There has been a discussion on the UK scene of late which has involved attacks regarding work ethics and commitment from UK based professional wrestlers against "part time" wrestlers or "weekend warriors". The discussion has even brought in some rather nice merchandise from Defend Indy Wrestling and Screw Indy Wrestling, who both appear to have a different outlook on the UK scene although not many people are exactly sure what that is.
I personally think that having part time wrestlers on the UK scene is unavoidable simply because there is not enough money on the scene for everybody to be full time, I am sure ever wrestler would love to be able to work full time in the ring but the fact is the scene has so many talented wrestlers and not enough big paying promotions for everybody to make a proper living at it. A lot of workers have families to support, houses to run and a lot of them are in education so they have something to fall back on should wrestling not work out for them.
To really be able to make comfortable living on the UK wrestling scene you need to pretty much have a similar schedule to that of a WWE wrestler which granted there is more than enough promotions around these days for you to be able to fill up your calendar with bookings but like I said earlier there just isn't enough big paying companies in operation.
On a similar note I think any wrestling promotion in the UK that makes merchandise of a wrestler on their roster such as a shirt or DVD and sells that said piece of merchandise then they should pay the wrestler a percentage of the sale, no ifs or buts about it.
Next I would like to talk about something I have witnessed over the years in British wrestling and lately I have been the victim of myself, that is being bad mouthed for have an opinion. Now I know my three article related to the BWA "scandal" of the Summer of 2013 may have caused some controversy among some people but I feel like I was completely down the middle on that by giving both parties their chance to speak their mind. Some people have said that unless you have been in the ring then you have no business talking about wrestling on any wrestling site. I have had a number of other fans who think they are in the business because they know people that are, "wrestlers" who have been going to school for a few month and guys bitter that they just don't have what other guys around them do have bad mouth me over the past week and tell me that I shouldn't be around the wrestling business.
I don't claim to be "in the business", the articles and interviews that I do are done for free, I don't have to do them, I do them for the love of wrestling and because I like to help put others over. Anybody who follows me on Twitter or is a friend of mine on Facebook will know that I constantly go out of my way to put people over, never to put myself over. I had one comment on my BWA article that I was just in it to get views but that was far from the truth, I felt it was a story that others needed to hear about, that is why I did it. I don't do interviews to help myself get over, I do it to get the wrestler over and I am damn proud of what I have done in the last few months.
Being involved in writing wrestling in one way or another has been something I have wanted to do for the past ten years and when I was given the chance to do so I took it with both hands and saw it as my chance to help further promote wrestling in the UK which is what I do every day of my life. I promote the British wrestling scene more than two of my biggest haters Dan James and Jacob Page do and yet because I have never stepped foot in a wrestling ring, just because I am doing this through social media and not outlets such as FSM or Powerslam then I am a nobody who doesn't belong and who's opinion means nothing.
There are many workers on the West Yorkshire that I think are very talented that don't get enough exposure who I do my best to help, there are many local promotions that I do my best to promote, there is a very talented artist who I do my best to promote constantly and I hope that he finally gets a job in wrestling soon. In a recent article of mine a talented local comedy wrestler who I have promoted for a long time got some great praise off a well respected name on the UK scene, all I do in wrestling is go out of my way to put others over, I am not in it for money or to make friends but simply to help other people.
For instance my pick for breakout wrestler of 2014 is Liam Lazarus, Liam isn't a huge name and hasn't been booked on many huge shows but the guy is a super talent who very much like Dolph Ziggler does in WWE he makes his opponent look good. I have really got behind this guy a lot and I will continue to do so because I want to see him have more attention payed to him, not for my own benefit. I would certainly like to thank everybody who has had kind things to say about my writing and to Stu for supporting me and appreciating what I do for British wrestling. I don't expect everybody to like me, I don't expect you to enjoy what I write but you can never say that I don't belong because I have given so much of myself and I will continue to do so because that is who I am.
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