There seems to be one question, in various forms, that is asked more often than any other in independent wrestling locker rooms. “How was my match?” or “Did you watch my match and what did you think?”
Variations of those two questions are asked nightly. Young wrestlers will typically ask the veterans for their opinions. Sometimes people who aren’t even in our business are asked this question.
Well, I have a question for wrestlers. In situations where you don’t have a truly organized booker who knows what is going on start to finish with the whole show, which is far too frequent these days, do you at least pay attention to the matches before yours?
Why is this so important? Let me tell you why.
Last spring I was doing play-by-play commentary for Rodney Grimes’ CWA Championship Wrestling promotion. I believe this was a card in Selmer, TN. Al Hall, of Kick A** Wrestling and Memphis Championship Wrestling fame, was my color commentary partner. We had a decent house and the card featured a good mix of talent that included a few veterans like Buff Bagwell, Tracey Smothers, Ken Wayne, Don Bass and a few more.
I’ll admit that the first half of the show was a little lackluster. The second half, however, was fun.
Anyway, back to my point.
The first match wasn’t anything to write home to momma about. It wasn’t a complete stinker, but it was just there. I think I saw 4,000 knife edge chops delivered during the bout. Whoooooooo!
The second match comes out. It’s a singles bout and guess what we had? Another 4,000 chops!
I am sick of chops!
We sometimes wonder why people may show up one week and then are never seen in the crowd in the same town again. Could it be because they don’t want to see the same freakin’ match five times in one night? Just might be.
You can chop the crap out of your opponent and get a reaction. It’s a natural feeling to go “ooooh” or “ahhh” to something intense. You can’t avoid it.
But after saying “ooooh” and “ahhh” to things like that so many times IN ONE NIGHT, people have nothing left to want to “ooooh” and “ahhh” about.
My point is, many times local workers are going to be on a card that is not planned out. It was either booked on the fly earlier in the day, maybe even an hour before bell time.
In those cases, while you should focus on your match, try to find out what the rest of the boys are going to do. Don’t “accidentally” end up doing the same finish, hot tag scenario, etc.
If you can, without being blatantly seen by the audience, watch the matches before yours. That way if you see a “chop-fest” you won’t allow your match to become déjà vu.
For one, it will make the show more entertaining for our fans. They may have a real emotional investment in the card, thus they’ll buy a ticket to see us again. And finally, the announcers will have something worth calling. My job is to make a match exciting, just like a wrestler’s job is to do the same thing. The only difference is our location. Wrestlers do it in the ring. I do it from an announce table. If your match is lackluster, it will translate to my performance. I can’t call something crappy and make the people believe it is a Shawn Michaels classic. It just doesn’t work that way.
So find out what the rest of the card is up to. Watch when you need to and let’s all make the show a complete dish for our viewers to devour. After so many burgers, you kinda want a steak now and then. Know what I mean?
Finally, when I mentioned doing commentary with Al Hall at the Selmer show, we were doing it live-to-tape to an audio source. It was NOT live over the house mic. I hate that. It comes off so bush league. “But people like to hear what JR is saying?” True. That’s why they watch the TV show for that. Just like when you go to an NBA, NFL or Major League Baseball. Those who want to hear the announcers bring a radio or watch the game on tape. Plus, it is easy for the guys to get lazy and rely on the commentators to get points over instead of having to work to get things over. Also if a guy is cheating, I can’t look stupid and not call it. Our referees will look even dumber for missing the cheating if a live mic is TELLING him there is cheating. They are already seen as blind by the fans, let’s not go out of our way to make them deaf too!
(Brian Thompson may be reached by e-mail at bptbookings@yahoo.com)
