How does one get comped for a wrestling event??

Factual Questions
1

As background, WCW’s Starrcade is coming to the MCI Center in Washington DC on Sunday. I’m a wrestling fan, but not a big enough one that I’d spend so much money to see it live. I mean, when I get PPVs, it’s always with a group so we split the cost. With the lowest price tickets for Starrcade being, I think, $25 or $35 dollars (they list $15 tix, but aren’t selling them), that’s a bit too much.

HOWEVER … Starrcade is very VERY far from selling out – as a matter of fact, they still have floor seats available! I’ve read in quite a few different places about the practice of “papering” an arena to make it look good for TV – giving away tons of free tickets so you can have bodies there to make noise (which, in wrestling, is an important part of the show. A “hot” crowd can make a match so much better). I’ve even heard of WCW giving away more tickets then they sell! And with floor seats still available – and from what I can tell, they’re not even bothering to sell the $15 upper level seats, admitted defeat – there seems to be a severe lack of butts in seats.

How does this comping occur? Do they have employees outside the arenas looking for people to pull in? “Hey, got a few hours to spare? Want to watch a show for free?” At the very least, they might get some concessions money out of them.

Anyone ever had this happen to them, and have advice to share? Or know of how it’s done and ways to have it done to you? I can do w/o going to the show, but if there’s a fairly easy way to get in free, I probably wouldn’t pass it up. Thanks.

2

If you hold out any hope whatsoever about getting comped for a wrestling show, you’ll have to reduce your IQ by about 100 points. They’re very selective about who they let in, you know.

Having said that, I must admit that one more than one occasion, I have stopped flipping channels long enough to watch part of a wrestling match. I feel dirty afterwards, but I sometimes I can’t help myself.

3

According to the “Ask the Rick” column at wrestleline.com most comped tickets are given out as part of promotions for radio stations or other businesses. There is a chance of people handing them out at the door but that is not as common.

4

Try showing up to the ticket window just before the show starts, and asking if there are any comps available. I know this sounds too straightforward to work, but keep in mind WCW is extremely desperate to get butts in those seats.

Like someone else said, radio promotions are also good sources for free tickets. It’d probably be too late now, but you might want to check and see if any local stations are running contests to give away free Starrcade tickets. The most common way of doing this is asking ridiculously easy trivia questions, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get your hands on them.

Although, I do have to ask…are you sure you really want to attend a WCW PPV? It might be more fun to just find a sports bar and watch the company go down the toilet with a few friends and some stiff drinks. And considering what you’ll be watching, you’ll probably need a lot of them.