Colin West Answers Our Burning Questions
The owner of Synergy Pro Wrestling didn’t hold back.
Colin West, owner of Synergy Pro Wrestling, offered to do an interview about anything non-Synergy related.
Does he regret it? Perhaps. Do I? Hell no!
Initially the creative director, West took over the New Jersey-based independent promotion from Dan and Heather Funkenstein in May. Since then, he has raised the company’s profile by bringing in well-known names, organizing a successful tournament, engaging with both national and international members of the wrestling media and throwing pre-show parties that foster camaraderie between performers and fans.
Synergy’s next event is on Black Friday, November 29, at the Polish Falcon’s Nest in Hillsborough, NJ. It’s the blow off to all the year’s storylines, as Matt Macintosh puts up the Synergy Championship against Frightmare and his mask; Matt Tremont returns to face Mike Del in a chain match; TJ Crawford and Aaron Bradley collide in a Last Man Standing match; and the 2019 Best of the Light Heavyweights features Homicide vs. Jordan Oliver vs. Brandon Kirk vs. Anthony Gangone vs. Archadia vs. X-Division Champion Ace Austin.
For the full uncensored interview, including West’s thoughts on Jim Cornette, The Streak ending, whether Montreal was a work and much more, listen to Team LeftJab Radio on Monday during Raw.
(The following has been edited and condensed.)
@Zacshi130 asks what makes running a wrestling promotion easy?
Colin West: “There are two things that make it as easy as it can be. The first one is going to sound like I’m kissing ass and the second one is going to sound like I’m kissing more ass, but they’re both true. Booking the right men and women makes life really easy. The better the match that the talent on Synergy puts on, the smarter I look. It’s not just about the hot names or who can do the most ridiculous stuff. It’s about having reliable, quality pro wrestlers.
Also, when you have the right people out there in terms of marketing and journalism. This is where it sounds like I’m kissing ass, but people like you that talk about us makes life so much easier. People who are credible and ask good questions and aren’t afraid to tell us when shows aren’t great or could have been better. You’ve been very honest with me about what I do well and what I don’t do well since 2016. Honestly, you’ve made me better at my job.”
@Zacshi130 also asks what makes running a wrestling promotion hard?
West: “People who do it well and have done it for a long time, I’ve really learned from them about how much hard work it is. People like Drew Cordeiro of Beyond, Randy Carver of Limitless, Brett Lauderdale of GCW, promotions in the Mid-West like AIW and St. Louis Anarchy, they make it look so easy. But you don’t realize how hard these guys have sweat for years, sacrificing and being bleeped financially. There’s a lot of back-end work in terms of promoting and marketing. Getting in your car for eight to 10 hours on a day that you don’t want to go out and going into every business within a 20-mile drive of where you’re running a show and asking them to put up a poster and have 40% of them say no. That stuff sucks.
I was running around with posters of Rhino on them for the September show and I had people look at the posters and go “Who the hell is that? That’s not John Cena. That’s not The Rock.” That stuff is mind-blowing. The hard part is grinding and hitting the pavement because nobody sees that. There’s no thank you for that. There’s no “This Is Awesome” for that. But you have to do it.”
What’s the most money you’ve ever made in wrestling?
West: “Who assumes there is money in wrestling? The most money I’ve ever made on a show was a couple of grand, which was nice. But that money went to charity, so I didn’t make it. (laughs) That was actually the show you covered at the Sayreville Knights of Columbus for fighting cystic fibrosis. That’s the most profitable show I’ve run. The second most profitable was actually the Garden State Invitational. It’s not the old-school B.S., ‘you’ve got to spend money to make money.’ You’ve got to bring quality to make money. You’re not going to get people to sit through five bad matches to get to two good ones. People don’t want to do that anymore, especially when there are so many options.”
Most money you’ve ever lost in pro wrestling?
West: “I lost money on a charity show at a baseball field in South Amboy because the guy who brought us in said ‘don’t worry, we’ll get a bunch of people out here.’ It’s one of the early lessons I learned as a promoter: don’t believe somebody when they say they’ll do any legwork free. They sold seven tickets. Put it this way: 85 people showed up for a town’s Little League fundraiser and only seven of them came from the town. I lost a couple hundred bucks on that show.
I panicked and said I have to make good on this and book a banger of a show on a month’s notice. We did it on a Sunday afternoon, outside behind the barn cause that’s where I could get. It was week 1 of the NFL season, it was raining and it was during a Jets game. Twenty-three people showed up. I booked Deranged vs. Joey Janela. They wrestled for 23 people. Smiley was on that show, so was Garden State Gods, Brandon Kirk, Jeff Cannonball, Logan Black, Matt Macintosh, KTB, TJ Marconi. It was a really good show and nobody was there. I lost a lot of money. I took a year off to recover myself.”
If you could book anyone not signed to a contract, who would it be?
West: “I’ve booked a lot of the people I’ve wanted to book. Homicide, KTB, Tremont. Outside of the guys I already book, that’s really tough. I’ve always wanted to work with Mercedes Martinez. I’ve always wanted to work with Jake Crist. I’ve always loved his stuff, especially the artist bit. Kris Statlander is up there. Sammy Guevara is signed now, but I’ve always wanted to work with him. Tessa for sure. I haven’t worked with Rich Swann yet and that would be a lot of fun. For the Warhorse show at Christmas, I’m working with Gary Jay for the first time. That will be really fun.”
Best wrestling commentator today?
West: “Ian Riccaboni is tremendous. Mark Adam Haggerty is tremendous. He should be on a higher platform. In terms of former wrestlers, Steve Mack and Eric Corvis are great commentators. I like Nigel McGuinness a lot and Beth Phoenix is wonderful. I know she’s more of a panel discussion show, but I’d love for them to give Charly Caruso a shot at commentary.”
What wrestling do you watch on a consistent basis?
West: “I don’t care what the product is as long as the storyline is good. Right now I’m watching NXT the most. How they’ve reincorporated Balor is really interesting. But what has really gotten me is Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic. It’s that big man stuff that you just can’t get enough of because they move and they’re athletic and I love that.
I’ve watched some AEW just because I’m curious if they’re going to treat the midcard right. If AEW is going to survive, it’s going to be because of Darby, Joey, Sonny, MJF, the women that bolster that division. To be frank, has anybody in that midcard won a damn match yet? At some point, if I’m going to believe these guys are the future and a credible threat, they have to win something, especially in the company that was founded on saying wins and losses matter. Right now my real problem with AEW is looks like it’s only a company about five or six dudes deep.
Would it, in the sake of storytelling, have killed anybody to have Darby beat one of these top guys in one of these feature matches? Or have Joey sneak out a win? Putting them in these matches with your top guys is not enough. If they always hang, but lose, at some point you’ve neutered them.”
In defense of AEW, Private Party did beat The Young Bucks and it was presented as a big deal.
West: “Right. But really, should they have presented it that way? If Private Party deserves to be there as part of that roster, why would you treat it like the Jets winning the Super Bowl? If everybody is supposed to be world class, then how come we’re treating some people as second class? That’s my main problem with the presentation of things.
My second problem with the presentation is for a dude who destroyed Triple H’s throne at an AEW pay-per-view, he’s sure booking himself like Triple H, isn’t he? I wanted to leave a company that was run by a tyrannical billionaire who is out of touch and doesn’t know anything about wrestling, whose main executive was also a professional wrestler and was booking himself into the main event of everything as an invincible superhero…so I’m going to go to a company that’s run by a billionaire who has no idea what’s going on in wrestling because he’s never been involved and I’m going to be the top executive and book myself into the main event of everything as an invincible superhero. That’ll show him.”
What’s one match you tend to watch over and over again?
West: “Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio at Souled Out 1998. The story they tell about Rey Mysterio’s knee is amazing and it sort of solidifies Jericho as this heel cruiserweight. And the finish is bonkers. I love the Wyatts vs. The Shield. There was a match from year one of Game Changer Wrestling that I got to do commentary on with Emil Jay. Eric Ryan vs. Ciclope. It’s such a random match, but it’s unfreakingbelievable.
Right now I’m watching David Starr vs. Mercedes Martinez at Uncharted Territory. If you haven’t watched that match, it’s worth going to IndependentWrestling.TV, use the promo code “SYNERGY” and get your first 20 days for free, go to Beyond Wrestling and watch it. It’s one of the five best matches that I’ve seen all year from any promotion.”
What does your family think about you owning a pro wrestling company?
West: “It’s the most successful thing I’ve ever done in my ridiculous artsy life. (laughs) It’s not what anybody expects you to do, but they see how hard I work at it and how I’m not willing to tolerate failure, so they accept it. Outside of my sister or my niece or anyone like that, I’ve never loved anything more than I love this right now in my life. They know I care and they see it starting to work. As long as I’m working my ass off, they’re fine. Because they won’t let me get lazy about it.”
Whose Twitter accounts should we be following?
West: “The first Twitter account you need to follow is Luke Harper’s. It’s one of my favorites. It’s Monday, John, you know what that means. Oney Lorcan’s, Eric Corvis turned me on to that one. Joey Janela’s is really fun. I really enjoy Jordynne Grace’s because she puts horrible sexist dudes who slide in her DMs on blast. It’s hilarious. Effy is a great Twitter follow. If you’re not following Warhorse and Danhausen, they’re so killer.”
Why do most promoters struggle with showcasing women’s wrestling?
West: “It’s a generational problem. For years, women’s wrestling was presented as legitimate. Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, they were presented as athletes. Somewhere in the ‘90s, it became oversexualized. Women were presented the way misogynistic, rich men wanted them to be presented and that was their only ticket to the dance. It left little room for wrestling in women’s wrestling. Society as a whole has done a much better job in getting rid of that attitude toward women. It’s not gone yet, unfortunately, but we’re doing a much better job. I consider Jazz to be a huge part of that. I consider Molly Holly to be a huge part of that. I consider Ivory to be a huge part of that. Chyna, to a degree. Then you’ve got Gail Kim and all these women along the way who did their best to shirk that label and say we can actually wrestle. As overstated as it is, Trish and Lita main eventing Raw was a big deal. They proved you could be beautiful, but also be a tremendous athlete.
Now we’re blessed with the best athletic generation of women that has ever existed in pro wrestling, but the problem is so many fans are conditioned to look at women’s wrestling as T&A because of what happened in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. What really bothers me is nobody talks about male wrestlers the way they talk about women wrestlers, at least openly. What kind of heat would you get from wrestling fans if you devoted entire articles, Twitter posts and Instagram posts to whose package looks best in their gear? Somehow, there’s this whole subsection of people talking about the women’s revolution, but then they say ‘oh my god, there was a nip slip on SmackDown!’ You cannot respect and objectify the same person at the same time. If you respect a person as an athlete, stop talking about them like their meat.
Also, on the other side, if they have a shit match, say it was a shit match. Equality is both sides of the coin. Start talking about women’s wrestling like you talk about all other wrestling. Women don’t want to be apologized for when they make a mistake. Women don’t want to be objectified. Women want to be talked about like human beings. I don’t mean to speak for women, but it’s the same thing with me being an openly gay man. I just want to be talked about like a person. I don’t want it to be like ‘oh, he did good for a gay guy.’ If it was shit, say it was shit. That’s fine, I’ll learn. People are just too scared to talk about women’s wrestling like they talk about all other wrestling, or there’s that subset of the population that just wants to sexualize it and want to be real sneaky about it so people don’t flame them on Twitter.”
Who is somebody that should have made it by now?
West: “KTB. I don’t get why he’s not everywhere. He’s a star that makes stars. What was Marko Stunt’s first big match? KTB. Why was everybody chanting ‘No Legs’ WrestleMania Weekend? Because he worked KTB. More important than having a star in your company is you need a guy who can make them. I don’t get why my champ isn’t everywhere. Matt Macintosh has all the tools: charisma, promo, body, look, appearance, gimmick, guys don’t get hurt in the ring with him. He elevates things. My championship has become more important because he holds it.”
Favorite match or angle you’ve booked?
West: “I’ve really been happy with how the whole Tremont-Del thing has worked. It’s because the two guys are such damn good storytellers. If I’m going to completely shoot on this, at the end of 2018, I asked a bunch of guys who they wanted to work. Del’s number-one was Tremont and Tremont said he wanted to work Del. Having a guy cost Tremont the title without being in the match was something unique and then having a little bit of a mystery angle run for two months in between shows, and then having Tremont assume it was Macintosh, which propelled Macintosh to the title, but having it be somebody else. Then Del beat Tremont at his own game, so Tremont has been screwing with Del from a distance. This has all been really fun.
It’s a shame we had to pull the plug on it, but I really was having a lot of fun with where we were going with Brandon Kirk in 2018. Having him attack ring announcers and staff because he had an open contract and there was nothing we could do about it. There’s something I just like about an unruly heel.
In this moment, I can’t put over how happy I am with Aaron Bradley and TJ Crawford. These are two dudes who are hungry for it and have elevated each other. I’ve got people from other countries who care about their feud. That means Bradley and Crawford are doing a hell of a job.”
Black Friday takes place November 29 at the Polish Falcon’s Nest in Hillsborough, NJ.
For tickets and more information, visit www.synergywrestling.com.
Watch Black Friday at 8 p.m. EST on FITE TV.
You can watch all of Synergy’s past events on independentwrestling.tv. If you don’t have a subscription, you use the promo code “SYNERGY” and the first 20 days are free.
Follow Synergy on Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit www.synergywrestling.com.
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