You may think that this is another sports entertainment thread from me, but its not!

I just recently saw this new show on PAX called Real Pro Wrestling. Thinking it was another cheesy expose on the WWE, I flipped it on. To my surprise, it was freestyle and greco roman style wrestling.

The program is one of those American Gladiator or Rollergames looking shows on production value, but if you like watching two men in tights ride each other from behind, this is the show for you. Apparently the wrestlers are on teams with regional names: New York Outrage, Oklahoma Slam, Iowa Stalkers, Texas Shooters, Minnesota Freeze, Chicago Groove, Pennsylvania Hammer, and California Claw. These are very manly names for wrestling teams, but if you go to their website and see the logos, they look like the most homo-erotic figures youve ever seen. Im talking Tom of Finland erotic here!

These guys apparently compete in tournament style matches in each weight class, gathering points for their teams, and individual championships. What theyre getting paid, if theyre real "pro" wrestlers, who knows. It cant be much, since Im sure theyre paying Rulon Gardner a fortune to be a commentator on the show (and unfortunately he is the best of the three announcers).

It isnt a bad show, if you like this sort of thing. However, this sort of thing has been tried before and has failed. Olympic style wrestling isnt a blood sport. To me, that is one the main reasons it has not made it a money sport. RPW has its work cut out for it, especially trying to compete with the mixed martial arts world and sports entertainment. Constantly harping on the fact that they are more real than any other product is not going to get them too far. But I wish them the best of luck!

Real Pro Wrestling website

You really need to spend more time in Hot Jock Talk. We've been talking about this subject for ages in this thread.

If the rest of the sports-viewing public gives it the same review as you, then it certainly will be a flash in the pan. Which means I may never get to see it since I don't get PAX or the FOX network it's broadcast on.

Considering some of the mediocre commentary on other sports I don't think that alone will kill it. I also don't think it's the lack of bloodiness per se. Lots of popular sports lack any real bloodiness.

More likely it's the discomfort that most hetero-males in the 15-49 target range feel with real wrestling. The ridiculous play-violence of the WWE makes it more palatable, so they can justify watching other nearly naked men touching each other in what would otherwise be considered an intimate fashion.

Sport I didn't realize you were shut out on the tv front-I thought PAX was everywhere.Don't know if you've ever checked out the yahoo fans group.

While it's not specifically a "gay" group,I'd say it qualifies as fairly open-minded with respect to topics discussed.In fact this past week they've had an on-going dialog on what prompted the NCAA to ban barechested wrestling in 1965.

I found it pretty fascinating,since shirtless,sweaty athletic guys have been my lifelong obsession. wink Although no one seems to know for sure what motivated the NCAA ban,the consensous of opinion seems to favor a combination of puritanical homo phobia,and the emergence of athletic outfitters with a vested interest in selling items like singlets.

PS-Did you guys know the entire " season" was filmed on a single weekend in LA?

[ May 15, 2005, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: Tim ]

Doesn't that correspond pretty well with the beginnings of the modern gay rights movement?

Wasn't Stonewall just four years later?

I may check out the group. But I have a policy of avoiding joining other groups. Too much chat.

If theyd bring back naked wrestling, itd be more exciting

I dont see anything wrong with olympic style wrestling (I wont say amateur anymore since its a hot button word). Its just not my bag and I dont find it overly exciting as a sport. Id much rather watch mixed martial arts type stuff or even boxing. And Im sure most people feel that way, and it has little to do with anyone worrying about its homoeroticism. Watching two men put each other in a body scissors or hugging each other on a mat is just as homoerotic, but people like UFC or Pride a lot more.

And I have to admit, Im a poor example of a gay man. I rarely ever look at the Hot Jock section.

[ May 16, 2005, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: DallasUNC ]

That just means your are not a horny slut. That's a pardonable offense. wink

But the last I checked, ultimate wrestling and the like were not clocking popularity in any where near the range of the big sports or even WWE. RPW I think is reaching for that WWE level.

True. They arent anywhere near the estimated 940,000 ppv buys that WWE's Wrestlemania 21 had. But the UFC's last ppv had an estimated 200-300,000 buys which is double their previous high. Its taken UFC since their inception in 1993 to reach that level. And the WWE really pioneered the whole ppv genre.

Or will they even reach the levels that other sports/entertainment programs reache on cable ratings. The 1st week of May top 5 on cable shows were 1)Spongebob 3.4 rating 4,894,000 viewers, 2) WWE Raw's 1st hour 3.3 rating 5,336,000, 3) WWE Raw's 2nd hour 3.3 rating 5,127,000 4)Fairly Odd Parents 2.8 rating 3,987,000 viewers and 5)Mavs-Rockets playoffs 2.7 rating 3,698,000 viewers.

Can they get over 5 million viewers who watch a "fake sport" that is in a downturn (WWE once had ratings of over 7 on cable) or even the 3.6 million who watch the NBA? Even on UPN, WWE does numbers that mimic the cable ratings and leads that network. Will something like RPW ever get there? Will they last that long to even get there? Thats the real question in all of this.

[ May 17, 2005, 05:56 PM: Message edited by: DallasUNC ]

Woohoo! You're getting my hopes up now. We can only pray.... wink

Isn't FOX Sports Net a national network? PAX isn't that big a network, I think. But FSN is, since it's part of the FOX empire.

Hope you get a chance to see the show, sportinlife

Like I said in the "Wrestlers" thread, I lost some of the excitment I had about the show, but it turned out to be good. I just wasn't into the lower weight classes at the beginning - still not into them. But Rowlands (I like how one of the commentators refered to him as Tom), Hahn and others looked hot!

I think if RPW doesn't make it'll be because of 2 things, lack of viewership, I was reading ratings dropped big time after the first airing, and what I think will be the true cause of the show's end will be WWE It's so big, WWE, that is sucks the life of new wrestling type shows, like it did with UFC and will do with RPW

I hope the show lasts awhile. I'd like to see some of my favorite Lehigh wrestlers wrestle on RPW

Anyone heard any updates about Real Pro Wrestling?

They had some qualifying events late last year for Season 2, and were supposed to have an event in early January that was cancelled. Their official website www.realprowrestling.com hasn't been updated in a while.

In the meantime, fans of RPW should order the official DVD set of Season 1. It has every match (including the prelims that were edited for TV) and you can pause and slow-mo your favorite grapplers. Order it from their official website.

For unofficial RPW Yahoo groups:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/RealProWrestlingLeague/
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/RealProWrestlingFans/

chuckchuck

Willis & Case are the founders and CEOs of Real Pro Wrestling...

http://revwrestling.com/articles/2452/RPW-...hange-in-format

RPW announces change in format
2/12/2007
Toby Willis and Matt Case, Real Pro Wrestling


RealProWrestling has announced a change in format for Season Two but has not provided much detail about this change or the reasons why. We hope this announcement will answer the frequently asked questions regarding this shift.

RPW's plans remain the same today as they have been for the last five years. We have divided the task of starting a pro league into multiple steps. The first was the research and pilot Showcase and that we have finished. The second stage was the television show. This we accomplished in Season One.

It was our desire to immediately move to the third stage for Season Two. This would be the tour where we have eight dual meets in eight different cities followed by a championship series. This is the path we pursued and came very close to launching. However, we ran into a few snags and have decided to postpone moving to this stage.

From the very beginning, we built our plan for flexibility to be able to do this. It might cause some confusion, especially when we told people we were moving to the tour. However, it is important for us not to expand to fast. This is what we were doing and is why we are now making a change.

Our production side is able to scale but our sales and business side had not kept up. The business side depends on deals with other companies and we obviously cannot always predict or control other companies. We actually have most of those pieces in place but not all. We determined it was best to hold back the fast moving areas until the others caught up.

We have shifted our resources to those areas that needed a boost and are now making excellent progress. However, we did have to move back the start of Season Two from the Spring to the Fall of 2007. We still will have the Super Pro-Am Challenge and look forward to the regional champion challengers giving it their best shot at making a team.

RPW has some exciting deals we are negotiating. However, we cannot go public with the details lest we mess up the negotiations. As soon as possible we will announce further information. Until then, be assured the same determination and hard work wrestlers use on the mat are being brought to bare in business and negotiations for the sport of wrestling.

They need to bring 'submission wrestling' to TV. Talk about homo-erotic. Most of the pics I've seen are of one guy on his back with his legs wrapped around the waist of the top guy. Their crotches look as if they're melted together. Don't know how one wins the match, but just as long as they keep trying.