8 Wrestling Shows With EMBARRASSING Attendances
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Acclaimed theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski is perhaps best known for his oft-parroted phrase, "there are no small roles, only small actors." The point is that, no matter how inconsequential the part may seem, it's ultimately crucial to the overall production, or else it wouldn't exist.
The pithy nature of this maxim has seen it inevitably malformed for other industries. Musicians, struggling along at a string of sticky-floored working men's clubs, are apt to say that "there's no such thing as small gigs - only small musicians." It doesn't quite make as much sense, but you get the general gist.
As ever, wrestling is the exception to the real world. Anyone who toured the dismal UK independent scene prior to the BritWres Revolution will know all too well that there are small shows, and they are universally the preserve of small (back then, often literally) wrestlers. Without stars, nobody will come.
So the trick is small venues. A sold out bingo hall gives better optics than an empty amphitheatre. Unfortunately, starry-eyed optimism too often outstrips business acumen - resulting in huge benefits for huge tarpaulin manufacturers.
8. GFW Live (Richmond, Virginia)
In May 2015, Jeff Jarrett launched a lurid lime green venture with some seriously lofty ambitions. According to its preposterous mission statement, Global Force Wrestling would feature "elite professional athletes from five different continents", and would boast "real stories, real people, and real meaning."
One of those real, elite level professionals turned out to be an ancient Kevin Nash, who, seemingly on his way back from the gym, popped his head in the door for a GFW show in Richmond, Virginia's 12,000 capacity Diamond baseball stadium.
Unfortunately, Big Sexy, two decades since claiming the WWF Championship, was not a big draw - so no difference there. Of those 'real people' Jarrett mentioned, just 250 of them, um, 'flocked' into the obviously oversized amphitheater, as the nWo founded endorsed Luke Gallows, and by extension, the Bullet Club. At one point, there was legitimately almost as many people in the ring as in the bleachers.