Wrestling vs Talking

Our friends at www.europeanupercut.com have posted an interesting article about the balance of storyline vs wrestling, so I thought that I would share my opinions on this subject.

At Reloaded, the only ring promos that I can recall were the opening segments with Kidd Pride\Terry Striker\whatever he wants to be called this week and Heavy D. Bagheera and Warden received no mic time, though Bagheera's gimmick requires no mic skills anyway. There was some inter-action between the LDRS and Bhangra Knights, nothing in the Haskins\Burridge vs eXodus\J Dizzle tag match and Steve Lynsky's promo before the main event are the only things that I can recall. So 2 promos and 1 demand for a rematch. Although Matt Burden did his usual stellar work in interacting with the crowd I don't see how that could be construed as too much or a bad thing.

I feel that where FPW succeed's and other federations fail (naming no names) is making the fans feel that they are a part of the FPW family. One wrestler said to me after the show, that most promoters just want your money - once they have you, they don't care what they present as they've got what they wanted - but I feel that Matt's intros made them feel that the fans were involved in the show. Certainly the young lad who Matt interviewed in the ring added to the event, he'll never forget that night, everyone in the crowd loved it, would the removal of that and 1 added extra minute of action have made anyone happier?

It's hard to make FPW feel like an episodic TV show when we have a 3 month gap between shows. But we need to appeal to veterans who were there from the 1st show, and to people that have never been to an FPW show before and keep a good balance - and I think we did a good job of that.

Darren