USA Pro Wrestling, based out of Queens, NY, which is headed by Frank Goodman, may as well be the official “home” fed of the DOI. The DOI is based in Queens, NY and without Frank Goodman giving us tables at his shows and talking us up, from day one, I don’t think we’d be at the point that the DOI is at today.

USA Pro Wrestling has recently underwent a process of airing out dirty laundry by management. Frank Goodman and Anthony “The Funker” Diblasi both went on their separate hotlines and aired out what they felt went wrong at their last show. Brian aka Blade’s role in USA Pro wrestling has been questioned. (He’s Franks right hand man/runner) According to others, Blade is part of the USA Pro booking staff. Finally, everything has been settled between all three parties. USA Pro management got everything they needed to say off their chest. Whether making it public or not was a good idea is a matter of opinion, but it does give me new material to write about. Now that USA Pro management is on the same page, what can be done to improve USA Pro?

Right now there is only promotion in America that means anything. That is the WWE. Competing for number two is NWA TNA and Ring of Honor. A case can be made for either promotion for the number two spot. (I say Ring of Honor is number 2, but that’s for a whole different column.) To many though, NWA TNA is the number 2 promotion, and honestly, I think that sucks.

NWA TNA is based out of Nashville, TN. AWA and USWA are all distant memories to wrestling fans in the Nashville area, and give NWA TNA credit for giving the fans there a place to watch wrestling. To me, I find watching NWA TNA to be a mix of WCW Thunder and best of the internet. A lot of the wrestlers are former WCW guys who couldn’t get a job in the WWE or are wrestlers that the WWE recently released. Every show seems to hype a new mystery partner, all tactics WCW used during the Monday Night War era. Bringing in guys like Teddy Hart, Jack Evans, Chris Sabin etc, are all people the internet want to see, not the casual fan, hence my comment about bringing in the best of the internet. But this isn’t a column about improving NWA TNA. This is a column about USA Pro. The reason why I mention NWA TNA is because I find it aggravating as a New Yorker to know that a promotion in the sticks is more respected and valued than my home state promotion, USA Pro.

For comparisons sake, look at the rosters of both promotions. Shane Douglas and Raven headline many TNA PPVs. These two guys also are battling over the USA Pro Heavyweight championship. Simon Diamond is a former NWA TNA tag team champion with Johnny Swinger. Right now, he is a current USA Pro tag team champion with Matt Striker. Balls Mahoney and Mikey Whipwreck are two other guys who made their TNA debuts. These guys are respected former champions in USA Pro. D-Lo Brown? Low Ki? USA Pro has them too. My point is that USA Pro has the same big name talent, if not bigger and better with guys like Damien 666, Halloween, Sabu, Jimmy Snuka, Chris Candido, Tammy Sytch all on the USA Pro roster.

Now taking a look at the indy guys or b-level names, and we see Sonjay Dutt, The SAT, Sharkboy, Chris Daniels and more. USA Pro has those guys. Look at TNA’s B-level guys we see guys like Chris Sabin, Frank Kazarian, Michael Shane, Abyss and more. Over at USA Pro we see Deranged, Xavier, Slyk Wagner Brown, Grim Reefer and more. That ain’t too shabby, and I know that USA Pro guys are on the same level as those guys, if not higher. Honestly there are guys that TNA brings in for one shots here and there like Sting and Lex Luger, but if USA Pro wanted to piss away money on one shot deals, they could do it too. The only regulars in TNA to never appear in USA pro are Jeff Jarrett and AJ Styles. Then again I’ve never seen Bam Bam Bigelow, Crowbar (considered by many as one of the best independent wrestlers ever during his peak), Danny Maff, and one of the best today, Homicide, in NWA TNA. Want to look at the women? Both companies employ the same women, with USA Pro having more women around such as April Hunter, Tara Charisma, Ariel, Miss Michelle and more.
Shit, even the referees are better. I’ll take Hanson as ref over any TNA ref today.

My point is this – clearly USA Pro has the stronger roster of the two promotions. My question is this- why isn’t USA Pro on the same level?

New York is the biggest city in the US. There is no reason for a small market city, like Nashville, to do anything bigger than NY. Call me a stereotypical New Yorker, but that’s how I feel. Look at other sports. I’ll use hockey as an example. Rangers, despite their love for losing, will always be bigger than the Pedators. You can say the Rangers have been around longer, then again USA Pro has been around 6 years longer than NWA TNA. It is time for USA Pro to see the big picture.

Success or failure in USA Pro is on one mans shoulders, and that’s Frank Goodman. He’s made it known that making money is what it is all about. I think everyone can agree that making money is the only way to keep a wrestling promotion in business. USA Pro has been making profit for some time now. I think USA Pro needs to start thinking long-term instead of short-term. While Frank might not have time to do this, being a family man and all, hiring other people who have had previous experience with elevating promotions and know big business might be an option. Tod Gordon could be a guy like that, even though he is tied up in 3PW right now. Anthony Diblasi is also very dedicated and can be pertinent to big time USA Pro success.

USA Pro should start looking around to shop their product to various cable networks. The Sunshine Network, which reaches many homes, mainly in Florida, would be a good start, especially since legwork to run shows in Florida is being done as I write this. The WGN network in Chicago can be another good big market station to go after. Philadelphia residents have the option of watching CZW Fake You TV among other promotions television, such as WXW Rage. Philly is a big time wrestling city and it would be wise to air TV there. In NY, the Metro channel airs several wrestling programs, and USA Pro would be a great addition. By having these big market TV deals, more fans will be exposed to the product which will lead to advertisers, bigger crowds, more merchandise being sold, and maybe one day, a PPV.

Let’s say USA Pro does that. Then what? Running weekly shows is very expensive. Another problem might be USA Pro’s lesser talent aka the ticket sellers. If you take the ticket sellers out of it, will USA Pro’s crowd be the same? Probably not. A solution to this would to run a normal show. Have your ticket seller matches on the show, with your 8-9 great matches of wrestling. For the TV show you could air 2 of these great matches a week, with promos/plugs and storylines. I know if I’m a wrestling fan, who knows jack shit about indy wrestling, I will leave the TV on if I see Raven fighting Shane Douglas or Chris Candido vs Balls Mahoney. After seeing one of these matches, I’d stick around to see the whole thing, and I think many fans will liken to indy talent that can do big time things such as Grim Reefer. Such as Xavier. Such as the SAT, Solution, Christopher Street Connection and DRS. There’s so much talent on USA Pro that fans would stay tuned weekly to see what wrestlers will debut next.

Another thing USA Pro needs to capitalize on are storylines. The storylines in USA Pro are usually lacking or non-existant. This guy fights this guy because he hit him after a match. More is needed for a feud than that. I know a lot of people didn’t like the Billy Reil/Dana Dameson angle, but I loved it. Reil might be nuts, he might be a wildman, but his participation in the show is what everyone is talking about. Douglas defeated Raven for the World title at the same show, but everyone is talking about Billy Reil. If Dana didn’t blow it by exposing the whole thing as a work on a message board, I wonder how many more people would believe it. Trust me, I got phone calls, and I have it on record that another promoter called, all looking to find out what happened at USA Pro. This is something USA Pro did well, accidentally or not. Something must be done to give this angle a big payoff. This must be followed up. It might not be the best thing morally, but shit, neither was Slaughter during Wrestlemania VII. Neither was the Nation of Domination.

Wrestling isn’t all about morals. Ring of Honor, a promotion all about honor, which sometimes goes hand in hand with morals, ran an angle where CM Punks girlfriend, Lucy (WCW’s Daffney) was abducted by BJ Whitmer and the prophecy. Last time I checked, abducting women wasn’t morally correct. Morality shouldn’t even be an issue when it comes to wrestling angles, and if it is, wrestling isn’t for you. I mean family shows such as NWS, has a character called Hasheem Ali who is a Bin Laden supporter. I don’t think that’s morally or even politically correct. I don’t find it offensive in the least way and families aren’t finding it offensive either, as NWS are having packed crowds show after show to watch the Patriot give Ali his comeuppance.

USA Pro needs to have a better production for long term profit. If a show looks like it was just thrown together haphazardly, hardcore wrestling fans will go elsewhere, and casual fans will laugh it off and go back to watching free wrestling on TV. I’ll cut USA Pro some slack, as it was a new building, but things need to improve in that department. Not every building is the Elks Lodge. Which brings me to my next point.

Find a home building. That’s easier to say than to do, I know that for a fact. I honestly don’t think Club Amazura is the best building to build up a home base. The Elks Lodge was that building. Try to negotiate with the Koreans and get that building back. If not, look up and down Queens and Manhattan for a new home building. It will probably take days maybe even weeks to do this, but once it’s done, it will pay off in the long term.

Another thing that would improve USA pro live shows would be more one on one matches. You'd have to cut down your roster to do this, so I'd either cut the roster or have a core roster with rotators for every other show. Watching 4 way matches where everyone has to get pinned is confusing to a live crowd, especially for a show that can go up to and sometimes past the 6 hour mark. These matches would however, work better on TV, where announcers can explain everything and give reasoning to the match. Right now, it’s watch this 4 way or watch this 3 way, with no rhyme or reason, except that it’s either for a title belt, or a way to get 4 workers on a show. Honestly, how is a title supposed to mean something if it’s defended in weird stipulations all the time? I’m a fan of championships not being props, and being respected. Wrestling some insane match that is difficult for a live crowd to follow demeans the championship aura.

In closing, USA Pro has the resources to be the number 2 promotion in the United States. I’d like to see that happen some day. Whether it does or not is anyone’s call. I know it’s easier to type up a column then to make these moves, but I honestly think if Frank Goodman is motivated enough, it can get done. The one thing that I think will halter big time advancement for USA Pro is Goodman’s family life. Goodman isn’t Paul Heymen, as Paul Heymen had the time and no other responsibilities besides ECW when he was building up ECW to be a national promotion. Regardless, it’s time for USA Pro to stand up to the plate and show everyone why NY is the biggest city in the world.

Feel free to email all feedback or post on the DOI Message board about this column.
For more on USA Pro Wrestling check them out at www.usaprowrestling.net

Sean “The MiC” McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com