Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Tradition Vs. Change, Booking and Interaction in the Age of Social Media

Epic
Photo Credit: Beyond Wrestling Facebook Page
Most readers I assume are on Twitter. For those who aren't, bear with me and pretend you are. What sounds worse? A wrestler asking a promoter via Twitter to be booked and getting all his fans/followers to do the same, or that promoter going on a tirade about how that's "not doing things the right way" and then retweeting everyone who agrees with him? Depending on what side you fall on, your answers may vary, and if you are on Twitter, then you know exactly what real life situation I'm talking about.

Yesterday, as I was taking Gabe Sapolsky to task for his lip service on promoting women's wrestling, he was involved in a Twitter brouhaha that involved Aaron Epic tweeting him to be booked on the next slate of EVOLVE shows swinging through the Southern US. Obnoxiously, Sapolsky, after denying Epic and telling him that it was bad protocol, started retweeting all the old-guard wrestlers who were patting him on the back. We got the point dude. I don't mean to pile on the guy, but at the same time, maybe he should stop doing idiotic things. I digress though.

The better question that it brings up is whether things should or should not change with regards to how guys are booked. The time-honored tradition is that you work ring crew and pay dues for the bigger companies before you start wrestling for them. I can actually see the benefit of that, as it gives the prospective talent an ear for that company works, as well as the added benefits of humility and order, which I can see value in (but personally I don't give a shit if you're humble or not if you're a great wrestler). There's a way to do things, and it's worked.

That being said, ways to do things change all the time. If tradition was so important, then we'd still be using leeches in medicine. Twitter is a POWERFUL tool that connects the world at the speed of light, and it puts fans in contact with people who have the power to book wrestlers who may not have gotten a look had social media in general not created this network of wrestling fans who hunger and thirst for more quality product. The point is, Gabe Sapolsky is always looking to make money. That's his MO, and if fans are tweeting him to book Aaron Epic, that means those fans will pay money to buy his DVDs, iPPVs and live event tickets to see Epic wrestle for him. It's the attitude of acceptance that has put Beyond Wrestling on the map, given Absolute Intense Wrestling more relevance in the national community and has kept Combat Zone Wrestling relevant no matter what the general temperature on death match wrestling is at any given moment.

For Sapolsky to virtually lash out at people asking for Epic because those fans violated some bullshit carny protocol to me is counterproductive to what's best for his company. Yeah, it might be fun to wave around a huge dick and then retweet the entire wrestling world to prove some kind of validation for that opinion, but all that says to me is that the industry, as it almost always is, is steeped too much in that tradition to see that maybe giving into someone who is asking out loud and using the leverage of fans, i.e. paying customers, to get an opportunity could be a good thing.

I hear all the time that people don't try to make their way enough in the business and rely on others ahead of them to give them opportunities too much. If that's the case, then why is what Epic did frowned upon? He's being entrepreneurial in nature. He's getting his name out there. And furthermore, the bombardment of tweets that Sapolsky got to get Epic on board may have felt obnoxious to him, but his bombardment of RTs afterwards to people on his timeline who really didn't even give two shits about that scuffle was even more so.

I really don't think that it's too much to ask there to be an open dialogue between everyone involved. If Sapolsky wanted to keep matters private, instead of dressing down Epic, maybe there could've been a DM exchange talking about preferences and stuff. Maybe Epic could've been invited to work ring crew for a few shows before debuting. Who knows? But chiding him wasn't the way to go, and furthermore, chiding the fans for advocating their favorite wrestler by telling them "we always give the fans what they want" is pretty dumb.

Maybe I'm just a dirty hippie at heart, but I really feel like pro wrestling is better off keeping its beefs scripted and in character. Sapolsky already has it over the wrestlers in terms that if a show does gangbusters, he's the one making most of the money. Why does he need to have a power trip over them too?