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CPW secures PPV deal
International Wrestling footage part of contract
By
COREY DAVID LACROIX - SLAM! Wrestling
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  Pierre Carl Ouellet
(bottom) and Thunder are just two of the stars from CPW who will on the
upcoming PWS PPV. - Photo by Corey David Lacroix |
The legends of International Wrestling are teaming up with the superstars of tomorrow and you'll be able to watch
it all unfold on your television screen at home.
Producer
Aaron Weiss confirmed with SLAM! Wrestling he has secured a deal with Hull,
Quebec-based promotion Canadian Professional Wrestling (CPW) to bring a minimum of six Pro
Wrestling Superstars (PWS) Pay-Per-View broadcasts starting in January 2005.
Viewers
will have the opportunity to check out the up and coming talent of CPW and take
a trip down memory lane with matches from Gino Brito’s famed
International Wrestling promotion.
“I’m really
excited,” said Weiss to SLAM! Wrestling. “International Wrestling is now a part
of the PWS library. We feel it’s an opportunity to provide the fans across
Canada to see footage that they probably have never seen before. It’s a chance
to see professional wrestling in what I perceive as its glory days, a time when
ring psychology, interaction with the fans and story lines were paramount.”
Negotiations
began some weeks ago between Brito and Weiss, with the main goal of securing
legal clearance to broadcast the rare International Wrestling footage that
still exists.
For fans of
that bye-gone era, it will be a chance to watch many of the home grown greats
and outside talent battle in the ring once again. “We expect to incorporate it
all probably by December or January and you’ll be seeing Dino Bravo, The
Road Warriors, Rick Martel
and others,” said Weiss.
This latest
effort by Weiss is an ongoing endeavor to provide wrestling fans an alternative
in market that is oversaturated by the sports entertainment brand of wrestling
presented by the WWE. In the past, Weiss has presented broadcasts featuring the
Border City Wrestling (BCW)
promotion based in Windsor and Internet (now renamed to International)
Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) out
of Montreal.
“First and
foremost, I’m a wrestling fan,” Weiss said in explaining his motivations for
his wrestling PPV initiatives.
Like many
fans who at one time were pampered with a selection of PPVs from three
different promotions in the late ‘90s and early into the millennium, Weiss felt
that now more than ever do fans want to have that choice once again. “When the
competition got eliminated from the market place, I looked at things from the
perspective of a fan. What would I want to see? What is not really available to
the mainstream wrestling fan in this region?”
What he has
aspired to do is collect matches from the independent circuit, featuring a
diverse crop of wrestling stars at various stages of their careers. From
today’s indy stars praised by fans on internet message boards, to grapplers who
rose from humble beginnings, rising to wrestling greatness. “It’s more edgier
and raw version of pro wrestling and I think it’s always nice to see the
athletes at different stages in their career. They’re pretty hungry at that
stage and I always like to profile people who are out there, putting out 100%.”
With CPW,
fans can expect a brand of wrestling that is well in keeping with the crucial
ingredients that made the former International Wrestling promotion as
successful as it was. “I really believe that with CPW having Gino Brito behind
it, they offer a brand of wrestling that in time can grow by really focusing on
the family entertainment version and understanding that there needs to be ring
psychology and not just a spot fest.”
For the CPW
roster, the pressure will be in abundance to show fans what they can do in the
ring while getting rare PPV exposure. Be assured that for CPW head trainer Wayne
Cryderman, expectations will be high for his students to deliver what he
has taught them.
“I’m a
pretty serious guy when it comes to what I expect for matches,” Cryderman said. “It’s
becoming less pressure because the more I see my students go out there, the
more they seem to have a grasp of what you need to do when you’re in the ring.”
“You don’t
get an opportunity like this every day,” added Cryderman. “Like I was telling
them, we’ll never compare on a production level to the WWE because we don’t
have that kind of money. But we can put on the same type of matches, the same
type of performance and what we look like. That’s what the guys need to
concentrate on. That’s what I’ll be emphasizing to them for the next couple of
months.”
Cryderman
was blunt in stating that members of the roster should get used to the pressure
they will be feeling for their PPV matches, something there counterparts in the
big leagues are quite accustomed to on a far more regular schedule.
“That kind
of pressure you’re dealing with everyday when you’re in the WWE. The bigger the
star you are the more pressure you’re going to deal with,” he said. “So if
you’re not use to dealing with it now and you do get to that level, you most
certainly won’t know how to handle it. My whole goal is to help them to get to
the level they want to be at which is making decent money, maybe even make a
living out of it. This is a major step for them to prepare for that.”
Having
watched International Wrestling in his youth, Weiss admitted to having a
sentimental outlook on his new initiative. “Watching the International
Wrestling footage reminded me of what it was like to be a kid again and enjoy
wrestling. I have to say it certainly provides a huge smile on my face when I get
to watch Bruiser
Brody and Abdullah
The Butcher. I grew up loving it.”
“International
Wrestling was ahead of it’s time,” Weiss added. “It brought in stars and it was
in front of 10,000 fans. It was a real mixture of old and new stars. Honestly,
it’s a privilege to showcase people like Dino Bravo, Rick Martel, Tom Zenk, The Rougeau Brothers,
Sweet Daddy Siki that
maybe some of the younger fans don’t know.”
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Corey David Lacroix can be emailed at coreyatslam@yahoo.ca.
