How Will the COVID Pandemic affect UK Independent Wrestling in 2020?

How Will the COVID Pandemic affect UK Independent Wrestling in 2020? 

As many of you reading this blog will know I go to many independent wrestling shows, Work on many independent shows and it’s become so special to me over the years. I have have seen it increase in popularity, seen independent wrestlers becoming full time talents for WWE, AEW, Ring Of Honor, NJPW and more and also seen new talents come onto the UK scene.

Before March 2020 many UK Independent shows were thriving - shows were generally selling out across the country with hundreds of fans attending shows and coming to see some of the best action and great matches.

Over the past few months it has been a hard world for us all to be in, to be stuck in lockdown, shops shut, hairdressers closed, shortages of toilet roll and paracetamol and most importantly for me wrestling shows cancelled

Of course this needed to be done and the right action had to be taken to protect the NHS, Save Lives and keep any deaths from this horrible pandemic to a minimum and keeping people safe.

Now as the country is moving towards coming out of this lockdown with shops due to open up soon and things gradually changing my mind wonders and thinks what will happen to UK Independent pro wrestling?

Its not something that I think I’ll be able to answer fully but what will independent wrestling look like in the coming months?

So many companies have cancelled the majority of shows for the year or upcoming months, some wrestling companies are struggling financially and some wrestling company owners who also work another job day to day are experiencing furlough, redundancy and all the emotional and financial difficulties that come with this.

Since I've been involved in wrestling I’ve not seen anything like this a pandemic canceling all shows and potentially changing the wrestling business forever.

This is my opinion, my thoughts and what I think. I will look at 3 major issues I think independent wrestling needs to tackle in the near future in regards to the affect of the pandemic.

Issues facing UK wrestling on its Return 

The Audience is Key 

Independent wrestling  fans are so important they are the lifeblood of any promotion and are the reason companies are able to put on shows without their support their would be no companies and there would be no shows either. In the UK currently you can't have a gathering of more than 6 people.

The Crowd is the biggest part of the show they really are. the interaction the noise and most importantly the passion.

Wrestling without the fans just isn’t right, look at WWE before they had NXT stars around the ring - it was far too quiet. The loss of atmosphere and the loss of the crowd for the wrestlers to play off of is right in front of you all the time and can’t be missed its a gaping hole.

The fans give such an important element to shows and they can’t be replaced, sadly I think packed out venues as we saw in the 1st part of the year may become a thing of the past until the situation changes dramatically and more fans are allowed to come to shows.

I think also that fan safety is very important and that there may need to be social distancing seating, hand sanitizer on arrival for fans to use and important that fans keep social distancing in mind. 

 

Cost to the Company and Venues 

In terms of cost, the cost of the building hire alone could be too much and without being able to make that money back with having to have less fans in the venue it would mean that shows would run at a loss before they even started. 

Venues would need to significantly reduce their costs for shows to be able to run and for a company to at least have a shot of breaking even. 

Some companies have to pay wages, ring hire, security costs, Insurance Costs and more but it’s a fine balance as the owners of the venue's still need to make money themselves in a very difficult time, it’s going to be hard to find a balance that makes everyone happy. 

Venues will also need to make their building social distancing friendly and will incur difficulties in trying to do this and also the additional cost of doing this for example if a building needs to be remodeled to be compliant. 

Venue owners may also not be able to sell drinks and food dependent or their on situation and this may be something that some venues may need to look at the see whether they can still do this as they once were.

COVID Testing 

In Sports like Football and Snooker for example they are having matches but all competitors are tested before going into the building and everyone has to all still be aware of social distancing.

If we are still under the same rules as we are now then obviously something would need to be put in place by the government to help manage this. It wouldn’t just apply to Pro Wrestling it would all apply to concerts, theatre performances and any live performance

If rules are relaxed then I think it would be down to individual performers to check whether they had symptoms and not to come if they show any symptoms. 

There are also so many more issues facing UK wrestling going forward but I wanted to focus in on these three as i think they are some of the most important. There are so many economic, environmental and outside factors that will affect wrestling we will have to see what the future brings, however no matter what happens there will be some things that won't change 

What won't change in UK Wrestling

The love and passion of the pro wrestling fans - it’s their passion as I said earlier in this blog that keeps the scene alive - that won’t change at all and I hope never does its what live performance thrives on and no group of fans does it better than wrestling fans.

The great wrestling matches, the effort of the talent to put on these great matches, amazing moments and to tell these incredible stories that keep us all entertained. 

The sense of community, bonding with other wrestling fans and feeling part of an amazing, tremendous community of people 

Whatever challenge is thrown in front of UK Pro Wrestling we will find a way around it, find a way to overcome it and put on the best show possible for the people.

So although the way wrestling will have to be presented will change, maybe the way we view live wrestling will change but the love of pro wrestling stays the same and will never change.

Thanks for Reading 

@jon422002

Jonathan Orchard