Want to Watch Wrestling? Good Luck
This is the third article in the series about the goals of RealProWrestling. This week we want to focus in on one aspect – where fans can see great wrestling.
Winning the Olympics is the highest achievement in wrestling and this is a great goal. Most wrestling fans would love to travel to Athens or Beijing and watch the best compete head to head. However, for most of us this is impossible. We don’t have the money or the time needed to see the Olympics in person.
The alternative is to watch the games on television. With over 150 channels of television one would think wrestling would get plenty of coverage. But the three or four channels that cover the Games leave wrestling out. We can watch somebody from a foreign paddle a canoe or bike through the woods, but the fifth most popular participant sport in the United States is rarely covered.
When it is, is usually is on between 1 and 7 am in the morning. Usually we are not told the exact time they will show wrestling so VCRs cannot tape this whole time block. This leads to great frustration on the part of fans. For example, when Rulon Gardner won his gold medal match against Alexander Krealin, one of RPW’s founder’s video tape ran out within the first minute of the start of the match.
Since NBC owns the rights and does not reair the match, trying to get this match to watch is difficult. The same goes for many other past Olympic champions’ matches. Most wrestlers have not seen the matches of wrestling’s greats Dan Gable, John Smith, Bruce Baumgartner, and Cael Sanderson.
The bottom line is this: if you want to watch great wrestling, the Olympics is not the place to look. Besides they only come around every four years. While we wish this will change in the future, there is nothing indicating this yet.
The second place to look for good wrestling is USA Wrestling events, the US Open and the World Team Trials. These are great events and are worth seeing if you can make it. However, cost and time make this unpractical for most fans. The US Open is held in Las Vegas over a couple days and most people cannot afford to make the trip. Even if they did, they would be bombarded with all the vices of Sin City, not a great place to bring one’s children.
If the US Open does get broadcast on television, there is little marketing to promote the low budget production. Even many of the championship matches never get aired. Those that do suffer from uninspiring camera work and editing.
Another thing bad about the US Open, even if you did go to the event, is that you would still suffer from terrible seating. The venue is a convention hall with over 20 mats. Even the best seats only give you a view of two or three mats. Between a poor PA system and no alternative method for seeing who is currently wrestling, and fans crowding around the edge of the mats, one would be very disappointed in the matches they miss out on.
The only thing that still makes this a great event is that no matter which match you see, they usually all are great matches. Also, if one is willing to stand all day, the proximity to the mat is great. But asking a kid to stand eight to twelve hours a day is too much even for kids that like wrestling.
USAW admits the situation is not ideal and states the event is “not for the fans.” The point we wish to make is not judging USAW. We are sure there are reasons we do not know about and should be factored in when making a judgment. Our point is this: Like the Olympics, this event is not a great place for wrestling fans to easily see wrestling.
USAW does put on an event that is a good show. This is the World Team Trials. This even travels around to various cities in the nation. If it comes to your town, we encourage you to attend for you will not be disappointed. The wrestling is great, the seating is good, and the cost is not too great.
That is if you live close to the event. For those who fly into the three day event, it still costs over a thousand dollars per person by the time you add up flights, hotel, meals, transportation, and tickets. Also, most people would have to take time off work to see the wrestling.
Most of the time this event is never broadcast on television and when it is, suffers from the same flaws as the US Open broadcast. Many times the broadcast times are also poor. We’re lucky if we can get it on cable on 9 am in the morning.
If video tapes or DVDs of these events were produced, that would be a good way for people to see the matches but this is not currently done. Especially not in an exhaustive way. We think this is financially feasible but would only be one small step to solving the problem of fans being able to see wrestling.
Even college wrestling suffers from many of the same problems – poor venues, little of no marketing, and low budget television production if they are lucky. Tournaments face the same budgetary and time issues as USAW events. The NCAA tournament is the one tournament that is successful but again costs over a thousand dollars per person on average. When it is on television, the production is sub par and the marketing and promotions negligible.
So, we conclude the best wrestling in our nation is impossible for most wrestling fans to see. Is it any surprise that our sport is suffering from budget cuts and perceived lack of interest even as our actual participation numbers rise? Next week we will continue looking at the problems that occur for wrestling fans to see great wrestling. RealProWrestling has overcome all the problems mentioned so far. But can we overcome the remaining problems that exists? We’ll finish this investigation next week.
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