Latest / The Scene Projects / Nick Stokke on Below Zero Wrestling, Sturgis Events, and Growing a Wrestling Brand

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Nick Stokke on Below Zero Wrestling, Sturgis Events, and Growing a Wrestling Brand · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome into the Scene Project Sports Network.
• 0:04
  I'm your host, Bubba Stearns, and with me today is founder of Below Zero Wrestling, Nick
• 0:09
  Stokey.
• 0:10
  Welcome to the show, brother.
• 0:11
  Thank you.
• 0:12
  Thank you.
• 0:13
  Man, we're gonna be getting together soon.
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  Sturgis is right around the corner.
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  Wrestling is back, baby.
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  This is great.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm I'm so excited.
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  I mean, first time that I've been in Sturgis ever.
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  Now we get to bring wrestling back.
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  BZW, we're gonna be main main street, street, whatever whatever you you wanna wanna call it.
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  I I I can't wait.
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  Yeah.
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  Iron House Saloon's a great venue.
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  I'm assuming you guys will be outside in that beautiful patio area.
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  It's all surrounded.
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  Man, it's gonna be it's gonna be a killer setup.
• 0:41
  Yeah.
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  It, it's kind of something that's always was, you know, on my checklist of things to do when
• 0:47
  we started wrestling.
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  Like, I wanted to go to Sturgis.
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  I I was a WCW guy.
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  So, being able to get in touch with these guys and get them to, bring us in, it's it's it's
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  awesome.
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  And the venue looks amazing.
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  I've been there, driving through to Deadwood a few times, but, I can't imagine it when it's
• 1:04
  gonna look with, thousands of people around the wrestling ring.
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  It's gonna be absolutely incredible, and and it's easy for us to get carried away and just
• 1:13
  kinda get invested into the dream.
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  But how about we share a little bit about you and kind of the founding of Below Zero?
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  Let people get to know you and the promotion a little bit, and and why it's so important for
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  it to be back in Sturgis after a long hiatus of having any wrestling on Main Street.
• 1:30
  Yeah.
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  So, you know, BZW, we started along four and a half years ago, roughly.
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  My business partner is Zach, who's from South Dakota.
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  He's from Sioux Falls.
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  He actually, on this day, five years ago, put a Facebook post out just like, hey.
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  What if how what if someone responds?
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  And they just said, I wanna start a wrestling company in North Dakota.
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  Reached out to him, and it was like, let's do this.
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  And so we talked for a long time.
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  It took almost a year until we had our first event, and now we've grown into something that
• 2:05
  I can be so proud of that we both can be proud of.
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  We've hit multiple states.
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  We've exceeded expectations for locally and just having, you know, certain people at our
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  events, attendance, everything.
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  And then just to come back to such a historic place that WCW ran, what, five years, I believe
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  they did, five pay per views, four for sure.
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  Just a long reach of history there with Road Wild and the original Hog Wild.
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  But for us to come back with Road Rage is a throwback to WCW and what they did.
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  It just means a lot, as a wrestling fan and a wrestling promoter.
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  It's it's one heck of a time.
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  I know you said you haven't been, to Sturgis during the rally.
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  This year is gonna be, the biggest ever.
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  The weather looks like it's gonna be perfect all week long, not too hot.
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  You know, percentages of rain, that's pretty typical for the rally in the Black Hills this
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  time of year or anywhere in South Dakota if you've been following the weather channel this
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  week.
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  Yeah.
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  It it's absolutely such a perfect match.
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  Right?
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  Like, the biker culture, and it's it's weird that, you know, I I guess as the as the
• 3:20
  promotions at the top have gotten consolidated, right, we don't have any option.
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  It is the WWE, and that's pretty much it up at the top of the heap.
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  But what's been interesting to me, introduced to you through Matt Classic Creed, obviously,
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  the networking through these independent promotions has been really cool for me to
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  witness as not a wrestling promoter.
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  I'm a music promoter, and, obviously, we have our podcast network.
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  But watching how a lot of the things that we're trying to bring into the music world are
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  already alive and well in the wrestling promotion world.
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  And to kinda see it from the outside and now getting to come kind of into the group a little
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  bit is really fun to see.
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  There's so much happening and so many people out there chasing the dream of of, you know,
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  professional professional wrestling.
• 4:11
  Yeah.
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  It it's been such a ride, you know, from day one to now.
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  You know, the people that you meet, the people that you network with, and just get to know in
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  this industry.
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  And, like, you mentioned music.
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  Like, there's a lot of similarities in that, you know, we're all kinda going from town to
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  town, spot to spot, just just trying to make it.
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  And, you know, sometimes you're at venue a, and that can have so many hundreds and thousands of
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  people.
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  And then you go to Venue B, and you're in front of a smaller crowd, but you still do it
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  because, you know, the love and everything.
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  And so, you know, being able to come down here with the group of guys that we have and girls
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  that we have with BZW and be able to bring it to Sturgis and then make it kind of our biggest
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  event ever just in terms of what it could do for us as a company, what it can do for the
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  wrestlers as individuals, It's just it's really, really exciting and just the growth
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  that can come from this.
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  Well, just the amount of eyeballs physically that are going to be there, but then coverage.
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  You know?
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  People like me are going to be able to go there because it's not it's not really within your
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  budget as a small promotion to be able to hire a broadcast company to come and shoot it or
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  even to shoot it yourself and to hire someone to edit this footage or to broadcast it live.
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  Like, you're already doing so many things.
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  I think that's why I love the promotion side so much as the similarities that you talked about.
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  I'm living the same life in a different arena, and we're kinda dancing around each other
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  because we haven't, you know, we can't play the same venue at the same time.
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  So a lot of us musicians are kind of following around, and and we're running in the same
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  circles, working at a lot of the same places, and that's kinda where Sturgis is so great is
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  because it brings together the biker culture, the music, the wrestling, the racing, the bike
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  shows.
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  So you have art tattoos, and that's what really sets Sturgis apart from every every other event
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  of any kind, really.
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  And it's not just the music festival.
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  It's not just the bike show.
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  It is all of those things.
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  And the people are so damn good to each other that whole week that I'm just thrilled to to
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  see to see a small promotion local as local as it gets.
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  If you're from the Dakotas, Upper Midwest, I think
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  Yeah.
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  We definitely embrace you because there's just not enough creative people in the state of
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  South Dakota alone to do all the things necessary to entertain a a million people this
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  year.
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  Right?
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  I mean, the population of South Dakota is going to double for one week.
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  I mean, starting now, they're already rolling in.
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  My friends are already camped out at the Buffalo Chip.
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  Yep.
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  I one of my buddies, he does he might even be head security now at the Buffalo chip, a guy
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  that I grew up with, and I know he does security out there.
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  He's there.
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  He's already there.
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  It it's it's go time.
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  You know, I'm part of a lot of groups now in the Sturgis groups and everything just getting
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  a feel for what we're gonna do, letting people know that we're coming, you know, and just so
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  it it's such a like, it's it's gonna be crazy.
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  I can't wait.
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  That day alone, we at the Iron Horse, they start out with a bike show, then it's us, then
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  it's a concert, then there's, like, a DJ.
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  Like, it's just it's never ending.
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  It doesn't stop.
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  And I can only imagine that by the time it's ready to go home, you know, aft aft not I'm not
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  going home after the show, but the following day after we have the time to go home, I'm
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  gonna be wiped out.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm spending ten days there, brother, and the party doesn't stop.
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  Yeah.
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  I've been resting up preshow, and I'll probably collapse when I get home for three or four
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  days, and then I'm back on
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  the road.
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  And but this is something that, especially in South Dakota and for our podcast network and
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  what we're trying to do in the world, this year has been circled for, you know, two or three
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  years.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  I'm a very I grew up in Deadwood.
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  So I'm very familiar with the rally and how how it can change the economy, what it means to me.
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  I'm a songwriter and a musician.
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  So for years, that was my go time.
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  I was booking 11 shows in, you know, seven days and and just playing it and beating myself up
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  in that way.
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  Now that I'm kinda running around with a camera and behind the camera, I think it's gonna be
• 8:19
  maybe a little easier even though the schedule is even more packed.
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  Well, I think it keeps the excitement level high, getting to kinda go and feed off of
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  everybody else's excitement and not just relying on myself.
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  Right?
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  Like, I'm having to bring that show.
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  The coverage side is much different where I'm able to just kinda tap in, and and I'm able to
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  jump into your event where everybody there is vibing.
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  Right?
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  I'm not having to bring all that energy.
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  I'm just able to go and kinda tap into it real quick, siphon off a little bit, and keep
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  moving.
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  You know, you get four or five hours of sleep.
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  I think you're pretty happy at this point and
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  Yeah.
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  And keep on rolling.
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  So are you guys doing any kind of promotion for the show ahead of time?
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  Are you showing up few days early?
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  Are some of the wrestlers gonna be out and about the during the week kind of talking about
• 9:05
  the show and meeting people?
• 9:07
  Yeah.
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  So we've got a little bit of promotion just like online stuff going right now.
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  Myself and a handful of guys won't be there until probably Thursday just with logistics and
• 9:17
  having to get the ring and housing and all lodging, all that kind of stuff.
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  But we'll be out and about, especially at the Iron Horse that Thursday, letting everyone know
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  we're gonna be doing some stuff that morning, just walking around.
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  I got my belt that, like, our fan championship belt.
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  I'll carry that with me.
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  That way people can see what's going on.
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  One of the other guys down there, will have his belt with them and everything.
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  So, I mean, yeah, we're gonna be doing some very, you know, last couple days promotion down
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  there and just doing what we can.
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  But the iron horse has been great in doing the promotion for them.
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  They've got it all up on their social media and at their location and everything.
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  So, and then once you start setting up a wrestling ring, people start looking at it
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  going like, what the hell is that?
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  And, you know, it's it's gonna track some people in.
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  So we're we're ready.
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  We're ready.
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  The more promotion, the better, obviously, but we're we're thinking a really good crowd, and
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  it's gonna be fun.
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  Well and that's why we're here.
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  That that's why I started all these networks was to promote events just like this.
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  And that's why I had to start so many different ones.
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  I was like, well, the same projects does music real good, and we talk to music people.
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  But what about all these sports that I love?
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  I'm a huge sports fan.
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  I mean, I grew up watching the same stuff you guys did.
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  It's just my path didn't take me into that side maybe until now.
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  I can't wait to be there in person.
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  We're gonna grab some interviews with some of your wrestlers.
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  We're gonna be capturing a ton of content.
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  We're gonna be going live on our, you know, social medias while we're there and kinda
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  showing the party to everyone, making sure that we're carrying the name along with us because
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  we want you to succeed out here so we can keep working together, And we can make this a staple
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  in the calendar.
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  I'm I'm hoping that we're back for the eighty sixth, the eighty seventh, the eighty eighth.
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  I I wanna be back for many rallies after this, you know, and so we always appreciate, you
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  know, someone like yourself just helping promote us in any way that we can and being
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  part of the event because it's more than just the wrestlers.
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  It's more than just the crew, but it's the fans.
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  It's the other people that have helped make it a success.
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  And, you know, even just your reach out someone.
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  If that means one other person or two other people come out to the event and enjoy it, then
• 11:28
  they might go, wow.
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  BZW.
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  Like, I need to check this company out.
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  And then they're then they're watching us on TV.
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  They're checking out our social medias.
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  You know?
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  And just so anytime you can get a a new face or someone else to watch watch the product, it's
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  really awesome.
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  And, you know, we have so many local talent too, like, from South Dakota, North Dakota,
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  Nebraska.
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  You know, we have so much Midwest talent that we just wanna make sure that everyone sees what
• 11:54
  we can do, what our area can produce.
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  We're we're kind of a I would say we're a hotbed for wrestling, but it's an unknown
• 12:02
  hotbed.
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  So many people think of the coast as, you know, where you're gonna get all your talent.
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  But we got some of the best talent in The United States.
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  No no question about it.
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  Hands down.
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  And they're they're gonna be on on display in in Sturgis.
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  Nick, where can everybody find you?
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  Where can they find more information about the show?
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  And then, yeah, plug the venue and everything one more time and the date for Surgis.
• 12:24
  Yeah.
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  So check out our social medias, below zero wrestling.
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  We're on all the main social medias.
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  Facebook's probably our most active.
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  Our website, below0wrestling.com.
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  And then, yeah, the Iron Horse Saloon, Friday, August 8.
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  We go on right about 06:00 once once we get everything set up or whatever, but we are going
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  to party.
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  We are gonna make this an event.
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  Like, people are gonna talk about wrestling at, the Iron Horse during the eighty fifth or just
• 12:51
  rally a 100%.
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  This is, this is gonna be big.
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  We're gonna make sure that people want wrestling back there for many years to come.
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  My name is Bubba Starz.
• 13:01
  This is the scene project sports network.
• 13:03
  This was Nick Stokey, below zero wrestling.
• 13:06
  We're gonna see you in Sturgis, brother.
• 13:08
  I can't wait.
• 13:09
  Can't wait.
• 13:10
  We'll see you there.