The Progression and Improvements of 5 Star Wrestling on Freesports UK

The Progression and Improvements of 5 Star Wrestling on Freesports UK

 I wrote a blog recently on 5 Star Wrestling 1st week on Freesports UK which you can

read here
 
http://jonswrestleview.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/thoughts-5-star-wrestling-1st-show-on.html

Now we are nearly 4 weeks later from that debut I thought I'd have a look back at what has changed in 5 Star Wrestling over those past 4 weeks.

Firstly, As I said in the previous blog this is a brand new venture for 5 Star Wrestling onto Live TV and on a new channel in Freesports UK and there is a learning curve for both companies going into it. I felt that a vocal section of fans were overly harsh towards the product without giving it time and giving it a chance to grow. 

As a wrestling fan having a British Wrestling Company on a Nationwide British TV Channel across many platforms like Freesports is huge, and its a tremendous opportunity for all involved its great for the UK Wrestling Scene, UK fans and wrestlers involved. 

The Storytelling of 5 Star Wrestling 

The  in ring action has been tremendous and 5 star are telling great stories and stories that are easy for fans to follow and for the talent to deliver and they are doing this in many different ways. 

Eddie Ryan in his hometown of Plymouth

Eddie Ryan ascension to the top of 5 Star Wrestling has been rapid but week after week Eddie is showing what he can do and he showed so much heart in the gauntlet Match in Plymouth and then subsequently in the 5 Star World Title match that evening. Eddie Ryan has built so much momentum and is gaining more popularity and more fans and is becoming a firm fan favourite with fans all over the country. 

Bram (Right)

Intertwined with Eddie Ryan is the story of Bram. Since week One Bram has been in the crowd and has always appeared when Eddie Ryan has been having a match and it has culminated with Bram appearing with Jack Jester and Bram smashing a bottle in Eddie Ryan face, I like the way this was done introducing a new character in a different way,.

Tor Atter Hagen manhandling Adam Da Silva (from 5 Star Facebook page)

Talking of new character Torre Atter Hagen introduction to 5 Star has been different too, having him stand outside of Arenas for a number of Weeks and then making his debut in Plymouth vs Adam Da Silva, Josh Knott and PJ Jones known as The Pilgrims.

Jake Hager 5 Star Champion

Jake Hager become 5 Star Wrestling Champion by beating John Morrison and Jake character and demeanour in 5 star has blossomed and he has become this arrogant American who is in control and calls the shots and feels that he and American Wrestling is better than 5 Star, the UK wrestlers and UK fans and he will stop at nothing to prove that he is right, although his tactics have been very questionable.

Zack Gibson

I couldn't finish this section of the blog without talking about Zack Gibson. Zack Gibson is given a microphone on every show and is total gold, having seen him in other promotions he is a very gifted talker and he's very clever with his promos as they all have an element of truth to them, which is something which I thought was really clever as it made me understand his anger towards the American talents, and his bitterness abut things that happen to him in 5 Star Wrestling. 

Zack Now has put a group of UK Wrestlers Together (Zack Gibson, Rampage Brown, Adam Maxted and Charlie Sterling) who mission is to destroy the American import talent. 

Overall I think the in ring product and storytelling have been excellent the presentation of them in storyline has been great too, there is so much more to come from this roster too and many more surprises in the future like Matt Riddle who made a surprise appearance in Plymouth and Won Snap or Tap Title.

Roster

The 5 Star Roster is tremendous full of former WWE/TNA talent and full of some of the best current UK Wrestling talent.

A list of Talent used on 5 Star Wrestling so far

Adam Da Silva

Adam Maxted
BT Gunn

Bram
Big Grizzly
Carlito
Charlie Sterling
Chris Walker
Chris Masters
Dave Mastiff
Dick Riley
Eddie Ryan
El Ligero

Lou Sharp
Jack Jester

Josh Knott
Jake Hager
Jody Fleisch
Joey Axl
John Morrison
Mark Haskins

Matt Riddle
Moose
Morgan Webster
Nathan Cruz
PJ Black

PJ Jones
Rey Mysterio
Rampage Brown
Rob Van Dam

Ricky Knight Jr

Torre Atter Hagen
Zack Gibson
HT Drake
Jason Prime
Screwface

UK Hooligans
Tim Wylie
Warbeard

5 Star have gone out and brought in excellent talent into their promotion and they are adding to this roster week on week and I feel that the roster has been a massive strong point and a huge positive for 5 Star Wrestling. 

Eddie Ryan (left) Big Grizzly (Right)

A huge plus to me is the number of UK talent involved established names in UK scene Bram, El Ligero, Dave Mastiff, Mark Haskins, Jody Fleisch joined by newer names to UK fans the excellent Eddie Ryan, Big Grizzly, Adam Maxted, Nathan Cruz, Charlie Sterling, Morgan Webster and more. 

5 star Improvements 

What I have noticed since Week 1 is there have been a number of improvements and 5 Star Wrestling and Freesports have listened. In my previous blog I asked for 3 changes which I thought would help improve the product and those were

• Make Sure Commentators Focus on action in the ring
• Get Bespoke Entrance Music and Entrance Videos for all talent
• Better transition between Matches, Backstage, in ring segments 
  

 5 Star and Freesports have addressed all those issues and made a better product because of it. Commentator Greg Lambert and Joe Hendry are focusing on the matches and the in ring action as it is going on and this feels so much better and helps the flow and continuity of the show. 

Entrance Music was an issue they fixed very quickly and within the 2nd week most talents had new music and entrance videos and now by the 4th week every talent has bespoke music and has an entrance video of some description too. 

5 Star have improved a lot coming through from the first show in Liverpool through to the latest upcoming show in Belfast, where now transitions in and out of break are smoother there are going to be a few snags along the way but people need to remember this is live TV and everything sometimes cant be 100% perfect.

I would also like to defend 5 Star here in regards to crowds and crowd numbers, I see a lot of fans complaining about this but they need to understand something the type of venues 5 Star Wrestling needs to run in this country aren't aplenty.

Previous 5 Star Shows 

Liverpool Echo Arena - 11,000 Capacity 

Newcastle Arena - 11,000 Capacity 

Sheffield Arena - 13,500 Capacity 

Plymouth Arena - 2,500 Capacity 

Belfast Arena - 11,000 Capacity 

Upcoming 5 Star Shows

Aberdeen Arena -  8,500 Capacity

Manchester Arena - 21,000 Capacity

Leeds Arena - 13,500 Capacity

Birmingham Arena - 15,800 Capacity

Dundee - 2,300 Capacity

Blackburn - 3,200 Capacity

Cardiff - 2,500 Capacity

As you can see from the information above UK has lots of arenas but only 4 venues out of 12 with capacity between 2000-8000 seats.

So in terms of producing a product and producing a TV program it is better to come from these bigger arenas as you can set up cameras for TV and have better production values fort he live TV show from these bigger venues.

Fans have criticised this by saying that these bigger arenas aren't at capacity but in my opinion they don't need to be. 

5 Star and Freesports need to work with what is available and although they surely would love 10,000 people at every show if they have to tarp part of an arena what's the problem?

WWE do the same thing for episodes of Raw and Smackdown currently and Impact draws less currently at a live event than 5 Star does, so by comparison 5 Star aren't doing a bad job as more fans get to see 5 Star Wrestling and Freesports the fan base will continue to grow.

Overall I think 5 star Wrestling and Freesports have done a brilliant job so far and they are moving in the right direction, they need to continue to push the product forward and stay the course this along with more promotion, on social media, TV, Newspapers.

I Would revamp of 5 Star Wrestling website to include a Roster Page, Social Media Page, A Shop/Merch page and some exclusive video content.

I think that this would really add to the fan experience, get fans to come to the website and could be advertised on 5 Star show and help drive tickets sales too.

These are things that can be done as they go and they can build these things as they go and continue to enhance themselves.

5 Star Wrestling can be viewed on Freeview, Sky, Freesat, TalkTalk and BT and episodes can also be viewed live on 5 Star Wrestling Facebook page. 

 Thanks For Reading 

@jon422002
Jonathan Orchard