Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Matt Classic Creed: Wrestling Legacy, AIWF Growth, and Support for Veterans

Transcript

Matt Classic Creed: Wrestling Legacy, AIWF Growth, and Support for Veterans · Scene Projects Sports Network

• 0:02
  From the heart of Independent Wrestling, he's the executive director and co owner of the
• 0:07
  Allied International Wrestling Federation, a true digital creator, and our special guest and
• 0:12
  friend of the show.
• 0:14
  This is Matt Classic Creed.
• 0:23
  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
• 0:28
  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
• 0:33
  from across the Midwest.
• 0:36
  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
• 0:50
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:52
  I'm your host, Bubba Sartz.
• 0:54
  And with me today is friend of the show, Matt Classic.
• 0:56
  Welcome to the show, brother.
• 0:58
  Thank you.
• 0:58
  Good to good to be back.
• 1:00
  Good good to talk to you again, Bob.
• 1:02
  Always a good time with you.
• 1:03
  Yeah.
• 1:04
  First time on video.
• 1:05
  I forgot the first one we did was audio only.
• 1:07
  Yeah.
• 1:08
  It's all good.
• 1:09
  A lot changes in six to eight months, doesn't it?
• 1:12
  Oh, yeah.
• 1:13
  And whole world's constantly evolving.
• 1:17
  No doubt.
• 1:17
  And none more so than ours.
• 1:20
  We've been working together.
• 1:21
  You obviously have the Allied International Wrestling Federation, a group of over a 150
• 1:27
  promotions worldwide.
• 1:29
  That's an evolving animal, minute by minute, I would say.
• 1:34
  Minute by minute, second by second.
• 1:36
  It's the fastest growing brand in professional wrestling today, and and we're growing.
• 1:40
  We have, like, right at 23,000 followers on Facebook.
• 1:43
  Our Instagram's growing.
• 1:45
  Our TV show's growing.
• 1:47
  We got our mutual friend.
• 1:48
  Our TV we just put six episodes on on IGMP TV.
• 1:52
  So, I mean, we're doing great.
• 1:55
  Yeah.
• 1:55
  It's it's incredible the amount of growth that we've been able to experience in a short amount
• 1:59
  of time and to take this show.
• 2:02
  We're gonna do a crossover show.
• 2:03
  This will be on SPSN, the same project sports network as well.
• 2:07
  I'm a throw the logo up there for everybody to get used to.
• 2:12
  We're the same way.
• 2:13
  Right?
• 2:13
  We're we're so much of the same people that it's not just about growing our brand.
• 2:17
  It's about helping everyone that we come into contact with, not just in the the theaters that
• 2:24
  we are in right inside of, you know, you for wrestling me and music, but also our
• 2:29
  communities.
• 2:30
  I know that you're out in the community now, and you're always doing stuff to help out in
• 2:34
  there.
• 2:35
  Can you talk a little bit about how your wrestling promotion impacts the community
• 2:39
  around you?
• 2:41
  Oh, yeah.
• 2:41
  100%.
• 2:42
  I mean, we we raise funds for everything from veterans to schools to about anything you could
• 2:47
  think of.
• 2:48
  And we're always giving away free tickets to sites like vetticks.com and other local civic
• 2:54
  organizations, like, for special needs and and, like, lodges and stuff like that.
• 2:59
  So, I mean, we're doing a lot of good stuff.
• 3:01
  It's very easy, especially in the professional wrestling world, to get caught up in the show.
• 3:07
  Right?
• 3:07
  Which is great.
• 3:08
  And when we love that fans, you know, come out to support those shows, especially all of these
• 3:14
  independent promotions, ones like below zero wrestling in North Dakota, who I got to meet
• 3:19
  Nick Stokey and them out at Sturgis when they performed at the Iron Horse Saloon.
• 3:25
  But it's really about our communities and doing good in the world.
• 3:30
  And that's the one thing that have noticed about not just your promotion and not just, you
• 3:35
  know, AIWF as a whole, but all of these individual promotions are always doing
• 3:40
  something to give back to the less fortunate in their own respective locales.
• 3:47
  Yeah.
• 3:47
  100100%.
• 3:48
  And, I mean, without your community support in any business, you're not gonna survive.
• 3:52
  But it's also about giving back to your local communities about community interaction.
• 3:56
  It's about you know, dude, when people come out to wrestling, they're they're there for a good
• 4:00
  time and to forget about the worries of the world.
• 4:04
  And who wouldn't need that more than our veteran community?
• 4:07
  Obviously, you know, veterans are a big part of what we do these days with operation combating
• 4:12
  veteran suicide and so many other organizations that we've come into contact with.
• 4:18
  What is the what is the main driver for you as a promoter?
• 4:27
  What is your motivation for going out and doing this?
• 4:30
  We know it's not the money, Matt.
• 4:32
  Well well, no.
• 4:33
  I mean I mean, it's not the money these days.
• 4:35
  It's, you know, you just wanna get get back and provide for future generations and give the
• 4:41
  knowledge of the your forefathers to the next generation.
• 4:44
  That that's really what motivates me personally.
• 4:48
  And speaking of forefathers, and I don't know that we covered it in in our previous episode,
• 4:54
  I know that you're very focused on the next generation and leaving that, but is wrestling
• 4:59
  something that ran in your family?
• 5:00
  Was this something that you this love you've shared with your father or grandfather or
• 5:05
  anyone in
• 5:05
  your Totally.
• 5:07
  My my father, he took me to events since I was, like, four, five years old.
• 5:11
  He actually used to watch, wrestling shows live back in the Park Center, which the Park Center
• 5:15
  doesn't even exist in Charlotte anymore.
• 5:17
  That's Grady Cole Center now, if people are more familiar with that.
• 5:20
  But, they used to run weekly events at that venue for television back in the day.
• 5:25
  This is back in probably, like, the sixties and fifties.
• 5:29
  My granny, my mom's mom was raised in the hills of Kentucky, and that's how she grew up low I
• 5:35
  mean, that was their big thing in some of these small towns.
• 5:38
  You weren't necessarily getting, you know, rock and roll shows that were coming through.
• 5:43
  You had the local guys that were gonna come and beat the hell out of each other at the Civic
• 5:47
  Center.
• 5:47
  No.
• 5:48
  No.
• 5:48
  No.
• 5:48
  That's true.
• 5:49
  And like I said, I grew up, like, right outside of Charlotte.
• 5:52
  We didn't have a professional basketball team till the eighties, and the Panthers for
• 5:55
  football didn't come till the nineties.
• 5:57
  So, I mean, for years and years, they didn't have any professional sports like that.
• 6:02
  This was the king of the ring and the king of professional sports.
• 6:08
  Yeah.
• 6:08
  It it truly was for him.
• 6:10
  Like I said, the Crockets who were big in the Carolinas, they also won minor league baseball.
• 6:14
  So, basically, all you have was minor league baseball and professional wrestling for many,
• 6:19
  many years down south.
• 6:21
  And it's good to see that it's still beating there.
• 6:25
  The wrestling continues to grow.
• 6:28
  You continue to do more and more things and to branch out as your brand.
• 6:32
  You mentioned IGMP TV network of which the scene projects are on as well.
• 6:38
  How thrilled are you to be able to provide that premium content onto Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon
• 6:45
  Fire TV now?
• 6:47
  Oh, yeah.
• 6:47
  Mister Grass, he he's a good guy.
• 6:49
  He knows what he's talking about over there, and they're they're truly growing, and they're
• 6:53
  looking for variety.
• 6:54
  And I'm thrilled to help them out to add pro wrestling to that variety, and I'm thrilled to
• 6:59
  to grow that brand and to to assist in the fa further evolution of that brand.
• 7:05
  Well, it's something that we're working on both independently and together to continue to grow
• 7:09
  all of these brands and to bring awareness to these.
• 7:13
  And I think it's I think it's great that we get to work together on this because, one, I
• 7:18
  believe that these athletes deserve it.
• 7:21
  And I know can people can get caught up in the scripted nature of this.
• 7:25
  If you're going to watch any of these live and tell me that these men and women are not the
• 7:30
  upper echelon of athlete, they may not be in the NFL, but what they are doing laying their
• 7:35
  bodies out on the line out there is nothing sort of miraculous that all of them don't have
• 7:40
  broken necks.
• 7:41
  Oh, yeah.
• 7:42
  I mean, it's it's definitely they're some of the most broken out there today.
• 7:48
  Yeah.
• 7:48
  I I had a blast, man.
• 7:50
  Getting to watch b z w below zero wrestling out there in Sturgis when we were there covering
• 7:55
  the Sturgis motorcycle rally was absolutely thrilling.
• 7:59
  The show was fantastic to see it in that setting.
• 8:03
  One of their biggest crowds ever for one of their events.
• 8:06
  We we made a 3,500 plus.
• 8:08
  This is what the official number I got from Nick himself.
• 8:11
  I And, mean, it was a big group
• 8:12
  of them.
• 8:13
  Great guys.
• 8:14
  They got a great television show in the air.
• 8:15
  It's all throughout North Dakota.
• 8:17
  I mean, they've been working with us for about three or four years now.
• 8:20
  And, I mean, it's been it's been nothing but positive and greater actions.
• 8:25
  Well, those are people that we're definitely trying to do more with.
• 8:28
  At least they're out here in the Dakotas.
• 8:29
  There's not many of us between the two states even.
• 8:32
  Probably less than a million and a half people or a little bit more.
• 8:37
  But, we need to stick together, and I'm so happy to to be a part of your crew and to have
• 8:42
  you be a part of the Scene Projects, the Scene Projects Sports Network, and to continue to
• 8:46
  support you guys in everything you do.
• 8:48
  I'm not getting in a ring anytime soon, Matt.
• 8:51
  So to do what I can
• 8:53
  You know, we we we can we can
• 8:54
  make it happen.
• 8:55
  We can we can get you in there.
• 8:56
  I mean, if you wanna be the referee, the throne keeper, the the special guest announcer, just
• 9:01
  so you don't get beat up.
• 9:02
  But I I don't know being a ref.
• 9:04
  Some of the refs get beat up some days, but, you know, that that happens.
• 9:08
  I would I would jump at the opportunity to be involved in any way that I can.
• 9:13
  We actually just started a new show.
• 9:15
  Our cohost, Boo Boo, just started a show called Beyond the Bell.
• 9:19
  So taking it outside of the ring, and we wanna interview more of your guys.
• 9:22
  So we're gonna look for some more crossover between Hey.
• 9:25
  Don't do.
• 9:26
  And the Scene Project Sports Network with that.
• 9:29
  We're gonna be talking a lot more off camera, but I needed to take the chance to have you in
• 9:34
  here, to have you on the show, to speak about our new partnership with IGMP TV, and to think
• 9:40
  about to talk about more of, the the collaborations that you're going to see between
• 9:46
  our two brands.
• 9:47
  And, hopefully, we can get me in some stripes maybe first.
• 9:50
  Let's start there, and, we'll have some fun.
• 9:54
  Yeah.
• 9:55
  For sure.
• 9:55
  I mean, we're gonna do a lot.
• 9:56
  Like I said, I know North Dakota's hopping.
• 9:58
  They're coming in South Dakota some by you.
• 10:01
  You know, everything's going good in wrestling.
• 10:03
  I mean and and wrestling's hot again.
• 10:05
  I mean, it's getting TV ratings.
• 10:07
  I mean, like I said, you saw 3,500 people there.
• 10:09
  That that's an amazing crowd.
• 10:12
  And it was an electric show.
• 10:14
  Nick and his crew put on a great I know they had to set it up and tear it down in record
• 10:19
  time as well.
• 10:20
  So I'm glad we shattered all the records that day, and, we got a great turnout.
• 10:25
  It was thrilling, and it was, as real as it can get.
• 10:29
  I got a ton of great shots, and I just had a blast, man.
• 10:32
  Seeing the fans and how much they love wrestling still to this day.
• 10:37
  I grew up with it in my family, and and to see it resurging now is absolutely thrilling, Matt.
• 10:44
  So thanks for a little bit of your time today.
• 10:46
  I know you're a busy guy.
• 10:48
  And just one more time, tell everybody how they can find you.
• 10:52
  Make sure you mention the TV channel.
• 10:53
  But find us tell us where they can find you online as well.
• 10:56
  Hey.
• 10:56
  You can put all the social media at a n w f wrestling.
• 10:59
  That's on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etcetera.
• 11:02
  And I'm I'm gonna drop an exclusive right here.
• 11:03
  Just just for Bubba, I'm gonna drop an exclusive.
• 11:06
  And it'll be that's gonna be a WrestleCade this year.
• 11:08
  That's in Winston Salem.
• 11:10
  That's Thanksgiving weekend.
• 11:11
  It's over 6,000 fans will be in attendance.
• 11:14
  Hopefully, 7,000 this year.
• 11:16
  And our exclusive guest at our table is gonna be $5 Wrestle Star freight train.
• 11:22
  Look them up.
• 11:24
  Well, we're going to, and we encourage everybody else to do the same as well.
• 11:28
  Matt, thank you so much for being part of this crew, and thanks for being part of the scene,
• 11:32
  brother.
• 11:33
  Alright.
• 11:33
  Thank you, brother.