Beyond Wrestling recently finished the first season of their live Wednesday night wrestling program, Uncharted Territory, followed by their amazing mega-show Americanrana ’19. With fans wondering if Beyond would be back with a Season 2, not only were they treated to positive news, but that of Beyond getting its own venue for the beginning of the second season. On Friday, a collaborative team featuring Beyond Wrestling and IndependentWrestling.tv (IWTV) – announced the opening of the live venue, Sports Entertainment Experience, at 172 Exchange St. Pawtucket, Rhode Island. We spoke to SEE’s John Sebastian, who also owns the new venue, about just what this means for Beyond, SEE and IWTV int he future.
https://twitter.com/SEExperienceYT/status/1162469885131329539
LWOPW: First off, what’s your background in pro wrestling, as I’m sure some people will be discovering you for the first time. How did you enter the business.
John Sebastian, Sports Entertainment Experience: I’ve been working with Beyond for just over a year, My background is actually in hospitality. I own a restaurant and have owned/managed businesses for the last 15 years. I specialize in live events, catering, etc. I came on with Beyond initially to do a promotional show in our parking lot after meeting Drew Cordiero. I have been a fan of professional wrestling my entire life and when we connected with Beyond our experience in live events meshed really well with their brand.
What drew you to working with Beyond Wrestling on this venture?
I entered into a partnership with Beyond in early 2019 after working some of their shows in the second half of 2018. Our first collaboration was Destination: Uncharted Territory, The Treasure Hunt Tournament. With the idea that we can add resources and process enhancements that make live events a profitable endeavor. Merchandising, venue acquisitions, ticketing, and event logistics are just some of our contributions to Beyond in 2019
What is the estimated capacity for a live show at the new venue?
It really depends on the room configuration, we can adjust it at will to meet the promotions needs, obviously, the more we add the less people we can fit…. capacity of the room void of anything is 450, we work down from there. For Uncharted Territory, we will be able to accommodate the size of the audience plus some from Season 2. There is also an alternative plan for larger events that I am not completely ready to discuss at the moment
What other promotions will your venue be hosting?
In addition to Beyond, we will, as of right now, be hosting Zero-1 USA and our own in house brand focused on a more family-friendly wrestling show, that brand will be Pro Wrestling Exchange (PWE). We are close to schools, YMCA, youth football programs, etc…. the kids have been using our facility throughout the summer for water and bathroom breaks during YMCA summer camp and they have seen the entire progression so I’d like to offer a product for them. I would love to work with other promotions, I have a list in my head of guys I’d like to work with but nothing has been booked yet… I’d like to be the point of easy entry for promotions they don’t run the north east often to do it without having to tackle as much of the logistics as would normally be required.
Will the PWE promotion be seen on IWTV as well? Or is that more of a training class?
No, it’s not a training class, we have plans coming together for training classes as well…also the spin-off on Tuesday nights based on the discovery gauntlet will exist. PWE will function as a throwback to character-driven wrestling that attracted most of us to the art form in childhood. It will be today’s top Independent Stars that have characters that either appeal to a younger audience as hero’s or villains…I grew up watching wrestling through the 80s and 90s and that Saturday morning entertainment that just was mesmerizing. The beauty of owning the venue is that we aren’t bound by anything – a comedy club can do family-friendly one night, adults-only the next, political humor the next, open mic the next. We aren’t any different, something could and should be happening 7 days a week.
So is SEE a co-promotion of you and Drew?
SEE is meant to be a collaborative effort of several entities, Beyond, IWTV, etc. I am the owner of the venue and my partnerships with Beyond and IWTV will grow in the space. The retail component and online sales department is something that is managed by my girlfriend Samantha.
Training facility and the 26ish Beyond events will be something that will be done in collaboration, with Drew Cordiero taking the lead on those projects. Supplemental content and video production will be handled by Gerry and his team at IWTV. It’s really a co-operative compound we have going on. All of us work really great together so it makes complete sense to grow together.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch up on Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory Season 1 on IndependentWrestling.tv.
