starting a wrestling promotion

Question
hello Joe.
I'm 23 and have a real passion for wrestling and am looking to start a promotion in the UK. i was just wondering if you can give me some tips on how to start and how much roughly it would cost to start one and building it up?

regards
James.

Answer
Starting a promotion is not easy at all, in fact it's very difficult and could be one of the more difficult things you could do in any business world. The money it takes to start a real good one could be in the thousands.

I'm going to talk in USDA. As I have no idea about pounds, rupees, yin, or euros and how they translate to where you are at or may wish to go. So keep that in mind.

You'd need at least 5,000 for a good ring and all it's parts, brand new. Getting an old one is fine, but it's not really that good in the end. Because eventually you'll need to get a new one. So making this purchase immediately is good.

You'd need to set out a list of Indy wrestlers you'd want to bring in off and on. Promoters are competitive. So, at times you'll have to compete with them for talent. Often times, you'd have to make sure you're geographically fine. As some hate when you're "on their turf" so to speak. So be sure you know promoters in the area you wish to be in. I wouldn't know random Indy guys in your area, so that's a problem you need to look into yourself sadly.

For talent, setting out 10 to 20 thousand may be a good idea for a few months. Depending on how many shows you want to do each week. Making relationships with wrestlers is also ideal.

Keep in mind, all wrestling promotions do not succeed. Even two of the best one's known as WCW and ECW went down. Vince McMahon even went bankrupt before succeeding with WWE to where it is now. So understand this will not be easy and it will be tough. You need to be prepared for that.

Be prepared to fail, because you will at times. But you need to be strong psychologically to get over it.

So, to recap. Set out between 20 and 30 thousand. Get a ring and talent. Make sure you know the area. And then, simply market the hell out of that. You can buy radio and TC time. You just have to talk to sales reps for each station.

That's about all I got for ya.