London's HWF set for TV exposure

By JOHN M. MILNER -- For SLAM! Wrestling
In addition to the usual WWF and WCW offerings, wrestling fans in the London, Ont. area can expect to add a little local flavour to their television viewing. The Hardcore Wrestling Federation, a local indy promotion, has recently signed a deal with the New PL to broadcast a weekly wrestling program.

"It's going to be very interesting," said Mark Anderson, president of the HWF, of his new endeavour.

"Basically, it's like buying an infomercial," Anderson said of his federation's agreement with the New PL. "It's only $500 a week and we produce our own TV show."

Anderson is hopeful about his organization's deal. "We've got the opportunity to keep going as long as we want, and odds are we're just going to keep going. We're working on a lot of sponsors. We're in with a couple of big companies. 1290 CJBK gave us thousands and thousands of dollars of free sponsorship for the first two shows we ever ran, and people just don't do that nowadays. We have ties in the corporate industries (such as Molson Canadian, CJBK), some big dealers. That's part of Hardcore Wrestling's success."

But it hasn't all been rosy.

"We've had a bit of a drop-off in the last few shows, but that all comes down to the amount of promotion we've put into things.

"The big thing is that we want to produce a TV show, and then we can say 'here is our product' and we can send it out to OnTV, the new VR, all the stations and say 'This is our product, what will it take to get it aired?' And once you have a product, sometimes they'll say 'Well, we'll just take it' and other times they'll say 'It'll be a $1,000 a week to get your show aired.' But the thing is we've already got a product and we've already got a place to air it in London which is the home of Hardcore Wrestling, so it makes sense."

Still, Anderson isn't sure exactly what the overall effect that the TV show will have on Hardcore Wrestling as a whole, but has plans to cash in on the fame that a TV presence will bring his stars.

"We're going to start merchandising a lot heavier. We've always been selling the HWF T-shirt but now we're producing T-shirts of our main stable, the Hollywood Hunks and Legit Heat. We're going to merchandise the T-shirts a little more. We're also looking into starting a line of HWF trading cards. We've also got videos of early arena shows."

January 29th was the initial TV taping for the HWF and the show will begin airing in the first week of March.

The next HWF show on February 19th at the Molson Centre in Barrie may end up being a TV taping as well.

"Our hope is to run a show on the last Saturday of every month at the South London Community, so we're looking at February 26th as the date that would follow that."

London wrestling fans are already excited about having local wrestling action showing up on their TV screens.

"I think it is great,' says Tim Davis, a long-time fan, "The time seems to be right for the HWF to be on the New PL. Now, Canadian Wrestling fans will be able to witness great independent wrestling based from Southern Ontario and possibly witness the future stars of wrestling, Hardcore style. Whether you see HWF on the New PL or you purchase a ticket to an HWF event, which I perfer, you will witness great wrestling action, rather the scripted dialogue on Monday's and Thursday's re-runs."

Results from the HWF TV taping

L'Artiste Defeated G. Rease
Tornado Defeated The Anarchist
Stunning Sean Defeated Dangerous Danny Steele
L'Artiste Defeated Derek Wylde
The Ebony X-Press Defeated Steele Justice
Dangerous Danny Steele Defeated Jamie Jackson
Custom Made Man VS Derek Wylde (NO CONTEST)
The Pitbull Defeated Jack Damage
Stunning Sean Defeated Tommy Twilight
L'Artiste Defeated Derek Wylde & Custom
The Ebony X-Press Defeated Legit Heat
Stunning Sean VS Jamie Jackson (NO CONTEST)
(courtesy HWF)