Written by Bill Walkowitz
What Dave Scherer says in the above screen grab (which is from his Q&A that he posted, today) is a slap in the face to every indie wrestler, booker, promoter, people who help set up the rings, chairs, get places to sell tickets for shows, all of them people who help put on an independent wrestling show, anywhere in this country on a weekly basis.
This kind of mentality or 'logic' if you will shouldn't come as much of a surprise, especially since Dave Scherer is, an admitted "Bingo Hall mark" that has not promoted or help locally promote one show, has never helped set up one ring, set up chairs or done anything EXCEPT, do what Dave Meltzer has done. Which is make a living off of WRITING about the wrestling business even though he's never done anything IN the wresting business.
Which is why I'm glad we here at WP&P called Dave Scherer out on his clueless claim. We were hoping that he would actually acknowledge it, and we hoped he would come up with some sort of ignorant response if and when he finally acknowledged it.
Thank you Mr. Scherer, for being as predictable as a rerun and doing exactly, what we hoped you would do.
For those of you who haven't been following this, I'll catch you up to where we are now.
Back in November Dave Scherer made the outrageous claim that Vince Russo was no longer in the wrestling business, and we called him out on that clueless claim.
https://wrestlingpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2024/11/dave-scherer-pwinsider-gets-fact.html
When he was called out, this.. Is exactly how he reacted to being fact checked.
https://wrestlingpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2024/11/its-official-wp-called-out-dave-scherer.html
Which now brings us to today, and several people sent this to me. Today's Q&A that Scherer did where he actually and finally (in a way) gathered some guts to acknowledge the claim he made which was so easily fact checked.
Sadly, Mr. Scherer is the one who really has no clue what 'being in the wrestling business' means, his obvious reply in the screen grab above proves this. And now, as someone who HAS worked in the wrestling business, I can be the one to again fact check him and give him an education on something he has no experience at, and just writes about.
I, unlike Dave Scherer, Dave Meltzer, Mike Johnson (PWInsider) and a whole bunch of others that have a wrestling news site, HAS worked in the wrestling business. Thanks to the late Sylvano Sousa who was running his Atlantic Wrestling Federation in New Hampshire and Massachusetts back in 1997. The late Walter 'Killer' Kowalski made regular appearances there since students from his wrestling school (which included current head trainer at the WWE Performance Center Matt Bloom) were honing their craft on these shows, as well as having old WWF wrestlers as headliners on these shows.
I quickly wanted to know all facets of putting on a wrestling show, and the business as a whole so I sat, very willingly under the learning tree of Mr. Kowalski and Mr. Sousa. I helped set up rings, helped set chairs up, even helped set up and break down a cage for a cage match between the late Steve Bradley and "The Graduate" Tim McNeany.
October of 1997-1998 I started working for WWA New England, which was owned by former WWF referee Fred Sparta. I did the same things there I did with Sousa, help set up rings, chairs, but I also was able to locally promote shows in New Hampshire, which has a state boxing and wrestling commission. I talked to the guy who was on the commission who covered both Sousa and WWA-NE shows in NH and found out what it took to become a local promoter in the state. I even wrote about the experience of getting the first two shows I ever locally promoted in the town I lived in, in NH (Rochester, NH) which is known as a 'permit' town (Something I'm sure, Mr. Scherer has no clue about).
Here's the article I wrote, which was posted on Evan Ginzburg's Wrestling Then And Now site, and later printed in his monthly newsletter that both Kowalski, and Jim Cornette subscribed to.
I wound up locally promoting three shows for WWA New England, and one show for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH in 1999. So not only did I gain knowledge and advice from Sousa and Kowalski, as well as Dory Funk jr, Cornette, Bruce and Tom Prichard (when they were part of the WWF training dojo that was headlining WWA-NE shows). I went through the process of, getting a building to have the wrestling show, getting places that were willing to sell the tickets, advertising on a local radio station, etc.
Which I'm really sure, is stuff Mr. Scherer has never done and has no experience doing.
The point is, that Mr. Scherer in his reply, trying to reference Will Ospreay and Seth Rollins, doesn't realize or maybe doesn't WANT to realize, that they had to do the same things other wrestlers, promoters, etc do now when it comes to helping out in an indie company. It's called PAYING YOUR DUES.
You can bet if you ask Will, Seth, or even Triple H (current head of creative in WWE) they all will tell you how they, had to help set up rings, chairs, etc. early in their careers and that, THAT is considered 'working in the wrestling business'.
Of curse if you call out Scherer to ask them about that? He'll just deflect and avoid in every way because he knows the truth would go against the narrative he tried to put out in today's Q&A reply.
I mean, "God Forbid" facts actually shut down 'The Great Dave Scherer's' narrative, right? (smiles)
This isn't whether one likes Vince Russo or not, There's some things I like about Vince Russo and a bunch of things I don't like about Vince Russo. It's the point of someone who thinks 'working for one independent company' (Scherer's own words) doesn't qualify a person to be working in the wrestling business, is total bullshit. Ask any owner or promoter of one, independent wrestling company if they consider themselves working in the wrestling business, or ask one indie wrestler, manager, referee the same thing and their answer will most likely be the opposite of what Dave Scherer's narrative is. And since Scherer has never worked in the business and just does what Meltzer does, make a living from writing about the business, maybe he should do some actual research before spitting replies he has no experience about. Every week somewhere in the U.S., Canada and the UK there's an independent company doing a show, so this reply of Scherer's is an insult and a slap in the face of every wrestler, referee, valet or promoter of indie companies who ARE working in the wrestling business, contrary to the logic that Scherer seems to want to double down on.
Scherer was the first one to say on Twitter/X, and in past Q&A's that if he got something wrong, he'd be quick to do a mea culpa and claimed he'd do it while slamming Meltzer for never doing it.
Obviously Dave Scherer has proven that his own claim when it comes to that, is nothing but a lie. Which for all of his slamming on Meltzer for not the very same thing? Makes him no better than Meltzer.
So again Mr. Scherer, thank you for your reply, it shows you're more of a 'mark' who really has no clue on certain basic fundamentals of the actual business of professional wrestling.
Research, had you bothered to do some, could've been your friend, instead.. You decided to show you are nothing but a 'mark' who really has no aspect of what independent wrestling really is, and trying to actually educate you on it, would probably be pointless.
And this is supposed to be one of the 'most well known' wrestling journalists. Let that sink in.
