A brand-new Conversations With Love is LIVE!
This week, tune in as Spencer chats with one of the biggest promoters of Albertan professional wrestling, Mike “the Ref” Malowany! Listen in as the two long-time friends chat about Mike’s involvement in the province’s independent scene, including:
- How he got the nickname “The Ref”
- Founding ESPN (no, not THAT ESPN)
- Becoming the commissioner in RCW and MPW
- His reasons for starting Backbreaker Media
- His commentary style
Conversations With Love is proudly brought to you by Beercade YEG, What’s the Deal?, Whiteridge Inc, Cowan Graphics, and Indie Empire Magazine.
Conversations With Love 39: A Conversation With Mike “The Ref” Malowany
Highlights:
On joining Force Pro Wrestling:
“Very simply, I got contacted by the Force Pro Wrestling head office and they asked my interest about how much I wanted to get back into it, and if you guys have watched the last pre-show broadcast, all that stuff, I was given a list of matches that showed up, and the second that they mentioned Zoë Sager/Kayla Jaye and they wanted me to call the match, I was sold.”
What’s needed in a colour commentary team:
“Well, I’ve worked with a ton of different people when it comes to (colour commentary). When I was the one who was doing it at MPW, basically anybody that was injured got to work with me to keep up with it. The key thing that I try to remember to tell everyone when they start doing commentary is you can have some personality, but remember that the key to anytime you’re doing commentary is you’re trying to focus on the action in the ring. When you got some very talented wrestlers, and the matches I’ve done have involved very talented wrestlers throughout this province that we’ve talked about numerous times, but we’ve got to keep the product that we’re putting online focused on the product in the ring. If you’re making it more about yourself than you are about what’s going on in the ring, either a) the product is substandard, so you’re trying to cover up for it or b), you’re not doing your job properly.”
Where he got the name “The Ref”
“Not from wrestling at all. We got onto that at the beginning of the show here that nobody could ever get my name right. So, about 10 years ago, I was actually the referee assigner for the Edmonton volleyball officials association. Yes. I come from volleyball. That’s where the referee comes from.I’ve been a referee for 20 years. I just retired in 2015. From there, when I became the assigner, people had to get ahold of me, of course. Typing out “Mike Malowany” the way my name is spelled - yeah, nobody’s getting that right. So I had to think of something easy to get people to contact me. Mike the Ref, it just stuck. It’s pretty much stuck with me ever since”
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