Gabe Sapolsky to book Dragon Gate USA: How to Make it Work
This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter breaks the following news:
Dragon Gate promotions announced on 4/15 in Japan that they are setting up a U.S. office and will be running six or more shows per year, using former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky as the booker.
the news continues with:
There will be some similar talent brought in on the shows as they can do programs, but they will vary which of the top 16 or so Dragon Gate are brought in for each show. The concept is similar to ROH at the beginning, where they will look at DVD sales as a primary revenue stream. The annual shows with the Dragon Gate wrestlers were always among the best selling DVDs each year for ROH.
Two major problems are hitting small wrestling companies, especially Ring of Honor, lately: lots of piracy, and lack of interest because shows take too long to come out. Here’s some ways to combat that and sell to the fanbase:
- Sell pre-orders of the DVDs along with tickets to the show, and at the show itself. A customer who enjoyed the live show should be able to pay for the DVD on the spot, while it’s fresh in their mind.
- Get the full shows available on the iTunes Store as soon as possible.
- Release compilation videos featuring Dragon Gate stars on iTunes, covering their recent storylines, with English commentary — like a monthly Dragon Gate TV series.
- Release single matches as digital downloads, both from DG USA and the Japanese version, with English commentary.
- Do a subscription model for both DVDs and the digital versions. With only six shows a year at this time, a year’s subscription is affordable and with two months between shows, anything you can do to combat people forgetting about them is a good thing.
- Make the commentary good, and include lots of references to feuds, storylines, and past shows, to get people intrigued in watching more.
- Hire a good photographer to take great photographs of the wrestlers and action before, after, and during the show — from these, you’ll have the resources to make good-looking DVD covers, website graphics, posters, and potentially printed books down the road. Make the product stand out by making it look better.
Bottom line is that along with great wrestling, a new indy promotion [even if it's an offshoot of a bigger overseas promotion] needs to market and present themselves in ways that are not stuck in 2002.