It was announced by Wrestling Entertainment Series that its first inaugural show had been canceled. The new wrestling promotion credited talent not showing up as the reason behind the cancellation, though talent who were involved have since said otherwise. Now, a new report suggests more to the story than what the promotion claims.
Sean Sapp has reported behind Fightful’s paywall that the promotion’s first show was canceled due to “mismanagement and poor ticket sales.” The report added that some talent were paid only half of what they agreed to, and that they heard from frustrated talent who claim they will never do business with the promotion again.
The ambitious company has canceled their second show, blaming talent not showing up on the event being canceled. However, it was made clear by numerous sources that mismanagement and poor ticket sales were the reason.
Matt Rehwoldt was the first to speak out this go around, saying that they asked him to pass on another booking to work their show, with the understanding he’d be paid up front. It was confirmed to us by others that he was effectively ghosted and never sent an agreement after that.
The company claimed it paid talent on the show, which is half true, and only because they had to. We’re told after a talent management group had several talent messed about due to the first WES show, they required payment up front before allowing any of their talent to be booked. We’ve confirmed Moose, Big Damo, Steph De Lander and Eric Young were among those that have been paid. Several were given flight credits to stay home as well, but that’s where the positives ended.
We’re told that Nia Jax was paid about half of what she’d agreed to, and only due to being paid half up front being in her agreement. She had made it clear as far back as June 23 that she wouldn’t be making the show, due to the unprofessional nature of the promotion, and had actually offered to pay for a fan’s travel costs to help them out after the first cancelation. In addition, we’ve heard from numerous UK talent that have not been paid for the show, contrary to WES’ statement. Also, talent had not received pertinent hotel or visa information that would have even made the trip a reality. Several talent on the show found out the event was canceled when the social media announcement was made public.
In total, there were between 300 to 400 tickets sold. Mojo informed us he was imminently making a statement, and was already hoping to try to make it up to fans and talent that were impacted by holding a meet and greet. He let us know that he was excited to return to the ring at the event.
We’ve heard from several talent associated with both sets of cancelations who made it clear they’d never work for the company again. Many of the planned roster had even worked the event as a favor to the former Akam and Rezar.
WES’s first show was scheduled for Saturday at the 10,000-seat Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England. Braun Strowman, who was scheduled to compete at the show at one point, recently called out WES’ announcement regarding the cancellation on Twitter, saying it was “straight garbage.” We’ll keep you updated as more information comes in.
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