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As previously reported on PWInsider.com, the plan was that the promotion would be based out of Las Vegas with an eye on presenting a "non" PG-13 style product with babyfaces vs. heels and an eye towards capturing the male 18-34 demographic that loved pro wrestling during the Monday Night War era. CWR promotion's plan has been to partner with a Las Vegas casino and run wrestling events up to six days a week for the purpose of producing 36-44 hours of original TV episodes.
The promotion's TV series appears it will be titled "Revolution TV" with the product being billed as "reality sports." As we noted back when the sizzle reel was filmed, there was material also filmed based around the idea of veterans like Douglas, Animal and Piper training and managing new talents, so their outside of the ring segments would fall under the "reality" aspect. Both the name of the show and the "reality sports" term have been trademarked by Bill Townsend, who's been listed as the President of CWR.
Townsend has also recently trademarked the term "Revolution Sports International" as well as several other variations playing off the "Revolution Sports" name.
Douglas has reached out to several wrestlers in recent months asking if they were "ready to move to Vegas?", according to several talents.
We are told the promotion is also currently looking for announcers who speak English and Spanish as well as an announcer who speaks Mandarin with those jobs being based out of Las Vegas.
As PWInsider.com reported back in July, CWR quietly filmed material for a sizzle reel that would be used to show potential TV, licensing and financial partners last week in California during a TV Taping promoted by Dave Marquez' Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. The late Roddy Piper, Shane Douglas, Piper's son Roderick Toombs, Road Warrior Animal and former WWE stars Mason Ryan and Michael Tarver were involved in segments shot for the reel. The basic plot as it was described to me was that Piper and Douglas were at odds and had their own "teams" of talent. Shane Douglas was the booker of the taping while Animal worked as a Producer. Some of the material from that sizzle reel was uploaded last month to a Youtube channel for the promotion:
PWInsider.com first broke news of the potential promotion in March of 2014. At that time, the promotion, represented by Shane Douglas, contacting talents and asking to sign letters of intent that they would be interested in working for the promotion when it launched.
Bill Townsend (who we mentioned earlier) is an Internet entrepreneur who helped create a number of online platforms, including Lycos.com, before turning to writing, motivational speaking and philanthropy. He is believed to be the promotion's primary backer and as noted, has been listed on paperwork as "President."
Townsend had previously trademarked the name "Classic Wrestling Revolution." The trademark covered not just organizing and promoting live wrestling events under that name but maintaining a website and streaming material via the web as well as providing downloadable content using that name.
As previously reported, the strategy involved in the start-up did not call for running live events and TV Tapings until 2016. The 2016 launch is said to be targeted to give the promotion enough time to properly plan a launch and touring schedule. We are told that current battle plans discussed by those working on the company indicate plans to try and launch with 250 live events in the United States and possibly internationally. That is a pretty lofty goal, so we'll see what is actually executed if and when the trigger is pulled.
The letter of intent issued to potential talents last year noted, "The purpose of the [then known as] CWF project is to return to American culture the classic sport of wrestling as made popular by the likes of Bruno Samartino, George Steele, Triple H, Andre the Giant, Baron Von Raschke."
The letter of intent also noted that the promotion, "intends to set base pay for our wrestler athletes an nâ€air talent higher than current alternatives, to offer health insurance benefits or stipends, a 401k retirement plan and other benefits, and to create a profitâ€sharing plan where all athletes share in the success of the company. In addition, CWF intends to make a percentage of television revenue available to retiring wrestlers in the form of a company operated pension plan."
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