Transcript
Speaker: Hey, pal.
Speaker: We're live, pals.
Speaker: Or really, surprise pals.
Speaker: A day early this week.
Speaker: Not that we've ever really had any poise and regularity about what we did here at Hey, Pal Uncoachable.
Speaker: But thank you very much for being part of us and welcoming me into your ear holes once again.
Speaker: Bit of an earlier episode this week because we're doing a little bit of a promotion, not the cash for comments or anything like that, but a place that I have a lot of affinity for in EPW Perth.
Speaker: You might have picked up their name once or 3,000 times so far on the show.
Speaker: They've got their big show, not Paul White, because there's no more BS there, but they've got their big wrestling show as this goes to air tomorrow, December 16 in Perth at Willerton Stadium.
Speaker: So Willerton Stadium, of course, have got a little bit of experience there in the NBL1 with the Willerton Tigers as well, who are a bit of a powerhouse of a basketball club.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Long story short, I'm getting coached up this week on how to do a wrestling show or, you know, how to do a local production or whatnot with one of the directors of EPW, Bobby Marshall.
Speaker: Now, Bobby has been a colorful character for the EPW product in front of the camera for so long, but in this chat this week, we talk about his role behind the scenes and the things he finds, I was going to say self-true and evident, but maybe I've been listening to too many history podcasts or too much American television.
Speaker: You know, it's probably...
Speaker: One of all of them.
Speaker: But what he's done behind the scenes and what he looks for in the show.
Speaker: And some tips for people looking to put on shows or to become wrestlers and things like that.
Speaker: So I'm going to keep this short and sharp.
Speaker: We're going to shut this cake hole up.
Speaker: And we're going to go straight to our guest, bid you further ado.
Speaker: I'm not sure that's anything.
Speaker: But anyway, without further ado was what I was going for.
Speaker: Here's our conversation.
Speaker: How to put together a wrestling show with Bobby Marshall.
Speaker: Our guest this week, well, he is known around the traps in the professional wrestling circuit as Bobby Marshall.
Speaker: He's done it all.
Speaker: He's wrestled overseas.
Speaker: He's main evented and been a champion at the local EPW Perth Wrestling Company.
Speaker: But what we're going to do today, we're going to drill more into his brain about what it actually takes to put together a wrestling show.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: With this in mind, if you're not a big wrestling fan, I think there's a lot of parallels with putting on a local stage show and things like that that you're going to get a lot of value out of.
Speaker: So we're going to talk not so much about the Bobby Marshall character.
Speaker: So if you're here for This Is Your Life, Bobby Marshall, probably not the show for you.
Speaker: But if you want to know This Is Your Life, Bobby Marshall, how do we put together a wrestling show?
Speaker: This is the one for you.
Speaker: So without further ado, here we are.
Speaker: Bob, hey, pal.
Speaker: Yo, Eric, how's it going?
Speaker: Yeah, really good.
Speaker: Thank you very much for joining me.
Speaker: I know it's a busy week for you this week and everyone involved with EPW with the big reawakening show coming up at Willerton Stadium on Saturday.
Speaker: And as I say to all my guests, the one thing you should do with your podcast, date the episode so it's completely relevant next week.
Speaker: But I appreciate your time and we'll talk a bit about that show.
Speaker: But what we always talk about before we get into the crux of the issue about, you know, whether it's putting together the show or whatnot, but a little bit about you and how you got to where you are.
Speaker: So tell me a little bit about your early life, Bob, and, you know, early fandoms as a child, whether it's sports or wrestling or what have you.
Speaker: Yeah, look, I mean, as a kid, I was into footy.
Speaker: That was it for me.
Speaker: I was only footy.
Speaker: I was a dog's fan as well, as same as yourself.
Speaker: I used to love Peter Sumich as a kid, though, funnily enough.
Speaker: But yeah, no, all footy.
Speaker: I didn't get into wrestling until a bit later in life.
Speaker: It wasn't until I was a teenager.
Speaker: The Attitude Era got me in.
Speaker: You know, Rock, Foley, Undertaker.
Speaker: They were the ones that reeled me in.
Speaker: Probably about grade seven-ish, I want to say.
Speaker: And yeah, never really looked back after that.
Speaker: Yeah, the Attitude Era, as listeners knowing who got that affinity for wrestling, was the big boom period, one of the big boom periods of professional wrestling.
Speaker: One in the 80s with Hulk Hogan and then one in the late 90s there with The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, that sort of WWF explosion, the evil Mr. McMahon and things like that.
Speaker: So it was all the rage around schoolyards and a lot of us from that era, once they got in, yeah, hook, line and sinker and stuck with it for decades since...
Speaker: you mentioned a few names there were those the wrestlers that really caught your eye or what who were the wrestlers that you really got behind and why was that oh look i i loved early on i love i used to love the rock when he was uh when he was a bad guy and i loved the undertaker the aura around him was always bloody brilliant uh foley was just um the things he did you know were just amazing really like he's just a um as yourself you know you're a big big mcfolley fan as well and um
Speaker: You know, he was just amazing.
Speaker: And Angle, Kurt Angle was someone I really, really fell in love with when he came along after a little bit.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: Yeah, I'm not sure exactly why I was drawn to those guys in particular.
Speaker: I mean, they are the best of the best, right?
Speaker: Like throwing Triple H and Shawn Michaels, and they're sort of the greatest wrestlers on a lot of people's greatest of all time list.
Speaker: Yeah, sport for cheers at that time.
Speaker: That's the one, right?
Speaker: They were good at what they did, and I was just a normal wrestling fan who fell in love with them for the same reason everyone else did.
Speaker: They were just good at what they did.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I just want to assure our listening viewership right now as well.
Speaker: I'm not just putting on a voice and becoming this Bobby Marshall character.
Speaker: He's already mentioned he's a Bulldogs fan.
Speaker: Sorry to mention that he's a big Mick Foley fan.
Speaker: I'm not doing your character piece here.
Speaker: It's not a breakdown.
Speaker: It's not schizophrenia.
Speaker: I swear to goodness.
Speaker: We are very like-minded in some ways and not so like-minded in other ways.
Speaker: So there will be some varied opinions, but we've got a good taste in athletes to be honest, or we just like heartbreak.
Speaker: I don't know what it is.
Speaker: Just hate ourselves.
Speaker: Just enough.
Speaker: It's that sadism because obviously with, and I don't know if you know this here listening viewership, but the Bulldogs won a flag in 2016.
Speaker: But up until that time, it was a lot of heartache.
Speaker: And obviously Mick Foley used to put himself through a lot of hell as well.
Speaker: So maybe it is that sadism or masochism, whatever the right word is that we're in.
Speaker: um you know stuck into there but as you mentioned there the wrestling itch never really left you um and then you know as luck would have it you found your way into becoming a part of the local uh company here in western australia epw perth tell us a little bit of um how that journey happened uh so i mean early on it was uh my mate tim it was my school school mate where we
Speaker: were wrestling in his backyard with Dan, my current tag partner now still.
Speaker: And we were, you know, the same way a lot of teenagers get into wrestling was just wrestling, putting some mattresses down outside and finding something to jump off.
Speaker: And then we, I think we saw an article in the newspaper of Mikey, one of the ECW at the time guys who almost died at a local show.
Speaker: Were you at that show or you just saw the article?
Speaker: No, I just saw the article afterwards.
Speaker: That was the first I'd ever heard of local wrestling in Perth, you know, and it was like Christmas.
Speaker: Like I'd never crossed my mind for one second that you could do wrestling in Perth.
Speaker: And I had plans to go to Sydney.
Speaker: I think I was going to move to Sydney, you know, as a 17, 18-year-old, whatever it was, when I was making big life plans.
Speaker: Exactly when you should be doing it.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I think the only promotion I knew was, who are they?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I can't remember now.
Speaker: Anyway, some promotion over race.
Speaker: They're the only company I kind of knew about.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then I saw that article, I was like, you beauty.
Speaker: There is wrestling in Perth.
Speaker: And then so we tried to get hold of ECW and I rang up.
Speaker: Someone answered the phone and I said, hey, I've been wrestling in the backyard for 12 months.
Speaker: I want to come on.
Speaker: I can wrestle for you guys.
Speaker: And I got told, not interested.
Speaker: Oh, really?
Speaker: I would have.
Speaker: imagine you'd have had some of the guys have been around and I probably won't probably throw them in the muck about it, but I think one of them might be Tyler Jacobs.
Speaker: If they hear that, probably start rubbing their hands together going, okay, let's get this backyard guy in here and then show him the ropes.
Speaker: But they just flat out refused.
Speaker: No, they just refused.
Speaker: They said, no, thank you.
Speaker: And then we found out later they were doing a training camp.
Speaker: Oh, no, I think that we actually came and helped out at a show.
Speaker: I want to say.
Speaker: We asked how
Speaker: We ran up again at some point and we said, how can we get involved?
Speaker: And they said, come down to the show and help set up.
Speaker: So we did that for a couple of shows where we were just helping out with whatever.
Speaker: And then eventually they did a training camp and we went to that.
Speaker: And, you know, within a few months I was wrestling on shows and just kind of went from there.
Speaker: Yep, yep.
Speaker: And so, correct me if I'm wrong, your first, I guess, what they call the main shows now, but your first main show was a fade-of-wall-way match.
Speaker: I just said, we won't go too deep into your career, but what was that like to actually debut in terms of a, quote-unquote, proper show against versus, you know, the backyard mattress stuff that, you know, you've been fooling around with?
Speaker: Good question.
Speaker: God, it's a while back now.
Speaker: But, you know, I think it was really nice.
Speaker: I think we were the...
Speaker: It was myself, Shane, CJL and Kyle and we trained hard together.
Speaker: You know, like we were, you know, we were just psychos.
Speaker: We loved it.
Speaker: We were down there four or five, four nights a week.
Speaker: I think that were the only times we were allowed to be there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and we were doing the long journey there and the long journey home and we were just there until they kicked us out, basically.
Speaker: Was that the Maddington days?
Speaker: Back in Maddington, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, we just lived it and breathed it.
Speaker: So that was, it felt like a natural progression for us at the time.
Speaker: Shows were a lot easier to break onto back then, you know, like it needs to be said where nowadays you're not going to get looking until you've been training for, you know, well over, like we're talking years now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: To get in close.
Speaker: That's just the reality of the talent that we have now.
Speaker: Whereas at the time, the guys had only, they only had a 12 month head start, a lot of the guys.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But anyway, it was nice.
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: But at the time, it felt like natural progression.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: And you talk about progress, as I said, we won't run through all the highlights of it, which you are a very accomplished wrestler.
Speaker: I know you'd probably downplay it from time to time, but, and of course, it's not a video podcast, but he's raising his eyebrow at me.
Speaker: But so let's talk about the progress.
Speaker: You did go over to the States to do a little bit of training there and sort of see if you could take it, I guess, to that next step or see what that was like.
Speaker: Just give us a little bit of what that involved in a nutshell and any sort of maybe
Speaker: favorite memories or things that occurred over there that you can probably share on a podcast.
Speaker: I should.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Look, I think I didn't really know what I wanted, you know, like, I mean, not just in wrestling, but in life, I mean, I still barely know what I want in life, but in wrestling, I, I just, again, like it just, it was the next step, you know, like to take where Mike, I think Mike went there first and he,
Speaker: found a place that was with Marquez down the LA dojo, the New Japan dojo running out of Los Angeles.
Speaker: And Mike and Jag went over there and Dave and they kind of got the contacts.
Speaker: So we had a place that we could go and train.
Speaker: So again, I was really lucky.
Speaker: I was just following in the footsteps of the guys that had already laid down the groundwork, same as when I started wrestling with ECW at the time.
Speaker: And then same as going to the States where you're just kind of following the guys that had already been.
Speaker: and yeah that was brilliant you know like the first time I went there I was probably a bit I mean I've always been immature that was the problem so I didn't really appreciate what I had at the time as you don't in fairness you know like to myself but we were training with Nakamura who's obviously you know he's quite a well-known wrestler and his training was just
Speaker: unbelievable three months of training with him you know three days a week and then you go and wrestle two or three different matches every weekend like your your skill level just explodes you know really you get you know 12 18 months of worth of wrestling wrestling
Speaker: in a few months.
Speaker: You can just see that even in that time, just the sort of calibre that you're working with, you can't not improve, really, unless your attitude's not there for it.
Speaker: Yeah, well, to be fair, which mine wasn't, really.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: At the end of the day, don't worry about that.
Speaker: I mean, look, don't get me wrong, I still went there and I still went hard.
Speaker: I was there with Mike, and Mike's like, he only has one gear.
Speaker: Yes, yeah.
Speaker: And so that was fun.
Speaker: He challenged me, obviously, all the time.
Speaker: He always has.
Speaker: And so, you know, it was just... But I think the class I was in, half of them have ended up with, like, WWE contracts, you know?
Speaker: Like, it was... I was there training with, like, Machine Gun.
Speaker: And, you know, Rocky Romero was there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where did Kozlov?
Speaker: He ended up in AAA, I think, for a fair while.
Speaker: I think he retired.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, like, there was just some... And then opposite Mike being there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: it was just a really high quality school.
Speaker: And, you know, like I was comfortably the worst wrestler in that group, which was fantastic.
Speaker: You know, that's kind of the best place to be in that sense.
Speaker: You know, like I just, I would have liked to have embraced the technical side a lot more, whereas that was like a weak spot for me.
Speaker: Always has been in wrestling.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it was a golden opportunity there to tidy up this thing that I was bad at.
Speaker: And instead of,
Speaker: fixing it, I just ignored it and stuck with the things that I did well.
Speaker: So that's kind of one of those things I look at as a huge missed opportunity.
Speaker: Again, not the only person in the world that has done that in life.
Speaker: But yeah, I think particularly at the New Japan Dojo, they put so much onus on that map-based wrestling.
Speaker: We did jujitsu every week, kickboxing every week.
Speaker: But it does definitely give you, because, you know, you're a naturally charismatic person.
Speaker: I mean, from a professional point of view and also from a personal point of view, you can be a bit of a ringleader at times.
Speaker: And we don't need to go too deep into some of those stories in Criminator's Soul.
Speaker: Probably the best, yeah.
Speaker: No, that's a whole other show.
Speaker: But you are a naturally charismatic person, but you talk about how that emphasis on the ring work and the technical thing.
Speaker: And this is kind of tied into, you know, the next thing I was going to ask you about, you
Speaker: what you were going to, what that training abroad did teach you about pro wrestling and how you kind of apply that to now in your current role with more of a hands-on behind the scenes role with how you put together EPW, because certainly there's that appreciation for really good wrestling itself, the actual art form on the map.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, look, I mean, I think the,
Speaker: I mean, some of the biggest lessons I've probably learned were just about being flexible and adaptable, you know, and like having a plan, but then being ready to put that plan in the bin and make another plan pretty quickly.
Speaker: You know, always have 12 escape routes, 10 options.
Speaker: And I think wrestling in the States is like that because no one knows who you are.
Speaker: You know, you go to a random promotion and
Speaker: you might be wrestling in front of 15 to 20 people when you get there and the promoter doesn't know you, doesn't care about you because you're just a guy from Australia who's there for, you know, three months.
Speaker: So he's not going to, you know, invest any time into you.
Speaker: You're there to put someone else over.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But at the same time, you won't get as many bookings as you can in that three months.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you got to make, you know, you have to do what the promoter wants you to do, stand out while you're doing it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And promoters are clever.
Speaker: They know everything.
Speaker: when you're going into business for yourself, they're not, you know, like they're not silly.
Speaker: We all know, you know, like, so my thing I used to do all the time was like head spike DDTs thinking I was making the other guy look good when full well, all I was doing is making myself look good, you know, like that was all the point with that thing.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: You're showing the attention to yourself.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Like, you know, when you're putting the attention on yourself, we all know.
Speaker: We all know what someone's doing.
Speaker: The other one is the screaming, you know, when someone gives you a move and guys, they'll scream and they do it because it puts your attention on them, not because it puts your attention on the guy doing the move.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway, that was a big tangent.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: We've allowed for tangents here.
Speaker: Well, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: But the point is it's about...
Speaker: you had to learn to work within the confines of what you'd been given, but you still had to look good doing it.
Speaker: And the way you looked good doing it was by doing it really well and just executing really well.
Speaker: You know, you had to be physical and you had to be clean and crisp.
Speaker: You had to look good and...
Speaker: sell well and as all those and you know that's funny like yeah it doesn't matter whether it's wrestling whether it's like writing an assignment whether it's i shouldn't playing basketball or football you know or it's just the fundamentals you have to do the fundamentals really really really well and that is actually how you stand out you know and i think i'm someone who's guilty of forgetting that from time to time and i you know try to lean on out the box ideas and um
Speaker: high spots and whatever, you know, big bumps and to get over when really, God, this has already been beneficial for me just being out of some of these things.
Speaker: This is now a therapy session rather than... It is, man.
Speaker: I think I said to you, I was looking forward to actually kind of getting some of the stuff in the brain out because it means I get to listen to...
Speaker: the stuff that I don't do these days that I've forgotten about.
Speaker: I've forgotten someone who, when I started working offshore, which meant that I was away for six months a year, and my skill level as a wrestler fell off a cliff because I wasn't training anymore.
Speaker: And then when I got home, I was trying to maintain home life and relationships and whatever else.
Speaker: So training just became, you know, not a priority.
Speaker: And then to cover that on show day, I would just take bigger and bigger risks to get over.
Speaker: That was what I felt I needed to do.
Speaker: And in the end, Don almost died, you know, like I almost killed a guy in the ring.
Speaker: basically, like, because we just... I say I almost killed a guy, not that I almost killed a guy.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, so to just clarify there, it wasn't necessarily that you lost control and went into this, you know, murder attack.
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: Because you just did an... Like, something that really didn't have as much protection to the moon, you took a risk.
Speaker: Yeah, we just ran a match that was essentially a stunt show, you know?
Speaker: Okay, yeah.
Speaker: We...
Speaker: we didn't, we just forgot really.
Speaker: Well, I forgot, I should say, like, I think I was still like a senior wrestler at the time.
Speaker: And, um, instead of putting a match together, you know, like going back to these fundamentals, we just went, just forgot it all and not forgot it all, ignored it all really was the right thing.
Speaker: And anyway, um,
Speaker: But I mean, the thing is, already now with what you're talking about, you can talk about how, you know, you've learned from that.
Speaker: It's all well and good now to, you know, think of it so many years later.
Speaker: But there's going to be people who are, you know, the age that you were back then and perhaps even younger looking to get on whether it's an EPW show, whether it's a...
Speaker: pro wrestling show, a local pro wrestling show across the nation, across the world really, probably thinking those same things.
Speaker: Do I need to do more outlandish things or when really the fundamentals work every time?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: They're not as much fun though.
Speaker: That's the reality.
Speaker: We got the no ring promotion and it worries me because I look at that and I look at say someone like me, what I would have been like
Speaker: somewhere like that 10, 15 years ago, man, I'd be fucking dead by now, you know?
Speaker: Like just, cause it's a, you don't need to,
Speaker: learn to bump when you're not bumping, basically.
Speaker: You don't need to sell when you're just getting hit with something hard.
Speaker: You don't need to worry about your technique.
Speaker: Because it does hurt.
Speaker: Because it just hurts.
Speaker: And all you need to do is, or even if it doesn't hurt, that's cool too.
Speaker: If someone smashes you in the face with, I don't know, like a plant glass,
Speaker: and you sell it, great.
Speaker: If you don't sell it, that's actually fine too, you know, because you're just going to smash it with a pint glass.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It only worries me because of how I would have... How I believe I would have turned out.
Speaker: And it's worth noting that we...
Speaker: It's not like if you wrestle in EPW in a ring that you will not get injured or not get hurt.
Speaker: Jesus Christ, poor old Dave, he's been wrestling forever.
Speaker: Stiff Breeze will concuss him these days.
Speaker: Myself, I've got my neck shot, back shot.
Speaker: It's not like what we do is safe and what these other places do is unsafe.
Speaker: It's all unsafe.
Speaker: It just worries me what would have happened to me way back when if I had this easy...
Speaker: avenue for a pot because I already am someone who falls into that trap too often.
Speaker: But maybe other people are smarter at handling it than I am and than I would have been.
Speaker: I try not to lose sight of that just because something's not for me doesn't mean it's not for everyone.
Speaker: It doesn't mean it doesn't have a place.
Speaker: Yeah, and it was interesting because I had James Hartness on the show a few weeks back and basically, again, I'm not putting on a voice and being Bob here, but I've got a very similar view to that style of wrestling despite Mick Foley being...
Speaker: my favorite wrestler of all time.
Speaker: And it was interesting listening to James talk about sort of how they approached it and sort of where that line was and where that line wasn't.
Speaker: And you're right.
Speaker: It can be a scary thing to think about, but it was a, you know, it was a fascinating lesson there when they were talking about that for sure.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: So you've now put some miles on the road, so to speak, and you have much more of a hands-on role behind the scenes at EPW.
Speaker: You still wrestle, which we will do a little shill for that at the end of the episode because you've got a big match coming up, which I'm probably the most excited for on the show.
Speaker: I'm not just saying that because you're the guest this week.
Speaker: So you have now transitioned in the last few years to a bit of a different role.
Speaker: Tell us a little bit about what you do then and sort of how you fell into that role in terms of the management side of EPW.
Speaker: David Price- A look so i'm one of the directors of the company.
Speaker: David Price- So i'm so responsible, I guess, for the overall direction that the company sort of takes.
Speaker: David Price- Some of the long term planning short term planning day to day.
Speaker: David Price- execution, you know we run on.
Speaker: with volunteers, you know, kind of doing things.
Speaker: So a lot of the day-to-day stuff does just fall on us to try to do as best we can.
Speaker: We do our best, but sometimes, well, most of the time we feel pretty poorly.
Speaker: You know, like we rely on every now and then we get someone who comes along and he has like a real skill.
Speaker: Like Dale at the moment, Dale coming along has just been, you know, unreal for us because he actually has a business mind, which is not something that we've had
Speaker: for really ever.
Speaker: Not to knock your Dave's and your Shel's who have obviously been done exactly what I'm doing, where that role of someone who we run on passion really.
Speaker: But passion doesn't tidy up your product on Facebook.
Speaker: It's just... When you can combine passion and that real world skill or those transferable business mindsets, yeah.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: And that's where Dale has just been an absolute weapon where he just has this great ability to take a step back and not look at us as a pro wrestling thing, like a hobby, a community, whatever we are, a club.
Speaker: He goes, okay, well, he looks at it like a business.
Speaker: And then he makes business decisions and grown-up decisions, mature decisions.
Speaker: And that's what we need a lot of the time.
Speaker: He's unreal for me.
Speaker: And what I love about him is that he just, he says yes a lot.
Speaker: He says yes to everything.
Speaker: He rarely said no.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because, you know, he kind of, I think he just believes that if he just keeps saying yes, what happens is if an idea is bad, well, we work it out at some point, you know, we don't sign anything.
Speaker: It's a bad idea, but maybe he might realize something's a bad idea, but he would say yes anyway.
Speaker: because he knows there's still 12 steps to go before anything happens.
Speaker: And by the time I get to the sixth step, I'm going, oh, hang on a second.
Speaker: This is actually a terrible idea.
Speaker: If you don't want to do it, then we don't have to.
Speaker: And I go, okay, well, you know, so he's, he's, he's been just brilliant in that sense.
Speaker: But anyway, sorry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So how do I get,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How'd you get into that part of it?
Speaker: Because you, you did mention, and when this isn't a show to go into like every bit of Bobby Marshall's life, but you had mentioned there that you had been sort of doing a bit more offshore stuff and things like that.
Speaker: So you had still been wrestling, but like, how do you make that transition to go, look, I want to get more involved at this level.
Speaker: And, and, you know, as a director of the company.
Speaker: Um, you know, I, I guess I've always been over opinionated and, and, um,
Speaker: passionate about that EPW.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I'm not a hundred percent sure why something that I'll probably need to work through with a therapist at some point.
Speaker: Look, I'm not offended because I thought I was doing that role, but you, you mean an actual one with some sort of degree behind it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Look, I mean, I'm like, I'll gravitate.
Speaker: I've always gravitated towards the, you know, the main decision maker kind of spot for one reason or another.
Speaker: I've always tried to, to climb as, as far as I can go in EPW.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And there was a time when I was trying to kind of bully my way onto the management team, really.
Speaker: Well, I mean, literally, like I just... How do you do that?
Speaker: How do you figure that?
Speaker: I literally... Well, so I'll just basically... I think I used to just come to shows and watch when I sort of stopped wrestling for a bit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there were a few things.
Speaker: I just didn't like the vibe of the shows.
Speaker: I felt like we were losing our way a little bit.
Speaker: And so then I just sort of invited myself to management meetings.
Speaker: And I had no decision-making power there.
Speaker: I was basically there to sit, sit.
Speaker: I was just inviting myself along and I just had to sit down and, um, you know, every time anything came up, it would come to a vote.
Speaker: And then everyone in the room would remind me that I don't get a vote every time.
Speaker: And then after a while, I, you know, like a spot opened up and I've been in management meetings for two years or something and started doing our marketing.
Speaker: Cause we had no one who did marketing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, um,
Speaker: You know, I just kind of went up from there where, you know, I'd been to enough management meetings where I was able to get into a management role.
Speaker: And then at some point, I think I was always getting in trouble.
Speaker: I was one of these guys who could never stay in my lane.
Speaker: You know, like I could do, I was doing marketing, but I was still hassling the book as something fierce, you know, like a
Speaker: And then I'd be hassling, I don't know, the trainers about the way training was being done and all this stuff that you really shouldn't be doing.
Speaker: And I know now that it was not the right approach, but like everything, we had to learn it on the go.
Speaker: No one taught me how to manage a wrestling company.
Speaker: I just had to kind of work it out, really.
Speaker: And so everything I was doing was wrong, but I was.
Speaker: I was dabbling in too many different things.
Speaker: And the only position that allowed me to dabble in as many things as I wanted with no one being going to tell me off was as a director of the company.
Speaker: So that was kind of how I ended up in that spot, really.
Speaker: And then from there, I was able to learn to pull that back a little bit and let people do their job.
Speaker: Slowly, slowly.
Speaker: Took a long time.
Speaker: It's interesting you say that because like you guys, you know, I say you guys, I'm now like a year removed.
Speaker: So it's now you guys, not us, but it's us still.
Speaker: But it's just interesting.
Speaker: You mentioned before, it's like the community group that it is still very much that you're a business, but you're a community group.
Speaker: So you have to sort of weigh out this.
Speaker: How do you still remain, you know, I guess profitable.
Speaker: And I'm not saying like, you're going to be sitting there like Scrooge McDuck and swimming in vaults of money, but enough money to keep the lights on, keep ticking over, keep on
Speaker: providing opportunities for people to learn the wrestling side of things to be involved in wrestling shows but you've also got to have that community group atmosphere almost like a a local dance group or even like you know there are parallels with you know what I've previously done and what we do at a cricket club you've got to be able to manage those volunteers have everyone be valued and and be of value at the same time it is a delicate balance there that you don't really understand until you're in a director role at that you know top end of the management
Speaker: Oh, look, it's tough.
Speaker: Like that's, I mean, that's the, that's the reality of what we do.
Speaker: I remember very early on Gemma, who's a, like, you know, she's a, a long time, so EPW, I'm not sure.
Speaker: Family member.
Speaker: Family member.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She, she was, she helped write all our policies.
Speaker: She's very switched on as far as running a business and, you know, like management goes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: HR.
Speaker: And one of the first things she said when I was trying to pick her brain about running EPW, where she goes, well, are you a business or are you a club?
Speaker: Like, you know, you have one or the other.
Speaker: You can't be both.
Speaker: And then I have always tried to be both.
Speaker: I've never been able to pick one or the other.
Speaker: And, you know, the reality is I think EPW will always be hamstrung as long as someone like me is running the show.
Speaker: That's just, that's the reality, I think.
Speaker: How do you think I struggle with?
Speaker: Well, just like these, where I think that if you had...
Speaker: Say someone like a Roman who runs MCW.
Speaker: He's the consensus best wrestling promoter in Australia as far as the local promotion.
Speaker: MCW is the top, tip top.
Speaker: So let's say he moved to Perth and he said, hey, I'd love to run EPW.
Speaker: Then we'd obviously say, cool, Matt, no worries.
Speaker: It's all yours.
Speaker: We would become a pro wrestling business overnight.
Speaker: And I think our attendance would pick up.
Speaker: Our standards would pick up.
Speaker: our profits would pick up.
Speaker: Like it would be a... But with that being said, I think we would also, within a couple of years, we'd probably lose 50% of our people.
Speaker: We may not be able to... I think we'd always retain the training school, but I think our shows would become... You know, that community would drop away a little bit.
Speaker: And for some people, that's acceptable.
Speaker: You know, and I get a lot of pressure from a lot of people to make...
Speaker: to steer us in that direction.
Speaker: And look, maybe I should, you know, maybe, maybe that's a reality.
Speaker: It is something that I think about a lot.
Speaker: I'm not convinced that's necessarily the right choice for us.
Speaker: I think we'll always be limited in our success.
Speaker: Assuming you do base our success on profit loss and attendance and nothing else.
Speaker: We will be,
Speaker: hat i think of what we can actually achieve while we have this attitude but with that being said i love our community you know i really do i love the little pockets of friendship groups that are around the place um and i think that's far more important than any you know it's not like we're not profitable and we're not of course um our attendance is low while we we're still a successful business we're still uh you know we run our shows at a high standard you know like we're still good at what we do like um
Speaker: I really like what we are.
Speaker: It's really meaningful to me that when I got married, my bridal party, aside from my brother, everyone else was someone in my life who I'd met through wrestling.
Speaker: Wrestling is what boys do.
Speaker: These are guys who are still
Speaker: the people that I go to, you know, every day for something, you know, these are the, these are my family members, you know, and that's, and I look around at EPW and I look at the different cliques that there are.
Speaker: And I just love that there's so many of these lifelong friendships that have been harnessed within the EPW.
Speaker: And I think that that is just super important.
Speaker: I really do.
Speaker: But with that being said, we are not a charity.
Speaker: We do try to... You know, we do have standards.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: That we can be, like you say, a cricket club where there is a ones.
Speaker: You know, there is a ones, there's a twos, there's a threes, there's a fours.
Speaker: But the club itself is for everyone.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: That's the balance that we try to get.
Speaker: And I think I don't always get it right, but...
Speaker: I don't know, maybe if we can ever find a way to do it like that, where you have your, you know, you're seeing it, you know, like in footy, where you've got your, the players who are being selected in the ones every week and they take it relatively seriously.
Speaker: And the players who are in the twos, they're pretty happy just having a beer at halftime, half the time.
Speaker: You know, like, and that's cool and they're happy in that spot.
Speaker: And so, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker: We'll see, we'll see how it all pans out anyway.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a really good analogy and something that obviously, you know, very close to my heart because there is those parallels through those sporting clubs and local wrestling and things like that.
Speaker: So based on that, I think you touched on a little bit there.
Speaker: But before we go into, I guess, the A to Z of what goes to helping to put together a show, what would you say that EPW's brand is?
Speaker: Like if I was, you know, someone who...
Speaker: And just like casual wrestling fan, or I might be a diehard wrestling fan, or I don't know EPW exists yet here in Perth, Western Australia.
Speaker: And I go to an EPW show.
Speaker: What should I expect?
Speaker: Like, what, what am I going to get out of a show?
Speaker: Whether I'm a wrestling fan, I'm not a wrestling fan.
Speaker: I'm a diehard.
Speaker: I'm a casual.
Speaker: I'm a, Oh, that's what John Cena does.
Speaker: Or that's what, you know, Shibata does or whatever it might be.
Speaker: What am I going to get out of an EPW show?
Speaker: Look, I think that at the moment you're going to get,
Speaker: a pretty high quality show, really.
Speaker: Like, I think that's always generally the feedback we get from people is that they're kind of shocked at how good it is, you know?
Speaker: I mean, we run on passion, really.
Speaker: And I think in pro wrestling, that passion is really infectious from a fan's perspective, you know?
Speaker: I mean, you look what EPW was
Speaker: 20 years ago where it was all passion.
Speaker: No one was particularly, you know, like the shows are almost unwatchable now.
Speaker: But at the time, man, they'd get, you know, we were probably drawing more than we do some of our shows now.
Speaker: And the buildings were pumping, you know, like because that passion was just so infectious.
Speaker: And that's the beauty of wrestling is that you, you know, like some of the polish,
Speaker: that's what makes good wrestling into amazing wrestling.
Speaker: We walk a fine line, I think.
Speaker: We run on passion now, but our acceptable... What's the word?
Speaker: Like... Skill that we expect... Standards you hold yourself to.
Speaker: Standards, that's the word.
Speaker: The standards we expect on show day, they're quite high now, really.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I know that I get given a lot of grief every time I book people that maybe are not up to a certain standard.
Speaker: But it's a great area in wrestling because someone might not be up to standard with, say, their, I don't know, skill level as far as clean wrestling goes, but they're going to be super charismatic and be able to hold the crowd in the palm of their hands and someone else might be vice versa.
Speaker: Yeah, like even using your analogy there before of like having ones and twos in a sporting club, maybe that person from the twos just needs to crack at the ones and say, you know, do they sink or swim in that environment?
Speaker: You know, you're not going to put someone who's completely out of their depth in there.
Speaker: That's just silly.
Speaker: You're not going to put someone from the sixth team into the first team.
Speaker: But sometimes you just need to have a look and see what they do under the bright lights in the professional wrestling setting.
Speaker: Yeah, look, definitely.
Speaker: I mean, we, I think that like it's,
Speaker: It's really tough in wrestling to have that ones and twos where, you know, like even in footy, there might be like, say, a Ruckman and all you need to do is be better than the other Ruckman to be in the ones, you know?
Speaker: And as a midfielder, you could rank all your midfielders really from one to bloody 10 or 20 or whatever it is.
Speaker: And then the top...
Speaker: four or five or six go into the ones, you know, obviously not all like that.
Speaker: It's definitely obviously not that simple, but wrestling is... Oh, well, with the Bulldogs, you put 10 midfielders into the fourth flank.
Speaker: Yeah, you're going to say, it's 20 midfielders, isn't it?
Speaker: Well, now it's like 15 midfielders and six forwards.
Speaker: Yes, yeah.
Speaker: Sorry to digress, but there was this easy opening there.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: But, you know, it's tough now with wrestling because I think we have a lot of guys who can excel in certain positions.
Speaker: And so, I mean, say right now where you've got myself and Dan, where we are...
Speaker: we've been booked in this long-term storyline with Jesse and Slater and Brett and Marcus.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Brett slash Marcus Pitt was on the show a few weeks ago.
Speaker: I was like, we're not going to call you Marcus Pitt, Brett, because he was talking about his progress 365.
Speaker: Yes, that's right.
Speaker: People who have been listening to the show know who Brett slash Marcus Pitt is, so you're all good there.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So Dan and I, obviously, we partnered up with Jesse a few years ago because just for a bit of fun, we could film some promos and Dan and Jesse had their gimmick thing going and
Speaker: Anyway, one thing led to another and now we're running this feud with the Untouchables.
Speaker: But the flow and effect from that is it means a lot of the other guys who have been around a long time, now there's actually not... The spot for them isn't there as much because we actually need to have fresh faces on the show as well.
Speaker: So it complicates things, you know, and then hopefully next year Dan and I will take a step back and that'll open up a spot for some of those other guys who've been around a long time and anyway, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, it's always about being ready in pro wrestling, about ready for that opportunity anyway.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: Because, you know, as you spoke about just a little bit before, you know, you got to be flexible.
Speaker: You got to be ready for 10 different variables just on the unpredictable nature of pro wrestling, let alone at a local level.
Speaker: You know, you got to worry about, you know, the personal things in terms of like someone might go, you know what, I don't want to really do this wrestling thing anymore.
Speaker: By the way, you've got 12 months of plans out the window or whatever it might be.
Speaker: So you've always got to have those variables.
Speaker: And for a performer, you've always got to be ready to go, okay, there's an opportunity.
Speaker: I'm going to grab it there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, but speaking of like, I guess, you know, setting up an opportunity or grabbing it, like let's take a little bit of a step back into as much detail as you like, or you don't like, I'm not sort of expecting it 8am on a Monday morning, I get this out and I message this person, but sort of,
Speaker: What's the nuts and bolts?
Speaker: Tell me what goes into staging.
Speaker: Like, for example, maybe not the big Willerton show coming up because there's probably more variables than for that, but just sort of from that A to Z, I'm going to put on a pro wrestling show.
Speaker: What's the things that you have to think about and put in place to get that show up and running?
Speaker: Well, look, the, I mean, number one is you got finding a venue.
Speaker: That's the, that's the big one.
Speaker: You know, that's, that's, I mean, that's half, 90% of it is finding the right bloody venue, but really, um,
Speaker: You need a venue that's got the right vibes in the right location, the price points, you know, right?
Speaker: The setup, ideally, it'll be like a concert venue with the right setup, the right availability.
Speaker: That's everything, you know, like, yeah, obviously, sorry, I'll probably just skip the head.
Speaker: First of all, you got to know what you want to be as a wrestling show, right?
Speaker: Like if you, before you go hunting for a venue, are you going to be family friendly?
Speaker: Are you going to be targeting kids?
Speaker: Are you going to be, you know, because that'll set up exactly what price point you're going to be going for.
Speaker: Of course, yeah.
Speaker: And then from there, you can go and hunt down your venue.
Speaker: But yeah, geez, the venue situation is tough, you know, like we're really using Perth.
Speaker: There's just nothing...
Speaker: for what we do really um you've either got to go to a rec center which doesn't really just doesn't have the right vibe and the right feel and the setup is just bitch like you know it takes all bloody day and all night all the rigging and the yeah oh it's just a nightmare you know and then or you got to find a concert venue which costs a fortune and the um venue owners generally don't don't want you there because
Speaker: our fans don't drink booze, you know?
Speaker: So, and then you've got to put a rest and ring in the middle of the dance floor.
Speaker: So now your attendance is capped for a lot of these places.
Speaker: So we were really fortunate for a long time there with Claremont where that was just a brilliant venue for us.
Speaker: You know, our attendance was going pretty good and everything was lovely.
Speaker: And then obviously once that shut down, we just got thrown into no man's land.
Speaker: And it obviously turned into a blessing in disguise because we had the opportunity to do Willerton
Speaker: which is a big stadium.
Speaker: And we never went there because we were safe in Claremont and we didn't want to run multiple venues.
Speaker: So there was a nice opportunity there which we took and it cost us a small fortune to get it off the ground but
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You've had now this will be your fourth show there with another one to come in February or have I got that right?
Speaker: Yeah, this is our third.
Speaker: We did reawakening.
Speaker: Yeah, reawakening and then we did Evo and then we do another reawakening now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you've started a good relationship there.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: Oh, they're fantastic.
Speaker: The venue owners there, I can't fault them.
Speaker: You know, they've been lovely to us.
Speaker: I like to think we've been good to them.
Speaker: We've never really had any complaints by any venue owners, any landlords.
Speaker: We've always, you know, done our business.
Speaker: She runs a tight ship.
Speaker: She does all our handles, the boring stuff that we wouldn't exist without, you know, like she does all the handles, the books and the correspondence and all the rest of it.
Speaker: And, you know, she, she keeps us all in line and she's the perfect buffer, I guess, between people like me and, you know,
Speaker: You know, people who own venues keeps us the appearance of professionalism alive and well.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So, anyway.
Speaker: So, yes, venues is massive.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, obviously, after that, you do need to take a look at the booking.
Speaker: This is how I like to do it anyway.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And just quickly, just for those who, you know, new to wrestling jargon, booking is essentially the writer writing the show, putting together the matches, what you're going to present and sort of booking and putting say five or six matches on those are the matches we're going to showcase and, and put on the show and then meet the, like whichever wrestlers are going to be in those just for those who aren't familiar with the term booking there.
Speaker: Oh, yes, thank you.
Speaker: But yes, I like to have a look at the booking and just a glance at it to see if we can actually put on a show.
Speaker: Do we have the cattle available?
Speaker: Do we have enough top guys?
Speaker: Do we have anything engaging storyline-wise?
Speaker: You know, obviously you're going to book your venue in advance.
Speaker: So, yeah, theory, obviously not COVID.
Speaker: That stopped.
Speaker: But, yeah, you've got to make sure that you can put on a show that's worth promoting, that's worth someone paying their money for, you know.
Speaker: So that's why I like to take a look at the booking at that point.
Speaker: And just once I've had a glance at it, I won't set anything in stone, but I kind of need to look at it.
Speaker: You can go, okay, there's multiple options here.
Speaker: There's a good show here that we can get behind.
Speaker: And then after that, you just rally the troops, come up with a marketing plan, get after it, really.
Speaker: And then on the show day, of course, that's where the real logistical fun begins.
Speaker: We will race back to marketing in just a moment because it's a huge part of what you do and also what you need to do for a successful show.
Speaker: But just in that show day, that sort of...
Speaker: all hands on decks sort of philosophy of, you know, you've got to bring the ring to your venue.
Speaker: So you guys have a ring in your training school and you have to take that to a brand new venue where you don't usually host a wrestling ring and set that up and set up the, you know, appropriate chairs, guards and lights if applicable and that sort of thing.
Speaker: So that must be sort of a, you know, it takes a village on the day to do that.
Speaker: Oh, huge, huge.
Speaker: It's a massive undertaking every show, you know, and something that I think we has become the norm,
Speaker: been the norm for 20 plus years now, that show day output, you know, that's required.
Speaker: And we probably forget that it's kind of ridiculous, you know, like this 10 in the morning to, you know, two in the morning,
Speaker: day.
Speaker: It's just a massive thing.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: We just forget.
Speaker: I think we forget because most of us kind of love it in our own way.
Speaker: Because our community is so important.
Speaker: For me, it's a day where I get to go and hang out with all my mates for 12 hours.
Speaker: You get to forget about the bills and
Speaker: uni and study and work and you know um yeah you're not wiping any bums well i mean in a literal sense maybe in a figurative sense you still need to do that a little bit i'm still still getting screamed at but um but at least the voices are slightly less shrill wow okay for half a day
Speaker: but yeah no like it's you know it is it's a really i enjoy it a lot you know like um i do i love i love the show day atmosphere you know i just i really it's just enjoyable i've never i've never taken for granted you know then at the end of the day it is just get gotta get your ring you get that set up your production is a it was obviously as hard as you want it to be yeah um
Speaker: And we, you know, you need to make sure you've got the right people there to can do all that, have those skills.
Speaker: I have none, zero skills in that sense, like everything else in EPW.
Speaker: So you've just got to lean on the people that do have them and take their word for it, you know, at the end of the day, for what they're doing.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's big, big in that sense.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Just before we move away from the actual logistics of the day, you mentioned there with the setup and earlier on about, you know, the people you've got to sort of always manage, how important are keeping those enthused, passionate volunteers to a local wrestling company?
Speaker: You know, obviously EBW relies on a lot of people who you mentioned back in what, 2001, it was fueled by passion.
Speaker: I make the argument it still is now.
Speaker: with the amount of people that can get so much of their time and their life to it.
Speaker: So how important are volunteers to get a local pro wrestling show off the ground?
Speaker: For us, you know, what we do, I mean, without them, we don't do a show.
Speaker: You know, we always say to people, you know, we ask, you know, what's your show day roster preferences?
Speaker: And we say to people, you know, you don't have to help out on show day if you don't want to.
Speaker: we just won't do shows anymore.
Speaker: You know, really.
Speaker: It's not like an empty, I don't say it as like an empty threat.
Speaker: It's not meant to be that way, but it's like a legitimate, like the day that say like when I can't be bothered driving a truck and Dan can't be bothered driving a truck and CJL can't be bothered driving a truck, well then we'll stop doing shows.
Speaker: You know, like it's just like at that point, it can't be worth it at that point.
Speaker: If people can't be bothered giving up, like I said, I love it because I love being there with all these people and I love
Speaker: the wrestling scene and the local scene.
Speaker: And if, when the day comes when I don't love it anymore, then I will stop doing it.
Speaker: And, and then EPW may go belly up and you know, at that point I probably won't care because I don't care.
Speaker: I like, I'm not going to care.
Speaker: And when enough people don't care, then we'll, we'll shut down, you know?
Speaker: So,
Speaker: so our volunteers are just critical absolutely critical you know we don't exist without them literally don't exist without them you know we exist without our best wrestlers and we exist without our management team and we exist without all kinds of people but we do not exist without volunteers you know like pure and simple yeah absolutely and it's just like it's not just showdown you know like the guys that you know you've done marketing for us for a long period of time at a really high level and you were doing it
Speaker: I mean, you know, it's just a, it's time consuming.
Speaker: You know, like it's not, we can't afford to pace, say like you buy the hour.
Speaker: If you break it down and like, it's just like, we just can't when we're doing it.
Speaker: It's not, not possible.
Speaker: Don't feel bad.
Speaker: I just went on to another thing that doesn't pay me in my spare time like a podcast.
Speaker: So it's all good.
Speaker: I just don't feel bad about me personally because I just I'm a gladdening for that thing.
Speaker: But it's a good point.
Speaker: Like, you know, being fortunate enough to have, you know, some of those backstage roles with EPW during my time with you guys in the fold.
Speaker: And it's now good to see, like, especially when I was sort of leaving that position to focus more on the NBL One stuff, it was like seeing some of those younger names come in.
Speaker: And that's how they sort of, that's how you regenerate.
Speaker: And I'm not saying regenerate because I've been watching Doctor Who recently, but that's how you regenerate a local wrestling company.
Speaker: It's like, as the older guys sort of start going, you know what, maybe not necessarily, I don't care, I can't be bothered, but
Speaker: it's starting to be like my priorities are shifting to see that next wave then coming because the guys and girls who were volunteering in 2001 for the most part are not the same guys and girls who are volunteering in 2011 in 2021 to 2023.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Look, that's, that's exactly right.
Speaker: You know, I mean, my time is running out as well.
Speaker: Like, and not because I'm not passionate, but it's because my, my, um, like you say, my priorities are shifting, you know, like it's a,
Speaker: I do 90% of my work when I'm away at sea.
Speaker: And when I'm at home, I really struggle because it's not just me now.
Speaker: It's obviously my kids.
Speaker: They've got two girls that are five and three.
Speaker: My wife's career, she's a school teacher.
Speaker: She's starting to do deputy principal work.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So that takes away my time.
Speaker: So when I'm home, I've got to, you know, pick up a slap.
Speaker: That's not the right word, but I've got to like pull my weight at home, I suppose.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You know, I'm at uni and once I enter a new career, then that's going to take up all my brain capacity and I will have nothing left for EPW at that point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And someone else will have to like take over.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And someone will, you know, like CJL is fantastic.
Speaker: Don's fantastic.
Speaker: You know, there's plenty of people that can take the reins and keep EPW.
Speaker: ticking over, you know, it's something we've tried really hard to do, like to make sure that we're all replaceable ultimately, you know, like every one of us could, you know, fall off a cliff tomorrow and someone else will step in and if they don't, well then,
Speaker: whatever like i don't know you just make it work someone else will someone else will pick something up and do it but maybe well definitely not the same standard but someone i mean someone hopefully someone come and do it better you know that would be ideal like um you know maybe someone at the moment i'm in the position i'm in because i have a vision of epw that i want maybe it's maybe it's right maybe it's wrong i don't know but then maybe someone else comes in with a different vision
Speaker: Maybe that's the right vision, you know?
Speaker: Well, maybe not.
Speaker: Like, I don't know, right?
Speaker: But if you go through EPW's history as a fan, the reality is you probably don't know who was pulling the strings at any particular time.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: From the outside in, it's probably all much of muchness, really.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And I assume it'll be the same when I step down and someone else comes in, then EPW will just keep chugging along, which is the way it should be, you know, like, which would be nice, you know, like, as well.
Speaker: Yeah, they'll only know when I bring that person onto the show.
Speaker: But I just want to quickly talk about marketing and, you know, you threw me under the bus then, you know, now people are going to look back at the marketing post and go, oh, the one with all the puns in it?
Speaker: Yeah, that's probably Eric.
Speaker: Shock horror.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: The having a live crowd there at your at your shows is so important, not necessarily from the profit and loss point of view, which obviously is important, you got to keep the lights on, so to speak.
Speaker: But to have that atmosphere, keep building that community of having a, you know, connected fan base with a really connected performer base, you've got to have people in there, you don't want to just do it in front of five people there sort of thing.
Speaker: So
Speaker: You know, WWE has weekly global television and social media channels out the Wazo, you know, the, you know, the challenger brand there in AEW does that, does that really well now as well.
Speaker: How do you, as a local company trying to market specifically to an audience that can attend shows in Perth, Western Australia, how do you attract your audience and sort of keep them there?
Speaker: What are the sort of things that you look to do from a marketing perspective?
Speaker: For me, my, my personal beliefs, you know, on this, and again, this might be,
Speaker: could be wrong, whatever, but we don't have the budget for mainstream media marketing.
Speaker: So we are a small business, we're a community company, whatever.
Speaker: So for me, the biggest advertisement we have is actually the show itself.
Speaker: If that show is a high, and that's why we invest the money we do into production,
Speaker: Um, it's why we tell our guys to, to get, get to the gym, you know, and makes them treat it.
Speaker: But professionally is why we try to hold our guys on shows to a high standard because that is the best form of marketing we have is the show itself.
Speaker: Someone will come to that show.
Speaker: And then you were then word of mouth being the other one.
Speaker: Um, and if those two things are working, if someone comes to the show and they love it, they're going to tell their mates, you know, wrestling fans tend to stick, stick together.
Speaker: They operate in clumps as we know, you know, wrestling fans gravitate towards each other.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And then we try to just get them to keep coming back.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: We, we get them to the show and then we engage them with storylines and then we hope that word of mouth spreads out.
Speaker: Social media has helped with that.
Speaker: Obviously there's particularly the targeted marketing because you can target wrestling fans and make sure that your stuff is popping up in front of potentially new fans all the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, but generally it is word of mouth is what we, what we rely on.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I think that's a good point because you did mention that a fair chunk when I was in the marketing role.
Speaker: It's like, you know, you can, I was about to put words in my mouth.
Speaker: So you can do all the awesome stuff you're doing.
Speaker: And I'll just pat myself on the back, but you can do all you're doing.
Speaker: But if we get X, Y, Z amount of people through the door and we deliver a stinker, you can be, you can be the best salesperson in the world.
Speaker: You can be, you know, Mark Cuban or whatever.
Speaker: It just like, just,
Speaker: Bay promotion king doesn't matter if we you go get the people in the door and they go well that was a big fat pile of poo on the that show of wasted three hours yeah and that word of mouth is going to go there as well so it's a really good point and you know we did speak to Brett from Progress 365 and you and I have joked previously you know I think he's now a sponsor but he should almost be paying
Speaker: him as a company for that the standard now that's been set with a lot of the wrestlers I mean you look at the likes of Taylor King who's going to be in the main event at your next show you see the difference in transformation from that professional look to maybe a Taylor two three years ago or something like that and that's a big advertisement because you
Speaker: you know wrestling is with talks about uh being a circus like you know you don't like that you'll have this you'll have this attraction so not everyone has to be the same body shape size gender whatever but they've got to look professional they've got to look like they belong there in a ring yeah oh absolutely you know it's it's huge like it's um the aesthetics like whether you like it or not pro wrestling is an aesthetics based industry you know it's just that's what it is like it's a
Speaker: Your body shape, your look, it's important.
Speaker: You can't pretend it's not just because it's 2023.
Speaker: It's just the reality of what we are and what we do.
Speaker: You don't have to look like a professional bodybuilder, particularly at our level, but you have to.
Speaker: Your look is just so important.
Speaker: And most of us don't look
Speaker: you know, particularly different or intimidating to anyone else, which means we have to at least look like we're in shape.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Well, you do.
Speaker: It depends on whether or not you're wearing the straight jacket again.
Speaker: You look pretty intimidating.
Speaker: Oh, that's right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The jumpsuit and all that.
Speaker: Workovers with the, unpick the logo.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, you know, it's funny, like, because that's something that I, the look is something I've always struggled with that side of wrestling for me as a wrestler.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This has been one of my big challenges now as a director, like is where, like a lot of these things where I'm trying to hold other people to this standard that I actually was always guilty of never meeting myself, you know, when I was younger.
Speaker: So, you know, something I try to keep in mind, I can understand it when people are a bit too casual with their look, but ultimately, you know, if they...
Speaker: Nowadays, if you're not, if you don't care about your look, well, you don't have to be, we can't make you, but like, we also don't have to book you either, you know, like it's not our prerogative to book anyone if they're not going to help the show, advance the show.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, I mean, the look is so important.
Speaker: The other one I wanted to mention before as well, in terms of the transformation was the Hayden Zenith and what, what they did at your last show as well.
Speaker: Just, you know, his transformation in the last year or so as well has been incredible.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Hayden's been, um,
Speaker: Quite phenomenal, really, where he came from.
Speaker: Because he's been around a long time, like a long, long time.
Speaker: And he's sort of peaked now.
Speaker: I don't want to say out of the blue, but it feels like it's happened pretty quickly.
Speaker: Those overnight sensations don't always happen overnight, do they?
Speaker: Yeah, you're just like we...
Speaker: We put the reawakening card together, I don't know, three months ago, four months ago or something.
Speaker: He was running the program with Delcano.
Speaker: And, you know, I said, we said to those guys, like, look, we're not going to give you guys anything else to, you know, you guys run your program, see it through.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: We'll kind of reassess after that.
Speaker: So their program ended the show before reawakening.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: But, man, he can consider himself, like, brutally unlucky to not be booked at this show.
Speaker: That's sometimes the trade-off.
Speaker: Sorry to interrupt, but, like, sometimes the trade-off with what you were talking about, what's the best possible show that I've put together?
Speaker: And having not been in those creative meetings for quite some time, thank goodness, but...
Speaker: but you'd probably weigh it up and go, can you finish that particular story on the show before with a bit more time and a bit more gravitas and, and give that opportunity, that best spotlight for not only that story, but that also that show before your, your current big one, or is it going to be on the big show in a much different unhighlighted role?
Speaker: So you've always got to do that bit of the juggle of what's going to be the best possible show you can put together for, for your fan base.
Speaker: So it is, it is interesting.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: That's one of the biggest challenges you do have there in terms of when you have to put together a show.
Speaker: I just want to quickly spin it before we sort of go towards the home stretch.
Speaker: In your role so far, what do you think the biggest achievements so far that you've been able to tick off there?
Speaker: I was always really anal about not having these dip shows.
Speaker: You know, like we'd have these shows...
Speaker: Every year there would be like one or two shows that ran at a loss, that drew bugger all compared to whatever the yearly average was.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They were just bad.
Speaker: They weren't good.
Speaker: And because we were always building towards the bigger shows.
Speaker: We've always done the big shows well, but we've never been overly consistent.
Speaker: And our fans and wrestlers could spot that gap show a mile away.
Speaker: They knew when there was a gap show and no one would come.
Speaker: No one would tell their mates to come.
Speaker: And everyone stay away because I knew that there was building towards the show after that.
Speaker: And it was something that I guess really focused on was getting rid of that gap show, you know, and we've done that.
Speaker: I think we've only had one show run at a loss since I've been running EPW.
Speaker: which was our first show we did in Meriwa.
Speaker: So we were running in a completely new venue and miles away from everywhere.
Speaker: So, you know, there were reasons for that.
Speaker: But at the end of the day, we just cocked it up.
Speaker: You know, like I think I dove in too quick.
Speaker: I sort of didn't really step back and slow down.
Speaker: I was too keen to just get a show off the ground at a new venue.
Speaker: We were struggling with finding venues at the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that was a misfire for me.
Speaker: But like we...
Speaker: But yeah, but anyway, it's mostly, we've pretty much done away with that gap show, which is nice, that gap show mentality even, you know, like even as a booking team, we just don't allow it anymore.
Speaker: If we, you know, even when bookers would come to us with a, one of these gap shows, we would kind of hand it back and say,
Speaker: not good enough, you know, try again.
Speaker: And that always went down about as well as, but, but yeah, but anyway, that's the, you know, it didn't happen.
Speaker: That was a really hard thing to, to get through, you know, to require a real change of our culture almost.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So that's probably been my, something I look at as being something I think I've done brought into EPW quite well, I guess.
Speaker: I mean, the proof in the pudding is that show that we were just talking about there, you had the finish of that story with the Zenith and Delcano characters.
Speaker: You also had a tag team title change, which is a pretty big moment.
Speaker: We did the last Schwa championship match there too, where we did, we paid off all these pretty big storylines at a show that
Speaker: which is a show before Reawakening, which is always about that show.
Speaker: Because fans know that Reawakening is a big end of year show.
Speaker: It's always been our biggest show.
Speaker: They know that's coming up.
Speaker: So we intentionally do.
Speaker: We did these things.
Speaker: Fantasia, another really hard luck story of Reawakening, where he's just unbelievable.
Speaker: I'm a huge mark for him and what he's done.
Speaker: I rate him really, really, really highly and he's missing out at RA as well.
Speaker: And it just sucks.
Speaker: But we chose to blow these matches off at Vendetta, the previous show.
Speaker: So that wasn't a gap shot, but it does mean that these guys do miss out at this point.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, let's put that sort of coach's hat on there for you.
Speaker: And I'm not talking about a fantasy football coach because I'm not sure you went particularly well this year, says me.
Speaker: A reigning dunce somewhere along the line.
Speaker: I was going to say, I think I scratched in the finals.
Speaker: Thank you very much.
Speaker: So let's put that coach's hat on.
Speaker: First thing I'm going to get you to do is if I'm, you know, listening to the show and going, you know what, I'm a huge pro wrestling fan.
Speaker: I've got...
Speaker: bit of bit of spare cash and and you know i think i can build a community um and as long as it's not on december 16th in willerton um what's the tips and tricks you could say to someone who would be looking to get to put together a show for me personally but i'll if you're asking me what i'd say i'd say well give me a call and help us put on a bloody show you know like it's a band together i don't know this like i don't know there's this weird thing with people want to put on their own shows like just help us put on a bloody show like uh
Speaker: But anyway, but if you help Ben on, because you want to be the one making decisions, which is easy for me to say that when I am the one that gets to make the decisions.
Speaker: Let's say they're not in Perth.
Speaker: Yeah, let's say there's no wrestling around.
Speaker: So just this fictitious sort of wrestling land.
Speaker: Different city.
Speaker: Let's say you've gone to a different town.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Somewhere someone doesn't know about.
Speaker: It's like imagination land.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, let's, I mean, you've got to start with the logistics of everything.
Speaker: You know, like wrestling rings that don't grow on trees.
Speaker: They're expensive.
Speaker: They're hard to transport.
Speaker: They're hard to store.
Speaker: So I think the very, very first thing you've got to do is look at it logistically.
Speaker: Look at it without... Remove the emotion.
Speaker: And I tell you what, who'd be a good one to have a chat just to bring on your show would be a Brad and ask him all this stuff because he went to Darwin and did exactly this.
Speaker: He started his own.
Speaker: So he could be a bloody brilliant one to pick his brain on exactly what it took to do this.
Speaker: And he laid the foundations for...
Speaker: what could end up being like a little hub there.
Speaker: It sounds like they've got a good bunch of guys, a good crew.
Speaker: Top end wrestling, I think.
Speaker: Yeah, they rebranded top end wrestling, but I know the blokes that came down and did the Royal show shows with EBW.
Speaker: I think they're pretty much the driving forces of it now and ripping blokes and it looks like that good community vibe as well there.
Speaker: And look, that was Brad.
Speaker: Brad went up there and he was a long time EPW person and he moved towns and started his own promotion and
Speaker: So, yeah, and I think that it was.
Speaker: It was all this logistic stuff where they crunched the numbers.
Speaker: They obviously made sure that they weren't going to be burning all of their life savings on this undertaking.
Speaker: But again, they'd find a venue and a school and these kinds of things which are potential to be showstoppers.
Speaker: And then once they sorted out those...
Speaker: those things, then it's just a matter of, I guess, making sure your culture is on point, that you're, you know, if you are going to be a, what your standards are, you know, like, are you going to have like high in-ring standards, a body shape, whatever, like, is that going to be a real major factor for you?
Speaker: Are you just happy with everyone having fun?
Speaker: You know, you're going to run on passion.
Speaker: Again, that's fun too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, like, you know, I think that's really, that's the one, isn't it?
Speaker: It's this logistics and culture.
Speaker: And then off you go.
Speaker: And then make sure you get the right people doing the right things.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a good point.
Speaker: I think knowing what you are, and I'm not saying that you've got to have a concrete, okay, this is what we're going to be and we will not waver from that.
Speaker: But you want to have that concept or that idea of what you're going to be.
Speaker: I think you mentioned it before.
Speaker: Are you going to be that family friendly show that you're going to be trying to just target it at kids and parents and things like that?
Speaker: Because if you're doing that, you're not going to have a big bloody street fight or something like that.
Speaker: So just knowing what you want to be.
Speaker: And I think with EPW, it's been wanting to be really good pro wrestling and that world-class sort of thing that, you know, we used to trumpet all the time on the marketing, but that's a direction and a culture that you want to put in.
Speaker: So it's knowing what you want to be.
Speaker: And that's a big part of it.
Speaker: It's a really good, really good guidance there for someone who was looking to do it.
Speaker: Again, not in Willerton on December 16, just somewhere else in the world.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: so i had you put the coaching hat on there for a moment just going to get you to put the the wrestling trunks on for a moment as well so this is quite a visual there i hope you've got a bobby marshall but um just finally in terms of the the guidance and tips and tricks um any wrestlers who like you know i'm not sure if we went into real big depth about it but like people join something like epw and
Speaker: Because they either want to get fit and be part of a community atmosphere and the show is just sort of a bit of fun.
Speaker: Some people join it going, I want to get the very best out of myself as a pro wrestler.
Speaker: This is something I would like to do as a career.
Speaker: This is where I start.
Speaker: And then there's going to be branches.
Speaker: You look at the likes of, you mentioned Mikey Nichols before, Shane Haste, who, you know, got the quote unquote dream jobs in WWE for quite some time.
Speaker: Also big stars in New Japan as well.
Speaker: pro wrestling.
Speaker: So what's your tips and tricks to someone who, you know, wants to get involved in wrestling and want to go as far as they can go in that sort of mold?
Speaker: I mean, look, it's tough for me to give too much advice because I obviously never really made it particularly far.
Speaker: But I guess... I mean, you certainly had opportunities and experiences.
Speaker: Yeah, look, I've been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with people who have made it quite far and to speak to who run these tryouts and things, you know.
Speaker: And I can tell you that, I mean, one of the best things you can be is...
Speaker: You have to be able to take advice from people who are not good at giving advice.
Speaker: You know, like, yes, yes, this is 2023.
Speaker: And yes, you know, like you need to, when you're giving feedback, it should be in a positive way and a compliment sandwich and all that.
Speaker: But the reality is people in wrestling are not, you know, like a lot of us are pretty...
Speaker: pretty average human beings like a lot of a lot of fragile like a lot of fragile egos and as someone who has a really fragile ego you know it's taken me a long time to sort of accept that that like you're not always quick to to dole out positive feedback um and sometimes i think i was always someone who was guilty of maybe sort of knocking people down way too much just to make myself feel better about myself you know that's just a reality you know i was a bully but
Speaker: That's a whole other story that I had to work through.
Speaker: But there's a lot of people like that in wrestling.
Speaker: And you have to be able to take... You might go in there and wrestle a match and they'll just come back and go, well, you look like shit type thing.
Speaker: Maybe everything else is fine.
Speaker: But then you've got to be able to take a step back and go, you know what?
Speaker: I actually probably could hit the gym a little more.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Maybe my execution wasn't that clean.
Speaker: Maybe he's right.
Speaker: Yeah, he's a dick, but maybe there is some truth to that.
Speaker: Whereas if you just have this victim mentality of like, how dare he speak to me like that?
Speaker: How dare that person make me feel this way?
Speaker: Well, then you're actually going to get nothing out of that conversation.
Speaker: You are now in the same place you were in before that conversation even happened.
Speaker: Whereas if you can, and even say fans, but fans will, oh, this guy, you know, they'll make some comment on social media about how you're boring or you're, they don't like your matches or whatever.
Speaker: It's easy to say, oh, well, that fan doesn't know what they're talking about.
Speaker: They're not a bloody wrestler.
Speaker: But if you can actually take that bit of feedback and not to say that you implement every little piece of feedback you get, but you can actually yourself step back, absorb it, think about it, weigh it up.
Speaker: and pick out the nuggets of gold, then you're going to get so much better than everyone else.
Speaker: Because if you're relying on feedback from people like,
Speaker: like Slater or like a Dave, you know, like people who are sort of either school teachers or they run a business or whatever and they've learned how to dish out, you know, positive feedback, then you've cut back the amount of improvement by about 90%.
Speaker: Like, because you just, there's only about five people in EPW who you'll be able to get feedback from.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, true.
Speaker: So, and that's the same all over, everywhere I've been doing.
Speaker: everywhere I've wrestled it's like that.
Speaker: So you've got to be able to have a thick skin and
Speaker: And work it out.
Speaker: And the other one is you've got to get to the gym, like it or not.
Speaker: You need to be in the gym.
Speaker: The WWE will decide if you're worth their time by a photo.
Speaker: They'll look at a photo of you and decide if you are worth a damn.
Speaker: Whether you like it or not, that is just the reality of how pro wrestling is.
Speaker: We've already said that it's this aesthetic industry.
Speaker: And I can tell you right now that they will...
Speaker: you have to pass the photo test, you know, where they need to look at a profile photo and decide whether you are worth
Speaker: going further.
Speaker: They're not going to watch your 25-minute ladder match.
Speaker: They're not going to watch your 30-minute 12 months of feud with someone.
Speaker: Does this person look like a superstar?
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's the one.
Speaker: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker: They'll look at guys if they're... They can teach you how to wrestle.
Speaker: They can teach you all that stuff far better than anyone else can, obviously.
Speaker: But they need to make sure that you have the...
Speaker: the, I guess the frame or the look or the, the baseline, I guess, or whatever.
Speaker: But yeah, so that's, you know, be, be realistic.
Speaker: Don't, don't, don't, the other one is do not chase outliers, you know, like don't look at Mick Foley.
Speaker: and say, I'm going to be the next Mick Foley, because Mick Foley is the only Mick Foley.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That's the reality.
Speaker: You know, look at, you'll see a punk who's a smaller, Matt-based guy who's hugely successful, you know, massively successful.
Speaker: But to be a Matt-based successful wrestler, assuming the WWE is where you want to go, like, it's just not really likely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, you've got to look at,
Speaker: Again, pick your goal, I suppose, and then look at what's normal to achieve that goal and don't, yeah, go from there.
Speaker: Yeah, perfect.
Speaker: Yeah, it's really spot on.
Speaker: And I think there's other industries as well that that can refer to, not just wrestling, but entertainment and sport.
Speaker: You know, sometimes you're going to get feedback in not the right way.
Speaker: But if you can pick the gold as to, OK, why could that a person, even if they're a miserable human being, why could they have seen that boringness, that lack of crispness, that lack of execution in a role, whatever it might have been.
Speaker: So absolutely right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You mentioned WWE a bit there.
Speaker: Sometimes, you know, for a lot of wrestlers, that is the goal.
Speaker: And the majority of it, that is the case.
Speaker: And for some of them, they're lying as well when they say it's not.
Speaker: But they are bringing that big old entertainment juggernaut to Perth in February.
Speaker: How big is that for sort of Australian wrestling, EPW, for that sort of scale of production to come to not only Australia, but specifically Perth?
Speaker: How much do you see that helping or sort of affecting Australian wrestling?
Speaker: oh look ultimately like it's massive well let's not not to kid ourselves here it's a huge thing like there will be a you've already seen it in perth i mean was a cm punk came back to the wwe and it was on the front page of the west australian like that's crazy that is crazy you know that's that's nuts so there's there's going to be a spotlight of wrestling for the next six months or whatever it is three months you know which is awesome but the reality is in 12 months time they'll come they'll go
Speaker: and then everything will just be what it is now.
Speaker: Like all these things when you're in it, it's huge and it will be huge.
Speaker: But then ultimately it'll come and it'll go, you know?
Speaker: Or maybe this is the start of the WWE really having a spotlight on Australia and investing some time and some money, you know, like they did with the UK a few years ago and that didn't really work out.
Speaker: So maybe not, we don't really have the population, you know, for where we're going to be worth too much investment in reality.
Speaker: But, you know, hey, who the hell knows?
Speaker: But I mean, there's definitely an opportunity there because EBW is putting the show on the Friday night before the Elimination Chamber event, the WWE event.
Speaker: So, I mean, that's like a super show.
Speaker: A lot of the best of the best of Australian talent are coming over for it.
Speaker: Tell us a little bit about that and sort of what brought that on.
Speaker: You know, obviously there's, you know, the obvious piggyback on the back of, you know, a lot of renewed wrestling interest in Perth.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, look, to be honest with you, that was just me, I guess, going straight to the biggest, dumbest, highest risk idea that we could come up with.
Speaker: And then Dale going, yep, you know, he did the quick scan of, you know, is that actually dumb or is it actually, could it actually work?
Speaker: And, you know, sure enough, came back as a, yep, that could work.
Speaker: And
Speaker: And then it just blew up from there.
Speaker: And I mean, like you say, with the WWE coming, people are going to get signed.
Speaker: Don't worry about that.
Speaker: This is going to be life-changing for a few people in Australia.
Speaker: Guys will get signed.
Speaker: I guarantee people are going to be getting contracts out of this, which is huge, obviously, for these individuals and for Australian wrestling in general.
Speaker: So that show itself, because of the
Speaker: everyone is expecting a tryout of some sort or scouts or whatever.
Speaker: Like the, we have, the roster for that show is insane.
Speaker: There will never, ever, ever be another show
Speaker: ever in Australia with that level of talent in Loughlin, ever.
Speaker: Local talent, I should say.
Speaker: Obviously, the next night will be slightly more talent.
Speaker: With apologies to the boys.
Speaker: But the local homegrown talent, because these guys are paying for their own flights to come here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, you just can't, no company can realistically justify paying for the flights and the match fees of the guys that are coming, you know, because you'd just, if you're not just broke, you'd be in all sorts of debt, you know, by the end of it.
Speaker: So we're in a really privileged position to be able to be looking at the lockering that we're going to have.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: because they're all coming here for the wwe show obviously so we don't need to pay their flights we just have to pay match fees essentially yeah so yeah so it's just it's huge it's going to be that that it's really exciting i think to to see where you i mean even on the like i said to you when we go to put on a show earlier that the first thing i do is scan the card essentially to make sure we've got a show we can promote
Speaker: And on this one, we went, geez, we have like eight main events.
Speaker: That's insane.
Speaker: It's insane.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: I think we were looking at
Speaker: like even some of the matches that we're going to have to not do.
Speaker: These are like main event level matches in EPW that we're just not going to be able to book, you know, like because the show was six hours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But even like, yeah, following along on the EPW Perth social media, just some of the names has been announced so far.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Depending on where this goes, we probably shouldn't mention the names yet, but I'll make sure we share some links.
Speaker: But yeah, it's a who's who.
Speaker: Literally.
Speaker: It's, we,
Speaker: We planned the show thinking, oh, look, we'll definitely get a few.
Speaker: You know, a few people come here to watch the show.
Speaker: If they will try out, we'll get a few more.
Speaker: But we've got... It's everyone.
Speaker: It's probably everyone.
Speaker: It's nuts.
Speaker: You know, it really is.
Speaker: It's like it's blown my mind, the guys that are coming over.
Speaker: So it's...
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: It's really, really awesome.
Speaker: It's going to be tough to book this show.
Speaker: But also easy because all you need to do is get the hell out of everyone's way.
Speaker: Put these guys in the ring and stay out of their way.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: It's going to be great.
Speaker: I'm really, really excited about that one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it looks so great.
Speaker: I'm going to try and find my old credentials and sneak in.
Speaker: No, I'll probably just buy a ticket like a normal human being.
Speaker: It looks great.
Speaker: This Saturday coming up or a Saturday in a long time ago, if you're listening to this in the future, but this Saturday coming up on December 16, there's no TV ads.
Speaker: So you don't have to worry about that.
Speaker: There's going to be a hell of a show there for EPW.
Speaker: It's reawakening.
Speaker: It's the big show that they build to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Tell us why – I was going to say why I should be going there, but I'm already keen.
Speaker: But tell us what people should look forward to and why they should be looking at getting tickets for the big show this weekend.
Speaker: Look, I think that there's a lot of cool, like, stories that have been building for a long period of time, you know, and it's certainly going to be action-packed.
Speaker: It's going to be a lot of – it's a really, really good show on paper.
Speaker: which I would say that, I guess.
Speaker: We were just talking about how in promotion we'll just say that, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: But I think it is a strong show on paper.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I really love what Tay and Don have done this year.
Speaker: Their story, I think they've done just an amazing job, those two.
Speaker: So that's the main attraction match.
Speaker: That's for the championship, isn't it?
Speaker: Yes, it is.
Speaker: So I think that'll be great.
Speaker: I'm really excited for that one, personally, to watch that as a fan.
Speaker: Obviously, I'm excited for my own match.
Speaker: I'm a huge mark for Jesse.
Speaker: I just think he's...
Speaker: it's just unbelievable.
Speaker: You know, his, his crowd connection is, I just don't, he operates on another level, you know, really remarkable what, what, what he's like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So that, of course, is the... So it's a career versus career match, isn't it?
Speaker: Your character, Bobby Marshall and Dan Moore with the Jesse Lambert versus the Untouchables, which is Marcus Pitt, who's a friend of the show, so we can't badmouth him, Damian Slater and Amber.
Speaker: So, you know...
Speaker: Really, and I'm not just saying this to pump your tires, but four of the best wrestlers that EPW has ever produced.
Speaker: Jesse Lambert, who has that crowd connection and is really entertaining.
Speaker: And Amber, who's been such a, you know, an important integral piece of so much of what has happened in EPW, the way she's added to presentations of, you know, champions and made them seem better than they were.
Speaker: So it's a huge match with huge stakes.
Speaker: And it's been a story that you've been building for quite some time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's been too long, you might say.
Speaker: It's been about four years in the making.
Speaker: And funnily enough, we kind of, I wasn't booking when it all first started.
Speaker: I wasn't involved in the booking, but we... My bad.
Speaker: You know, we kind of, well, you know, I think I remember saying to Jesse, like, you know, because obviously Slater and Brett are two of the tip top guys in EPW, in Australia, really, but in EPW, and
Speaker: And I said to him, like, you know, you want to wrestle these guys, you've got to keep filming promos and working them into your promos online, you know?
Speaker: And then that's kind of what we did.
Speaker: We just, we kept cutting promos on them.
Speaker: And, you know, in the end, we fell into this storyline.
Speaker: And, yeah, look, it's been a lot of fun, you know?
Speaker: Like this, you know, I don't have, my body is slowly, quickly deteriorating, you know?
Speaker: Like I just don't have long left anyway.
Speaker: So the, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think Dan's the same.
Speaker: Whether this is our last match or not, we don't have many big matches left.
Speaker: I dare say this probably, for me personally, this will be my last big match regardless.
Speaker: I just can't see myself having another four-year storyline against two of the best guys in Australia.
Speaker: It's not going to happen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, so.
Speaker: I'm just going to say, because I'm going to help you sell it a bit.
Speaker: He's completely underselling himself here.
Speaker: And that's just a normal Bobby thing to do.
Speaker: Like, it is going to be a hell of a match, no matter how old and broken down he apparently is.
Speaker: It will be.
Speaker: It's going to be a lot of fun, you know.
Speaker: Like, Jesse is, I am a huge mark for Jesse.
Speaker: Like, and everything he touches turns to gold.
Speaker: That's the reality.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And Slater and Muffins, Slater and Marcus, they don't.
Speaker: They don't accept anything less than tip top, you know, like they're to a fault at times.
Speaker: So look, it's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker: I personally am really, really excited for it.
Speaker: you know, it's just, it'll be fun.
Speaker: It'll be a lot of fun, I think.
Speaker: And that's, that's the name of the game at the end of the day.
Speaker: So the last, last match I want to ask you about, you know, because we won't go through the whole card.
Speaker: It is a hell of a card.
Speaker: Make sure you have a look at it on the EPW Perth social medias, but there's the, the match between you mentioned Davis storm and Devlin Reeves before you're taking on CJL and, and Pete from the radio, apparently.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Look, I mean, that's some people come in and he's been been amazing for us.
Speaker: Like really like he's just a really like infectiously happy guy.
Speaker: Like he's he's just brilliant.
Speaker: He really is.
Speaker: He's fun to be around.
Speaker: He's
Speaker: He's great, you know, and then he's, and he took to wrestling shockingly well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He came in and, you know, we got the call from 94.5 asking about this wrestling thing and would we be interested?
Speaker: And we were like, well, of course we will.
Speaker: We're a small business.
Speaker: You're a mainstream radio company.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Don't even let them finish the question.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Straight up.
Speaker: So that was awesome.
Speaker: And then, and Pete came in, obviously trained up for his match with Mike and, um,
Speaker: And he just did awesome.
Speaker: He really did.
Speaker: Like he could follow instructions.
Speaker: He would be told something.
Speaker: And then the next time he would run that sequence, he would, you could see him implementing the feedback he was given.
Speaker: So yeah, I can't, you know, I really hope that those guys go out there and have a lot of fun and I hope Dave doesn't die.
Speaker: That would be nice.
Speaker: Hopefully Dale can wind back the clock, you know, like he hasn't been in the ring in almost 10 years himself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, I mean, CGL is, I think, the most experienced wrestler in there if you're looking at the last 12 months.
Speaker: So hopefully he can hold everything together.
Speaker: Yeah, look, I think that'll be a fun, unique kind of match.
Speaker: And you know, you know, geez, Farley, everything he does is at the highest level as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm a big mark for him as a wrestler.
Speaker: And, you know, like, I don't know how many more matches he has left.
Speaker: I think he doesn't know how many more matches he has left either.
Speaker: You know, like, so...
Speaker: You know, it would shock me to see the end of like half a dozen careers at the Spree Awakening, to be honest.
Speaker: Like it's the way that the wind is blowing.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So definitely get down there.
Speaker: If you haven't already got your ticket, you can get that at EPW Perth is usually the social media accounts on Instagram or X or on Facebook.
Speaker: You've got the EPW Perth page.
Speaker: Make sure you follow there.
Speaker: all the links to all the tickets.
Speaker: But in the meantime, Bob, I just want to thank you for taking time out of your, your busy week.
Speaker: As you say, when you're, you're back on, on the, on the mainland, so to speak, this is usually your, you know, time where we don't really get as much as you, as we like.
Speaker: So I do really appreciate you making the time.
Speaker: Is there any final words that you want to say based on what we'd chat on today or, you know, the show is coming up or anything like that before we call it a day and let you get back to the real world?
Speaker: No, not really.
Speaker: Like, I mean, you know, it was a good chat, I suppose.
Speaker: I'm not sure if anything helpful came out of it, but it was certainly beneficial for me to get some of this stuff out.
Speaker: So this is just a live therapy session.
Speaker: It is, absolutely.
Speaker: It's like performance art.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: Like, yeah, no, it helps.
Speaker: Yeah, look, now I've really enjoyed my time.
Speaker: I've been really privileged to be involved with EPW for as long as I have.
Speaker: I really, really love the place, rightly or wrongly,
Speaker: grown up in the place you know i really have grown up um in epw yeah you know i've learned a lot of important life lessons and i've you know i've been a terrible person in epw i've been a good person in epw i've done some good things and some bad things and you know don't ever but ultimately you know we've sort of learned to be a little bit better today than we were yesterday that's probably been the biggest thing that we've done over the years and i'm really proud of the company we are i'm really proud of the people that we have involved and
Speaker: I have a lot of love for everyone, everyone who helps get us to where we're getting, where we are today and where we were yesterday and where we're going to be tomorrow.
Speaker: And I really love everyone involved in EPW.
Speaker: It's just a really nice, beautiful place.
Speaker: No, I couldn't say it any better.
Speaker: I've been privileged enough to be involved, you know, for quite some time in official and unofficial capacities, starting with being a fan and now still very much a fan of what's being done in EPW Perth.
Speaker: So thank you so much for your time today, Bob.
Speaker: And hopefully around this time next year, we can talk about the, we'll catch up again, talk about reawakening next year, maybe in Willington and also the 2024 Normsworth medalist Marcus Bond and Pella.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That would be lovely, lovely, lovely.
Speaker: Thanks a lot.
Speaker: Thanks a lot.
Speaker: Have a good one.
Speaker: I will take care.
Speaker: So great chat there with Bobby Marshall ahead of EPW's big show tomorrow, or, you know, if you're listening to this in the future, December 16th, 2023, can't recommend it enough.
Speaker: Head over to the at EPW Perth social media accounts,
Speaker: That'll have all the links to the tickets and whatnot.
Speaker: Willerton Stadium, great stadium.
Speaker: And, you know, you can't go wrong.
Speaker: It's going to be a good night out and with some really high-quality action.
Speaker: And you heard at the end of that interview, we did record it a few days ago, where we were bullish about the Bulldogs and then the unfortunate news about Bailey Smith doing his ACL at Bulldogs training.
Speaker: So, you know, quick and speedy and safe recovery for him.
Speaker: Hope all the well-wishers go his way.
Speaker: Now, with the show itself, I can guarantee you're going to have a good time.
Speaker: But one of the things that I just wanted to get off my chest before the end of this episode was the trailer just dropped this morning.
Speaker: The big trailer, the one that everyone's been waiting for.
Speaker: And I'm not talking about GTA.
Speaker: I'm talking about...
Speaker: Beverly Hills Cop, Axel Foley.
Speaker: Now, first and foremost, I'm not sure about, you know, having to remind people who Beverly Hills Cop is.
Speaker: As my friend Adam says from the Two Guys and a Girl podcast, a great movie podcast which you should be checking out.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: It just made me start thinking.
Speaker: I love the Beverly Hills Cop movie and movies, I should say, plural.
Speaker: Turn into Pat Patterson there.
Speaker: But we always quote it.
Speaker: My brothers, friends, things like that.
Speaker: Alistair Wald.
Speaker: Alistair Wald.
Speaker: Even though not many people like the third as much as the first two.
Speaker: But I just wonder if we're getting to a point with content creation where...
Speaker: Is it just too easy a crutch with going on to these reboots, these remasters, whatever you could say?
Speaker: I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm probably a big part of the problem.
Speaker: I'm going to be there first day lined up at the Imaginary Cinema because I think it's a Netflix release and I'll be watching the hell out of Beverly Hills cop Axel Foley because the Axel Foley character is just one of the greatest characters of all time in any form of media.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: What happens when that nostalgia well dries up?
Speaker: I mean, it's relevant to the wrestling chat that we've had today on this episode.
Speaker: I mean, one of the biggest criticisms of the WWE in the last decade was that they would be overly reliant on nostalgia acts to come back to their big WrestleMania season.
Speaker: I mean, the likes of Bill Goldberg, who's out there spearing Tampa Bay fans, which, you know, not too bad, but the guy was wearing a Brady jersey, so I won't be having any of that.
Speaker: So is it too easy a crutch and what happens when that well dries up?
Speaker: What happens when these same characters, you know, aren't able to be on the screen?
Speaker: Do you just give it a fresh coat of paint and say, here's this actor, hey, there's Axel Foley now, or, you know, here's this guy, this is the new Bill Goldberg, this is Gilbert, probably too soon for that.
Speaker: So that's a little bit of a concern because reboots and remasters or going back to something that was so successful, I mean, oh my goodness, Beverly Hills Cop 40 years ago.
Speaker: That's absolutely insane to think about that that's, you know, near on 40 years ago that those originals came out.
Speaker: But it can be so hit and miss and they can do damage to your love and affinity of a character.
Speaker: A good example is Jay and Silent Bob.
Speaker: Now, for such a high intellectual type like me, I know you're surprised that this guy loves himself some Jay and Silent Bob, but if you look at the overabundance of the number 37 in anything I do...
Speaker: You'll probably put two and two together, or three and seven together in that case.
Speaker: And people had mixed reactions about Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
Speaker: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is legitimately my favorite movie of all time because it's so stupid.
Speaker: It's so stupid and smart in some ways, but mainly stupid.
Speaker: I like Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
Speaker: Because it was kind of like a nod to that stupidity, but update it to a modern context.
Speaker: Is it as good as the original?
Speaker: Goodness gracious, no.
Speaker: No, not even close.
Speaker: You know, it's a product of the times, and you go back to, I guess, a mindset or how you felt at the time, and I was a...
Speaker: A young adolescent at the time is probably going, yes, look at all these fart jokes.
Speaker: But Star Wars.
Speaker: Star Wars is another one.
Speaker: How many people debate whether these new sequels came out were any good or whether the best ones or whatnot.
Speaker: You know, someone who didn't watch the original trilogy until, what, maybe four years ago because I'm a terrible human being.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I didn't have that same nostalgia feel about seeing those characters come back and then, you know, killing Harrison Ford straight away.
Speaker: Not ideal.
Speaker: Spoilers, sorry.
Speaker: So Star Wars, another one.
Speaker: But going back to the J.N.
Speaker: Sullen Bob universe, like Clerks 3, I get that Kevin Smith went through that near-death experience and that was a very personal story for him to tell.
Speaker: But, my goodness, it wasn't...
Speaker: Wasn't the same vibe and having said that how much of clerks holds up in in 2023 who knows but So it's just one thing that I guess I keep a casting eye on because in one breath I'm gonna say hey Let's be worried about all these reboots and going to these things that worked 10 20 30 years ago And then the other breath i'll be going.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: Give me more of that david ten and yum yum yum I'll wrap him up.
Speaker: He is the doctor for life even though shooty gatwick It looks like he's going to be incredible
Speaker: So, I don't know.
Speaker: What do you think?
Speaker: This has almost turned into a help me to help me, but I haven't gone back and put the sound effect in.
Speaker: So just, you know, close your eyes, visualize and pretend that it was there.
Speaker: So help me to help me.
Speaker: What do you think?
Speaker: Are we too reliant on rebooting or going back to things that have worked in the past?
Speaker: Or, you know...
Speaker: Should we be embracing that and going, look, these characters, these stories, these ideas, these concepts, these more words here, they hold the test of time because they are so endearing, they're so good, and we should be using them and going back to them as long as the stuff's entertaining.
Speaker: So I'm interested in your thoughts, but...
Speaker: As we get to the end of the show, we go into the normal spiels at the end.
Speaker: Thank you, first and foremost.
Speaker: Well, it can't be first and foremost if it's an hour and a half into the podcast, but one hour and 30 minutes and foremost.
Speaker: Thank you so much for listening, as always.
Speaker: You know, you're just plugging in and putting this into your podcast rotation.
Speaker: Thank you so much for that.
Speaker: If you're digging what we're putting down, please like, subscribe, do all the stuff that makes all the boffins happy on your streaming service.
Speaker: And if you really are digging what we're putting down, give us a share ski.
Speaker: Like, you know, we spoke about the water cooler last week.
Speaker: How about the break room?
Speaker: Let's go, because water coolers aren't a thing anymore.
Speaker: You know, if you liked it, let your mates know.
Speaker: Let your enemies know.
Speaker: Let, you know, anyone you like know that this show exists.
Speaker: You're digging it.
Speaker: There's some great content.
Speaker: There's some gold in these there hills.
Speaker: And we want to build that listenership more and more and more so that the side hustle can, you know, get to that more diagonal front hustle sort of stuff.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Thank you very much for listening.
Speaker: Please reach out on all the socials, on the Instagram.
Speaker: It's heypalum... heypalum inability to speak.
Speaker: Take two.
Speaker: On Instagram, it's heypalumcoachable.
Speaker: On X, X. It's heypalpod, of course.
Speaker: Always reachable on the old email gimmick.
Speaker: heypalummailable at gmail.com.
Speaker: So that will do it.
Speaker: That's that.
Speaker: Thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us tomorrow if you're going to the EPW reawakening show at Willerton Stadium.
Speaker: Of course, at EPW Perth for that.
Speaker: But thank you again.
Speaker: And until next time, we'll see you on Hey Pal, Uncoachable.
