章節 9: Rob’s Chance!!!
"Rob, I have been keeping an eye on your progress. I have to say that you have learned the ropes of this business far quicker than I have estimated. Your interpersonal relationship with various wrestlers is also exemplary.
You have done what many have failed to do in this industry in just six months. In short, you have exceeded my expectations," Mr. Gibson told Rob as he sat in the conference room in LWC.
When the day had dawned, Rob had prepared himself for the meeting and came in half an hour prior to the arranged time. When the time came, he was let inside the conference room to see Mr. Gibson. Naturally, Mr. Wolfe and Robin were also present in the room.
"Thank you, Mr. Gibson," Rob nodded politely in gratitude. "It wouldn't be possible if you hadn't given me the chance. And also Mr. Wolfe's teachings helped me a lot."
While Robin scowled at him, Mr. Wolfe gave him a nod of acknowledgment. Mr. Gibson merely smiled as he waved his hands.
"Think nothing of it. I love unearthing new talents. It is my second love," Mr. Gibson said magnanimously. "Anyway, I told you that I will give your proposal a shot after 1 year. You have exceeded my expectations a lot. So, I am ending your probation as of now. Do you think you are up to the task?"
Rob knew that he needed to be very careful with his words at this moment. Any sentence he spoke may come back to bite him in the ass later. But, he was also confident in his talents. False modesty may be a good thing, but there was a place and time for it. And this was not one.
"I am confident Mr. Gibson. I have learned a lot in the past six months. I know how this business works and I am sure I will be able to handle anything you throw my way," Rob said with a confident smile.
While he knew that the outcome was decided, he also didn't want to be overly confident or appear greedy. It was clear that Mr. Gibson was ready to gamble with his ideas. If not, he wouldn't call Rob to this meeting. But, the big question was to which extent he wanted to gamble.
Mr. Gibson could give him the full reins, but that is unrealistic. Rob knew that. So, he didn't have much hope for it. Trying to appear as if he wanted to take charge of the entire thing would make him appear too greedy. So, he cleverly put the ball in Mr. Gibson's court.
Mr. Gibson smiled mysteriously and his eyes squinted a little as he replied.
"I do have the intention of giving your ideas a trial run. We can…"
"Wait a second, Andrew. You can't be serious!?" Robin interrupted Mr. Gibson's speech with disbelief etched in his voice.
Rob's leaping heart came to a stop as he narrowed his eyes. He watched Mr. Gibson and Robin clash with their eyes. It became clear to him that Robin wouldn't let this matter go unopposed. But, it didn't matter much to Rob. He had already planned for such a scenario.
"Andrew, I know you are desperate. You want to turn the situation around with untested ideas. But, this is not the right time for it. If we don't pull up our work, we will all end up in trouble. Breeze has made it clear. Unless the ratings improved, they will not renew the contract at the end of the contract period," Robin said shooting a glance at Rob.
If it was anybody else, they would have started worrying about the information Robin had let slip. The narrowing of Mr. Gibson's eyes indicated his displeasure with Robin letting such information slip. It was clear to Rob now that Robin was the source of the rumors that are floating around in the locker room.
Unfortunately, Rob already knew the precarious situation LWC was in currently. While to others it might be a worrying thing, to Rob, this was a perfect opportunity. So, he wasn't going to let this chance go.
"I have already advised you on how to improve the ratings. Your stubbornness to gamble with this kid's untested ideas may prove fatal to us. Moreover, giving the control of booking to a kid like him would be disastrous. This isn't a playhouse for him to play dolls," Robin said scathingly.
"I am well aware that this isn't a playhouse Robin," Mr. Gibson said testily. "In fact, I am well aware of the fact that this is my company. You seem to be forgetting that my friend."
Robin let out a displeased snort.
"No matter what you say, I can't in good conscience allow this kid here to be in charge of booking our shows. My love for LWC wouldn't allow me to do such a thing," Robin said righteously causing both Mr. Gibson and Mr. Wolfe to let out a snort.
But, Robin shamelessly matched their gazes. The standoff lasted for a few moments. When Rob felt that they might erupt into an argument, he interposed not to derail the meeting. This meeting was way too important for Rob to let Robin derail it.
"I actually don't need full control of the booking. I only want the control to book female wrestlers," Rob said breaking their staredown.
"What?" Mr. Gibson asked in shock.
"Hmmph, even that is too much to give away to a newbie like you," Robin said disharmoniously.
Mr. Wolfe merely looked at him curiously.
"I have thought about this a lot Mr. Gibson," Rob continued as if he didn't hear Robin's words. "What we are trying to do will change the landscape of professional wrestling entirely. For such a huge undertaking we need to proceed cautiously. We need to test the waters a little first before committing to large-scale changes."
Mr. Gibson looked as if he wanted to argue, but there was a bit of hesitation in his eyes too. Rob knew that unless Mr. Gibson was desperate, he wouldn't give control of booking to a newbie like him.
Six months ago, his thoughts were naïve. He didn't know how much power a booker had in a promotion. While reading about such things was one thing, being in the business and experiencing it was whole another matter.
With his experience in the business, he knew that his previous thoughts were like a fresher walking into a company and asking for a CEO position.
It was really unrealistic.
So, he decided to move in step by step. While his goal hasn't changed, his approach has changed. He wanted to use the women's division to test out his ideas and see if they worked. If they did, he would naturally have more power to continue towards his goal. If they didn't, then he will need to go back to the drawing board.
Taking responsibility for the entire booking might sound grand at the start, but if he failed it would be the death knell for his ambitions. So, he decided to develop slowly but steadily. This would also reduce the risk he needed to face.
"What high-sounding words? Kid, you are really dreaming if you think we will give you control over booking. You even want entire control of the female wrestlers. Aren't you treating us like kids?" Robin said angrily.
Despite Robin's remarks, Rob only had eyes for Mr. Gibson. He could see that there was a bit of hesitation in Mr. Gibson's eyes still present. He knew that while Robin might posture, the decision to delegate such power was entirely in the hands of Mr. Gibson. So, it was him that he needed to convince.
"Explain," Mr. Gibson simply said a word before leaning back and looking at him.
"I have checked the statistics of LWC for the past six months," Rob began in a confident manner. "From my analysis, the ratings and interest level towards women's wrestling is really not on par with male wrestlers.
It is directly reflected in their card positioning and the amount of time that they are allocated. Even the LWC Women's Championship is only rated at the midcard level."
Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Gibson nodded along with his analysis.
"They have a scheduled time of 10 to 15 minutes per weekly show overall. Very rarely do they extend that limit. Even then it doesn't cross 20 minutes. During special events, they are allocated somewhere between 20 to 23 minutes in general. It is not even one-fifth of the total show time."
"What I am proposing is that I will handle booking these segments for the next three months. You can see my results and decide if you want to expand or keep it at that level. I have devised a storyline that spans over three months and the pay-off will be put on the special event happening at the end of October."
"What about the special event happening in August?" Mr. Gibson interrupted his pitch with curiosity etched in his eyes.
Rob knew that the special event happening in August was kind of a milestone for LWC. Unlike AWF and other major promotions, LWC didn't have special events every month. On the other hand, the smaller promotions usually had a PPV once in three or four months.
In order for LWC to rise from a small promotion to a mid-sized promotion, one of the standards in the industry was to conduct PPVs every two months or so. LWC has accomplished it twice in the past six months. So, if they put out a show in August, they will have obtained the minimum threshold to be considered as a mid-sized promotion.
It is not easy to achieve such a thing. For one, the PPVs should not be repetitive. To accomplish that, a promotion must have enough roster depth. Even then the PPV should be capable of selling tickets.
If not, any small promotion can rank up easily. So, according to industry standards, three PPVs with enough sales in six to seven months is the standard of mid-sized promotion.
That's why the upcoming PPV in August was of great importance to LWC.
"There will be a turning point in the storyline at that time. I will use the upcoming two weeks to build up to that. It will be great if I am given the opening slot or the penultimate slot for the show."
"You sure do dream, don't you? You want to give the penultimate slot to the female category. Just now you have said it yourself that the interest in women's wrestling is not that big. Now, you want them in a semi-main event slot. Aren't you contradicting yourself?" Robin asked sharply.
"Nothing could be done about that. If you need results, you need to invest in your work. I plan to make the turning point very impactful. So, the greater the slot that is given, the greater the impact will be."
"What about the opening slot?" Mr. Wolfe spoke for the first time since the meeting began. "Isn't it enough?"
"If we are to go with the opening slot, then I need a minimum of 25 minutes to create a proper impact. Even then, it won't be as impactful as the main event or semi-main event slot," Rob said looking at him. "Having 20 minutes towards the end is more useful than having 25 minutes at the start."
"But, don't worry. I am confident that I can generate enough interest in the match to justify the spot. I will build the match for the remaining two weeks and make sure there is enough interest in it by then. It would have been ideal if I had three weeks, but I can manage in two."
While Mr. Gibson and Mr. Wolfe were deep in thought, Robin looked as if he couldn't care anymore about it. It was clear to Rob that Robin didn't want this opportunity to fall on Rob.
A minute passed as the deliberation continued. Robin, who couldn't take it anymore, pressed once more in a dissatisfied tone.
"All this is if we are willing to give you the chance. I personally feel that this gamble is very risky and not worth putting the future of LWC on the line for it. We all know what needs to be done, Andrew. So, stop your stubbornness and do the right thing," Robin said looking at Mr. Gibson.
Mr. Gibson looked straight at Robin as if he was contemplating something. The more he remained silent, the more Rob began to feel nervous. While Rob had been confident about his chance as he knew the situation of LWC, he hadn't planned for Robin to be this disagreeable.
For a few moments, he wondered if he had once again approached this meeting with the wrong attitude.
If he had pushed for the entire booking, maybe they could have settled for something small. Then, he could have proposed his idea and made it look like he was working with what he was given. But, now that he had only asked for booking women's division, will it be further pressed down?
Regardless, he had already made it clear what he wanted. Now, the decision was not in his hands. He could only patiently wait for Mr. Gibson's judgment. Despite having confidence that Mr. Gibson needed his help, Rob couldn't help but worry at the moment when Mr. Gibson opened his mouth.
"Do the right thing, huh?" Mr. Gibson mumbled softly looking at the sky as if he was in deep thought. "You know Robin when I opened this promotion, the aim was to give a stage for young talents to showcase themselves to the world.
But, since then, we have grown to heights that I didn't even imagine at that time. Now, LWC even has a TV deal and there are countless wrestlers who are dependent on us."
Rob felt his heart sink as he heard the last sentence. He wondered whether he had lost yet another opportunity again.
"Your idea of inviting veterans to boost the rankings is very traditional and in line with a company like LWC that wants to develop stably. Hell, they will be able to increase the ticket and merchandise sales within a few weeks causing us to rebound. Which company owner wouldn't like to have them?"
Mr. Gibson let out a self-deprecating snort causing Robin to smile triumphantly.
"However," Robin's smile froze, "if I do that, I will betray the reason for which I established LWC. I established LWC to give opportunities to young people like Rob here. If I begin to take the safe route once I tasted a small success, then LWC will truly have lost its soul."
Mr. Wolfe was smiling brilliantly by this time in contrast to Robin's sullen expression.
"Maybe we are losing our soul already. Maybe it is why our shows have been lackluster of late. So, if I take this step, we will be truly lost. Hence, I have decided to give Rob his chance.
I have taken gambles with a lot of young wrestlers in the past and they have paid back well. So, this time I will take a gamble on a young booker and see if he can create a miracle, eh."
Mr. Gibson looked at Rob with a benign smile on his face. Rob felt as if a huge mountain had been pushed off his shoulders. He knew that this was his chance. He needed to grab it with both hands and not let go.
"What if this fails, Andrew? You need to think about it. You can't pin all your hopes on him. There is always a chance of failure," Robin was still not reconciled.
Rob felt like punching the bastard in his face. Does he have to be so antagonistic towards me? Wait for it bastard, one day I will drive you away from this company when I get more powerful.
"I know," Mr. Gibson replied calmly causing Rob to be stunned for a moment. "That's why we will be undertaking both of your suggestions. Since Rob wants control over the women's division, I will give him that.
Meanwhile, as per your suggestion, we will bring in veterans to boost our ratings and merchandise sale. That way we will have a backup plan as well."
Robin smiled at that before shooting a sneer at Rob. Rob merely narrowed his eyes in reply before turning towards Mr. Gibson.
"You both have your roles now. Robin will be in charge of bringing in veterans. I and Desmond will help him with our contacts. Meanwhile, you Rob, will be solely responsible for the women's division.
If you need anything extra, I want you to come and see me. If it isn't anything too outrageous, I will try to do my best to accommodate them. You have the rest of the year to show me your results. We will discuss expanding your scope of power after we sign a new deal with Breeze TV next year."
Rob nodded gratefully at Mr. Gibson.
"If that is all, we can bring this meeting to an end. We all have work to do and we need to do it well. I am looking forward to a miracle happening in the next six months. Let's go."
-- 收到的禮物 
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票