The Amazing Truth Behind The Demise of Real Pro Wrestling: What Really Happened

Previous interviews with Real Pro Wrestling co-founder Matt Case talked about what happened to the once promising "real" professional wrestling league. Now, through a follow-up interview with president and co-founder Toby Willis, The Wrestling Mall has uncovered even more shocking information on what really led to Real Pro Wrestling's demise. The reasons may surprise wrestling fans and after reading this article, the wrestling community will have a better idea and understanding about what really went down - and why it didn't work.

By Matt Krumrie
Senior Editor/TheWrestlingMall.com
info@thewrestlingmall.com

As a follow-up to previous interviews with Real Pro Wrestling co-founder Matt Case, TWM has now conducted an interview with RPW founder Toby Willis.

For background information leading up to this article, read parts I and II:

What ever happened to Real Pro Wrestling? The answers wrestling fans want

Real Pro Wrestling Interview, Part II: More With Co-Founder Matt Case

TWM: What happened to Real Pro Wrestling?

Willis: That is a good question, that even I do not know all the answers.  We hired business guys to help move RPW along in Season Two and things got off to a pretty good start.  I needed to get back to my family and resolve the housing situation, since my house burned down right at the start of Season One.  I now have ten, soon to be eleven children and my family desperately needed me to be involved more.  So I hired the best guys I could find to help run RPW.  Sponsorship started to fall into place and we started qualifier events for season Two.  Things looked pretty good.

Then some weird things started to happen, and from piecing clues together, this is what we think went down.  The business guys attempted to take over RPW and cut us out of the picture.  What tipped us off was that they accidentally sent me emails that they did not want us to know about.  In these emails they revealed enough details to wake us up to how they were double crossing us.  Before those emails, a few things just didn't add up and we were a little puzzled how RPW started to spin its wheels and we couldn't figure out why the momentum seemed to stop.  When we received the emails, then things started to make sense and it was not pretty.

Specifically, I laid off one worker who I did not think was performing up to par.  I then re-routed all his company email to myself so we would not lose any business correspondence.  The worker who was plotting the takeover of RPW didn't realize that he still had this guy's email in his group email that he was sending out to his co-conspirators.  So I started to get emails that these guys did not want me to know about.

In these emails, they didn't come right out and state a plot for the takeover, but they did reveal meetings and some details that outed their plan.  For example, they even flew on RPW's dime out to Colorado Springs to meet with USAW.  Since these business guys were not from the wrestling community they needed to make sure they could get to the athletes without Matt and I.  How much they actually lined up with USAW I don't know.  They also used guys like our recent hire from USAW, Ted Wiltulski, to help get access to the wrestlers.  But we never did find out exactly who did what.

Some of these business guys saw that RPW was something that was going to make a lot of money.  They saw the response from television, sponsors, and investors and saw what was happening.  I was opening up RPW to other investors to come on board and share in the league.  However, these business guys wanted to reap a big windfall themselves but didn't have any of their own money to invest.  While I was paying them a really good salary, they wanted more.

They also did not like the fact that I was making the decisions.  I never claimed to be a big businessman and actually did not want to run the company on a daily basis.  They wanted to run all the show but not have somebody with veto power over them.  Actually, if they were qualified I probably would have let them run the show.  But RPW needed not just a business man at the helm but somebody who actually was a wrestler and knew the community and all the ins and outs.  (co-founder) Matt (Case) and I care for the wrestling community and all the existing organizations.  There are many times we compromised RPW for the sake of USAW or other wrestling organizations.  While we did not like all of the things these organizations did, we did not just run rough shod over them like these guys wanted us to do.

Whoever led RPW also needed to know the sport of wrestling and navigate rule changes that needed to be made.  They also needed a good artistic eye and knowledge of production. All these are things Matt and I had and why we refused to give over the leadership reigns.  Also I had invested my family's money and it was only fitting that I keep a close eye on how it was being used.

For example, one guy we had talked to once, wanted to run RPW and take it to the big time.  He wanted to bring in Playboy bunnies and turn RPW into basically, a lot like what the UFC has become.  His sister was one of the Pussycat Dolls and he knew he could get them onboard at the least.  We refused to get involved with him or sign a deal with him.  RPW was not just about making money.  We insisted that RPW stay family friendly and something we could sit down with our children and watch.

What the conspirators with RPW decided to do was get all the pieces in place but then basically hold them ransom unless I did what they wanted.  Their demand was for me to sell RPW to them and they would pay me 2 million dollars in return but with no specific time schedule.  They waited until we had started the Season Two qualifiers and thought I would have to agree to their demands since if I didn't do what they wanted, I would lose my multimillion dollar investment to date in RPW.  We could not move forward with Season Two without the money they had raised.  They also had put me in a financial hard spot.

What I decided to do was stop RPW and put it on hold indefinitely.  I really did not have a choice.  I had been double crossed and could not continue then.  But neither am I willing to just throw out everything accomplished to date.  I still want to start RPW back up but a lot of things need to fall into place for that to happen.  I am not actively pushing RPW like I was before but I still have some plans I am working on.  It very well could fall into place and RPW could be back with a vengeance.  We will just have to wait and see.

The fact remains that RPW did not work not because it was a bad idea.  It not only can work, but I think it could work better today then it did a few years ago.  When I was shopping it around to television, the economy was good and nobody was looking for bargains.  Now the economy is a different story.

Also, the growth of UFC has helped promote wrestling and wrestlers big time.  The fact is more people know about wrestling due to MMA then ten years ago.  Some form of wrestling is practiced in most martial art gyms today.  That is not how it was five or ten years ago.  Now everybody knows wrestling is a great martial art.

Television production is also getting cheaper all the time too.  Computer technology is lowering the cost of production.  Video over the internet is maturing.  So there are lots of reasons why RPW can still succeed.

TWM:  A lot of people have wondered, why was their no announcement that RPW ceased operations? What was the reason behind that?

Willis: When we put RPW on hold, the business guys who were trying to steal RPW from me hoped that I would make a big announcement that we were stopping.  They were planning to step in with a public plan to announce their new wrestling league and company they had set up in secret.  I would be out millions of dollars and be left with nothing.  They would get all the reward.

While I really want a pro wrestling league to succeed, I could not cut my own throat like that.  I was a hard decision.  I felt it was better to drag out the ending so as to thwart their plans and keep RPW on hold for another day.  I hope that day will eventually come.

I am really sorry that so many people did not know what was up with RPW and I really did want to tell them the whole story.  But it was also a very painful time for me.  But probably the biggest pain was that so few people in the wrestling community cared about what happened to RPW.  You would think a lot of people would be calling, asking, and emailing.  But instead what I got was mostly silence.  Only a few people pursued me to find out the truth.  Until now, most people had no idea.

Most of the people who did pursue us was just because they wanted money.  As long as we paid money to people for marketing and such, they were our friends.  Once the money was turned off they left us alone. That was hard. It was also hard to know who was friend from foe.  Who was in on the take and who was out? All this within the wrestling world too.

TWM: What was your biggest surprise out of all of this?

Willis: Our biggest surprise in all of RPW is how bad the television world is.  Not just morally bad but uncreative, fearful, and illogical.  Matt and I would look at what was on television and think how does all this junk get on?  Doesn't anybody have any brains?  After learning all about the process of how stuff gets on television, we can confirm with firsthand evidence, yes, they really do not have brains.  Actually a few do, and I hate to knock them down by painting with a big brush.  But by and large, television is a wasteland.  That is because the executives are a wasteland too.

TWM: What is your biggest regret with all of this?
Willis: I have a lot of regrets but the biggest one was to move forward with the best people I could find.  Sometimes the best one can find is not good enough.  What I should have done is only move forward if the people were good enough.  Unfortunately, that means RPW would have had to stop way sooner and probably never get off the ground.  I hope one day that RPW is back in action and my current regrets can be forgotten.

Another regret is not stopping RPW when my house burned down.  In hindsight I should have.  I should have tried to rally the world of wrestling to my cause rather than push through it and people think everything was okay.  It wasn't and still isn't.  My insurance company is AIG and they have treated us horribly.  People might be mad at AIG because of the government bailouts but that is nothing compared to how they have treated my family.  They are trying to steal millions from us and we have been battling in court for years.  They also refused to pay rent until our house is rebuilt like the insurance policy states and we finally got a judge to force them to do this but not until three years after the fire.

My family has suffered a lot due to the fire and hardly anybody helped us out.  Most people think we are rich (which we are not)  and so it is very awkward to offer us help. We understand.  We try not to complain.  As Christians we are called to be content no matter the circumstances.  We still have much to be thankful for.  All the children are safe and having lost six siblings in a horrible fire, we know what really makes one rich.

TWM: Through all of this, what is most satisfying?

Willis: We never gave up.  Even now we still hope to continue RPW someday.  We have the knowledge and drive.  It just is not happening right now.  But tomorrow is another day.

The other thing that is satisfying is that we tried.  We stepped out on the mat of life and battled.  Meanwhile we watched so many others stay on the sidelines because they were fearful of failure.  Had they all joined us, nobody would have failed.   But they refused to fight the real battle that needed to be fought.  Instead they busied themselves in non-important battles.  Meanwhile the world of wrestling suffers.  All their attempts to help wrestling have been ineffective at best.  When is the world of wrestling going to realize we need new leadership and a new plan?

We do not need a partial plan - we need a comprehensive plan.  That is what RPW was and is.  If not RPW, then another real pro wrestling league just like we envisioned.  However, there is no need to start from scratch.  We know what to do and we can help.  We are willing and wanting to help.  However, we cannot do it alone.

TWM: With the growth of MMA, do you think that would have helped or hurt RPW?

Willis: I feel RPW could easily exist and be the family friendly version of MMA.  There are pros and cons with MMA.  That is a long discussion and I do not have the time for that one now.  But I will say this. Wrestling desperately needs to rebrand itself as a martial art not just another arbitrary sport.  We need to use military terminology and martial art vocabulary.  We need to teach it as self defense.  So instead of the high school coach walking up to a kid in the hallways of school and asking them to try wrestling, they should ask the kid if he wants to learn self defense.  What kid says they want to be defenseless?  Then when the kid shows up for practice, the coach has to teach wrestling from a martial arts perspective.

By doing this, we separate our sport as something that is different from other sports. Who cares if you can bounce a basketball?  Who cares if you can hit a baseball?  But self defense resonates within the heart of every man.  We have to tap into that well.

Stay tuned to TheWrestlingMall.com for part II of the exclusive interview with Toby Willis, founder of Real Pro Wrestling, coming soon!