The Rising Phoenix Project Introduction Part 1

 

From 1998 to 2008 the beauty I originally saw in professional wrestling disappeared from my view. My first trainer Ian, ‘Tyler Sylus’, known as Kid Grunge in the mid 90s, warned me that there were far more negative elements than positive ones in the wrestling business. Ian was someone I respected and listened to, but I thought my positive outlook would outshine any negative elements. In 2008, I realized I was wrong. The scales were unbalanced and I lost my battle with the negative side of professional wrestling. Although I had obtained all my personal goals, I wasn’t able to tip the scale back. With that being said, I don’t want to confuse people – there were, and still are many positive elements to be found in the wrestlers, promoters and fans. However, the unfortunate truth is that there are indeed more negatives than positives, causing the scale to lean toward the negative.

I saw this negativity for myself, smeared all over wrestling messages boards. I also heard it from the mouths of everyday people as I tried to hand them a flyer for one of our events. Proof of the overwhelming negativity in wrestling can also be found in a survey I conducted in 2007. We decided to have 15 000 flyers delivered before our final show of the year. The flyer itself was very professional looking, featuring the artwork of an accomplished illustrator named Derek Laufman. In addition to the general information, the flyer also stated in big bold letters, ‘present this flyer at the door and receive a 50% discount off entry’. Prior to this, we had always hand delivered flyers ourselves in parking lots of entertainment establishments like bars, clubs, and movie theaters. For this show we decided to take a different approach and had them delivered through The Mississauga News. By hiring a company to deliver them, we were able to target people living within a 3 kilometer radius of our venue. Most could have walked or ridden a bike to St. John’s Hall.

That evening we had a solid show planned, as it was our final show of the year. I knew core UWA fans would create an extra intense atmosphere during this show, which would be an amazing energy for new fans to feel. The day of the event came and we received only one flyer of the 15 000 that were delivered. Needless to say, I was very surprised. We still had a strong crowd of about 500 people that night, but I was expecting at least another 100 new fans. Mid-way through the show, the man who presented the flyer for the discount came back to the entry door. My mom, who was working the door still talks about how happy this guy was. With a big smile on his face, he handed my mom $5.00 and said, “I felt like I ripped you off.” After hearing this story, I felt that it was all worth it for that ultimate compliment.

The man then became a loyal UWA fan, coming to every show. However, the negative thought of wrestling in people’s minds still outweighed the positive. The stat is right there – 1 in 15 000 people living within a 3 kilometer radius of a wrestling event actually had the desire to come. Maybe they were busy, or maybe they just didn’t care about the ‘fake’ sport of professional wrestling.