“Capitol Does That TV Studio Wrestling Thing…Remember That?”
The How And Why Of Capitol Wrestling Doubling Down On Studio-Style Wrestling
“Less is more.”
In the 18 years I’ve spent around the professional wrestling business, I’ve had everyone from WWE Hall of Famers and current WWE trainers to independent and international legends alike preach this lesson to me. And yes, in 2018, here I am once again closing my mouth, opening my eyes and ears, and on July 14, 2018, getting down to the business of setting Capitol Wrestling forth to get things done the right way.
Exactly what “thing” is this? At present, the business of professional wrestling’s desire to reinvent, innovate, and shatter all previously considered notions of rules, regulations, and possibilities has reached a fever pitch. The excitement is at such a level within wrestling as an industry that we’ve reached the point where we may have completed a journey around the sun, and everything old is new again. In response, we here at Capitol are redoubling our desire to create classic wrestling for the modern fan. How so? We’re about to embrace wrestling’s history at its base roots, at the TV studio level.
World Wrestling Entertainment is currently in the midst of creating a globalized, independent-to-mainstream version of the territorial pro wrestling model. From Japan and China to the UK, India, Mexico, and more, WWE has seamlessly unified weekly first-run globally broadcast arena and stadium wrestling with monthly, digital-first streaming indy wrestling “mega” cards. At present, the WWE Universe is indeed that, a UNIVERSE. Thus, the idea of “indy” wrestling, and everything it has connoted for the better part of three decades, no longer exists. Furthermore, the idea of “big time” wrestling has been rendered obsolete. Even deeper, the idea of any “traditional” independent running anywhere in the world that’s not aware that they are, even if subconsciously, now a small cog in the larger creative plans of WWE, should be cognizant of this notion.
But, for us here in Capitol Wrestling, it has never, and will never be enough to be a cog in a machine. We want to represent a separate, but equal front wheel alongside WWE to shoulder the immense pop cultural load that professional wrestling is likely to be handling in the near future. Thus, we head “back to the studio.”
At present, WWE has a roughly estimated core fanbase of 75 million people (number taken from American TV ratings and social media followers via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), making the WWE Universe the 20th most populated country in the world. When contemplating how considerable the number of talents and amount of unique content opportunities needed to engage with 75 million different people, that makes WWE’s current 10 hours of first-run regular weekly broadcasting and 250 in-ring performers split between five brands makes sense. It also likely makes you mentally exhausted as well, which ultimately leads to the next point.
The population of the world in full is 10,000% bigger than the likely potential fan reach of World Wrestling Entertainment. Of course, WWE has broadcast reach into 180 countries and reaches more than 800 million homes worldwide, which trumps pretty much any other wrestling promotion by an absurd margin. But, if you use our numbers, WWE or a WWE-related wrestling brand is actually reaching one in every ten homes around the world. That leaves NINE OTHER SCREENS that could be watching wrestling that’s NOT World Wrestling Entertainment, or a related “independent” brand.
Hence, Capitol Wrestling is headed “back to the studio.”
Studio wrestling has worked before. Upon visiting Memphis, Tennessee’s WMC TV-5 in June 2018, current WWE competitor and longtime independent star Samoa Joe noted “We’re kind of sitting on hallowed ground, this being the original studio where a lot of Memphis wrestling went down, and I think we like to come to towns like this, especially leading into bigger shows, the crowds here have a lot more energy they’re very, very opinionated and usually makes for some wild TV.”
Capitol’s formation as a company comes from a studio TV episode from Knoxville, Tennessee in 1973 wherein Ron Wright antagonizes a referee to the point of fisticuffs. In my humble opinion, it’s serious, yet funny, physical, yet madcap. It’s ultimately a perfect combination of every reason why anyone should want to regularly watch professional wrestling.
For the better part of 50 years, “wild” broadcast TV wrestling was oftentimes the most highly rated and uniquely entertaining weekly episodic show on television on the previously mentioned WMC TV-5 in Memphis, Tennessee. Channel 11 in St. Louis, Missouri featured professional wrestling iconically taped in a ballroom setting for three consecutive decades. In Atlanta, Georgia, Channel 17’s NWA Wrestling showcase became the centerpiece of Ted Turner’s national TV SuperStation. In Charlotte, NC, the local TV wrestling program eventually rivaled the success of Ted Turner’s nationwide Channel 17 show. Dallas, Texas’ weekly World Class Championship Wrestling program was syndicated worldwide, while “Cowboy” Bill Watts and company serviced a 1000 mile stretch between Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and New Orleans, Louisiana in the analog age with a one-hour long weekly TV program recorded in a Boys and Girls Club in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Modern era wrestling that is not WWE, but still quite popular, has developed itself in America’s suburban and rural areas. WWE is the bright lights and big city of Wrestlemania in a city’s cavernous stadium, or in a 25,000 seat arena in Brooklyn, New York. Comparatively, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s in Reseda, 20 miles away from Los Angeles. The UK’s Progress Wrestling oftentimes runs in Camden Town, which is five miles away from the center of London. AAW Wrestling is in Merrionette Park, Illinois, 20 miles away from Chicago. The DC Metropolitan Area’s NOVA Pro Wrestling routinely runs 30 miles away from the Nation’s Capital, while MCW is 20 miles away from Baltimore, Maryland in Joppa. There’s a very well set-in-stone system here, one that services 80 million people incredibly well.
Capitol Wrestling is ideally literally here for everyone, but most specifically everyone else, in the world. Here’s why, and also why we’re headed back “to the studio.”
Capitol Wrestling runs in Hoboken, New Jersey. Hoboken is six miles away from Manhattan and ten miles away from Brooklyn. Therefore, it’s basically a tiny city nestled in the bosom of the largest media market in America. There’s a thought that if you engage with the market in an entertaining enough way, that there’s a significant chance for worldwide reach that could meet the roughly ten million unique broadcast viewers that WWE has in the United States alone. In a market next to the city that never sleeps, the easiest way to do this is not by putting on the indy mega show or renting out an arena. Rather, we’re willing to gamble that the answer is just presenting classic weekly studio rasslin’ television updated for the modern fan.
Here’s where things get fun.
If you’re a hyper-engaged wrestling fan, think of Capitol as that alternative universe that your favorite wrestler steps into once a week, every few weeks, and while still being an outstanding in-ring performer, also maybe showcases their gift of gab, comedic timing, or ability to wrestle in a style or manner unfamiliar to the rest of their body of work. If you’re NOT a hyper-engaged wrestling fan, Capitol has done the hard work of sorting through an almost indefatigable collection of current wrestling matches and sourced the most compelling roster possible for the purposes of creating classic, yet intriguing, modern studio wrestling.
Of course, there’s that matter of the “big arena card” that everyone who has ever watched pro wrestling a day in their life knows is coming. However, this product is target aimed at people who are, guess what, not regular pro wrestling fans. Therefore, they are more than likely still at the point of having 100 other things they would rather do than physically attend a professional wrestling event. But, as the numbers and our fan engagement data shows us, brand awareness and retention is on the rise. Keeping people’s eyes on the screen then gets them into the live TV taping. From there, we most certainly have larger events in the offing.
Here’s where things get even more fun.
Our concept is already working. In the past twelve months, we’ve graduated from streaming solely via YouTube and Facebook to now being broadcast on the front page of Twitch.tv on Monday nights. According to Alexa.com research, Twitch.tv is a top 50 website, traffic-wise, in both America and the world overall. Furthermore, according to SimilarWeb.com, Twitch has roughly 30 million site visitors per day. Simple algebra shows that Capitol reaching three million Twitch users would equal a comparable level of relative market reach to that of WWE’s total viewers as compared to total screens available worldwide. If Capitol is able to reach 75% growth insofar as how many weekly viewers see our television as compared to our first year, we’re well on the way to establishing our Capitol “Mini-verse” as a WWE “Universe” comparable broadcast product.
Unlike the classic era, the television that occurs in Hoboken does not stay in Hoboken. Rather, via our partnerships with Twitch, and with Powerslam, available via Amazon Prime, Roku, and Google Play, plus cable outlets on QPTV in Queens, NY and Washington, DC, Minneapolis and Chicago as terrestrial weekly TV markets, and streaming via YouTube, and popular pro wrestling and tech industry portals including Wrestlezone.com, The Guys From Queens Network, False Finish Pro, and the MatMen Podcast Channel, we have created solid, varied streams of syndication.
But yes, to make a long story short, Capitol Wrestling is redoubling our efforts to be exactly the company we promise to be. Classic wrestling for the modern fan. We record a weekly TV show out of Hoboken, New Jersey that, if conservative estimates hold firm, one million people overall will have seen for the first time by Christmas. Going “back to the studio?” Definitely our best idea yet.
Marcus K. Dowling is the CEO and Co-Founder of Capitol Wrestling.
For more information about Capitol Wrestling visit linktr.ee/capitolwrestling
