Joe DeFalco talks about his dealings with WWE ID.
Future Stars Of Wrestling is continuing its relationship with the WWE iD program as it will host the opening round of the WWE ID Championship Tournament. Joe DeFalco, the promoter of FSW was recently a guest on Fightful Overbooked's In The Weeds with Jeremy Lambert and Joel Pearl and during the interview, spoke about his experience working with WWE's newest program centered around the independent wrestling circuit.
DeFalco details his experience reaching out to Gabe Sapolsky about doing more with the program as he had already had several of the announced ID names competing on his roster.
"The minute I heard about it, I saw they had 18 guys and girls on the ID program, and two of them are ours. None of the other schools are ID schools," said DeFalco. "I hit up Gabe [Sapolsky] and I was a little disappointed because he had mentioned some stuff that was coming up in the future. I thought it would be nice for us to be a WWE ID school, and it would help with people who would want to train. It would help our business because in the ID program, nobody is paying me to have these matches, I have to pay. Ice Williams is an ID guy who has been my champion forever and has been with me forever. Gabe reached out, and the first match we did was one of the first ones. Other than the EVOLVE one, it was Jack Cartwheel vs. Ice Williams. We had to negotiate the rate. ‘How does this work? Am I paying for this?’ ‘They’ll cover the travel, you just have to figure out what’s a fair price.’ I knew Jack from working a Future Legends tournament we had and I’ve used Jack in the past. He had a rate and his rate was X amount of dollars. It was a school show, so I wasn’t really going to pay him that. He asked if that was the rate I would pay. I said, ‘It’s a school show, but Gabe wants this match.’ It’s their job to make it work.
"We paid Jack what we felt was a fair price for a school show. The Danny Limelights and Hammerstones work for me at a certain price," he adds. "I never want to pay somebody who I feel hasn’t done as much for FSW as a Hammerstone, Chris Bey, Danny Limelight. If they are cool with that, great. If they’re not, no harm no foul. I hit them up about being a WWE ID school and they presented the idea of, ‘It’s Rikishi’s school, Cody’s school, Seth Rollins’ school,' which is kind of a beginning school. ‘What about us?’ We lurking, but this is part of what we hope is them saying, ‘FSW, being part of the ID School is a big thing, maybe we should have them in.’ I gave Gabe the idea, ‘What do you think of Mania week? There is a lot going on. What if we did an ID-only show.’ He’s like, ‘Hey, that’s a good idea.’ Gabe always likes good ideas, just like we’re doing the training camp and seminar with Gabe at WrestleMania week because I pitched it. I’m always trying to come up with ideas that are creative and everybody needs to make a few dollars."
Joe DeFalco hopes that his relationship with WWE continues to grow to where FSW will one day be an official WWE ID school.
"Plus, it gets us noticed. That’s the number one key. We’re never going to make enough money, but getting on that radar and having FSW elevated so when you go on socials, now people know who FSW is," he said. "The name Future Stars of Wrestling, that people used to laugh at, ‘They’re not stars, they’re future stars. Why does anybody want to watch?’ Everybody has come through our program, and that name is synonymous. Now it’s, ‘Wow, that’s a good name.’ Hopefully, it helps our brand get bigger. Work with Gabe, the ID guys are great. We brought in Marcus Mathers and Sam Holloway. ’This is what I can afford to pay. ‘Okay, we’re there.’ Now, these guys work for us at other times. They’re okay with it. There is always value in working FSW for them, so I’ll get them at a better price, and it works for everybody. Hopefully, the relationship grows to where when you see FSW, it says ‘WWE ID school.'"
Fans can learn more details about the upcoming WWE ID Championship Tournament here.
Check out the full interview with DeFalco embedded above.
