Prazak joins MLW; spearheads women's division

[cero2k]

source: https://mlw.com/2021/07/07/dave-prazak- ... -division/

Major League Wrestling today announced that Dave Prazak has joined the league’s office of wrestling operations.

Prazak, recognized as one of the foremost promoters of women’s wrestling, will focus on spearheading the launch of MLW’s women’s division, set to premiere this summer.

“During my twenty-five years working in the sport thus far, I’ve had the opportunity to serve in a number of different capacities, for many companies which have focused on different types of professional wrestling,” states Prazak. “It is that variety of styles, and the right mix of different elements which makes me most excited to join the team at Major League Wrestling. I’ve loved the way that MLW has provided its audience with a roster of amazing talent from around world, and I look forward to offering my own contributions to the company going forward. Having focused greatly on the promotion of women’s wrestling over the years, I value the chance to assist some very deserving SHIMMER athletes in receiving opportunities to grow by entering the MLW ranks. The addition of more women to MLW events in the future will only add to the wonderful variety already featured as part of the MLW product.”

Prazak, one of the most successful women’s wrestling promoters in American history, founded SHIMMER in November 2005.

Mainly based in the Chicago area, SHIMMER has presented live cards throughout the United States and has been the forerunner in giving women athletes a stage to compete before the world.

[Big Red Machine]

So can we infer from this that SHIMMER is dead?

[cero2k]

So can we infer from this that SHIMMER is dead?

not necessarily, he should be able to run the 4 shows a year schedule.

[Big Red Machine]

So can we infer from this that SHIMMER is dead?

not necessarily, he should be able to run the 4 shows a year schedule.

I guess so. I'm not sure who the money was behind SHIMMER (no offense to them, but I don't think Prazak and Danger had enough to be funding all of it themselves, and if it was Sal then there wouldn't have been a reason for Sal and Prazak to create SHINE), but I guess that MLW's parent could help out if that was part of the deal.

[cero2k]

I guess so. I'm not sure who the money was behind SHIMMER (no offense to them, but I don't think Prazak and Danger had enough to be funding all of it themselves, and if it was Sal then there wouldn't have been a reason for Sal and Prazak to create SHINE), but I guess that MLW's parent could help out if that was part of the deal.

me neither really, really early on, I always thought that it was under some ROH umbrella since they and FIP acknowledged the titles, and then it became sustainable since they never really made any effort to improve production or grow the venue. Then WWNLive had SHINE and I figured maybe Gabe had been back there in a way.

At the end, i wouldn't be surprised if SHIMMER ended up going. CHIKARA died (for reasons), but also CZW never (or hasn't) came back from the pandemic, we may be seeing a slight replacement of the older indies. SHIMMER did have a show last fall though

[Big Red Machine]

I guess so. I'm not sure who the money was behind SHIMMER (no offense to them, but I don't think Prazak and Danger had enough to be funding all of it themselves, and if it was Sal then there wouldn't have been a reason for Sal and Prazak to create SHINE), but I guess that MLW's parent could help out if that was part of the deal.

me neither really, really early on, I always thought that it was under some ROH umbrella since they and FIP acknowledged the titles, and then it became sustainable since they never really made any effort to improve production or grow the venue. Then WWNLive had SHINE and I figured maybe Gabe had been back there in a way.

At the end, i wouldn't be surprised if SHIMMER ended up going. CHIKARA died (for reasons), but also CZW never (or hasn't) came back from the pandemic, we may be seeing a slight replacement of the older indies. SHIMMER did have a show last fall though

WWN was originally just a label they (meaning Sal, Gabe, Danger and Prazak) slapped onto FIP and (at least some) SHIMMER DVDs to help them sell better by kinda-sorta connecting them to ROH, although even that was weird, as a lot of people's ROH and FIP characters didn't match up at all.

SHIMMER's first show was Nov. 2005. I'm pretty sure Prazak is already in ROH by then, but my guess is that is it had more to do with Sal, because Sal was the guy producing DVDs for ROH (in addition to FIP) and he did SHIMMER, too. I could be wrong, but I think they drop that label around the time of FIP Redefined, which was the show where they started to move it's continuity to be a lot more in line with ROH's, but that might have had more to do with them changing the DVDs to look more like ROH's had for the previous year or so with action shots instead of the lame photo-shopped looking collage of guys in the big matches.

To my recollection, the original "WWN" idea never really gets mentioned on the air. It only starts getting talked about when Sal and Gabe launch it as a streaming service (and I'd need to check the timing on this, but I'm sure it was a preemptive thing when Gabe and Sal saw DG losing interest in the DGUSA idea, so he was trying to use the brand to transfer more credibility to FIP, SHINE, and EVOLVE). I don't think SHIMMER becomes a part of it until later (they're still with ROH until at least mid-2011... which I think is when Prazak leaves, and also when Daizee Haze retires) when the streaming service idea really becomes the thing they're pushing and all of the jokes about them being behind on DVDs start to be a thing.

Anyway, that was a long way of saying that Sal was the money guy, and the guy who was making the DVDs and who (along with Gabe) made the hard early push for streaming.

As for the older indies dying out... I think CZW wants to switch to more of a PWG-ish model, but then Janela kind of corned the market as "deathmatch/variety show PWG" where it's just matches that look cool and one or two storylines, with big buzz but on a monthly (at best) basis. I think DJ thinks he should wait until everyone else's "return" buzz is gone before he tries his own thing, because he knows he'll get drowned out.

CHIKARA's death is mostly unrelated. Yes, they were having money issues, but that had been for years. They had longevity, but I think in their case, the death was the result of Creative failings because Quack got burned out. Obviously there were other problems and Quack's other behaviors were an issue, but as far as the CHIKARA fanbase went, that was really only a problem in so much as it caused the Creative to suffer because the Kevin Condrons and Jakob Hammermeiers and Gran Akumas and R.D. Evans' and 3.0's of the world got run off, so Quack couldn't finish up his stories.

[Thelone]

When I was writing my review of the last OVW show, I was actually wondering if MLW didn't just scrap their women's division('s plans), so there's my answer I suppose. Don't really know who they're gonna sign at this point, but eh.

As for Shimmer (and WSU to a lesser extent), I feel like the evolution of women's wrestling during the last 4-5 years and the growth of streaming services kinda just killed what made them special a decade ago. Nowadays, you can easily see joshi/international stars on countless platforms instead of waiting months/years for a Shimmer DVD (remember those?) to come out, every big indy has a women's division (and/or does intergender matches), and most of the top talent will at least get a shot at THE BIG LEAGUES and not find doors closed for years because "they're not cosmetically pleasing enough" or whatever.

[Big Red Machine]

When I was writing my review of the last OVW show, I was actually wondering if MLW didn't just scrap their women's division('s plans), so there's my answer I suppose. Don't really know who they're gonna sign at this point, but eh.

I'm in a similar place with ROH. The best thing for both places would be to just not have one (or to do what ROH did with SHIMMER or EVOLVE with SHINE and say "this whole other promotion is our women's division, and we're their men's division"), but the current culture makes that not an option, so they get stuck having to feature 4th-rate talent,

As for Shimmer (and WSU to a lesser extent), I feel like the evolution of women's wrestling during the last 4-5 years and the growth of streaming services kinda just killed what made them special a decade ago. Nowadays, you can easily see joshi/international stars on countless platforms instead of waiting months/years for a Shimmer DVD (remember those?) to come out, every big indy has a women's division (and/or does intergender matches), and most of the top talent will at least get a shot at THE BIG LEAGUES and not find doors closed for years because "they're not cosmetically pleasing enough" or whatever.

Yeah. This is the answer. That and Joshi promotions being more open to gaijins, and STARDOM will always feel more prestigious than, say working for RevPro and whatever other bookings you can get.