The Sierra Wrestling All-Stars Thread, CRITICAL Edition

Hello, SWA fans! As I write this, I'm only a couple days removed from a whirlwind tour of Japan with the SWA Joshi roster. This was our first Japan tour since 2019, and it was a joy to experience the enthusiasm of the Japanese fans who have waited four years to see us again. Now, with my feet firmly back on familiar ground, it's time to talk about what's coming for SWA in 2023. This year, we're looking to make a few changes to our touring structure and how we present our content. We're hopeful that these changes will overall result in greater quality of life for SWA talent, and a better quality of matches and shows for our fans.

* In past years, we have given half of our roster the first week after a Pay-Per-View show off, and the other half the second week off, alternating which wrestlers got which weeks off by PPV. In practice, this resulted both in a poorer quality of shows, and a certain amount of unfairness towards wrestlers who may have wanted a specific time off. Starting with Aftermath, there will be no SWA shows for two weeks after each Pay-Per-View show. This change will provide talent with more personal time, as well as keeping up the quality of SWA shows by assuring that as much of the roster is available as possible for each show.

* We are changing the title defense schedule of the SWA Aftermath Championship from every 3 weeks to every month. Currently, the Aftermath Championship is defended 18 times a year, whereas the other championships are only defended 8 times a year. This change will make the defense schedule fairer to wrestlers competing for the Aftermath Championship. Additionally, this will make it so that the Aftermath Championship will, outside of Pay-Per-View shows, not be defended on the same shows as the SWA Openweight, Joshi, or Tag-Team Championships, allowing the division to shine more without being overshadowed by the other divisions.

* Speaking of Championships, it is our intention to introduce a set of SWA Trios Championships this year. The Summer Tagfest Tour will be a little different this year, and will be a Trios tournament to decide the inaugural Trios champions. Going forward, the current plan is for these belts to be defended on SWA Pay-Per-View events at first. We will be watching fan reactions, and may shift the schedule based on them going forward.

* We are currently in the process of re-examining the branding split between SWA and SWA Joshi. Personally, I think that the split has become increasingly artificial over the years, especially with the rosters touring together during the Escalation and Summer Tagfest tours anyway. This is still under discussion, and no official decisions have been made yet, but don't be surprised if we de-emphasize the separate branding of SWA Joshi over the coming year.

* Overwhelmingly it seems that most SWA viewers are paying the monthly subscription and watching all SWA shows. Over time, the number of ad-supported viewers that are watching the weekly SWA TV has noticeably dwindled compared to the subscribers who are watching every show as they happen. As such, over the course of this year, we will be sunsetting the weekly SWA TV and SWA Joshi programs in favor of simply broadcasting the shows as they happen. This one was difficult for me to accept, because SWA TV has been such a fixture of our structure for so long, but the fact is that less than 5% of our current viewing audience primarily watches SWA TV, vs the 95% who are subscribed to our streaming service and watching shows live.

* The International Joshi Summit show was a huge success, and everybody at SWA is immensely proud of what's been accomplished. We are in talks with Taiyou Dojo about doing another Joshi Summit show next year. Given the success of the show, it may also make sense to do a similar showcase show for young male wrestlers as well.

* Some fans may have already noticed this one, but we have formally renewed our cooperation with OG-Joshi. Jean Carter is a delightful person, and has been very agreeable throughout the process of getting the legal side of this deal sorted out. I look forward to meeting her face-to-face to discuss the future of our two promotions. As a co-owner of SWA, I'm not supposed to show favoritism towards any given wrestler, but the wrestler, commentator, and wrestling fan in me would like to say "Rock 'em, Lina!"

* SWA Referee Toby Russell has accepted a new position in the PR and Marketing department, where he will be working under our PR manager, Jim Tarler. As such, effective immediately post-Aftermath, Nadine Mathis will now be SWA's senior referee. We will be counting on her to bring her impartiality and love for wrestling to our Openweight Championship matches going forward.

And that's it! This is one of the biggest sea changes we've seen in SWA in a few years, and we have a lot of parts moving right now, but the core of it is the same: We hope to keep presenting the best pro-wrestling product on the west coast, and may the fires of competition burn forever in our hearts!

Sincerely,
Alex Morgainne
Co-Owner of SWA

From this week's SWA TV, Ultimo Cielo defends the SWA Openweight Championship against an opponent hand-picked by Samael!