Sal Hamaoui Interview

A lot has happened to Sal Hamaoui since his first interview with DOI, so I decided to catch up with him to see how things are going now. Hamaoui's promotion, Full Impact Pro, has a big double shot weekend on Friday, July 23, and Saturday, July 24. In the interview, Hamaoui discusses several interesting topics such as the new DVD distribution deals that he has signed, his working relationship with Ron Niemi and NWA Florida, his decision to bring Gabe Sapolsky on as Full Impact Pro's booker, Teddy Hart's cancellation of his FIP shows and breaking news as he makes an announcement concerning New Japan Pro Wrestling USA. This is a definite must read interview. I'd like to thank Mr. Hamaoui, once again, for the interview.

Will Rivera: Some time has passed since your first interview with DOI. Since then you've had a lot of new stuff going on. Let's start off with World Wrestling Network, and its ever growing business. For those not familiar with WWN, could you explain what WWN is?

Sal Hamaoui: We're a DVD authoring, replication, editing and distribution company. We have distribution deals in place with Navarre Distributing and, just currently, started to work with Diamond Distributing. Pretty much we focus on independent wrestling, U.S. and international.

WR: For the record, what promotions have DVD deals with WWN?

SH: Well, we currently have deals with Ring of Honor and Mike Graham's classic footage from Florida. We just signed IPW's library of footage. They're a local promotion that was down here for about five years. We have a deal with NWA Florida. USA Pro wrestling just signed. We'll be releasing 3 DVD's with them, hopefully, the first part of next year. Jersey All Pro Wrestling, Jersey Championship Wrestling..... And we're talking to Revolution Pro right now, as well as others.

WR: What DVD's will be released through the end of the year?

SH: We're releasing the last six titles of Turnbuckle Memories. Those are Mike Graham titles. The Best of Classic Championship Wrestling - Volume 2 and two more Ring of Honor titles. Those are all stuff that we submitted earlier on in our agreement. With the new agreement we'll be submitting all the newer content like Jersey All Pro and probably the first 12 titles from Ring of Honor, and so forth.

WR: Are there any promotions out there that you're looking to land distribution deals? Any that really grab your eye?

SH: There are some that attract an internet buzz. I'm really impressed with Combat Zone, but I believe that they already have a distribution deal in place. I've known John (Zandig) for a couple of years. He was one of the content providers when we were doing online streaming. A really, really good guy, and I wish them the best of luck. Other than that, we've got our eye on Teddy Hart's new promotion, H2. We're hoping to sign a deal with them. They seem like they have a bright future ahead of them, and we'd really like to get their stuff out there.

WR: One of the promotions you mentioned earlier was NWA Florida. Does this mean that we'll be seeing a working relationship between NWA Florida and Full Impact Pro, your promotion?

SH: With regard to working relationship, I mean Ron, Joe and myself are on really good terms, at this point. There were a lot of problems in the past, but it was never really anything that anyone of us had done to the other party. It was mostly other people that were around. There was a lot of misunderstandings, and that's all water under the bridge. Ron is really closely working with me now on Full Impact Pro and WWN, as well as helping Joe, continuing his relationship with NWA Florida. With regard to joint shows and stuff like that, I don't honestly see that as something that's going to be happening really soon. We're at a point right now with a new booker, with Gabe on board from Ring of Honor, that we really gotta bring in a lot of new talent, a lot of the top indy names from across the country and really establish our identity as Full Impact Pro. Basically, the whole last year all the shows we'd done were kind of getting ready for this. Not to say that we won't be using a lot of the NWA talent, which we have been. We do use Scoot.....We've used Scoot (Andrews), Lex Lovett, Antonio Banks. We've even used Steve Madison on our first show. Not to say that we won't continue using a lot of NWA Florida talent which we will be. With the new promotion, we'll have a roster of about 40 people in the new promotion, and it just got finalized today who we're gonna be using. And quite a bit are from the NWA Florida roster. And we're also planning on, perhaps, doing a double header once every two months with NWA Florida, like an afternoon (and) evening show in a really nice venue.

WR: Are there any specific names that most wouldn't recognize as FIP talent that you can say right now?

SH: Yeah, we did reach agreements with Homicide, CM Punk, Justin Credible, Trent Acid. All pretty much Northeast talent. We will be bringing them four individuals on a regular basis, so you can pretty much plan to see all four of them every month on the double shots. With regard to TNA talent that we're going to be aggressively going after that we'll be using on a double shot basis, we're looking at Christopher Daniels, obviously. We're bringing him in on these next two shows. We'll definitely like to work him in. AJ Styles, whenever his schedule allows us, we'll be bringing him in. Individuals like Chris Sabin, Petey Williams.....Alex Shelley would be another TNA talent. I believe he's signing with TNA. Those guys are individuals that we'll definitely be bringing in that you don't normally see on the indy circuit here in Florida.

WR: You mentioned Gabe Sapolsky, Ring of Honor's booker. You brought him on board to do booking duties for FIP. What made you decide to bring him on?

SH: I mean, he's...Quite honestly, there's a lot of good bookers out there, but he's the best. I mean, he's got his pulse on the current wrestling scene. Basically, anybody that he sees potential in and does anything with in Ring of Honor becomes a major player on the indy scene. Myself and three or four other people had booking duties, per se, early on with FIP, and we put together some decent product and they were entertaining shows, but they were nothing that would really move on a national scale with a DVD distribution deal. That's our main concern, so we want to, kind of, work with the best, and Gabe, honestly, is the best that's out there. There's no one else that can really even come close.

WR: I believe that I read in a statement that FIP is going to be run as an old school wrestling style promotion geared toward casual fans which is pretty much the complete opposite of Ring of Honor, where they cater to the smart fans. Do you see this, possibly, becoming a difficult task for Gabe since he kind of has the mind set geared toward smart fans?

SH: No, I honestly don't. When I first started talking to Gabe about the possibilities of doing this, his reaction was that he's got four or five different concepts for a wrestling company other than a Ring of Honor. So this is an individual that really knows the in's and out's of pro wrestling , the in's and out's of booking. FIP is not going to be a revamp of anything that you've really seen. We want to be an updated version of something like UWF where they were very character oriented. We've got really, really good story lines. There's comedy thrown in. It's a very, very entertaining show to watch from beginning to end. We'll be able to do a lot more story lines with stuff that won't work up in the Northeast, but it will definitely work down here. A lot of the old school story lines.

WR: Now that Gabe is involved with FIP, will we be seeing an influx of Ring of Honor talent? I know you mentioned a couple of names earlier that they use, but I guess more along the lines of the Briscoe Brothers, or any of their Generation Next members, or anything like that.

SH: Well, Roderick is an individual I've never used before, I've never really showed much interest in, who's now making a really big name for himself on the indy scene. He's gonna be a major player down here with Full Impact Pro. Like I mentioned earlier on, Alex Shelley will be an individual I think we'll be using through TNA. Other than that, the whole idea is kind of getting our own identity as Full Impact Pro. We don't want to be ROH light. We don't want to use a lot of their regular talent, per se. To be quite honest with you, a lot of the regular talent that they use, being the great wrestlers that they are, really wouldn't work in this environment. A real character oriented environment that we're gonna try to build down here. I mean, they're very strong style, very anti-sports entertainment type wrestling that they do up there, and we're going to try to be more of an entertainment type company with the strong style and really nice mix, but doing a lot more things that really wouldn't work up there. Other than, pretty much, those four that we mentioned.....You will probably be seeing a weekend of Briscoe Brothers here, or a double shot weekend of, maybe, a Prince Nana or someone like that. We'll definitely be using a lot of their talent, but not as one of our core 20-40 guys. They'll be brought in to do special shows here and there.

WR: With Gabe's involvement with FIP, can we expect a much anticipated debut of Ring of Honor in Florida?

SH: We've been talking to them for quite some time about coming down here and actually doing a double shot or triple shot in Florida. The only problem is companies like MLW have tried to make it work down here on a consistent basis, and they really didn't draw the numbers that they needed to justify it. That's when the idea came up of becoming a sister federation to ROH, kind of getting our niche going on down here, getting a strong following on the internet and a strong following with DVD sales, and building the interest where they can come down here and do a joint show with us and not experience all the financial risks of entering into a new market. I mean, we're basically already down here and we pretty much work with them hand in hand, so it was kind of a win-win situation for everybody.

WR: Now Gabe is on board. I believe in a statement you mentioned that you're also looking to add to your management structure. Have you recently filled any positions? Are there any names you want to throw out there as possibilities? What exactly are you looking for?

SH: Well, Jaison Moore who works as, pretty much, my right hand man from the get go. He's our webmaster. He does all of our promotional materials. He's just basically the workhorse on that end that kind of makes us, promotion wise, what we are. He'll be brought in as a permanent position as almost like a V.P. type, executive V.P. type position, and an assistant booker to Gabe. He's gonna be there to assist Gabe with the local talent. Kind of the go-to guy for Gabe. Gabe's only going to be down here once a month, so he's going to need a guy hands-on down here to deal with the local talent and get everything in place that we need. That's going to be Jaison Moore's position. With regard to other personnel, we have brought Ron Niemi on board as a Southeast Rep for WWN. He's dealing with all of the promotions here in Florida and Georgia, with regard to getting content submitted. There's another company called Pro Wrestling Fusion in South Florida. We'll probably be doing something with their DVD's very shortly. He's been in constant contact with the TNA guys getting that whole relationship set up, so he's been a big help.

WR: Full Impact Pro has kind of been on a brief hiatus, so it's almost like a brand new start with this coming double shot. You've decided to bring in guys such as Chris Daniels, Jerry Lynn, Super Dragon....Chris Candido will be there. Also names from the past such as "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Kamala and Barry Windham. What made you decide to bring in these specific guys?

SH: Well, you say a hiatus. We haven't really taken a hiatus. We ran two really big shows three months ago and prior to that we were running every month. Last time we ran in 2003 was the end of November. We took December off and got things going back in January. The whole idea was never to run shows for the sake of running shows. The only reason we really started Full Impact Pro was to create a product that we could distribute on DVD, in house products, because we weren't working with any of the local promotions here in Florida. We never took the attitude of having to run every.....We did run bi-weekly and monthly at the get-go to try to work out some of the bugs. These were smaller shows that really didn't have any real name power to them. We utilized New Jack for quite some time. He was kind of our local name down here. But, you know, when people say you haven't run for a long time, I have to disagree with that because our plan was never to run on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. It was just to put on good shows and try to work the bugs out. Believe it or not, we were looking to try to bring in people of Gabe's caliber, but we knew we couldn't do that without some sort of positioning there. Some sort of established name recognition, whatever it may have been before we could really go to that next level, so that's where we were. We did run two big shows with a lot of the luchadores, and that was in April. Here we are in July doing another double shot with some pretty big names. These are some of the biggest names on the indy scene right now. Christopher Daniels, Jerry Lynn, Super Dragon, Chris Candido, Dustin Rhodes, Kamala, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Barry Windham. I mean we have some pretty big names coming for these next two shows.

WR: So is it safe to say that we'll see FIP doing a combination of wrestlers that apply to the smart marks and then the ones that apply to the casual fans?

SH: I had this discussion with Gabe. We have a few venues that we have some really good deals with, but they require us to bring certain names that everybody recognizes, and that's where the Dusty Rhodes' come in and the "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan's come in. If we could get away with doing a show with a match like that once every two months, I'm fine with that as long as it doesn't take away from Gabe's story line. It doesn't compromise the product. Those are the kind of matches that we can put on DVD's as like a fun fact or as a DVD bonus that won't really tend to the story line. Am I looking to build the older guys into the.....I don't want to say older guys, but are we looking to build the veterans of that caliber into the story lines? Not really, unless the story line calls for someone of that character like a Dusty or Kevin Sullivan. Then we'll work them into the story line, but my main goal is to stay true to Gabe's story line and to put the best possible product out there for DVD sales. So, no we're not going to be utilizing the veterans of that caliber into the story lines unless the story line requires it.

WR: Ok, Teddy Hart was booked for the very same FIP card. Why is Teddy no longer on the card?

SH: Well, Teddy legitimately did get involved in a bar fight. I spoke with Teddy's father, BJ. I do have a distribution deal with Teddy Hart Services which is Teddy's company in Calgary. We will be producing a series of DVD's of earlier Teddy Hart footage as well as some of the Mat Rat titles that he does have the rights to. The whole idea was to bring Teddy down, do the double shot and then stay over two or three days and work on the editing process, and kind of iron out what matches we're going to be releasing on his first release. Well the situation happened, and he didn't feel he would be able to give it 110%, and things did come up where I would be going out of town to meet with New Japan Pro Wrestling the following day, so it was mutually agreed upon that we would postpone Teddy's debut in FIP for a couple of months until our schedules work out and everything is squared away.

WR: Ok, so for the record, Teddy Hart will be working FIP in the future.

SH: Like I said, I hired Gabe to be the booker, and the agreement was that I wouldn't second guess anything he said or anybody that he wanted to work with. There's a lot of guys that have been very close to me and very loyal to me that I will not be using. I hate to say that because these guys have really busted their asses for the last year. Basically, I've been loyal to them too, and we've been putting on good shows. I've delivered on everything that I promised, and they delivered on everything that they promised, but they don't fit into the new direction of the company. Unfortunately, the booker is going to call all the shots, so I'm not going to be calling in any favors or trying to get people booked on board that Gabe does not want to use. We've hired him for a specific reason and that's to put out the best possible product. If he decides not to use somebody for one reason or another, I'm not going to second guess it. Will we be using Teddy Hart? Honestly, I don't know. I'd like to. I think he's a great talent. There may be some issues between him and Gabe. Hopefully those issues can be worked out, and we can utilize the best possible talent, which Teddy is. (Teddy) is possibly one of the best indy guys out there. He's definitely in the top ten. I'd love to use him, but, like I said, that's completely out of my hands from this point on.

WR: What are your goals for Full Impact Pro? Like where do you see FIP this time next year? Even three years from now? Possibly even five years from now? What direction do you see it heading?

SH: I hope up. I mean, five years is a long time. One year in this business is a long time. Like I said, my true goal is to put together the best possible product on DVD that we can possibly put on and get it out there. If we could be half way or near the level that Ring of Honor is, with regards to fan loyalty and recognition, I'll be ecstatic. When people say they're going to be the next Vince McMahon, I laugh at it because that's the biggest joke when talking to promoters in the business. We have no intention of coming close to anything like TNA is doing or what WWE is doing. We have no delusions of grandeur. We want to put together the best possible product and grow at a good rate to, hopefully, build it up to a triple shot or maybe two double shots a month here in Florida. As long as the fan base is there to support it, and the product doesn't diminish and we're going in the right direction, then I'll be happy.

WR: Alright, before we wrap this up, is there anything you'd like to say to those reading this? Is there anything new that is going on? Any final words?

SH: First, I want to say thank you to everyone that's helped us get to this position. I want to thank a handful of people, number one being the new ownership and management structure at Ring of Honor, Cary Silken, as well as Sid, Gabe, Rich.....They've done nothing but help us throughout this whole process, and they've been great. Another person I'd really like to thank would be Bill Behrens of TNA. He's bent over backwards helping us. Initially, all the indy promotions down here in Florida were a little scared about TNA coming to Orlando and kind of sucking up all of the oxygen. Those guys have been nothing but professionals, nothing but class. Bill has done nothing but gone out of his way to make sure that we get the best available talent at the best price. He's bent over backwards for us, and he really didn't have to. And he continues to do it. He's a class act, so I want to say that. Another person I want to thank is Ron Niemi. He's done nothing but.....Since we buried the hatchet at the Peterson Cup, he's done nothing but gone out of his way to help put us in the right direction, and he's definitely on board for the long haul. With regard to anything else going on, the press release should be out today or tomorrow, but I have been offered and I have accepted a position with New Japan Pro Wrestling USA. I will be their director of business development here in the United States. My position will, basically, be to create different revenue streams via DVD, Pay Per View, merchandising for the New Japan brand here in the United States. I look forward to working with David Marquez, who is the Vice President of New Japan USA, and the booker, Kevin Quinn, as well as Simon Inoki, who is the President of New Japan Pro Wrestling USA. I do look forward to eventually meeting Mr. Inoki. I'm a huge fan of his and respect everything that he's done in this business. He's a legend. Also, I'm really excited about what's happening down here in Florida and on the indy scene. I think we're about to see a resurgence. I think we're on the up slide of the cycle. I think with this close association of Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro, there's going to be a lot of good product out there.....A lot of good talent being used correctly. And hopefully, with incorporating New Japan Pro Wrestling USA, we'll have a lot of fun and make a huge impact.....excuse the pun.

WR: Well thank you. I appreciate the interview time.

SH: Thank you.

Will Rivera

wriv25@yahoo.com

www.fullimpactpro.com