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Alex Marvez interviews Jeremy Borash

WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM INTERVIEW WITH JEREMY BORASH
By Alex Marvez
E-mail: alex@wrestlingobserver.com

Jeremy Borash has one of the toughest jobs in wrestling: Write a quality pay-per-view show without a television show as a lead-in or a settled roster of talent. The 26-year-old Borash is the lead writer for Sunday's World Wrestling All-Stars pay-per-view show, which is the promotion's first live p.p.v. in the U.S. In the following interview, Borash, who worked in World Championship Wrestling's front office until that company's demise last spring, talks extensively about the WWA and the
upcoming pay-per-view show.

Q: Do you have a lineup for the show yet?

Borash: Disco Inferno vs. Brian Christopher, a three-way match between Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis vs. Eddie Guerrero, a cruiserweight survivalmatch with Lo Ki vs. Nova vs. Tony Marmaluke vs. Shark Boy vs. Christopher Daniels vs. A.J. Styles, the hardcore midgets (Editor's note: Borash said they work out of Chicago), and Devon Storm vs. Sabu are what we have announced. We're waiting on two big things for the main event. We're in the contract process with some of the guys we're dealing with."

Q: You don't have a main event advertised?

Borash: "No, but the thinking behind it right now - and this is open to argument -- is that on all of the ads, the only thing we're selling are names. At this point, you can stick Scott Steiner vs. Jeff Jarrett or Randy Savage vs. Jeff Jarrett or whatever it is we go with. At this point, we don't have any story lines. It's not going to matter either way. I'm convinced it's not the matches but the names that matter. We don't have anything built up anyway We're just selling the big return of Scott Steiner, which is a great thing, and the return of Randy Savage, which is a great thing. The story we have to tell will be contained within the pay-per-view itself. I'm not sure if we announced a main event that it would add much."

Q: Not to be negative, but the WWF already is charging $29.95 a month for pay-per-views and has plans to expand with even more. As a fan, why should I buy the show without a main event?

Borash: "I think fans want to see something different. They want to see names they haven't seen in a while. They want to see Scott Steiner and Randy Savage. The selling point for us is that we stress this is an alternative. For the last year, it's been a one-man ballgame. Hopefully, the curiosity buy will still be there. Fans at one point were buying two pay-per-views a
month and sometimes three with ECW. If we keep the cost at $20, give a good show every time and get enough buys, we can do it. If pay-per-view is not profitable for us, we can just get out. It's just another division of the company. If it isn't profitable, we can go back to international touring and stay profitable that way. The tours are set up so that we don't need TV as long as people know that big names are going to be on the show. It's almost like Ice Capades or the Harlem Globetrotters. You don't necessarily know exactly what you're going to see, but you know you're going to see names you've seen on TV before. When we go to Australia next time, it will be with a different group than the first time around."

Q: How big a show is this for the WWA?

Borash: "I think it's huge. The last show we had didn't have nearly the star power this one does. Because we were in Australia, we didn't have nearly the amount names that we do on this one. We had a pretty small crew in Australia. We did a tournament and didn't have enough names over there. This time, we have a much more complete talent roster. I think it's gonna be
an easier show to watch. You're not going to see guys out there three times in one night. This also is a live show. We did things live in Australia (on pay-per-view) and everything went fine there, but I would be lying if I told you I wasn't nervous as hell about this. We're doing this with a very, very small staff. WCW needed 100 people to pull off what we're doing. When I
consider what we have done and how far we've gotten already, I'm thrilled. It's really gratifying to be this far already. If the show goes right, I'll be ecstatic. The whole thing has been a learning experience, especially for Andrew (McManus). It's a whole different world than the rock and roll game. It's a test for everybody. I'm optimistic, but if it doesn't go as well as
I'd like and there are a few flaws, I'll take it and learn."

Q: What type of challenge is it to book a show without TV?

Borash: "You have to go about things totally different. Right now, realistically, I don't think we're going to have TV any time soon. The way the pay-per-view shows are designed now puts them apart by six to eight weeks. The pay-per-view companies said they were going to help us tie in the shows together a little more and give us a little help. DirecTV is supposed to produce some quick five- to 10-minute commercials. It's going to be our job to tie the pay-per-views together ... At this point, I don't think anybody is getting on TV right now. For a startup group, the ad market and interest is not there. But as long as we deliver a show people are gonna be blown away by and something different than what they've seen in the past
year, we'll be fine. A case in point is ECW. They had some TV, but where I lived at the time, I knew that every two months on pay-per-view was the only time I would get to see them. Obviously, that did not result in enough buys to compete against the WWF. But we're not competing against the WWF. Taking our tour internationally we can make enough money to where it can be profitable for us. We can do pretty good business through that formula. On pay-per-view, our production costs are pretty low. It's between $100,000 to $150,000 for production costs. With the way the money is set up and the cut of the pay-per-view we can get, we can make money."

Q: How many buys do you need to turn a profit?

Borash: "I would guess in the range of 25,000 to 30,000, which isn't hard to do. Right now, our benefit from the pay-per-view company position is that they have to promote us because the (wrestling) product isn't there for them as far as how much projected revenue they lost from not having ECW and WCW. As long as they need the content, they're going to support us. Long term, I don't know how things are going to go and whether in the long-term we will continue on pay-per-view. But I think we'll be fine with or without pay-per-view because our business structure generates revenue through international touring. If we can keep doing that and make money on pay-per-view and resell the shows through DVDs, we'll actually be pretty profitable."

Q: How different will this show be from the last pay-per-view in January?

Borash: "I think the last show was great for a fan in Australia. Here, I didn't expect anybody would think it was all that fantastic. When we did the show over there, I didn't know they were going to be airing it over here. The people who had written the show had written it for Australian fans. When it ran here, I was fully expecting to get completely lambasted for it. The fans there are very different. We learned that after doing the tour there. How this will be different is we're starting with a cruiserweight match with six very internet-friendly cruiserweights. Wrestling fans have been begging for the chance to see some of these guys. There is a really hardcore base of fans out there. We're catering more toward the old ECW crowd that really appreciated good wrestling. I think this show is going to be less insulting to one's intelligence. It's geared
toward a smarter wrestling fan. Not to say the fans in Australia aren't, but it's a whole different ball game and crowd there."

Q: The WWF is raiding some of the top independent talent. How much of a concern is that and what can the WWA do to prevent it?

Borash: "If they came in and took all our guys, there would be a problem, obviously. But we had a number of big-name guys on the last tour. They realize that all the checks cleared and the money is there and the offer is there to go on tours. If they came in and took a name from us, it's something we'd have to deal with whether or not we're in a position to fight it. You can see what happened with the XWF when (the WWF) took Curt Hennig. It's something we know we're going to have to deal with. It's gonna happen. But we have a lot of names that fill buildings. If we lose one, it's a thing we've got to take in stride. Realistically, if Vince wanted to, he could put anybody out of business. If that happens, it happens. Hopefully, the competition will be better for everybody because it gives someplace else for people to work. Right now because of supply and demand, it's never been harder for talent. It's hurt everybody except for Vince. There are some very talented people in this business, but only so many spots."

Alex Marvez's weekly pro wrestling column can be found in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Denver Rocky Mountain News, Biloxi Sun-Herald and a host of other newspapers that subscribe to the Scripps-Howard News Service.

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