GCW promoter Brett Lauderdale is not courting any potential television deals at the moment.
Lauderdale was a guest on SEScoops’ The Business of The Business podcast with John Poz and Lavie Margolin and shared his thoughts on GCW potentially landing a television deal. He discussed how it would be a detriment to their company unless it was for such a large number but added he is willing to speak with anyone:
Nobody has really approached us, and I haven’t tried to approach anybody.
I think that TV for a company like GCW and any of these fringe or popular Indie companies, I think it’s detrimental unless you’re getting a massive rights deal and we’re talking millions and millions, AEW or WWE money. Once you sign on to produce episodic programming you’re going to lose – you’re locked in. You’re requiring your fan base to do something different to maintain their fandom. In my opinion, GCW loses its authenticity, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s a good fit for us. I don’t want to do it, just being able to say, ‘Oh, we have a TV deal’, is not appealing to me.
Putting an event on pay-per-view just to say, ‘Oh, we’re on pay-per-view’ again, not appealing to me. Would we do a special or something, if Vice came to us and wanted to host one event? I would certainly be open to that but signing on to produce a program every week for a year or two years or whatever, that’s just not something I’m interesting in. So, you know, I’m open to anything one at a time, sure, a special? A pay-per-view? Yeah, let’s do one at a time and if the circumstances are right but you know, we have been very successful doing things our way and we’re still able to grow doing things our way and there is still a lot of room for growth doing things our way. It’s one of those situations also where if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I’m always down to talk to anybody but it’s not something I’m worried about or pursuing right now.
GCW is a business that heavily relies on live ticket sales and the streaming component. Lauderdale spoke about its relationship with Fite TV and noted that they do not have any contract with Fite and have the ability to go anywhere if they choose:
And just for the record, there is no Fite contract. There’s no contract anywhere right now with GCW. We have a working agreement with Fite but either party can go their own separate way anytime. If I want to stream somewhere else, we have the ability to do that and if Fite wants to work with somebody else or can’t stream us on any given night then they can pass as well. So, that’s another one of the things I’ve spoken about, being able to have that flexibility with GCW across the board where we can pivot at any time.
The interview took place days after GCW announced a sell-out of the Hammerstein Ballroom for their card on January 23rd, which has been scaled to hold over 2,000 fans and will be the largest attendance for a pro wrestling event in the venue due to the floor plan they reconfigured.
The card at the Hammerstein Ballroom will be preceded by the first-ever Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame the ceremony the night prior with the class including Jerry Lynn, Homicide, Ruckus, and Dave Prazak with more names to be added.
