The sight-unseen wrestling event for fans in towns that don't get TV tapings. It's the house show!
1. How many house shows have you been to?
2. What's your feeling on the house show title switch?
3. What is more likely to make you buy a house show ticket, a highlight match or an actual wrestler/wrestlers appearing?
4. Do you subscribe to the theory "If it doesn't happen on TV, it doesn't happen"?
5. Do mainstream wrestling companies still need house shows?
1. I have been to probably about 10 house shows, and about five Raw/Smackdowns, and one PPV (In Your House:Ground Zero in September of 1997.)
ReplyDelete2. I think the house show title switch is a great thing. There haven't been any that I can recall in recent memory, except maybe one or two that happened on overseas tours. To me, a house show title change can be a shot in the arm at times because it brings back something that wrestling has lacked in recent years and that's a bona fide surprise. We've been bred into thinking now for years that the only chance of seeing a title change would be on television or pay-per view. By inserting a title change in a house show, it adds that unpredictability. But these days, house shows only serve a few purposes. It gives two workers the ability to work together without having to worry about cameras so that they can work on potential spots and the like in thier PPV and television matches. They also provide a source of revenue for the company through ticket and merchandise (tho I'd be willing to be merchandise sales are much higher than ticket gates). And it gives fans the chance to see thier favorite superstars. But I'd be willing to bet if you went to five house shows in a row, you'd be treated to the exact same match every single time.
3. I'm more likely to buy a ticket to go and see a particular superstar. When I lived in Maine, they had a house show in Portland, and the only reason I went was to see The Undertaker. As it turns out, the Undertaker did not appear at that show and I was pretty bummed out and wanted my money back. But I stayed and was treated to a good show, not a great show, but a good one.
4. No I don't. I really don't have an explanation for this, but I just don't believe in that theory whatsoever.
5. Yes they do, for the outlines I specified above, though I would reckon that merchandise sales being one of them.
--Jason Payne