The cancelation of OTT's big Scrappermania 6 event nearly put the company out of business.
OTT founder and owner Joe Cabray recently spoke with Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling and discussed how big of an impact the cancelation had on the company. The show was going to take place at National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland in March and was going to feature AEW World Champion Jon Moxley.
The show was ultimately canceled as the government had advised against gatherings of over 100 people. Cabray noted that OTT could've sunk because of it, but noted that a GoFundMe and merchandise sales helped OTT stay afloat.
“Yeah it was crazy because I remember that week leading up to it, I remember saying to some friends, ‘I don’t know, there might be a chance I might have to cancel this show.’ But it was just amazing inside a week as to how rapid it all just grew and as I said, the week previously, I was saying, ‘I might have to cancel.’ In my own mind, I didn’t really believe it, but it just escalated so, so fast that we just had no other choice. The safety of everybody was the priority I suppose but yeah, it was such a killer. When you’ve booked all the hotels, the venue, flights, the security, you put so much money into advertising and it all — and we also had an amazing hype video as well that kind of just went to the side and yeah, it was a massive blow but at the same point, I was completely overwhelmed by the response. I think there were so many people that thought that this might be something that could sink OTT and it could’ve, but fans setting up GoFundMe’s and all that and we had an out pour of fans just buying merchandise and its really helped us survive this pandemic," Cabray said.
Right now, there are no concrete plans for OTT's return, much less so in regards to returning to National Stadium. Cabray noted that he is waiting to see what happens in the coming months, but hopes to be back by October.
"So, our issue as well is that we lost our training school as well to this pandemic, which was another massive hit so, kind of our priority right now is looking to getting the school back open and running, and then just kind of seeing — again, in a time of uncertainty, just seeing what kind of restrictions are gonna be put into place, is it going to be valuable to run the National Stadium? I’m very hopeful that it will be, but safety for the fans and our performers and staff is the priority but, it’s just waiting to see what the landscape will be around October. It’s even hard to put tickets on sale because you don’t know what kind of social distance will be required in venues at that time so, it’s just a wait and see but I’m really, really hopeful that we will be back in October and if it is possible, I’d like to come back before October if [it’s] possible and safe," Cabray said.
As noted, OTT announced back in April that it closed down its wrestling school. The full interview can be seen in the video at the top of the page.
