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Newsletter 46
Welcome to the Wrestling Gamers United newsletter #???
In this issue
1) Wow! Really?
1) Wow! Really?
***************
I've learned a valuable lesson this week. I'm not as smart as I think
I am but I sure as hell am luckier than I ever thought I could be. I
will no longer be arrogant enough to believe that I already know with
100% certainty what the exact path to success is for Pro Wrestling X.
I was so focused on what I thought was the only chance for the project
that I completely ignored some very smart fans until recent events
smacked me in the face and woke me up to another possibility.
Let's recap, shall we? By now you all know that I've been after one
or two high profile ex-WWF wrestlers to help secure a distribution
deal for PWX. Well, after I announced my plans to do this I started
getting email from PWX supporters offering their advice on which
wrestlers I should go after. Most of the letters contained the same
obvious few names but in a suprisingly large number of those emails
a certain unusual name kept popping up. At first, the so-called
"serious" wrestling fan in me laughed it off. This wrestler may be
fairly recognizable to the casual wrestling fan but most hardcore
wrestling fans would likely scoff at the idea. Or so I thought.
This wrestler's name kept popping up and now I was starting to see
things in a different light. The whole purpose of signing a famous
wrestler was to appeal to the casual fan, not necessarily the serious
fan. Hardcore Puro, Lucha, and American indie fans are already going
to buy PWX based on the gameplay and editability. The idea was to
find a wrestler who's image would make casual gamers take a second look
at PWX and hopefully learn more about it and purchase it. So the bottom
line then is that it's better to have wrestler with more mainstream
popularity than smark credibility.
So I tried a little experiment. I mentioned this wrestler's name to
everyone I talked to and without fail every single person, wrestling
fan or not, knew who I was talking about. When I added that I was
working on getting this person involved with the PWX project the
response was almost always, "Wow! Really?" And all along I had been
too snobby to even consider this wrestler. It just goes to show me how
I should never stop listening to the WGU fans. You guys were on to
something.
But when I thought about it more I began to think that this
person may have more credibility that I originally thought.
For example. Check out these accomplishments;
-Held two major WWF title belts.
-Traditionally trained and found success the hard way up through
the indies. Not some former sports star/rapper/model who just
floated into the big time with a major push.
-Featured member of one of the most popular WWF stables.
-Extremely successful and popular wrestling in Japan.
-Arguably has the most mainstream popularity out of any of the
former WWF wrestlers judging by my own informal research.
So I figure we might as well try to contact this person and see
what we can accomplish. Admittedly I didn't get my hopes up considering
the hell we've been going through trying to deal with another wrestler.
But I got Tracy to do her best and after only a few days we received
an email with an offer to talk more about the PWX project. Okay, so
things were looking good. We made contact and got a positive response
but that doesn't mean a whole lot considering our experience in these
matters. Tracy emails back and includes her home phone number with
instructions to call collect anytime from anywhere to discuss the
project. That same night Tracy's phone rings and it's the wrestler.
Tracy spends almost an hour on the phone with the wrestler giving
as much information and background as possible about the WGU and
PWX and the wrestler actually...loves the idea! Tracy talks about how
we are a small but fierce company and how we're the underdog trying
to directly compete with the wrestler's former employer, the WWE.
The wrestler freakin' LOVES the idea and calls Tracy back twice that
night to clear up a few details and by the end of the night we have
the wrestler's verbal commitment to become involved in PWX! The
wrestler is willing to do personal appearances and to make the deal
even better the wrestler has offered to do it in a way that gives us
a lot of financial breathing room. And how much creative control does
this wrestler want over the final product? None!
So now we have a wrestler who's involvement will get the needed
attention of the general public including the all-important buyers
for the distribution companies. Now all we need is some bloody money
from an investor, right?
Wellllll Tracy gets on the phone to our potential investor
immediately following her conversations with the wrestler and she
tells him, "So-and-so has just agreed to get involved. When do you
want to talk about financing this project?"
March 15th is the date.
Choke slam me because I must be dreaming.
In the meantime and in-between time, that's it. Another edition of
Wrestling Gamers United.
Thank you all,
Dave Wishnowski
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