You're not the first or even third person today to make that reference!
I totally got Papa Shango'ed.
There were a lot of variables working against the entire show. The LiveStream meant even less flexibility than normal with the match times (a LOT of guys got cut short and weren't happy about it). The low ceiling meant that most guys lost a good chunk of their moveset (and we still had to replace a few ceiling tiles, despite being very careful as best we could). COVID restrictions and CDC inspections meant that we couldn't have the fans AND the talent in the same building at the same time, so anyone not having a match at any given moment had to be outside in the freezing cold, OR in the converted barn "locker room" (in the freezing cold). And it was FREEZING cold, which I think affected morale quite a bit. The backstage monitor that was set up to make sure guys could watch the show and make their cues on time broke,
probably due to the freezing cold. So if you weren't in the ring, you had NO idea what was going on inside the venue and had to wait for someone to come tell you, and that guy was almost always busy trying to wrangle five to ten other guys at that same moment. It was almost impossible to get guys together to go over spots, so almost everything on the show was booked on the fly. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.
It's a miracle things went as well as they did, honestly. I heard that the rest of the shows went more or less okay, it just sucks I got the "short straw" on both shows. But I absolutely don't envy anyone trying to run a show with fans in attendance in THIS current situation. If we had a proper locker room, right there it's a totally different situation. BUT, "CDC says that 30 fans plus the guys in the ring plus the sound crew and the guys taking tickets puts the venue at Full Capacity, so the talent has to freeze their balls off outside or else we can't run the show at all..." There was no GOOD way out of that situation.
October and November shows were outdoors with minimal restrictions (basically, "Just wear a mask" and that's all; we drew over 200 people in November), and everything went a LOT better. The hope right now is, we get good weather for the Spring shows and can run outside again in April. Because seriously, it was what it was but the backstage setup was ludicrous, and I'd put EVERY problem with the shows on the fact that we had to keep the "locker room" 50 yards away from the venue and keep everybody in the freezing cold "Because COVID."
To be clear, I do not blame the company for the situation being what it was; they were just making the best of a bad situation so that we could even HAVE a show. A competing organization has been trying all month long to try and get the shows shut down, going so far as to repeatedly call the police and the CDC to try and have us shut down "in the interest of public safety". And it is 100% NOT about "public safety", they just don't want us to operate period, because Wrestling Is A Sh*tty Business Full Of Sh*tty People. So Those Guys call the cops, and the CDC, and say "They're not requiring masks (except we are), they're not making talent provide documented COVID tests (except we are)," and so they send people to the show and thus we HAVE to accept these overly-strict and hampering conditions as a fact of life. Because Some People can't leave well enough alone.
It was what it had to be. I just plain don't envy anyone running an indoor show right now, it's practically a no-win. I just really hope the Spring shows go a lot better like the ones in Fall did.