PCW Ultra owner Mike Scharnagl recently spoke exclusively to us here at WrestleZone ahead of the promotion’s Refuse To Lose event in Los Angeles tomorrow night, which you can purchase tickets to here. Scharnagl revealed what it’s like to run a wrestling promotion on the independent circuit, what kind of challenges he’s faced along the way and also what fans can expect in the future. You can find the full interview below.
In terms of Refuse To Lose, the likes of Zack Sabre Jr, Terry Funk and Sandman will be all present in addition to the blockbuster main event between John Hennigan (formerly known as John Morrison) and Pentagon Jr.
On the process of booking an indy show:
“My partner books things out well in advance. So for example, in 2018 he’s got us booked through May, which is basically a starting point. Inevitably wrestlers come and go, somebody can’t do it, things change, and we have to revamp. That’s the biggest process – the coordination it takes to get from concept to wrestlers in the ring and fans in their seats, ready to go. Usually, an event takes us 3 months from conception.”
On Refuse To Lose:
“We have seven matches at this event, three of which are title matches. For fans, if you want to see some really good wrestling, our Heavyweight title bout is Penta El Zero M [Pentagon Jr] against John Hennigan, who many people know as John Morrison or Johnny Mundo. People are really going to enjoy it.”
On the positive aspects of the independent scene:
“I have been a wrestling fan for 30 something years at this point, and I love it. I’ve always loved the business side of it. That was kind of how it started, and the great thing about indy wrestling is the interaction between the fans and the wrestlers is like no other sport.
These guys bust their butts and work 300+ days a year. If you go to a football game or soccer in the UK, you don’t get to meet the guys. You don’t get to talk to them and hang out – but in indy wrestling you do. Sure, they’re selling their own merch, but we have fans who follow our fans around from Tijuana, Mexico to San Francisco.”
On advice for people wanting to start a promotion:
“The first piece of advice I’d give them would be to set their expectations on what they want to do. I’m a workaholic and an entrepreneur, and if I was gonna do this I was gonna do it the best. It’s all about taking chances. We had Rob Van Dam as our champion for six months, and that’s not a small investment and not something for the faint of heart.
But I knew as a risk taker that if RVD was at the top of the card, fans would come. There’s nothing wrong with having a promotion that runs once a month or once every eight weeks or whatever it is, and you expect to have 100 fans there and you have the right wrestlers to do that. For us, that’s not our goal. We want to be on some kind of TV whether it’s Hulu or Netflix or whatever it is.”
On the future of PCW Ultra:
“I could see us in more than Los Angeles at that point [within 18-24 months]. Whether that means somewhere else in Southern California, Las Vegas, Arizona, Texas – who knows. But I could definitely see us having events in another location, and that would be the first step.
The second step would be that we’re definitely going to be on some kind of platform online so that you can watch us on iPPV. That one is gonna be done in the next month.”
