YBFREE.comIn Pursuit of Human Interests
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Check Out USA Pro Wrestling at www.usaprowrestling.com
In last week's installment I talked with Frank Goodman about the wrestlers in his promotion, who he thinks the future of the business is, why certain wrestlers make it and others don't and some of the business practices some people may not agree with. In this installment, I talk to Frank about how to keep a promotion afloat and storylines; what makes them successful, why what looks good on paper isn't always good in the ring and how to come up with the next big idea.
With so much talent, it must be hard to come up with storylines for everyone and Goodman puts serious thought into putting together matches creating the buzz and have it all make sense when wrestlers get injured or show no loyalty by not showing up to an event or by booking themselves to other promotions, ruining storylines and forcing Goodman to think quickly on his feet.
"I have virtually no help with the exception of Brian and Dexter, my assistants, but other than that, I do everything myself, from handing out flyers to choreographing everything," says the owner. "Everything is the promoters' responsibility. The hardest thing to do is putting asses in the seats and then it's trying to match up which wrestler will work well with someone else."
Goodman explains the whole process. "Match ideas are come up with by watching regular television shows (Strangely Rugrats and Dallas are Frank's favorites) and just being bored and thinking of whatever," he said. "Plus, you can recycle old wrestling stories and create new twists. Writing stories is very hard, especially since most of the good ideas have been taken. It's much easier for me than someone in the WWE, because I am the final word and at the WWE, they have to clear their ideas with ten people."
Goodman points out how hard it is to just throw wrestlers together into a match, no matter how good the storyline. "Some guys just don't work well together and some guys do not like or respect each other," says Goodman. "Also, some wrestlers are made to look good, because his past opponents were hand picked and he was really just tolerable. He would have been exposed against someone different."
An example: Lowki vs. Sabu. "On paper it was great, but when done, Sabu didn't respect what Low-ki had to offer and wouldn't do what he wanted to do. Now you have a poor match with two great workers."
Another obstacle is the fact that USAPW is not the WWE, so no matter how ground breaking the story; chances are no one will hear about it until the WWE copies it and does it themselves. "We will always be labeled as using their idea even if it was ours first."
Case in point: USAPW created the Boogie Knights with Mike Tobin and Danny Drake; the greatest tag-team in USAPW. Sometime later, Disco Inferno (Glen Gilberti) and Alex Wright became the Boogie Knights in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Despite USAPW continuing to point out this blatant rip-off, WCW continued using the team. USAPW would not give up the fight, knowing their version was the better version with more charisma and talent. USAPW scored a big win for independent federations when Tobin and Drake proved to have more longevity, lasting years after the scandal and forming the most popular USAPW heel stable known as Knightlife. WCW could not steal that idea, because while USAPW was still going strong, WCW went out of business.
Another case where a story line was pilfered involved a situation where Goodman (or the Masked Maniac) interrupted a ticket seller match and made fun of the wrestlers, shouting boring at the match. Steve Austin came out on WWE television and did the same thing to Lance Storm as he was wrestling Garrison Cade. More recently, Vince McMahon interrupted a Tajiri-Rhyno match for the same reason to put on a bikini showdown, instead. Goodman is sure Vince McMahon sees some of the USAPW tapes and while his actions were unheard of practices in wrestling that caught the attention of various publications, Goodman wants to go on record to let people know he did them first. Other situations can be pointed out, but the message is clear, a new and intriguing idea is hard to come by.
Well there will be a lot of fresh new ideas for fans to see on Saturday, November 29, when USAPW presents at End to an Era, the last show at the Elks Lodge, featuring Raven (current champion) vs. Al Snow for the USAPW World Championship. Shane Douglas has just been announced as being a part of the show. Don't miss the Franchise and the return of the Triple Threat at his USA Pro Wrestling debut.
Come back next week for the final part of our interview with Frank Goodman where he discusses the drop in business, media coverage, what he refuses to do and what he thinks the future of USA Pro Wrestling is. All that and more, next week!
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