This past Saturday it was announced that Southern California’s Pacific Coast Wrestling (PCW) and Mexico’s The Crash Lucha Libre had entered into a partnership. The Crash, who has been running primarily in Tijuana for a few years, has quickly become a major player in lucha libre by bringing in some of the best available wrestlers in Mexico and the United States independent scene to the promotion. The Crash has also recently announced a partnership with Impact and was featured on a recent episode of Impact’s television show as part of the Hardys’ expedition of gold angle. In addition to Impact and PCW, The Crash has existing partnerships with San Diego promotions Finest City Wrestling (FCW) and Oddity Wrestling Alliance.
PCW only made their debut last year but has been drawing some of the larger houses in Southern California and recently made their previous shows available on Amazon Video.
When asked about the reasoning on making partnerships with United States independent promotions such as PCW, The Crash promoter Konnan told me “Well, since I’ve been in the business, most of the indies have adopted the philosophy of not working with other promotions like their larger counterparts who, as we all know, have their talent under contract and treat them like employees… They think they control the talent yet talent has no contractual obligation. The talent knows that if they wrestle for another local company they won’t get booked, though. So you truly aren’t independent in the indies sometimes. This to me has accomplished nothing business wise and the fans lose out (don’t get to see the best matches out there) and so do the boys (less paydays). So we’re trying to figure out a way to work with San Diego (FCW and OWA), which we already are, and wanted to link up with PCW and APW in San Francisco so we can all use some of the same talent on different days, run around the same time to save money and talent, and be able to bring in more talent or reinvest into your promotion.”
I was able to ask PCW’s Almighty Sheik about what benefit PCW gets out of working with The Crash and he replied, “Well, I don’t go into a business relationship thinking about how it can only benefit PCW. Good business benefits both parties and there are many benefits for both companies in this strategic alliance. Sharing costs is a huge benefit, the blending of strengths as it pertains to business and knowledge is another. Developing a wider reach, a deeper penetration and a larger fan base for both companies is also beneficial and helpful to all involved. The fact that we can now offer the talent a double booking with two professional companies, with great opponents translating into greater matches, a full house of rabid vocal fans and a professional atmosphere makes the entire deal more attractive to the wrestlers and will enable us to get the top talent from all over the world. Also, because we are in such close proximity of one another, it’s easier and safer travel for the boys as they can make the travel by car rather than another plane flight. The plan is that we will transport the talent and they will only need to worry about their performance inside the squared circle. With our companies being close enough that a working relationship is easily doable yet far enough away that it doesn’t hurt either company’s potential to continue drawing the way we have is a nice concept. We started this in January and it worked out really well, so we decided to move forward and continue.”
The Almighty Sheik added “The Crash brings visibility and experience to our product for sure. Mainly experience in lucha libre, which is not my specialty. I am coming from the Florida, ‘Kevin Sullivan/Eddie Graham/Jim Barnett’ school of pro wrestling psychology/booking/promoting which is my first love. But I am taking a ‘Crash’ course in lucha libre, pun intended. And who better to teach me then a legend like Konnan? He has had his hand on the pulse of lucha libre for decades now; his finger prints are all over the evolution of the genre. Weekly talks with Konnan enables me to learn and grow as a creative mind and get schooling in a culture and style that I otherwise have no experience in. But there is a mutual respect there, the Jedi’s in this business do not just teach anyone…they are selective and I feel that Konnan sees value in me and PCW and I think that is a testament to all of the hard work from EVERYONE involved in PCW thus far.”
An early example of the cost and talent sharing was seen this past weekend at Oddity Wrestling Alliance in San Diego when a number of the wrestlers on the card were able to work the OWA show then cross the border and work for The Crash in Tijuana the same night.
Konnan also talked about the benefit of working with PCW for possibly more of a crossover outside of talent sharing. “Maybe [we’ll see] their champs coming here to defend and our champ going over there to defend. Maybe one day we’ll have an all Crash versus PCW show. This is new so we are figuring out ways to make this work, but Sheik and the other promoters really want to do this so it should happen.”
The Almighty Sheik also stated, “I think both companies have a tremendous list of strengths individually which will benefit each other in the long run; our business acumen and our ability to get our product out in such a big way, so quickly, is a testament to that. The way we pace and predict our market, the way we create teams and eliminate pieces that just do not fit. There are really too many things to mention and we could be here all day going into detail but I think the main component that helps each side in this partnership is UNITY.
“Unity helps everyone; unity enables the shot callers to create a uniform plan which make it easier to organize from front to back, in front of the pack. It saves money and time; it creates more places to work and it creates a much more professional environment for all involved.
“This wrestling business has so many moving parts and when you have people that are not only capable but also willing to drop ego’s and form partnerships that are vital to the health and growth of the industry, albeit regionally, then that’s a good thing, especially when there is an intelligent plan in place.”
PCW will be holding their next show, High Tide, on March 24th in Wilmington featuring MVP challenging Rob Van Dam for the PCW heavyweight title. Rey Fenix and Penta OM (the former Pentagon Jr.) will also both be wrestling on the show, with Rey Fenix taking on Extreme Tiger and Penta 0M taking on Flip Gordon. Tickets are on sale now.
The Crash will be holding their next Tijuana show the next night on March 25th featuring debut of The Young Bucks to the promotion when they take on Rey Misterio Jr. and Daga.
Stay tuned to SoCalUncensored.com for updates on pro-wrestling throughout Southern California.
Exciting times in SoCal Wrestling indeed.