Wrestle Talk

Fans of posters will be very pleased to know that on arrival at Glasgow Central railway station recently directly opposite the entrance is a poster for Valor Promotions event next month.Valor promote events in Scotland and Scandinavia

" A warm welcome to Wrestlecall!"

I remember dialing that number when bored at work, premium charge, so I should not have done it!

It gave match results, including overseas results, and upcoming matches.

I'm with Anglo.

Good grief, did I really say that? Quick. Get me a glass of water. With a whisky inside it.

Oh well, if they're packed out, sure, maybe no posters needed. But if they have aspirations to larger halls and development, and more frequent shows, I would have thought posters would help.

I am clearly out of touch and from a bygone age.

Just can't fathom it!

Progress and Rev Pro do not need posters because there is usually standing room only at their events.Even smaller promotions such as Pro Wrestling Live can pack out Darlaston Town Hall with minimal posters.

Some seaside venues still use generic posters. Last year in Rhyl there was just one poster for all four shows in July and August

I would say we still don't have any real big promotions apart from All Star, the companies mentioned rarely use more than a few venues, we have much smaller promotions who do a lot more venues so the poster the locality as well as advertising via Facebook etc . They may well do more shows too but will visit a venue once or twice a year hence the need for postering the area.

I'm not trying to be funny, Peter, but when you say:

I just can't get my head round it.

Maybe if they did advertise with posters, "etc," they would get much better turnouts and the named wrestlers might have a chance of becoming household names.

Posters are still a very valid way of advertising: just take one of those long tube escalators and the constant repetition of the same posters as you descend gets right inside your head.

People stand in front of posters, they talk about what they see, they go home or to work and tell others what they have seen. It becomes a talking point.

The big promotions of the present day do not need to advertise with posters. London based Progress and Rev Pro do not even sell tickets on the door.If you do not have a smart phone or access to a printer to print a ticket purchased on line you will not get in.It is quite usual at York Hall or the Progress venue in Camden for passers by to ask why fans are queuing.You could live next door and be non the wiser that Pro Wrestling was taking place!

Thanks Peter. This time I do agree with Anglo Italian. The advertisements of years ago did draw people in, and as "everyone was someone's favourite" supporting matches could well catch the attention of regular fans and entice them to the show. Yes, posters were everywhere, sometimes illegally posted, and promoters invested in newspaper adverts. This was the way that names became established and known amongst the general public.

I did question a promoter last year about the current advertising and his response was that the public paid to watch a wrestling show, not an individual. I really don't buy that. I would pay to watch McManus, Pallo, Angus, Pye etc, I would never have paid to watch "a wrestling show."

Fascinating how advertising of shows in the internet age is so poor - unless you happen already to know where to look. (In which case the adverstising isn't drawing you in.)

In the Heritage years the advertising was aggressive, full-on, intensive; not to mention colourful and appealing. Wrestling posters were all around every town. The advertising drew in those who were trying not to look. You just couldn't miss it.

Most areas of life see progress over 50 or 60 years. As far as I can understand, the advertising of wrestling shows has taken several steps backwards.

The tight discipline of the promoters then enabled them to plan shows 30 and 60 days ahead in great detail. I wonder if that is still the case? On the advertising I do see, the support bouts are not mentioned. I know I look disdainfully on the very few Heritage-era posters that announced "plus support bout(s)."

It was a premium cost phone line that gave details of forthcoming events around the UK.It reached its peak in the final years of the pre internet era but continued into the early part of this century.

It was eventually replaced by websites giving the same info.It was invaluable in the early 1990s as the number of venues decreased.Fans could phone and find details of events that were quite close to home but not well advertised.