Going global: the WWA is looking to find its niche by spanning the world, but will American audiences buy into the "Ice Capades" concept? - World Wrestling All-Stars

UNLIKE OTHER START-UP wrestling companies that are trying to land a television deal and run shows in the United States, the World Wrestling All-Stars are attempting to get over by going Down Under.

Since wrestling's boom period in the United States appears to have waned, it's been difficult to launch a new promotion here. But fans in Australia and throughout Europe are starved for live wrestling, and the WWA intends to fill that void.

The main objective of the WWA, whose tours of Australia and Europe last fall were a financial success, is to be an international touring company. That doesn't mean, however, that fans in the U.S. and Canada seeking an alternative to the WWF won't have opportunities to sample the WWA, which has featured wrestlers such as Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, and Bret Hart (in a non-wrestling role as commissioner) on its shows.

Although the company isn't seeking a television deal and has scrapped its plans of running house shows in the United States for the time being, it has made its presence known domestically on pay-per-view. The WWA has already produced two pay-per-views this year ("Inception" in January and "The Revolution" in February) and more are on the way.

Like any new company, the WWA is experiencing its share of growing pains. Both of its pay-per-views received mostly unfavorable reviews and there have been instances of advertised big-name talent not appearing. To the WWA's credit, though, those running the promotion appear to be aware of their mistakes and are determined not to get in too far over their heads.

"It's a lot tougher than anybody knows to get something like this off the ground and have it be competitive," says Jeremy Borash, a former WCW television writer who books the shows on the WWA tour, writes the pay-per-views, and is the lead commentator. "I think we can survive if we stay focused as an international touring company, because the tours are profitable. We're far away from competing with Vince McMahon, and I don't think anyone will compete with him for a long time. But if we can stay profitable--which no wrestling company other than the WWF has been able to do--and stick to our guns and not get huge expectations, we don't need to be competing with Vince."

The WWA is owned by Australian concert promoter Andrew McManus, and has offices in Brisbane, Australia, and Los Angeles. McManus, who had managed Australian rock groups such as The Divinyls before getting into concert promoting, saw an opportunity to capitalize on wrestling's popularity in Australia after watching WCW sell out five shows there in October 2000. At the time, WCW was struggling at the box office and in the television ratings here, but the Australian fans enthusiastically welcomed WCW with open arms--and wallets.

McManus put together his own wrestling tour of Australia, which he called Superstars of Wrestling, featuring former NBA star Dennis Rodman and wrestlers such as Curt Hennig and The Road Warriors. The shows, however, were not well received.

"I think he'll be the first to admit that Superstars of Wrestling was kind of an embarrassment," Borash says. "He realized how difficult this business is to be in if you don't know anything. It's not something you can just come in and pick up and make money off of."

Undaunted, McManus approached someone already in the wrestling business--then-WCW creative director and former WWF television writer Vince Russo--about getting involved in an Australian tour. Russo expressed interest, but ultimately was unable to make the October tour because he was opening a new business. Russo subsequently introduced McManus to Borash, who had worked under Russo as a television writer at WCW, and Borash assumed the role as the WWA booker.

The WWA drew crowds ranging from 5,000-8,000 on its seven-city, tour of Australia with a lineup of former WWF and WCW wrestlers that included Jarrett (who was crowned the first WWA champion), Hart, Road Dogg, Buff Bagwell and, before he returned to the WWF the following month, Jerry Lawler as the color commentator.

Although Borash officially booked the tour, the shows had Russo's fingerprints all over them. Translation: lots of gimmick matches, an overemphasis on comedy, and very little actual wrestling. That formula seemed to work for the Australian audiences, but the October 26 "Inception" pay-per-view from Sydney that was taped and shown in America on pay-per-view last January was panned by the majority of U.S. viewers.

The first pay-per-view was definitely tailored to the Australian crowd, and I agree with the people who say that there wasn't enough wrestling on it," Borash says. "But we'll get better as we go. There's no one who comes into this and does a great job their first time in. ECW had six years of practice before they did their first pay-per-view, where we had five shows."

In November, the WWA embarked on a tour of England, Ireland, and Scotland, drawing crowds similar in size to those on the Australian tour, including a sell-out of the 6,000-seat arena in Dublin, Ireland. In addition to basically the same crew of wrestlers from the first tour, Steiner joined the group and wrestled in his first match--a three-way against Jarrett and Road Dogg--since losing the WCW world title to Booker T. on the final "Nitro" broadcast in March 2001.

After two profitable international tours, the WWA's next project was a February pay-per-view from the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas called "The Revolution." From the beginning, however, the WWA's first show in the U.S. was fraught with problems.

The original concept for the pay-per-view was to build it around the return of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash as a team, and on some cable systems, Hall and Nash were advertised for the show. "At one point we had Nash agree to let us promote him and use his photos," Borash says, but Nash and Hall eventually signed with the WWF instead.

Randy "Macho Man" Savage then got involved with the WWA, and was one of several wrestlers to appear in the print advertisements for the pay-per-view. A few days before the show, however, negotiations between Savage and McManus broke down, and Savage was a no-show. So was Road Dogg, who didn't appear because of legal reasons.

With all the uncertainty regarding talent, no main event or lineup was announced ahead of time. It certainly wasn't an ideal situation for Borash, who was writing the show. "I probably had eight to 10 different shows written," he says. "Considering what was thrown at me, I was ecstatic the show came off as well as it did."

Just how well the show came off, though, is debatable. On the positive side, the Russo style of booking was abandoned for the most part and the match quality was significantly better than the first pay-per-view.

But the loss of Savage's star power hurt, and Brian Christopher, who was never more than a mid-card comedy act as Grand Master Sexay in the WWF, was inserted into the main event against Jarrett. Moreover, the poor production and camera work made the show look minor league, reportedly only 600 of the 2,800 in attendance was paid, and the less said about Larry Zbyszko's unscripted "shoot promo" in which he challenged McMahon to a match the better.

Reportedly, "Inception" got 37,000 buys and "The Revolution" had 100,000 (Borash says the company only needed 25,000-30,000 buys for each show to be profitable) but sources within the industry believe those numbers, especially the one for "The Revolution," to be inflated. WCW at the end and ECW were doing about 60,000 buys with national television and major stars. The real number of buys, even for WWF shows, isn't usually known until months after the event.

There are no plans to do more pay-per-views from U.S. venues, but the WWA has three new tours scheduled (Australia in April, England in May, and Ireland and Germany in June), and intends to tape one show on each tour for pay-per-views that will be available on tape-delay in the U.S.

Without weekly television to build storylines, the WWA is hoping the name value of its wrestlers will be enough to motivate fans to buy its shows.

"We can't go much on storylines, but I think the people that buy our shows are the real hardcore fans. They're the same ones that used to buy all three [WWF, WCW and ECW] pay-per-views, and they just want an alternative," Borash says. "We're trying to build the brand name. I always say we're kind of like the Ice Capades. If the Ice Capades come to town, you know you're going to see some of the top skaters. You don't quite know what they're going to be doing, but you know it's going to be a good show."

COPYRIGHT 2002 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group