Ryse at Ringside 9

I'm sure you've heard the cliche, "timing is everything" and while it's a cliche older than Paul Atlas, it's also very true, both in life and professional wrestling. When to launch a story, schedule a debut, or pencil in an event can be a key factor for success. Thankfully, Ryse is scheduled to make its return to live events and to Baldwin on June 19, 2021 almost 14 months after the last event at the Stronghold. As I've said before, I blame Lewis for this, as he took the venue with him when he departed Ryse to continue his work as a nuclear physicist in New Mexico. Anyway, Brandon K and the rest of the crew made the measured decision to wait until the terrible pandemic was near a conclusion before they would welcome a crowd to a Ryse event. It can't be understated enough that Brandon put the health of the fans and the roster as more of a priority than potential profit, which is extremely rare and commendable, especially in this business.

Still, others made less than wise decisions with their schedules long before the pandemic halted live pro wrestling for over a year. I decided to pen this edition of "Ryse At Ringside" this week because of social media, I was reminded of All Elite Wrestling's debut pay-per-view, Double or Nothing was held two years ago this week. The May 25, 2019 broadcast from the sold out MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV was a show that had months of anticipation behind it after Tony Khan, from the billionaire family that owns the Jacksonville Jaguars and a few other sports franchises, decided to start a pro wrestling company.

As I'm sure you've seen in recent weeks, a few Ryse stars, The Mane Event, have appeared on some AEW programming. However, before they were a profitable project on TNT with steady television ratings, the concept of All Elite was still just a matter of speculation before Double or Nothing went live in 2019. This was literally the first time in two decades, since the closure of Ted Turner's WCW, that a non-WWE entity had garnered this level of hype around an event or project. What All Elite was going to be or if it had a legitimate chance to get off the ground were all intriguing selling points for the PPV.

No matter who you were, whether you hoped for the Khan-owned project to spark the industry or someone that wanted to see the upstart group flop, the focus of the sports entertainment world was on Double or Nothing that weekend.

Reportedly, the event garnered an estimated 100,000 PPV buys, making it the most successful non-WWE broadcast since the previously mentioned shutdown of WCW. Considering the level of hype and anticipation ahead of the AEW debut, you'd think it would be a given not to attempt to compete in any way, shape, or form with the broadcast, right?

Not exactly, as a local Pittsburgh group attempted to run its own pay-per-view debut the same night. Through the now-defunct PWX organization, where I started on the mic in 2009 that I've mentioned in this column before, the owner Jim Miller started a women's wrestling league, Angel Gate Wrestling in 2018. The reasons why the doomed project was a total train wreck are numerous and another discussion for another time. However, after a revolving door of "video editors" that seemingly disappeared into the witness protection program within two or three tapings, Sorg and his talented crew agreed to be a part of the video production of the events so that the footage could be viewed by more than just a random video editor.

Since Sorg is a polished pro, the ability to broadcast the events through iPPV made it possible for the venture to be followed by fans outside of the Pittsburgh area. In theory, this was a decent idea because there were some very talented wrestlers, such as Roni Nicole, Sam Leterna, KC Spinelli, and others booked on the cards. The trio mentioned prior did very well and were highlights on the short-lived women's group, but several others that were theoretically scheduled to be a part of Angel Gate either cancelled or no-showed throughout the majority of the promotion's existence. Thankfully, the iPPV that was scheduled for May in 2019 had one minor change to the card, but nothing major. As was usually the case with both PWX and Angel Gate, Miller had done very little to promote the fact that fans that weren't in attendance live could order the show online. In fact, unless you already knew Angel Gate existed, there was no way for fans to know that a women's pay-per-view was going to take place that night. I should point out that while Miller has a rather notorious reputation, he was almost okay to me and I don't know him well so I can't really comment too much on him beyond that. It's almost comical to think that I called PWX shows in some form or fashion for over a decade, and didn't have more than a basic "hello, how are you?" type of conversation with him. If I had to guess, I would say that he's probably just a quiet person that keeps to him, rather than his lack of conversation as anything malicious.

Besides the fact that management didn't buy any ad space online to let fans know that a women's iPPV would be broadcast, it was running on the same night as one of the most anticipated wrestling pay-per-views of the past two decades. The broadcast itself went fine and the talented women that worked the show had some quality matches. Paul Atlas, based on the reviews that we got for our work at Ryse, called the show with me so it was easy to provide commentary for the event. Not surprisingly, I found out later that the iPPV buys for Angel Gate were in the single digits and even less of a surprise than that, Miller was stunned that Angel Gate didn't sell well online Timing is everything.