If you’ve heard of The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, you know what they’re about. Hosts Brian Myers and Matt Cardona talk about wrestling figures, memorabilia, and news in the wrestling figure industry, and more. You might be more familiar with their work names: Curt Hawkins and Zach Ryder, the professional wrestling tag team Major Bros from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). We got to sit down and chat with MWF Podcast’s producer, videographer and fellow professional wrestler Mark Sterling. Sitting down with Mark, one thing stands true: in 2020, you can truly build a loyal fanbase from anywhere in the world.
If you’re not familiar with their podcast than their names, Mark says that’s part of the reality of niche markets:
“I’m not sure if we started with a plan because we really didn’t know the audience yet. Meaning people in wrestling or wrestling fans will know that one of the hosts, Zach Ryder, got very sort-of famous in around 2011 by doing this sort of guerilla-style youtube show every week. And his videos were getting 300,000, 500,000 views a week. And he’s got millions of Twitter followers. So we had no idea how many of those fans of his would come to his podcast because this podcast, as we say a lot in our own meetings, is a niche of a niche of a niche. Meaning you have to like podcasts, first of all, which seems weird to us but there are still people out there that are like, “What’s a podcast?” And then you have to like professional wrestling, okay, so that’s two things. And then you also have to like professional wrestling so much that you’re interested in professional wrestling merchandise and figures and memorabilia. So we’ve already knocked down the pool of our audience by a lot. When we started, we were like, “We have no idea.” And it’s grown pretty steadily, I would say.”
Despite their niche of a niche of a niche status, The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast is not unpopular. Not only do they have a thriving podcast channel, Mark said they’ve found ground amongst other platforms such as Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram.
“I think that our Youtube has become – while we started it maybe six months after the podcast – it’s become more successful. I think that there’s just like more people on youtube as of right now that are watching than that are actually downloading podcasts. But I think that one thing feeds the other, so if somebody finds our channel on Youtube, and this is one of those people that I was talking about that doesn’t know what a podcast is – so he really likes it, he loves our content, he wants more of it, and I think we’re getting people from youtube over to listen to the actual flagship podcast that is sort of our meat and potatoes. And then, you know, obviously social media just keeps us top of mind. Zach Ryder is like, this social media marketing wizard. We both sort of follow Gary V, and we enjoy his teachings, but Matt is really good at social media and we’ve sort of built the Twitter and the Instagram, you know just like posting different content, news, pictures, interesting things that he has. But it’s a very visual thing, wrestling memorabilia, so that’s why Instagram is good, and Twitter is good.”
As for the podcast itself – as well as the videos shot for their various other platforms – it’s a weekly exercise in what can be done around busy travel schedules, and Monday night shows.
“So for us, it’s all about being on the go, so the guys – Brian lives in New York, and Matt lives in Orlando, they’ve been friends for years – so basically, they’re both on Monday Night Raw, and they have to sort of carve out enough time each week when they fly to the Monday Night Raw city in order to record the podcast. So early on, we purchased a Zoom H6N and a bunch of mics – we have some Samson mics, we have SM58s. Really, it’s just on the go podcasting. We set up in a hotel room, or we find a quiet room in the arena for Monday Night Raw, and they record it. If I’m around, I’ll go and do it for them. If not, they sort of do it themselves and then send me the files. The video production as well, like if there is room to have a nice camera we’ll do it, but a lot of the stuff that we do – the vlogs and the toy hunts we do – are just shot on our iPhones.”
The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast is a labor of love, created by guys with a passion for wrestling and its assorted figures. Not only does that passion shine through when they record their content, it even shines through with their sponsorships.
“For us, it’s really just building relationships with people that really make sense for our podcast. We just did a run of ads with Footlocker, they came out with some limited-run t-shirts for WWE wrestlers, and that really made sense for our podcast because that’s exactly what it’s about. Sometimes the guys talk about sports equipment, things like that, because they’re professional athletes. It’s the stuff that they like, and then we reach out to those people to see if they want to advertise, if it makes sense, it’s really just where it is. The people contact us, we find the best way to do it, or we look into things that we really enjoy, and then ask if they would like to sponsor the podcast.”
To learn more about their show, check out the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast on all podcast platforms, their Podbean website, Twitter and Instagram. Check out more of our interviews with various podcasts here!
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