A MatRats pay-per-view featuring the Next Generation Wrestling promotion out of Calgary seems to be a matter of ‘when’ rather than a question of ‘if’.
The previously-announced date of October 28 doesn’t look like it’s going to be a go at this point, explained Graham Owen, vice-president and COO of Digital Artisans Guild Inc., the company behind the promotion.
“We’re really close to a television deal right now, and if we get that television deal, we spend a lot less on advertising the event because television does that for us. It’s quite an expensive thing to do otherwise,” Owen told to SLAM! Wrestling.
Viewer’s Choice Canada has talked to DAG about their PPV plans, and are on board, especially should MatRats clear a TV deal.
“We’re definitely interested. We’re always looking for new programming that we think will appeal to people. I’m always interested in any sort of new programming, not just wrestling,” said Bill Custers, the Director Of Programming and Marketing at Viewer’s Choice Canada.
Like many, Custers has only seen the MatRats action through their website, matrats.com.
“I think it will appeal to a different wrestling demographic, and I think it sort of bridges that whole wrestling and concert music mix. It’ll be interesting. I think it will take a little bit of time to build a regular audience for it on pay-per-view,” said Custers.
The Next Generation Wrestling promotion features high-paced, youth-oriented wrestling action featuring both next-generation wrestlers like Harry ‘Bulldog’ Smith (son of Davey Boy Smith and Diana Hart), Ted ‘Terminator 3’ Hart (grandson of Stu and Helen Hart), and Rene Dupre (son of Emile Dupre).
Former WCW honcho Eric Bischoff is involved in the promotion as well as Executive Vice President of Development for MatRats, and sitting on the Board of Directors. Bischoff was previously quoted as saying MatRats was “the most exciting thing I have seen in sports entertainment in 10 years.”
In his July 28th Winnipeg Sun column, Don ‘Cyrus’ Callis announced that he and former ECW announcer Joey Styles have been tagged to to be part of the broadcast team for the PPV. “I am looking forward to it, as this is a product I am very excited about,” Callis wrote.
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