After a long four month break, the Willie Trials suddenly resumed court on the morning of March 24. In this long awaited conclusion, it was finally time to get down to the brass tax of the trial, and the numbers were astounding. Although costly for both sides, for this article we will focus on the plaintiff’s expenses. FloWrestling in total spent 1.7 million dollars in the pursuit of taking down Willie Saylor and the Rokfin team. One cannot hear those numbers and help but wonder if that money, time, and energy could have been put elsewhere to better benefit them in the long term. We saw a lot of good suggestions on twitter for what could have been done with this money, including a favorite from Scott Green(@GoGreenWrestle). Although we can’t make these decisions for Flo, we went ahead and thought of some more ideas that them or anybody else looking to spend 1.7 million dollars could do instead.
- 850 StaleMates Vans
Flo’s PR has been hurting as of late, and let me tell you, nothing is more of a crowd-pleaser than a vintage Iowa State wrestling van. At $2000, the clout this singular van gave us paid in dividends. Imagine having an entire fleet. They really don’t even have to run either. Flo might be able to still save face if they were to go this route.
2. A Live Stream Event With a 1.7 Million Dollar Purse
Flo has had a total of eight live streamed events during the COVID19 pandemic. To entice athletes to compete on these cards, Flo compensated athletes for their participation. There were three events in which the prize money was openly advertised. The Flo 8-man: 195 event paid out $40,500 total, Flo 8-man: 150 was $58,000 total, and the RTC Cup had an even $100,000 for prize money. That puts us at $198,500 so far. The 5 other events did not openly disclose athlete payouts, however there was speculation and rumors for the Dake vs Chamizo card that just the two co-headline matches alone were paid $130,000. We have absolutely nothing else to go by for estimating what athletes could have been paid for these five events, so we’ll just do $130,000 times five for the sake of this theory. Whether more or less, Flo’s legal costs could probably cover it. That makes the prize money for all eight events together $848,500. Flo could have ran all 8 cards back and still had some change leftover. Who knows what characters would emerge from the shadows for a card with $1,700,000 on the line. A purse that large could no doubt produce one of the best high-level talent wrestling cards of all time.
3. 3,400 Servers
Staying on the topic of live streaming, Flo has often been criticized for having technical issues during their live streaming events. Why this is a recurring issue I do not know exactly, but it could be they simply need some more power behind their equipment. Through some aggressive googling, it looks like the average cost of server hardware is between $3,000-$5,000. Going with the high end of those prices, owning 3,400 servers would make Flo’s video streaming experience flawless and effectively silence all haters.
4. 9,714 22-Course Meals at Otoko Japanese Restaurant
The most exclusive restaurant in Austin, Texas; Otoko Japanese restaurant offers a dining experience like no other. A 22-course meal at $175 per person, Flo could have actually taken the entire FloSports organization(estimated 355 employees) and their families, friends, and dogs for a night out. This would have made for a much more pleasant time rather than sitting through court sessions via zoom. Taking this many people would get tricky though, as Otoko only has 12 seats.
5. An 11,334-year FloWrestling Subscription
Instead of partaking in the debacle that the Willie Trials was, Flo could have done a super-fun giveaway of some sort, where one lucky person won lifetime’s worth of access to Flo content. At a yearly subscription cost of $149.99(equal to $12.50/month, billed upfront), they would be passing down their login info to their grandkid’s grandkid’s grandkids. That right there is the kind of publicity a company would really want.
6. 17 Ben Askrens
When Flo needed to bring out the big guns for their content, it was widely rumored they contracted Ben Askren to appear on Flo Radio Live for $100,000. While they were so distraught over one Willie, they could have just brought on 16 more Funkys the whole time. They could have had a whole film crew of Ben Askrens producing the Ben Askren Show on FloWrestling. As they say though, hindsight is 20/20, and as we all know Flo decided to pursue other options.
I love you.