This week in Southern California Wrestling… Scorpio Sky returns to University of MMA, an excerpt from my upcoming interview with “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce and a new feature in Jay Cal’s View, the Do It Yourself Wrestler of the Month… Yuma, and this week’s schedule of events.
Scorpio Sky returns to the Cage
If you are looking for a little more MMA this weekend in lieu of professional wrestling University of MMA has got you covered. Representing the Guild, Scorpio Sky returns to the University of MMA Sunday March 8th in a Welterweight bout for Fight Night 9. The reigning Championship Wrestling from Hollywood TV Champion will make his 3rd professional fight (2nd appearance for U of MMA). Sky’s record in Mixed Martial Arts is 2-0, with victories over James Hershey and Jose Jovel, both via TKO. Lance “The Black Ranger” Bush will be making his professional debut against Sky. 19 Fights in total are scheduled to take place at Club Nokia at LA Live This Sunday Night. Tickets are still available at www.UofMMA.com and www.axs.com.
Adam Pearce
In a few days we will be posting an interview with “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce that chronicles is last few years wrestling as NWA World Champion to the point where he left Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and what he’s been doing since. Here’s an excerpt that I found particularly interesting…
People may get a chuckle out of this because it’ll read arrogantly, but I’ve never done anything in the business that I didn’t want to do. That includes the things I didn’t like. I think when you work hard and treat people fairly for a long enough period of time, you EARN respect. And that respect allows you to be involved on a deeper level because people trust you and your opinions and ideas. On top of that, I had a chance to learn from some incredible wrestling minds.
DIY Wrestler of the Month: Johnny Yuma
Professional Wrestling has always been about developing a brand. Johnny Yuma knows this just as well as anybody. For much of the past eight years, a myriad of RockNES Monster or Johnny Yuma T-Shirts have been made available for purchase. Yuma even has his his old theme song It’s Johnny Yuma!
Why is it important to create merchandise?
First of all, it’s just YUMA now. Only my mother can call me Johnny, although she prefers “Andy”. Anyways, merchandise is where you make your money. Ask the top freelance guys and they’ll tell ya. Yeah some guys get paid great for their match alone, but the table can bring in double that! It’s also important for fans to have something tangible to remember you by. You may blow them away with a match, but the next guy might too. Now if you sell them a shirt after and the other guy doesn’t, every time they put it on they may think of YOUR match or moment. Merchandise is a great conversation starter among fans and can really help spread your name and build your value.
Where do you draw your inspiration for your t-shirts?
Like many, I like parodies. It’s definitely getting to be overkill but my first parody shirt was the Scott Pilgrim inspired shirt. I sold 72 of those. The RockNES Futurama shirt sold even better. Original art can be expensive or difficult to come by, and for me personally I am full of original ideas but no artistic skill. Sometimes it hurts to pass off my vision to someone else. But a parody I can whip up on photoshop on my own… for free.
The RockNES Monsters and the Johnny Yuma T-shirts predate prowrestlingtees.com, why did you choose to go with them to produce your shirts?
Plain and simple, I HAAAAATE THE POST OFFICE. I hate mailing shit, but have fans all over the world. Prowrestlingtees.com is a blessing and helps us spread our name worldwide. I’ve actually printed shirts with One Hour since late 2010. Ryan has always been very good to me, despite not being as popular as his top sellers, so I’m grateful and loyal.
The Vermin Toys looked pretty incredible. I followed your process on instagram. What inspired your direction into resin toys?
I’ve wanted to make toys my entire life. I used to draw and design star wars playsets as a kid. The ONLY thing I’ve ever thought about going to college for was toy design at Otis. I’ve done years of research to outsource a small run of toys of myself, then stumbled upon a toy maker/bootlegger named Sucklord on instagram. I looked at his posts and dug deeper and saw progress photos and figured it out from there. Toy scene is surprisingly kind and helpful and the best in the biz are great about advice and tips!
What piece of advice could you give to wrestlers who are looking to get into merchandising?
Be unique but be careful. You wanna stand out with unique merchandise but make sure it’s somewhat relatable to who you are and make sure you do research. I see guys get ripped off with shirt printing all the time. It’s sad. They lose money.
Shirts can be purchased via prowrestlingtees.com/rocknes and live events. Toy/Shirt Bundles can be purchased via email at johnnyyumarocks@yahoo.com
Anything else to shill?
– like Johnny Yuma and rocknes on facebook, follow me on Twitter and IG @yumabooma for both, and subscribe to patreon.com/unitedwrestling for $2 a month to watch me and my crew run things at CWFH
Upcoming Events in SoCal:
EWF in Azusa, TONIGHT 8:00 PM
OMB “Special Lupus LA Fundraiser” in Canoga Park, Saturday @ 7:00 PM
Vendetta Pro “Shamrock Slam Tour 2015? in Torrance, Saturday @ 7:05 PM
CWFH TV Taping in Port Hueneme, Sunday @ 3:00 PM
NSPW in Los Angeles, Sunday @ 4:00 PM
UIPW in Los Angeles, Sunday @ 5:00 PM