one way or another, you will see Real Action Wrestling in 2003. I just don’t think you will see it under the management of NewAge Entertainment. Again, I can’t say too much, but at this point it looks possible. As for me, with NewAge probably being out of the picture, my involvement will not be very large, if any at all. Especially with work commitments, I don’t know how much time I could devote this year anyhow. R.A.W. brought two young faces in from ECCW this past spring Sweet Daddy and Aaron Idol. They were said to have major heat with Eddie Watts, Being the Promoter of R.A.W., why do you feel that heat was there? I may not be the best guy to ask this question, but Eddie Watts was the booker, and he ran the dressing room. We tried to stay out of the way. If there was an issue, Eddie would usually bring it up with Brian. It’s kinda like having a coach for your team. He makes the decisions on the field. If you don’t like it, then you talk to him. However, to my knowledge, I think the heat may have been over exaggerated. My belief is that these 2 kids had lots of talent and potential. I think Eddie was pushing them to meet their potential, and do it in a way that represented the “maritime way” of wrestling. The heat you talk about, may have been from the reluctance of those two individuals to meet the physical expectations of Eddie. What is the best thing about being on the road as much as you are? The worse? Honestly, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on the road this year. As I mentioned, my work commitments kept me away from most shows. Besides the Halifax shows, I did Yarmouth, Digby and two shows in my home town. Brian is the one who could best answer this question. I have all the respect in the world for Brian and the talent for spending so much time on the road. I know from my brief experience in 2001 of being on the road a little more frequently, that it is incredibly hard on the body and the system to be on the road so much. You don’t eat very well, your sleep schedule is totally dependent on the length of your trip etc.. |
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| R.A.W. had a lot of new young talent this year, Steen, Savage, Sarah & Sinder. Which do you feel has what it takes to make it to the next step? Unfortunately for all four, they are not very big by wrestling standards. That may be what holds them back. But it should never hold them back on the indy scene. They helped change my perception of the “smaller” guys in this industry. Savage and Sinder were with the tour all summer. They were on ring crew, and although they may have had reasons to complain, to my knowledge they never did. They were consummate professionals, and very willing to learn. I think Scott Savage eats, sleeps and breathes wrestling. He’s a great kid, with lots of talent. I think if you asked him, he would tell you he learned a lot this summer and is a better wrestler for it. Sinder, he went to our school last year, and I like him a lot. He went through camp and never complained about the bumps and bruises. He fell in love with the sport. It was fun watching him improve all summer. From being a ref to a wrestler, he improved every night. I noticed it especially since I missed a lot of shows. Brian raved about their ability to absorb information from the veterans and apply it in their matches. As for Steen, I had heard quite a bit about him over the years. I have to say, that he impressed me. I think he’s got loads of talent, and charisma. Charisma is something I don’t think you can teach, and he’s got it. When the fans started on him about the hair, he made sure it stuck out more each time he wrestled. He took and ran with it. The other thing I really like about him, as with the other two, they didn’t have an ego, and never questioned their assignments. I think any of the veterans on the crew would be open to these guys working on one of their crews. It’s too bad Sarah only showed up at the end of the tour. I think she could have really helped us out over the long term. Her potential was limitless. I think she would have been the first real women’s wrestler around the Maritimes, especially in the entertainment era. There’s nothing the WWE Diva’s can do that she can’t. Plus I have to give her credit. She made her way out here on her own, without asking for work. She just showed up, and worked her ass off to gain a spot. For us, we made the mistake by adding bodies on one side and not subtracting on the other side. Live and learn. Out of all the R.A.W. stars that have come and gone who was you favourite person to work with? Your least favourite? That’s tough to say because you work with guys in different ways. As far as creative goes, probably Bobby Rude. Bobby worked very hard on molding his character and and how to get heat from the crowd. Of all the people we have had, I think Bobby had the most dedication to his career. That’s not to knock anyone, because there are others, but I think he worked hardest on the creative side, including his matches. I also enjoyed working with Chi Chi and Eddie, mostly because of their experience in the business. Chi Chi always did what was best for business. When he arrived for the tour this spring, on the very first night, we told him we wanted him to be a heel, without any warning. Within minutes he was developing scenarios and strategizing how to make it work. Truly professional. Wildman was fun too, he too never complained about his assignments. I respected that. If he didn’t like it, he surely never told it to me. You enjoy working with guys like that, people who remove their ego and do what’s best for business. As for least favourite, I think I will keep that to myself because honestly, the list is quite small. I enjoy the talent we have had, and for the most part, pretty easy to work with. Especially the crew from 2002. What do you feel has been the best R.A.W. show yet? As far as matches, crowd ect.. Without a doubt the 1st Television Taping at Exhibition Park. The atmosphere was unreal. The management of Exhibition Park were always first class, and had the building looking fantastic. We really missed exhibition park this year. Steve and his staff treated us incredibly. Eastlink was pumped. You could sense the excitement of Brett Smith and this crew, Daniel Gaynor was exceptional as was Dave Gaudet. The action was fantastic, and I have never seen a crowd so electric in my two years of attending shows. I think a lot of it had to do with the first TV taping in so long. I will remember that night for as long as I live. |
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| What is your opinion on the other three promotions in the Maritimes? All Canadian Pro Wrestling, Mainstream Wrestling & Ultimate Championship Wrestling Honestly, I don’t really have one. I know Devin Chittick knocks me everytime he does the questions thing with Henstock there, but I could care less. My problem is with him not his promotion. I have a problem with someone who doesn’t know me, knocking me. That being said, I have respect for him. He works hard. People may make fun, but he has the right approach. He’s taking his time and building it slowly. I hear he’s a tireless worker, and that will bode well for him in the long run. As for the others, I don’t know much about them and don’t really care either way. I know a lot of people think it’s easy to make money in this business. Well, put your money where your mouth is. The people who have all the answers, are the ones who wouldn’t dare put a nickel up. And the people who do, are criticized as not knowing the business, etc etc. I want to see a strong, viable indy promotion for the maritimes, because a lot of the fans around here are great. The fans in Yarmouth are fantastic, and the way you are treated my the facility and the local people is incredible. They deserve good entertainment. If you could put 300 people in Lunenburg, I think you would have the most enjoyable show of all. I truly hope in the long run it will be the name Real Action Wrestling. But only time will tell. I have found that in the past few years, lots of people have tried or are talking of trying to make a go of it. I would be really surprised to see a new promotion, unknown, make a go of it touring regularly. I don’t think there’s enough towns that can financially support such a venture. Certainly not under the current pay structure I have seen. Guaranteed weekly pay offs are hard to meet unless you are drawing big crowds. And I don’t think the talent out there is going to work for a percentage of the gate. That may be unfair to ask. I think if it works, the workers and promoters have to work together. When I say that, they both have to ensure that the bills are paid, and the profits are shared, whatever way you can figure it out. Otherwise, the promoters have to pony up the money, and those pots of money only last so long, or promoters get out. Honestly, look at the past 5 years, and what promoter has stuck with it over the long term in the maritimes? Emile got out the minute he had to sink money into it. But he was smart. His legends tour in 99 made money, but why? He brought back the old names, and he filled the buildings his first time around. Second time around, they dropped. The minute the profits stopped, so did the tour. What was the result? He made enough the first time around to pay for itself? Not to offend any of the indy talent, because lord knows I respect them, and think many of the ones who have worked for us have as much talent as those in the WWE. But unless you are a die hard indy fan, the casual wrestling fan won’t pay to go see people they don’t know. That’s why we felt we the Eastlink thing, that over a couple of years, some of the casual fans would have seen the programs, then would come name recognition, and thus you would get bigger crowds. But time and patients aren’t really evident in this business. The talent’s careers are relatively short, and many have been burned by promoters so many times, that there is not a whole lot of trust or loyalty to bear through the rough times in anticipation that the overall plan will pan out. Because there are no guarantees it will. Someone told me a while ago, the best thing may be to let it sleep for a few years, because some fans feel burned, or the territory is dead. Who knows, he may be right. But I know this, you can’t make it drawing 50 - 150 a night. People pay to see a R.A.W. show because…. The entertainment value. I think we blend the wrestling with the entertainment. Let’s face it, fans don’t want to see headlocks for 10 minutes anymore. But they don’t want to spend their hard earned money for 2 or 3 hours of interviews and monologues. I think we always offered the best mix of the two. |
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| Years ago G.P.W had no problems filling the real Forum, now promoters are having trouble filling the Halifax MPC, why do you think this has changed? and what has to be done to get the people back? I think a lot of the fans feel burned. After 2001, we were rocking. With all the talent jumping ship and so on, I think we lost some fan loyalty. I can think of of quite a few faces from 2001, especially in Halifax, who came maybe once this year. The loyalty is not there. Why would a fan remain loyal, when a promotion changes it’s roster over night. I mean, they may have called themselves ACW, but lets face facts, it was the 2001 Real Action Wrestling roster. Come on now, anybody who doesn’t believe that is a fool. Do you think Bobby Bass had a real good business plan? NO!!! He said to himself, you know what, those marks don’t know what their doing, so I’ll take all their talent with me and make some REAL money. Well guess what, it didn’t happen. I remember him telling me when I first met him “Making money in this business is easy”. Yeah, well go ask him that now. He lost his shirt. Worst of all, he really hurt Real Action Wrestling. He certainly did a better job of that than making money, I’ll tell you that. And who paid, well NewAge did and so did all the wrestlers. Ask them, I’m sure they will tell you that the latter part of the summer was probably the worst they have ever seen the business in these parts. It’s sad really. It bothered me for a real long time. It’s only know that I even want to talk about. Hell you asked me for this interview in October. It took that long before I wanted to talk about it. August and September have left a real sour taste in my mouth. And you can trace it back to Bass stabbing us in the back. I mean your talking about a guy who had our 2003 plan in one hand, and plotting to sink us in the other hand. Think about that for a second. Not only were we facing competition, the competition had every piece of information on us, including our financial statements for Christ sake. Yeah we accept that things didn’t go right, but it would have taken Bill Gates for us to truly pull off a successful 2003 campaign. These types of activities don’t help the industry, the workers, and, as your question points out, does not fill the Forum. But that being said, Vince lost a lot of his talent to Turner. He lost for awhile, but ended up winning in the end. We did too, especially in the Halifax market. Problem was, what did it costs us to win that battle. What has to be done to get the fans back.? Well I think that it’s a bit complicated, but a short answer would be that I believe you kill a place by going too often. The trick is to give them enough to make them want to come back, and enough time between shows that they start getting the itch to go see it because of what happened the last time. Sound easy, but incredibly hard to figure out. At the start of the 2002 season Bobby Bass, Buddy Lane, Kingman, Mike Hughes, Bobby Rude, Flesh, Sinn & Chaos all “jumped ship” to ACW. Why do you feel they each made this move? Well I think I addressed the Bobby Bass issue above. I think Buddy Lane because he was Bass’s friend, and probably felt the same way, I don’t know. I have talked to Buddy since, and we have somewhat buried the hatchet, although I will always harbour some resentment. I don’t know about Flesh, Sinn. I know I have no respect for those two guys. They didn’t have the decency to tell me straight up. Flesh’s last words to me were “I will call you Wednesday, and Sinn told me in an e-mail that he had other commitments, but when he decided to come to the Maritimes he would give me a call. Next day, he’s all over Bass’s promotional posters. Go figure. I thought after the amount of work those two got from us in 2001, we deserved to be told in advance of their intentions. As much heat as their was between Kingman and Real Action Wrestling. At least he called me and said he was going with Bass. We didn’t leave on the best of terms. Those terms are between Kingman and I, and I don’t think it’s anyone’s business. I will say this, I do respect him for being upfront. The same with Kowboy and Rude. They both called to say thanks but no thanks. I may not have agreed, but I respected it. Yes I was pissed, but it’s a business. Especially on the indy scene. These guys went where they thought it was best for them at the time, both financially and professionally. I think they were fed a lot bull about ACW and ate it up. I mean it sounded good. Even to me. I also think Kingman had a big influence with all these guys jumping ship. Overall, I don’t think they trusted Buddy Lane’s sales pitch, but Kingman did. When Kingman made his decision, and we parted ways, I think he used his influence with the other guys, especially the ones you mentioned. But hey, it’s a business, and these guys are independents. To me it was a business decision, not so much a personal one. Although there’s a right way and a wrong way to do business. |
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Why do you think
Mike Hughes and Bobby Rude came back to R.A.W.?
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