Professional wrestling is difficult to make money at. It’s very much a D.I.Y. business. As your own marketing machine, you must constantly be hustling in order to make a decent living. For a pro wrestler, the hustle doesn’t end after you secure various bookings, update your website calendar with your upcoming appearances, and post entertaining and informative tweets that promote yourself, while cleverly fitting it all within the constraints of 140 characters. The hustle continues online and into show day at a little place us wrestlers call “The Gimmick Table.”
Whether it’s a virtual area on a website or live and in person, you may be more familiar with the gimmick table under its more commonly used title of “merchandise stand.” Wrestlers go out to the ring, have the best possible match that they can, and then head on over to the gimmick table in hopes that you’ll support them with a few extra dollars. Of course, there is no better way to support your favorite independent talent than by throwing down your hard earned dinero on some merchandise bearing their name or likeness.
Back in the old days of independent wrestling fifteen or twenty years ago, you’d go over to the gimmick table and see that the merch was much more simplistic: A plain black shirt with generic font stating a wrestler’s name. A pixelated 8 x 10 photo. Maybe even a best of VHS tape or DVD with a makeshift label written in black Sharpie slapped on it somewhere.
In 2015, the merchandise game has vastly changed, making it appear as though guys have huge warehouses where they produce mass quantities of their own merch. Dudes have colorful DVD’s and blu rays for sale. They have several different high quality glossy photographs to buy. Giant posters. Rubber bracelets. Tiny wrestling buddies. Foam fingers. Buttons. Stickers. Hats. Shorts. Koozies– I’ve never used a koozie in my life, but people buy them. Nearly anything you can think of now, wrestlers will produce and sell it.
And the shirts… the shirts are the best and the most creative that they’ve ever been. Gone are simplistic comic sans font tees, and in their place are highly artistic parody and original tees, many that seem to bear no resemblance to a wrestling tee at all (making it much easier to wear in public). With the rise of Chicago based
Pro Wrestling Tees
, and smaller independent wrestling tee companies like
Top Rope Tuesday
, the wrestling tee game could only grow to be bigger and better. For the bigger names on the independent scene, the paydays are good, but a good t-shirt design can make your take home cash
much better.
Just ask guys like The Young Bucks and Colt Cabana, gimmick table juggernauts.
Which brings me to today’s topic: the unsung heroes of the independent wrestling scene. The artists behind the artistic wrestler. The guys that make it possible for us big tough brutes to garner an extra $20 spot from a loyal fan. I’m talking about the t-shirt creators themselves:
Dave Bogart, Hiroto Fukanaga, Jaims Van Der Beek/Jeremy Tate, Derek Sharp and Curtain Jerker Designs, Jill Thompson, Jake and Derek of Top Rope Tuesday, and countless others, many that can be found right here.
The above that I’ve mentioned I’ve known for years, and they are incredible at what they do. Their artistic ability is second to none, and all are genuine individuals that I’m happy to say are worth investing your money into for a good design, especially since they will go above and beyond for you in terms of quality and quickness. Many of them have been fortunate enough to extend their designs beyond independent wrestlers, with people like Jill and Dave, and Jain designing shirts for the likes of CM Punk, Edge, Kevin Nash, and many more. It’s pretty incredible how far they’ve come.
So– why am I writing this?
Well, just like the wrestler, like myself, that depends on pro wrestling to make money, cartoonists and designers depend on you to make money for a design. So, random example, if you’re– let’s say– I don’t know– a wrestler– and you ask any one of these artists to design you a shirt, and they do it– you pay them for their time.
I can’t speak for many of the above, but I can speak for my buddy, Hiroto. Hiroto is an artist from Japan that I’ve known for five years that has done work for many big advertising companies and cartoons, including Mega Man. He also happens to be a huge wrestling fan, and has done design work for many independent wrestling talents and promotions over the years. Though it’s sometimes difficult for us to communicate due to that whole language barrier thing, Hiroto has always worked fast, efficiently, and has kept his prices for designs more than fair. Yet, for some reason, many independent wrestlers over the years, particularly recently, have decided to get a design– and then refuse to pay him, or flat out ignore him.
Sad part is, I know some of the guys who are stiffing Hiroto.
Imagine going into work, doing your job, and on payday, you don’t get your check. You knock on your bosses door to ask him where your money is, and he sits behind the lock door ignoring you, hoping that you go away and forget that you’re owed money for the work you put in. That’s what Hiroto is experiencing right now, and it’s just plain wrong. Hiroto has a family, just like me– just like you. If you want him to draw, pay him. If you want me to wrestle, pay me. Or don’t ask.
If you’d like to contact Hiroto, he’s on Facebook under Hiroto Fukanaga. You can also support Hiroto by buying his new tee, inspired by wrestlers that refuse to pay him for his quality work.
Support independent wrestling. Support independent wrestlers. More importantly, support the independent artists behind the wrestlers. Helping them helps us wrestlers, and it helps you wear something on your upper body that is overly stylish.
If you’re a independent pro wrestler, you have money, and you want a decent design, do me a favor and look into some of the individuals listed above. If you’re an independent pro wrestler and you’ve stolen a design from one of these artists, you’re not a pro… you’re just a con.
-Greg
