|
Interview
with Simon Rochford, IWW owner/promoter conducted by Pat Divilly via
e-mail.
1.
When and where did your interest in wrestling start?
A.
I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was a kid, I used to love
watching the old British wrestling on Saturday afternoons. My
earliest memory is when I was having my sixth Birthday and watching
Dave ‘Fit’ Finaly. Then
years later when SKY Channel and the Screen Sport Channel came on to
our TV’s I was definitely hooked.
Screen Sport showed loads of wrestling such as AWA, GWA,
WCCW, WAW and my personal favourites NWA and Stampede.
That was when wrestling became 24/7 for me.
I
then came across my first wrestling magazine on Christmas 1988 and
it was PWI. This opened
a whole new world of various Independent promotions from around the
world to me. Over the
years I have built up a huge collection of videotapes, newsletters
and Magazines and I still get great enjoyment from them.
I like to think that I’m a well educated (To wrestling
Knowledge) wrestling fan and I think it’s a pity that so many of
today’s fans in Ireland are just WWE fans.
They really do need to see that there is a wealth of
wrestling beyond the WWE in places like Europe, Japan, Mexico,
Canada and of course the Indies in the U.S.
I
always wanted to be doing anything that was to do with wrestling,
When I was a kid I would do stuff like start up my own imaginary
promotion with my Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures and as I got
older I would then travel around Europe, Canada and America to see
live wrestling. I then started to write for several wrestling
newsletters in Ireland, England, Australia and America and from
there I started trading tapes around Europe and Australia for a few
years. Like I said I
just wanted to be doing anything that had wrestling involved in it.
2.
And from there how did the setting up of IwW come about?
A.
I had
originally planned on setting up a full colour glossy magazine like
Powerslam. Of course it
was going to be an Irish version and it was going to be called Irish
Whip and sold in Ireland. I
spent a few months setting it up by getting writers, advertisers, a
proper printing shop, photographs, proper PC software, outlets to
sell it in, Insurance and most importantly funding.
I had originally gone through the IDA to fund the magazine
and I had developed to the third stage of their in-house operating
system and it looked like the publication would go ahead and then
after several months of this I was let down by them.
I then was faced with the option of letting the idea and work
I had put in go to waste or to put the money in myself to fund it.
I
was dubious about spending that amount of my own money on something
that was a gamble. I
then looked into the cost of promoting a couple of shows in Dublin
and after doing my homework I decided to go for that instead.
In the long run it ended up costing me a lot more money to
run my first couple of shows than it would have to set up the
magazine. But hindsight is a great thing.
The only promoter who was running in the Republic of Ireland
was Orig Williams and he was doing great business with his fake WWE
shows. I started to make plans for the shows in January of 2002 and
by March I had announced the shows and of course by June the shows
had took place. It was
a lifelong dream for me and it came true.
3.
The first show was a big sucsess and recieved good reviews all
round. Your thoughts, on that 1st IwW show?
A.
The first two IwW shows were a success on every level except
financially, I lost money on those first shows.
The attendance levels (300 and 500) could have been better
but they were good for my first couple of shows and they were much
better then the average attendance figures in and around Europe at
the time. There were great wrestlers on the shows and some great
matches and fans got the chance to see some great International
wrestling. There were
wrestlers from Germany, Austria, England and America on the shows
and I wanted to try and give every match a different feel or
different style and it was a formula that worked. I wanted to
promote a different type of show to that of the WWA and those
tribute shows and I succeeded in doing so. I’m not saying IwW was
better than any of those promotions but almost every fan enjoyed the
IwW shows more.
The
highlight for me of those two shows was the atmosphere in the arena
for the CZW title match between Zandig and Justice Pain.
The hardcore element to that match was something that an
Irish audience had never seen live and they were both in awe and
over excited. Fans were
standing on their chairs, putting hands over their eyes and
screaming and chanting for every single move, it was an experience
in itself to see something like that live
4.
Next, came the October shows which again were a great sucsess. What
for you were the highlights of those 2 shows?
A.
The October
show was an even bigger success, there were 1,200 fans in the arena
and the show got even greater reviews.
I am very proud of that show and I’m not just saying this
because I was the promoter, but that event was the best Independent
show I have ever seen live and I’ve been to Indy shows all over
Europe and North America. I
think a major factor in that show was the hot crowd that was there,
they were like the old ECW arena fans as in they chanted for every
single thing and were very vocal the whole night.
Once again I put the show together in away that there would
be a different style of matches throughout the entire show and the
formula worked perfect again. I
didn’t want every match to be the same and as a result I found
that the fans enjoyed the matches more this way, granted certain
fans don’t like certain styles and won’t like a particular
match. What I’m
trying to say is if a fan didn’t like the style or theme of a
match and all the matches were the same then the chances are that he
or she wouldn’t like the entire show.
I
tried a different advertising approach and was lucky enough to get a
couple of TV spots on Ireland AM (TV3) and The Den (Network 2).
This helped me get such a big crowd into the arena that
night. That was a highlight in itself.
I will never forget the pop that Jake Roberts got when he
came out, the whole audience were on there feet literally screaming.
This show, like the June shows, had fans from England,
America, Germany and Holland at it. That is a great feeling, knowing
that fans travelled from far and wide to see the shows.
5.
From there, things seemed to go downhill after you had to cancel the
April shows due to the lack of tickets sold. Why do you think there
was such trouble selling tickets after the sucsess of the previous
shows?
A.
There were a couple of problems arising for the cancellation
of the April shows, it wasn’t just the ticket sales.
The other main reason was that the ring I had arranged to use
had all of a sudden come into jeopardy and there was a greater that
50 percent chance that it wouldn’t arrive on the day and that was
a chance I couldn’t take. I
looked into several other areas for hiring a ring but none of them
came to fruitation. So
looking at the ring situation and the weak ticket advance I decided
to pull the plug before I lost a great deal of money.
Where
my biggest headache comes from is trying to get Insurance.
I was paying ridiculous money for Insurance to run the
Basketball Arena and it was at a stage were nearly all of the profit
I was making was just going to pay for Insurance fees. That
is why I decided to run a different and smaller venue in April.
The Temple Theatre is right in the city centre and this time
around I was on a smaller budget, which meant less money to spend on
advertising. You have
to understand that in Tallaght (Where the Basketball Arena was)
there was a huge population of residential houses and
shopping/retail outlets to distribute fliers and posters, but in
Dublin’s City Centre you cannot put out posters in 90% of shops
etc and you have to have a special license from Dublin Coperation to
hand out fliers in the city and I couldn’t get one.
It was a bad choice of location on my behalf.
The advertising that I had done seemed to have had fallen on
blind eyes and deaf ears.
Another
area where I lost out was a TV spot on popular shows.
I had made on agreement with CZW’s Justice Pain to come in
a day or two early to do some television appearances for the October
show. But, as we all
know by now he No-Showed and the only other wrestler I had access to
was Cleopatra and I was left with no option but to put her on in his
place. I gave her a
list of things to say and plug on each show but she completely froze
when she got out there and it was the TV hosts that saved the
segments. Needless to say, when I approached them again for TV spots
for the April shows they were very hesitant and I blame that on the
bad performances of Cleopatra.
6.
What are your thoughts on the recent setting up of NWA Ireland?
A. For
years there was no wrestling in Ireland and within one year there
was WWA, IwW, WWE, NWA Ireland and Tribute shows.
It’s either a feast or a famine.
I was told by a wrestler a while back that the NWA had wanted
Andre Baker to establish the NWA name more in Europe and that there
were plans for something to be set up in Ireland, so I was expecting
it to happen. I had hoped on setting up numerous weeklong training
camps myself through IwW in Dublin but I couldn’t get the
Insurance to cover it. This
country is in real need of a training school and It’s good to see
it coming about through the lads in Bray and I hope it works out for
them as there is room in Ireland for a lot more than one group.
7.
Do you think they'll last long or will they have to fold?
A. What
people have to understand is that the group only puts on
‘Trainee’ shows and as a result they aim to attract mainly
family and friends of their trainees.
When NWA Ireland puts on a Trainee show they have no
overheads, as in they don’t have to pay their trainees, they own
their ring, they use very small and cheap school gyms, they don’t
need to rent out chairs, they don’t have to pay for transport
costs of the trainees, they have no accommodation costs, no security
costs and they spend no money on advertising and as a result they
would need very few people to attend the shows to cover whatever
costs they would have. So
if they continue to put on Trainee type shows I can see them being
around for a very long time.
Now
on the other hand, if they were to fly in a number of other well
known NWA wrestlers from the states for their shows they in turn
would have to pay a lot of money for the flights, wages,
accommodation etc and then would have to put the show on in a larger
venue to make money back on ticket sales and as a result they would
have to advertise the show to a much larger audience and then
that’s where the real costs come in.
Now, if they were running shows like that I would be have to
think twice about their longagtivity.
8.
And your thoughts on their two schools in Dublin and Cork?
A I’ve
only seen the Dublin school and the lads seemed to be doing a good
job there. I feel that
there has to be untapped wrestling talent here in Ireland and a
training school is the place to find it.
It saves Irish fans money and time by not having to travel to
places like England and America. Who knows, you may see another Pat Barrett, Danno O’Mahoney
or Dave Finlay come from one of their schools.
9.
Now, back to IwW, a question many have asked. According to your
website you hope to put on more shows in the next year. Is this
realistic and in your honest opinion will it happen?
A. To be
perfectly honest with you it all comes down to whether I can get the
proper Insurance or not. I
cannot get insurance through on Irish company and the group I got it
from in the end was based in England and they would only cover me
for an event-to-event deal. And
like I already said it was costing me a fortune.
Several promotions in England put me onto their insurance
companies but in the end they wouldn’t cover anything beyond the
U.K. boundaries and the Republic of Ireland isn’t part of the U.K.
I would love to keep putting on more and more IwW shows but
the insurance situation is preventing me from doing so.
I
am working on a game plan at the moment and I’m looking into doing
future wrestling shows outside of Dublin, but I can’t say when
that would be as I don’t want to get fans hopes up encase it
doesn’t happen. People
are saying IwW went out of business and it folded but it hasn’t,
if I had the Insurance coverage IwW would be still running regular
events. There are several wrestling related projects that I’m
working on at present and I hope to get a couple of them off the
ground in 2004. Right now, I’m just putting on IwW Fan Days in
Wynn’s Hotel as a way of keeping the fan base that I established
alive.
10.
If so will you do anything different? Do you feel you've made
mistakes in the way you put together the first two sets of
shows......
A. I
won’t lie about it, I made plenty of mistakes in the way I put
together the shows. Promoting
the first shows in June was completely new to me and I had to do it
all on my own with no real help.
I had no one I could turn to and say “How would you do
this” or “Do you think I would sell more tickets if I done a
particular thing a certain way”.
I wasted a lot of money on those June shows and I cringe when
I think of it now. But
after those shows I would often talk to Scott Conway (TWA promoter)
and pick his brain and that was a great help, if I had none him
prior to the June shows then I would have saved a lot of money.
Even
though I done a much better job promoting the October show I still
made mistakes there and have learned from them.
I had some of the wrong kind of people involved with IwW and
if I could go back I would never use or include them again.
But hindsight is wonderful.
Another misjudgement that I made was thinking that many of
the current WWE fans in Ireland would automatically support an
Independent promotion, I was wrong there and learned from that.
Many of them don’t care for anything other than WWE and
I’m sure that’s the case in most other countries too.
I
was lucky in that I found guys that were wrestling fans and they put
together my wesbite, posters, fliers, programmes and the two very
impressive IwW videos that are out there.
These guys were a great help to me and unfortunately I lost a
good friendship with one of them due to the stress and pressures
that were involved with promoting the shows.
I would like to have a system operating like the FWA were
there are a number of guys that work together at the top and share
the responsibility of running the promotion.
11.
Finally where would you like to see the Simon Rochford and the IwW
in 5 years time?
A.
I’d like to see the promotion still operating in 5
years time. I achieved
so much with IwW after just three shows and with the fan response
was terrific. The
promotion has been seen or heard on nearly every level nationally in
the Republic of Ireland and you need only to look at the fans that
came from places outside of Dublin like Kilkenny, Cork, Laois,
Meath, Kildare, Newry, Tipperary, Offaly, Louth and Wexford.
I’m very proud of how far IwW came and it’s a shame that
it has come to a stand still due to insurance problems.
There will be a half hour of IwW footage shown on the new
Wrestling Channel each week when it launches.
So if I have my insurance situation sorted out by then it
will enable IwW to be seen by a much lager audience it can only grow
from there.
12.
Simon, many thanks for taking the time to do this exclusive
interview with us and the best of luck to all at IwW in the not so
distant future.
A.
Not at all, if there anything else I can do for you or any other web
site just let me know.
For
more information on Irish Whip Wrestling, check out their website at
www.irishwhipwrestling.com
where you can also purchase videos and other merchandise from the
promotion....
Return
To The Wrestling Base Mainpage
|
