Kentville pro wrestler to be featured on second national reality series

By Kirk Starratt

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

With one successful national TV series already to his credit, Kentville’s Rick Doyle, a.k.a. Trash Canyon, has landed another deal for a reality show.

Doyle, the co-star and co-producer of the new series, Kardinal Sinners, said negotiations reached a standstill last year with The Fight Network, a national digital channel that carried their first reality series, Wrestling Reality (WR). Doyle said TFN wanted to hold onto the international distribution rights they had in season one for the second season of the show. However, Doyle said the trick to making money off a Canadian TV series is international sales through syndication.

“TFN didn’t want to give it up and we didn’t want to compromise,” Doyle said. “It was hard to walk away from TFN, but we want to make a living on this.”

TFN still airs WR episodes on occasion and Doyle said they parted on good terms. They haven’t ruled out producing more WR episodes for the broadcaster in the future. He said they were happy to reach the deal with Rush HD for the Kardinal Sinners series because it’s much better than starting from scratch.

He said they would get the international distribution rights for WR back in February and then they can sell both WR and Kardinal Sinners as a 13-epiosode package - six of WR and six of Kardinal Sinners - with a 13th episode to tie the two series together and show how negotiations with TFN fell apart.

From pipe dream to reality

It has been five years now since Doyle and his colleagues began working toward their own TV show. He said they went from having a pipe dream to actually accomplishing the goal. Now, he said, they must get into the business side of things, build the product, market it and take it to the next level in terms of success and profitability. The episodes are all shot in high definition and there is a huge demand worldwide for such content.

Doyle said Rush HD wanted an original show with a similar theme to WR. WR was about the wrestlers putting on their own shows and what was involved. Kardinal Sinners will be about the main group of wrestlers - Canyon, Brody Steele, “Wildman” Gary Williams, “Kowboy” Mike Hughes and British star Frankie Sloan - going to work for other wrestling promotions.

The series will focus also on the reality of producing a TV show, trying to take it to the next level of success and other issues faced by those involved, including unemployment and depression.

Shooting began in November in Cape Breton with East Coast Pro Wrestling and in New Brunswick with Innovative Hybrid Wrestling. Filming continued with Rage Wrestling in the greater Ottawa area in December.

There were segments shot in the hometowns of all the wrestlers, including footage of Doyle in Kentville. Doyle said they focused on his everyday life and routine with his family, day job and training regimen.

Doyle said the number of half-tonne trucks on Valley roads amazed Sloan when he visited our area. It’s not a common sight in England.

Compelling TV

Doyle said they knew nothing about the wrestling promotion they were going to work for in the greater Ottawa area. The wrestlers assumed they would be doing bigger shows than those they do in the Maritimes, but Doyle said they were probably some of the worst shows they’ve ever been involved in. However, all the strife and conflict makes for compelling TV.

Producer Greg Hemmings of Hemmings House Pictures said Kardinal Sinners is an extension or offshoot of WR. He said the major difference is, in the first series, the wrestlers were full of hope, passion and high energy.

“The viewer was left saying, ‘wow, these guys are working hard and going for it’,” Hemmings said. However, Kardinal Sinners takes place two years later and the wrestlers feel a sense that their careers have not become as successful as they had first hoped. “They’re getting back together, maybe for the last time, to give it one more go. Wrestling has been on the backburner for everyone.”

Another shot at success

Family considerations and other endeavours have taken prominent roles in their lives, but the wrestlers want to get back together on the road again and take another shot at success. Hemmings said it’s a coming of age for the wrestlers, who are at a crossroads and wondering whether to carry on.

With the show expected to begin airing sometime in March or shortly thereafter, Hemmings said it’s well timed because of the release of the movie The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke, which has a similar theme. He reached the deal for the series with Rush HD last year at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Editing for the show is now underway.

Hemmings said the TV crew would be a big part of the show this time around because they have a stake in the success of the production as well as the wrestlers.

Eastlink will apparently soon offer Rush HD to digital cable subscribers. Hemmings said the digital channel features all sorts of extreme sports. Rush HD reaches about 350,000 Canadian homes through Bell ExpressVu and other regional satellite and cable providers. It’s available in the U.S. as well, so the second series should reach many more viewers than the first.

The name ‘Kardinal Sinners’ came from a group of Maritime wrestlers who broke away from promoter Emile Dupre to wrestle for another promotion about 10 years ago. The story goes that Dupre said the wrestlers had “committed the cardinal sin.” The wrestlers liked the sound of it and began calling themselves “The Kardinal Sinners.”