David McLane Recalls Ric Flair Praising GLOW, Says WOW Will Target a More Family-Oriented Audience,

– Women of Wrestling founder David McLane spoke on a media call about WOW seeking a different audience than most companies, Ric Flair once praising him for GLOW and more. You can see some highlights below, courtesy of Wrestling Inc:

On targeting a more family-oriented audience: “In terms of differences, there’s not much production-wise but there’ll be a clear [difference] when you look at the audiences and the spectators that are coming to the WOW events. And maybe it’s more because I’m in the forest, I’ve seen it, but we’ve seen it gradual, but it’s very noticeable on this upcoming season that starts on the 7th [of September]. There’s a lot more women coming to WOW events and there’s a lot more kids coming. And the first two rows – I was amazed – were filled with kids at the last event. To me, that’s what has been missing in wrestling. I go to some of the other promotions, and I go to their events, or I’ll fly to a city to see one of their pay-per-views and you see a male-driven audience. In WOW, you see a real family-driven audience and we’ve got the kids. And that’s when I got interested and fell in love with wrestling – when I was a kid. And I see that in WOW, so, I think you’ll notice that on the screen. And in terms of the performances and the talents, maybe I don’t notice it but competitors tell me and the people at the live events tell me that everything has just been elevated. I say it being very humble: I believe we have the best wrestling show on television. And a year ago, I would have told you the best women’s promotion on television, but when it starts on AXS TV on the 7th and you watch this series… I believe the product is the best wresting product on television.”

On getting praised by Ric Flair for GLOW: “Ric Flair came up to me in the locker room one night and he looked at me and he goes, ‘Holy smokes! You’re David McLane – I watch you on TV in different hotel rooms all the time when I travel.’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And so we started talking and he was the veteran, the superstar of wrestling at that time saying, ‘Wow, you really did something so inventive to do what you did [with GLOW]… The wrestling talent will improve over the years. You don’t have that down yet, but I see the creativity in it.’ So there was the star of the industry that got it, so, I’ll just say that it’s taken the industry thirty years to see what he saw and I saw way back when.”

On their partnership with AXS TV: “The partnership, the development – what’s different now is I’ve got a team behind WOW which I never had when I was promoting women’s wrestling before. I didn’t have a team that had the same vision and drive. And subsequentially, what’s great about AXS is they’ve created a whole night in their Saturday night lineup for professional wrestling with the Saturday Night Slam series. And WOW’s fortunate enough to open that up and, secondly, then they re-air WOW after New Japan Pro Wrestling in case you’re on the West Coast and you’re still getting home from work. So that is special in the fact that you have a dedicated network to promoting and using promotional time and it’s already out there and connected itself to the wrestling fans. Television is becoming more and more like radio where it’s targeting demographic audiences specifically, and wrestling fans know that AXS TV provides the best in wrestling.”