FloSlam

[goc]

Ok, the Powerslam.tv thing has my attention with BT, Jr. but I can't access the site at work to check it out. What's the pricepoint, roll-out date, other stuff involved, etc.

Pretty much TBD on all of that.

[Dylan Waco]

Price point is 9.99. We will launch this fall. It's powerbomb.tv. We will have more announcements regarding content soon.

[bradhindsight]

How did things go with the first two Evolve shows stream/audio-wise?

[soup23]

Watched 72 live, audio was an issue on Chrome. They acknowledged that and said to switch browsers. I went to Mozilla and didn't have any issues. it wasn't atrocious but I wouldn't call it flawless either. In addition, with the Joey Styles fiasco, they had to do a bunch of heavy editing delaying the VOD release of 72 by 24 hours. I was only able to watch the VOD of 73 but it was up within 2-3 hours of the show ending which is a really strong turnaround.

[Grimmas]

Watched 72 live, audio was an issue on Chrome. They acknowledged that and said to switch browsers. I went to Mozilla and didn't have any issues. it wasn't atrocious but I wouldn't call it flawless either. In addition, with the Joey Styles fiasco, they had to do a bunch of heavy editing delaying the VOD release of 72 by 24 hours. I was only able to watch the VOD of 73 but it was up within 2-3 hours of the show ending which is a really strong turnaround.

73 streamed perfectly on the Roku. 72 was mostly perfect with a few blips.

[JNLister]

I don't get why they are having technical problems (eg audio not in sync if Chrome's full screen) and then explaining them away as teething troubles. Surely all of these issues should have come up and been dealt with in their coverage of all the other sports.

 

Then again, I don't get why they've got 150-ish employees but the guy who works there and came up with the idea of having a pro wrestling channel and did all the publicity and presumably negotiated the promotion deals is also the guy who is personally encoding and uploading all the files.

[Phil Schneider]

Price point is 9.99. We will launch this fall. It's powerbomb.tv. We will have more announcements regarding content soon.

 

It is the middle of November already, Fall is almost over. Gimme some Black Terry

[AstroBoy]

If there is anyone here who's signed up for the yearly FloSlam deal: do they charge you the lump sum $150 up front or is it a $12.50 charge taken out monthly?

[goc]

I can't imagine they take $12.50 out monthly because you could just skip out of the yearly commitment quite easily as WWE learned when they originally had their 6 month commitment idea.

[Childs]

Pretty sure they charge the lump sum.

[spudz25]

If there is anyone here who's signed up for the yearly FloSlam deal: do they charge you the lump sum $150 up front or is it a $12.50 charge taken out monthly?

They charged $150 as a lump sum.

[Grimmas]

Style Battle is a new promotion, run by Gabe, starting up on FloSlam. It will run in seasons with 9 shows monthly. The first 8 shows will be tournaments with the 9th being a tournament with the winner of each of the prior ones in it.

 

This idea of a promotion is something I've brought up in PMs and with talks with people for almost a year of something I wanted to see. A promotion run like early UFCs.

 

I'm so pumped!

[hammerva]

Umm wasn't that the original idea of EVOLVE? You would get a striker versus a flippy guy or a lucha guy against a big man. Once Dragon Gate USA kind of failed Gabe made EVOLVE more of a priority and it became what it is now.

[bradhindsight]

The FloSlam money must be pretty darn good for Gabe to extend himself to booking three promotions concurrently.

 

And while I can see FloSlam wanting to beef up their content to keep existing subscribers, I don't see FIP or Style Battle tipping the scales for new money. The people that like Evolve have already signed up. All these additional FIP and SB shows do is add more production costs with very limited upside.

[concrete1992]

The FloSlam money must be pretty darn good for Gabe to extend himself to booking three promotions concurrently.

 

And while I can see FloSlam wanting to beef up their content to keep existing subscribers, I don't see FIP or Style Battle tipping the scales for new money. The people that like Evolve have already signed up. All these additional FIP and SB shows do is add more production costs with very limited upside.

This is a good point and sort of something they are failing to see. They are giving out a tremendous value to fans of WWN but they have yet to diversify.

 

While PBTV won't have a single promotion that rivals EVOLVE but their eggs aren't all in one basket. I mean, they aren't going to compete with FloSlam at the end of the day but by adding up all these fanbases of smaller indies that haven't been able to purchase their favorite promotions events online and the lucha niche, they have more flexibility.

[goc]

 

The FloSlam money must be pretty darn good for Gabe to extend himself to booking three promotions concurrently.

 

And while I can see FloSlam wanting to beef up their content to keep existing subscribers, I don't see FIP or Style Battle tipping the scales for new money. The people that like Evolve have already signed up. All these additional FIP and SB shows do is add more production costs with very limited upside.

This is a good point and sort of something they are failing to see. They are giving out a tremendous value to fans of WWN but they have yet to diversify.

 

While PBTV won't have a single promotion that rivals EVOLVE but their eggs aren't all in one basket. I mean, they aren't going to compete with FloSlam at the end of the day but by adding up all these fanbases of smaller indies that haven't been able to purchase their favorite promotions events online and the lucha niche, they have more flexibility.

 

I don't know. Powerbomb.tv has Papa Hales on their service and he's about as big a draw as anyone else on the indies.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I'll take Powerbomb.tv over shelling out $120 for Gabe Sapolsky's creative vision.

[Cox]

I think Gabe has one of the best eyes for talent you'll ever see. The list of legitimately talented people who have come through his promotions, which often have had shoestring budgets, that he's been able to find and mold into future stars, is quite long. But his actual booking is much more questionable, with weird promotional ideas that rarely seem to work, and cringeworthy names for gimmick matches (Squared Circle of Survival? Really?). The job he should have is a talent relations position with WWE or another company, where he identifies guys who should be in developmental but creative is definitely not his strong point, and having him run creative for three different FloSlam promotions, in addition to his questionable creative ideas, seems like a recipe to burn him out quickly.

[Dylan Waco]

Part of the WWN deal with FloSlam is a certain number of shows a month. That, combined with booking issues in FIP, is what drove the changes. They aren't over committing, they are delivering on the terms of their contract.

[WrestlingPower]

Regardless of what you think of Gabe's booking, I think he's certainly benefitted from the scorched Earth that is US wrestling booking in this day and age. It's been YEARS since I've heard consistent positive praise for any booker in the US aside from maybe Stuttsy so Gabe has a rep as being the "cream" of a miserable crop for stuff he did 10 years ago.

[Matt D]

While I'll be interested to see just how much of the BT, Jr. stuff is going to show up on powerbomb, my wrestling tastes and time limitations are at a point that I'm not going to be dropping money on anything that's not frequently unearthing unseen matches from 78-86. I am glad that people will soon be awash in more content than they know what to do with though.

[bradhindsight]

Tommy Dreamer posted on his FB, in advance of HoH on FloSlam this past weekend, that he spent something like $65,000 from his own savings for this FloSlam broadcast because (direct quote from the post) "the deal w/ Flo Slam is life changing if it hits. Potential millions on the table."

 

I just don't see it. I can't get my head around these numbers and how they expect to profit like this. Venture capitalist money is great, until it's time for the return on those investments.

 

What type of subscriber base do you think is likely here? How many people bought individual Evolve iPPVs - 2,000?

 

The WWE has such a huge piece of this market - and they themselves, with a gigantic unquantifiable leg up on FloSlam based on brand alone, have struggled to grow their base. And that's after three years of having the network.

[shoe]

Plus according to the Observer Vince wants to start airing Indy's on the network .

[cpst]

Tommy Dreamer posted on his FB, in advance of HoH on FloSlam this past weekend, that he spent something like $65,000 from his own savings for this FloSlam broadcast because (direct quote from the post) "the deal w/ Flo Slam is life changing if it hits. Potential millions on the table."

 

I just don't see it. I can't get my head around these numbers and how they expect to profit like this. Venture capitalist money is great, until it's time for the return on those investments.

 

What type of subscriber base do you think is likely here? How many people bought individual Evolve iPPVs - 2,000?

 

The WWE has such a huge piece of this market - and they themselves, with a gigantic unquantifiable leg up on FloSlam based on brand alone, have struggled to grow their base. And that's after three years of having the network.

Even if FloSlam's rumored relationship with ROH pans out, it seems difficult for them to get enough subscribers to make this thing work. It'd be one thing if they were just a clearinghouse for content that other people were already producing, but they're paying multiple people to curate and produce content, as well as footing some of the cost of recording and livestreaming these events in the first place (evidently not House of Hardcore, judging by Dreamer's comments). It sounds like it's just another market for FloSports and they can kill it if it doesn't succeed to their expectations.

 

The story with WWE here is strange. The probability that a random indie wrestling fan already has a WWE Network subscription is extremely high, so even if they went for a $5 premium package for indie content they would be able to out-price anyone else. It sounds like they've been interested in this prospect for a while, mentioning it in a few surveys, yet from everything Meltzer has said the WWE was caught off-guard by WWN signing with FloSlam. You'd think that Gabe would've mentioned it to WWE, especially given that the contract locks him in for 5 years.

[bradhindsight]

Our friend Chris Harrington had a poll up on Twitter Wednesday asking how much people thought Evolve stood to earn in this 5 year contract which stipulated 60 shows a year. Dylan tweeted him that the figure was 3.4 million. Now I'd imagine parts of this amount are tied to site growth so each side has a stake. It could be something like a revenue share schedule where as the # of subscribers grows, the payout incrementally goes up - perhaps across the board to all the groups signed on (obv each has their own contract).

 

Chris noted that 3.4 million figure meant they were paying WWN about $11,000 per show - noting it could be more or less depending on if it was Evolve vs. FIP, etc.

 

That, in addition to their own in-house expenses, is quite the barrier to reaching a return on investment.