----This was posted about 10 days ago on www.wrestlingnewscenter.com and I have been meaning to post it here. It goes back to something I said once on the radio show, I think this site is not only a news or opinion site, but can be a teaching tool for indy wrestling. Billy Russ and Tony Watts have to be given some credit here. Russ and Sarge O'Reilly helped put the XOW name over in this area - in towns that would have never known who or what XOW was with their invasion angles. I also don't blame Watts a bit here standing his ground about not paying extra. As it always seems in this area, if you have just a little bit of success - people hate on you. It should only matter about the ring product - if 10 guys can put on a show in the area - let their talent stand out and let the fans decide who puts on the best show. Sometimes it hurts when people keep seeing shit, because then they think all wrestling is shit. Wonder why most shows in this area only draw 100?? Because people are tired of being burned by watching people that would be best sitting in the crowd than performing.
Dear fan,
It had been brought to our attention that some people have been making claims that XOW is shut down. This is not true but we do have to resolve an issue before we get our 2009 – 2010 license.
On June 13th 2009 XOW put on a show at Thunder on Water in Grenada, Ms. in front of over 300 fans. That sounds good but we had to turn away well over another 100 plus people because they didn’t have a place to sit. This was not something that XOW had control over because we were told that we would have 800 plus chairs for people to sit and when the day of the show rolled around only 310 chairs were at the event. When Tony Watts confronted Joe Carter about the additional chairs Mr. Carter said that’s all he can get because no one would return his calls for other chairs.
In all fairness Mr. Carter worked hard to get the building ready for the event and we appreciate his hard work but, when you have talent booked for a show you know how many people you need at the event to make sure everyone is paid for coming and performing and 310 seats isn’t going to do it and finding out at the last minuet doesn’t help either. So the show went on as planned and it was a sell out for the seating we had but it was not going to be enough. Thunder on Water had a representative there to count the number of people that came to the even so the City of Grenada could get %10 of the ticket sales. The representative counted everyone that came into the building including family members that most of the time gets in free so the count was off for those who paid and those who were family members that got into the event free.
At the end of the night not everyone got paid, some were shorted because we had to turn people away for lack of seating which once again was not the fault of XOW. With this being said the City of Grenada did not get 10% of the ticket sales. Promoter Tony Watts was contacted about this matter and explained that the workers had to get paid and since the promise of seating wasn’t met there wasn’t enough money to pay the City of Grenada at that time.
Now fast forward to July 3, 2009 Tony Watts went to Tupelo, MS. to the re-opening of TFW to renew his promoters license where he was told that he would have to pay the City of Grenada the 10% owed before he could get his license renewed for 2009 – 2010. The amount owed was based off of the number of people who were in the building and not the number of ticket sales, so Watts challenged the amount and the fact that the agreement made by himself and Joe Carter on seating was not met.
Sammy Hall has spoken with Joe carter and explained to him that the money will be paid to the City of Grenada based off of ticket sales and not off of the head count taken at the door. So as of right now XOW and the Mississippi Athletic Commission are making arrangements to get the money to the City of Grenada by Friday July 10, 2009 for the total ticket sales then XOW will purchase it’s 2009 – 2010 promoters license.
So any person or organization boasting or assuming they have shut down XOW is sadly mistaken and looking to boost there own ego. You did not do this and it’s a sad fact that you are trying to take credit for something that would seem so low down and underhanded. If you have a ring and you want to rent it out to other shows then go ahead and do it and have a good time. That doesn’t hurt us one little bit, but nice try. It’s back stabbing, dog eat dog, stuff like this that hurts the wrestling business and the fans can and do figure out what’s going on sooner or later when 3 different promotions come to there town within a year. If wrestling would be about having fun and entertaining people like it was in the good old days, then more people would show up and everyone would have fun. This will never happen again with so many people having a hidden agenda to dominate the wrestling business so just stop being a hypocritical bottom feeder because it will never happen and you might think you are living a dream but you are only living a lie. If you want to make a difference try working with other organizations for the fun and entertainment value for the sake of the fans and those of us who love this business and not for self preservation.
Thanks you for your support and we look forward to seeing you in a town near you soon,
