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PREMIER
WRESTLING FEDERATION
NORTHEAST
Promotional Team
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BEHIND
THE CURTAIN
On Saturday November second, the entire WrestlingMark.com
staff gathered in a rare congregation at Loomis Arena for an
opportunity to see one of New England’s best-kept secrets.
The PWF Northeast’s Treachery was the event and we had the
unique opportunity to meet with the promotional team of Nathan
Durette, Spencer Jawitz, and Matthew West. After meeting for a
few moments you realize that the fans of their product, not
the dollars they propose to make, motivate this team. To
hammer this point home, Treachery is a free event to all those
who braved the fringed elements.
Flipper, our most seasoned vet got his first look at the PWF
Northeast that very night and led the questioning with an
amazing view in what will soon be, New England’s worst kept
secret.
(The following text is a transcript of the interview.)
FLIPPER:
I gotta tell ya, this place reminds me of Jack Ricci’s
Sports Arena in North Attleboro. I was there as a kid every
Friday. It’s the same kinda feel. Your close to the ring,
your up close to the action. And it’s good we’re doing
this right next to the ring. Now my first question is, as a
promoter, you gotta love when a crowd comes out on a freezing
night like this and is poppin’ like crazy. Hows this feel?
MATT: Phenomenal! I don’t think there’s a word to describe
it. You walk out here and you hear the crowd, and it’s just
amazing. It’s the start of the night, you walk out, you hear
the crowd and you don’t see many empty seats, or no empty
seats, Ya hear ‘em already getting the energy, and Ya just
get psyched.
SPENCER: Funny thing is I’d say is that when it gets right
around bell time, usually every time were here… It’s like
you hear crickets. We’re just like “Oh God here we
go…” We tried, we advertised, and about the time the first
match is about to kick off, we’re like… “DAMN!” It’s
crazy.
FLIPPER: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from
different promoters “ We need big names to draw in the
crowd”. You’re using homegrown talent, no TV working with
you. You got your guys and their work ethic. Is it rewarding
to know your promotion can survive on the wrestling?
NATHAN: This is something we were just talking about this
evening. All the boys sat in the back and just talked. It’s
getting to the point we hear, “They brought in So and So.”
Just to draw a crowd. And we don’t need to do that cause
these guys are starting to develop their own names.
FLIPPER: Now without mentioning any names, there’s an
independent promotion I went to recently that had a third of
the building crowd, that had “NAMES”, what they didn’t
have is a “Live Crowd”. Now, do you do so many shows in
the area that you have people following your story lines?
Cause I gotta tell ya, I saw that all night long, I’m amazed
at this.
SPENCER: The funny thing is that, at our shows we actually do
a little follow up. I could not believe… I’ve been here
since our first show Genesis, back in Febuary. We’ve been
here since we were the ICCW back before we were the PWF
Northeast. That people know the angles. We have fans that
scream out, “Wait a minuet… You weren’t here last
time!” We actually have that. And its like I said to you
guys out side, the return of Psycho Mike Osborne was bigger
than I expected…
MATT: We didn’t run a show in October. He actually worked a
show in Fallriver, Which also didn’t use the star power and
drew a thousand people. He hasn’t worked for us in three
months, and that last show was here. We haven’t seen Psycho
Mike in three months, and yet him coming out and they erupt. I
was psyched.
FLIPPER: You mentioned how people are following you around,
that’s how ECW got started. “Ground Swell”. It started
with sixty or seventy people in a bingo hall. I’m thinking
this is where the future of wrestling lies, not in what’s on
TV right now. I’m making an observation, and I don’t
expect an answer… I don’t know maybe you have one. I’m
watching guys in here working, I’m watching them working in
cohesive strong matches, great promos. Watching them work in a
ring this close to people and I’m not having to sit in front
of my TV set trying to figure out what their gonna do next
back stage. That’s gotta be something that’s very big in
the future, I can see this. I’ve never been to the Wrestle
Plex, I’ve never seen the place, and they want me to go
check it out, and I’m thinking about it right now. If we can
find some venues, there’s no reason this ground swell
can’t get going.
MATT: What we’re trying to do is if you basically figure, If
you give the people a wrestling product that is wrestling, you
can give them sports entertainment, If you buy our video your
gonna see, like ANIMOSITY, our last tape… Cheap Plug… we
have back stage vignettes, we’re starting to do that stuff
we’re giving them entertainment but we’re not giving them
Necrophilia. Your gonna have those backstage interviews, and
we’re giving the people who buy the tape a little more.
We’re giving you sports entertainment, but the emphasis is
wrestling. We’re giving you a full wrestling show, you might
get a little thing on the tape if you buy the tape, a little
interview, make things happen. If you give the people a reason
to want to come back, that’s where your gonna get your fans.
If every show in the main event you have a weapons everything
goes match, and there gonna bleed and their guaranteed to
bleed the first time these guys ever wrestled, no matter what
happens in that feud, it’s done. They’ve already done
everything at once. Chris Venom and Bad Boy Billy Black have
been feuding for a year. It took them a year in the PWF to get
a shot one on one for the title. And that right there brought
people back…
FLIPPER: It’s the build up…
MATT: Exactly…
FLIPPER: As in don’t give them everything at once…
NATHAN: We are very appreciative of all the fans we have, and
that’s why we do have all the little things we have on the
tapes and stuff, because you can come to the shows and see the
matches but you don’t see that stuff but that’s our way of
saying, Ok, you’ve seen the matches, your gonna buy the tape
cause you like the matches but we’re Gonna put this extra on
it so you can enjoy it and feel you’re a part of it and feel
you were actually there.
SPENCER: What’s great about us is that, I said several times
in production meetings, is that we’re a fan friendly
promotion. If the fans are not liking something, we’re gonna
go back and say, lets tweak that a little bit, lets change
that angle, if it’s not getting over the way we wanted. You
find on television that they’ll run the course of an angle
and who cares…
FLIPPER: You mean like the necrophilia…
SPENCER: I don’t even want to comment on that. But if you
come to one of our shows, we give you wrestling at it’s
purest. One thing we say about ourselves is that we’re
extremely old school. That’s our motto. We want to go back
and give the fans a little extra, give the fans that keep
coming back that little more and have them say we say what we
do. We like to come back here and give a free show, we
appreciate what you guys do you guys were willing to drive,
thirty forty, fifty miles to see a show. Come see a free show
on us, we’re here for you we’re here for the fans we’re
here for the product.
FLIPPER: Now lets get back to production for a moment, cause
you make a good point. They say styles make matches, one thing
I notice about your match making style. Every one matches up
well, nothing goes out of sync. There are no gigantic guys
wrestling guys two foot tall. No really slow guys wrestling
really fast guys, and visa versa. Is the attention to style in
the ring the most important of what you do when you produce?
MATT: When we picked the talent, I started off originally with
my partner Draven was involved in the office in the back. He
decided to step back and handle the wrestling aspect he
doesn’t actually want to be involved… which is cool. When
we were originally booking, we started picking talent that we
personally knew, and had something special. Everyone was hand
picked by us. When Spencer came and got involved, we
originally brought him in as an assistant, and then became a
full-fledged producer, it was the same thing. He knew what we
were looking for. We’d say, that guy there, that guy’s got
something, there’s something about that guy. We’d be
working all these Indy shows and we’d say, “What is it
about that guy? There’s something about that guy that nobody
else has.” You look at the Rock and he has the whole
charisma thing going. It might not be a charisma thing, it
might be something else, and it might be something he does
that every time he does it, it’s perfect. You see that and
it’s got that CLICK. And that’s the way it is. We went
around and looked for personalities. We have no egomaniacs
around here. The guys back there are family. And we pick ‘em
cause we’ve known all these guys in the locker room before.
We’ve known their personalities, or we’ve known the people
who trained them, and I know they come from great stock and
are great workers. Like Thrillergy, I never worked in a locker
room with any of them, but I know the guys who trained them.
Then Nathan came in for the last few shows, we all share that
same feeling. That locker rooms family. We look for guys who
bring something special to the table.
NATHAN: And that’s why all the matches work.
MATT: You don’t have guys going back there saying, “Oh
look at the pop I got” they’re not like that. They’re
just jokin’ around having a good time. They’re all
buddies. No ones trying to compete. No ones trying to top each
other. “Ha ha I got the biggest pop.” That’s not it at
all. They do it for the fans. They try to top each other for
the fans. And when they do that you know their motivation is
in the right place. You got guys in some places who are all
about themselves. I’ve gone to so many; I’ve been to so
many places where your sitting listening in to this guys
“Me, Me, Me.” It’s like shut the hell up! You’re not
here for you; it’s for the fans. A wrestling show without
the fans is not a wrestling show. It’s two guys in a ring.
Our guys have a good grasp of that, and that’s why they come
out here, do it for very little pay, in a cold barn, for about
fifty people, risk injury, and they enjoy it, they love it.
SPENCER: With us you’re told a story from beginning to end.
They are not many promotions that will take you on a journey.
A start, a beginning, middle, and an end. And sometimes for
example Murphy and Duff, if you were at Animosity, you saw
something happen between Murphy and Stryker. Tonight Murphy
was screaming, “I want Stryker!” we want to bring you on
that journey. We want you to come back saying, “I wonder
what happened?”. It’s alright It’s like a soap opera.
You want more. You’re drawn to more. We’re giving you the
product, story entertainment and what you pay for and more.
Because the fans deserve it.
MATT: And him yelling at Stryker… a lot of promoters will
write off the power of word. I’ve been to a lot of good
shows, but a ya ask, “well why is he doing that? Who’s
Stryker?” Yes maybe they don’t know Stryker, but we’ll
send a tape of Defiance out to a guy he likes it, he buys the
whole catalog! That happened to us last week; he bought one
but bought the whole stock. Watch one of the tapes, for
example we’re marketing Animosity. We’re marketing to
people here, the people who buy the tapes, and our worldwide
audience on World Wrestling Network. On WWNTV so on that
people watch us. We have to tell stories. We have four totally
different audiences. Most only concentrate on one audience.
That’s the group that brings us the money, and no one else
matters. That’s a problem. We’re not like that. We keep
every audience in mind when we’re doing a show. That’s why
we have a wide broader audience than most promotions.
FLIPPER: Is there a chance of you guys coming closer to Rhode
Island or Mass?
MATT: We’re looking around in Worcester, that’s what
we’re hoping to do. We’re open to suggestions. Basically
it all boils down to footwork for us. We have to take trips to
these sites and check ‘em out. The problem is you find a
venue, and it’s either over used, used and you run good show
so then every other promotion jumps in and over runs it.
There’s always gonna be promotions out there that run the
wrong kind of shows. Whether its someone in the audience
getting hurt, or something happened in the ring, too much
blood that set the whole building off. There’s lots of
promotions where someone rents a ring, “I’m gonna put on a
wrestling show” where maybe three guys on the show have
training. So you’ll have one excellent match, and everyone
after that will have a bunch of guys rolling around, hurting
themselves, and that will kill a building. Every time from
then on someone will see an add promoting a different show in
that same building and they’ll say,” I went to that it was
horrible.” That happens to so many good venues in the area.
(IT WAS AT THIS TIME WE WERE JOINED BY EBONY BLADE)
MATT: More locations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
that’s all in our future plans, it’s just a matter of
getting things rolling.
SPENCER: It’ll be interesting cause I live in Long Island
New York.
THE MARK: Who’s up and coming?
SPENCER: Johnny Curtis. The first time I saw him New England,
in like 1999, in the WWA… I said to Matt “I love the
Independents, forget the WWE.”
MATT: Zack Richards does the same gimmick, only he has more
training. Only he has more training. Most guys start out the
same way; being gimmick managers, gaining experience, start
working. Johnny Curtis has come a long way. His partner, Ken
Phoenix sixteen!
THE MARK: Sixteen! He’s only Sixteen!?!
MATT: Yup! Ken Phoenix, sixteen. He started training with
Kowalski at fourteen. His older brother is a wrestler as well.
Kenny’s been here since… I think we first met when he was
first turning fifteen. He’s physically not his age. His
brothers built too. Kenny trains a lot with Wagner Brown, who
does WWE dark matches and house shows. That’s a great mentor
for him along with Walter Douglas. He also thinks very highly
of him. Walter brings him to WWE shows and brings him
backstage, introduces him around. But as young as he is, give
him five years… Keep his head together and he’s another
one you’ll see. K.L. Murphy too. I could sit here for
another twenty minuets and go through the entire locker room.
Thrillergy just joined us, I’m telling you, one of these
days, I’m gonna put Red and Mikazi in the ring together.
That’s move for move…
THE MARK: How old is Mikazi?
MATT: Eighteen, nineteen… We have guys who don’t come to
every show. We have Armadillo and Booker. Bookers working all
over the place. Booker and Curtis have a tryout match for TNA
on November 20th. Those are two guys who are finally getting
their chance. They went down a couple of weeks ago, for
Wildside. Big League Brian Black went down, He did great.
He’s tagging with DR. Hersey. I’m gonna keep going through
the whole locker room.
SPENCER: I saw this kid about a year ago, for NECW, and I have
to say, he's a kid who's come a long way, is Psycho Mike
Osborne.
MATT: Psycho mike started off training up in Maine, and he
came down. He’s a nice kid. Big guy. "Hey I’m Psycho
Mike." We gave him one shot, we said listen tonight it's
your one shot. It's yours to do with it what you want. We put
that door open a crack and he busted it wide open. Tonight, I
could go through all those guys. Bad Boy Billy Black, he's
been around since the last 10 years. He’s that same old
ornery heel. He’s the epitome of wrestling. If he was around
in the earlier to mid-eighties, and you put him down south, he
would have made hundreds of thousands of dollars. He's that
good of a heel. He would have been that guy. You could have
put him in the ring with Barry Windom, and he'd be pounding
away. Well, he would've tried. It's hard to pick one person.
EBONY BLADE: The biggest difference I've seen in the guys here
in PWF, they're desire to get better. It's not "can I
learn a new move". It's the fact that they really want to
learn, and understand how the game works. Every wrestler asks
for advice. They don't care about size. We've got guys who are
big, and will go places. They’re still very smart kids.
SPENCER: They look at what they do, and always want to get
better from that. I can’t tell you how many emails I get, 2
days after a show. "Is the tape in yet?" I'm like,
"UH.I'll get back to you." They want to do better.
They want that because, this product is something you believe
in. When the Damned asked me to get in on this, this is
something that is fun, original, and gives back to the fans,
something they haven't seen in a real long time. Especially
New England, this area has just died. We go out there, not to
kick butt, but to do what we do best. And that is put on a
show that tells a story.
NATHAN: They definitely do, and they do it for the fans. I'm
an owner. I've been one for about 6 months now. They offered
me a position as on air talent along with the owner gig. They
said, "Ya know, if you're not any good, we're not putting
you out there. You can't ruin the show, no matter how much
money you put in." I agreed.
EBONY BLADE: When you're commentating the matches, it's funny,
it's very easy to call, and they really are out there laying
it on the line. At the end, the guys are asking us,
"how's the psychology?" You don't see that a lot.
Serious. We emphasize it. We give them an idea, and they'll
run with it. It's easy to sit and call a match, because
everyone's on the same page. I think the writing staff has a
great idea on how to successfully pitch. There's structure.
They know the direction, and there's enough freedom for the
workers to fill in the holes. It's what I enjoyed about the
business when I first broke into it. If you like the new
stuff, we got guys who can do that, but they're learning how
to be grounded too.
MATT: Trick is, they go from the same format, twenty years ago
tried and true. And you do the new stuff in that format.
That's the skeleton. You decide how to flesh it skeleton out.
As long as you don't start throwing stuff here or there, it
still works. You have Brian Black's punches, and then you have
Kid Mikazi's kicks. They're all the same thing. Black's
punches, taking someone's head off, they have the same effect
as Kid Mikazi's kicks. That's where guys have it. They know
how to do things.
EBONY BLADE: I dare you to tell me Rudy Batello does not have
charisma. Rudy Batello has charisma.
MATT: It's weird, you drive to Bristol, RI, and he's the most
over babyface of NECW. And he doesn't change too much here.
All he does is turns it on.
SPENCER: It's interesting because we actually did a show,
Defiance, at the NECW guys' building. Now, that's where it
gets sticky. You're doing the same people. One week, here,
he's a slightly overweight.
MATT: slightly
SPENCER: He thinks he's hot. He comes out, people boo him. Two
weeks later, same crowd, they cheer like crazy.
MATT: It just shows how you present your people. Once in
awhile, you'll get a heel like Bad Boy, everybody hates. You
try him as a babyface, butyou wanna hate him. For the most
part, people want to be entertained. And they're entertained
when they get to yell and scream at these guys. That's what we
do.
THE MARK: Any parting words?
SPENCER: Thank you, ever since you heard of us through Matt
when he was at the Castle, you've been at every show, and you
kept plugging us. And thanks to all the fans for coming.
Thanks to you guys for plugging us.
NATHAN: If the fans enjoy it, that's what we're gonna do. If
they don't like something, we're gonna change it. We're not
gonna keep running it just because something is all set up. We
give the fans what they want. I got into this, being told I
wasn't getting any money out of it. And I haven't, and it
doesn't phase me a bit, I love it. I love the fans.
MATT: I have to completely agree. We do it for the fans. It's
like your website. Tongue in cheek, the Wrestling Mark.
Wrestling is not wrestling without the fans. And the die hards,
traveling all over to see us. That's awesome. That's me before
I got into this. Driving down to ECW in 1993. I love it. I
love the fans cause I look out there and say, "That was
me". I saw myself tonight. All those little kids, giving
Ebony and T.J a hard time. That was me. I went to a Killer
Kowalski show, and almost got into a fight with the Pink
Assassin. I was eight. In my mind, he was ready to kill me, my
grandfather's crackin up laughing. I'm glad I can give back
now. Thanks, to all the fans. Keep supporting the Indy
wrestling; when we make money, it was goes straight to the
boys. That's it. We believe in the product. If you need us, go
to our website, it has a direct link to our direct email, we
take every comment and email. We take everything seriously.
This is the fan's promotion.
(End of interview transcript.)
The WrestlingMark.com Staff wants to thank all the PWF
Northeast managerial staff as well as its talent for being
gracious enough to make us feel welcome not to mention
granting us this candid interview. Vindication Promises to be
the event of the year, and we at on the WrestlingMark staff
look forward to seeing you all.
Contact PWF Northeast
PWFNortheast.com |
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