FloSlam~~~

This is the big news that Meltzer and Keller among others was hinting at yesterday on twitter



There could very well be a new player when it comes to being a streaming destination for pro wrestling content, and they have quite a bit of money behind them.

Over the last several weeks, FloSports, a tech company that is built around live, streaming subscription content, has been in contact with a number of top independent professional wrestling companies, discussing bringing that content to their platform.  They have been streaming live events from different sports over the last year.

Based out of Austin, Texas, last week the company unveiled apps for Roku and AppleTV as a way to expand their reach as a streaming platform.

What will also assist Flosports in expanding that reach is an infusion of funding they have to utilize in their expasion.  In a press release back in August, Flosports touted that they had "received $21.2 million in new funding to accelerate the online sports network’s growth into new sports and expand its existing verticals."  Among those entities that have invested into FloSports was their initial investor Causeway Media Partners, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Discovery Communications, and most interestingly to wrestling fans, none other than World Wrestling Entertainment, who have also invested into the streaming entity.

PWInsider.com has heard from numerous sources that the outlet intends to start rolling out announcements this week in regard to relationships with independent outlets that will see their content exclusively shift over to Flosports for streaming.  It makes sense that the company would seek out pro wrestling content, since there is such a voracious following and appetite for independent pro wrestling; bringing that audience to their platform will only assist the bottom line of the overall Flosports package.

There has been some great excitement within certain circles as to a new money player putting some money into independent wrestling promotion.  Over the next week or so, we should have a greater understanding of exactly what this all means and how much, if at all, this will be change the landscape of the independent realm, but it is certainly an interesting development.

Edit
Meltzer is saying WWE has zero influence and are actually not happy cause this raises the price value WWE will have to pay companies, if they decide they want put indy content on wwe network.

Edit
http://www.flosports.tv/flosports-announces-five-year-agreement-with-wwnlive-to-live-stream-all-events-on-floslam-tv

Austin, TX (Oct. 24, 2016) – FloSports today announced a five-year partnership with World Wrestling Network Live (WWNLive) to make FloSlam.tv the exclusive worldwide streaming partner of all WWNLive properties, including EVOLVE, SHINE, Full Impact Pro and WWN Supershow.

The agreement begins Friday, Nov. 4, with live coverage of SHINE 38 from Ybor City, Fla. There will be live coverage of approximately 60 events annually on FloSlam as part of this deal.

“We’re excited to serve die-hard pro wrestling fans with live streams of some of the best independent promotions in the world,” FloSports co-founder and CEO Martin Floreani said. “This is a groundbreaking agreement that will take WWNLive to new heights.”

In addition to live coverage and replays of all future WWNLive promotions, FloSlam will host archives from all WWNLive events dating back to 2003 and will produce a series of original documentaries focusing on the lives and stories of the athletes who compete in pro wrestling events across the world.

“Everyone at WWN is excited to be partnering with such an innovative and groundbreaking company like FloSports,” said Sal Hamaoui, President of WWN, Inc. “I recently had the opportunity to meet and speak with their senior management and take a firsthand look at their operations in Austin, Texas. To say that I was impressed with the overall knowledge of their team, the quality of their live streams and their user-friendly platforms would be an understatement. This relationship will allow us to continue to serve and expand our loyal, passionate fan base who will have access to all WWN-branded events at a very affordable monthly or annual price.”

Top independent pro wrestling stars including Timothy Thatcher, Matt Riddle, Zack Sabre Jr., Tony Nese, and Drew Gulak will be featured in upcoming events.

FloSlam users can access all live streams and premium content on the site via monthly ($20/month introductory price) or annual ($150/year) FloPRO subscription. Annual subscribers to FloSlam receive a universal pass to all premium content across the FloSports network, including FloWrestling, FloGrappling, FloCombat, FloKO and others.

this is...interesting. i don't know if it's the SCENE CHANGING ANNOUNCEMENT!! it was hyped to be, but it is pretty surprising that WWE is going to be on a seperate streaming service (with other companies)

Right now it looks like they will be carrying WWE, ROH, EVOLVE, PROGRESS and some others for live events. So what I don't get is....if i'm getting WWE PPVs on floslam AND top indie companies...why would i keep subbing to the network? Their awful original programming?

I don't think you get WWE PPVs

man i was on their site this morning, and they had WWE PPVs on their events page and now they're all gone. So...i guess that answers that? maybe?

http://www.floslam.tv/article/47679-welcome-to-floslam

by Jeremy Botter, FloSports Managing Editor
Follow on Twitter @jeremybotter

As a college student back in the 90's, I discovered the vibrant world of independent pro wrestling.

Don't get me wrong: I've been a wrestling fan my whole life. But it wasn't until college that I discovered that there was more than the World Wrestling Federation, more than WCW. I started trading tapes with fellow fans around the world, seeking out the latest and greatest from across the globe. And I've continued watching independent pro wrestling well into my adult years.

But it's not easy to be a die-hard indie pro wrestling fan. There are so many great indie promotions around the world, and you have to spend a lot of money to keep up with them. Rightly so. But when you're tossing out $9.95 here, $14.95 here, $34.95 here and you're doing it multiple times per month? That gets expensive in a hurry.

That changes today.

Today, we announced a five-year worldwide exclusive deal with WWNLive that will see FloSlam become the home of EVOLVE, SHINE, ACW and Full Impact Pro.

Beginning with SHINE 38 on November 4, you no longer have to shell out for the individual pro wrestling events you want to see.

Just like Netflix, the WWE Network, Hulu and others, we're taking independent pro wrestling and making it available in one place. You get all the live events, the event libraries and much more, and you get it all for one low monthly or annual subscription.

So if you're looking forward to next month's EVOLVE 72 and EVOLVE 73 shows, you're in luck: they're included. We'll bring you approximately 60 live events from the WWNLive promotions each year.

And today's announcement is just the beginning. We aren't stopping here.

We are scouring the globe, from USA to Japan and the United Kingdom and beyond, looking for the best independent pro wrestling in the world. As we add these promotions to FloSlam, they'll all be included in the same FloPRO subscription. You'll never have to open your wallet for an individual pay per view event.

We're also doing something never before done in pro wrestling outside of WWE: we're going to send our staff to provide on-location coverage at these events. We'll use our world-class production team to bring you up to date on storylines and help you understand what's at stake in each match. We'll report live from the cities and venues where the events are taking place, and we'll give you video interviews with the athletes when they come back through the curtain.

On top of that, you'll get incredible documentary films from our FloFilms department that take you closer to the action than ever before and tell you the human stories behind the men and women you love watching in the ring.

We love indie wrestling. I love indie wrestling. When I pitched this idea here at FloSports back in May, I did so on a lark, never thinking it would go anywhere. I just wanted something like the WWE Network, an amazing product that I use on a daily basis, except I wanted a version of the Network that showed all the other stuff I love watching.

And thanks to the brilliant people I work alongside here at FloSports, that's exactly what we're creating: a one-stop shop for everything indie wrestling fans love. And all for one price.

Indie wrestling isn't dead, despite what you've been reading on social media the past few days. It's more vibrant than ever. And we're going to ensure it stays that way by supporting our new and future partners with the resources they need to highlight the athletes on their roster.

And we're going to bring all of it to you on the screens you use the most.

Welcome to FloSlam. We're excited about this new future, and we think you will be, too.

Interesting af

I mean if they are able to get enough big time indy companies. It very well could change the scene. $20 a month for around 20 shows a month, would be 100% worth it.

Also I assume this almost assuredly declares the death of Fite.tv

from the observer
In an announcement on Friday, FloSports revealed that independent promotions Beyond Wrestling and PWX would be airing live events on the streaming service. FloSlam will stream Beyond's December 11th event in Melrose, MA, along with PWX's two-night X16 tournament on November 19th-20th.

The promotions are the second and third announced additions to the lineup, with the company previously announcing that they had reached an exclusive multi-year deal to stream events from EVOLVE and the rest of the World Wrestling Network.

Beyond tweeted that, for now, their deal is only for the December 11th show and 90-day rights to its VOD.

Beyond is based in the Northeast and prides itself on featuring a unique atmosphere with standing-room crowds, and the promotion has regularly been home to some of the region's top talent. The December 11th show will take place in the same building before EVOLVE 75.

The North Carolina-based PWX has already announced Zack Sabre Jr., Matt Riddle, Fred Yehi, Trevor Lee, Davey Richards, and others for the 16-man X16 tournament.

i mean those are neat, but not really subscription sellers.

That X16 tournament should be really good.

i used a visa giftcard to buy a month of floslam and will be watching the evolve shows this weekend. I guess i will let you guys know how that goes.

Swarley how was using FloSlam during a live show?

It was fine. They don't have an xbox or ps4 app, but if you just go the site on either console's web browser the videos will work. I watched the whole show on Xbox without issue. I wish it was a little higher quality, but it was totally fine.

As for Joey Styles, here's a couple things people are missing:

1. This was said over the house mic when he was doing a segment with Stokley Hathaway, not on commentary. So everyone in the building heard it and groaned.
2. He was asked not to talk about politics
3. How do I know this? He told us Gabe asked him not to and then said "Sorry Gabe" into the camera. So not just did he ignore him, he told us all he ignored him, to prove how much of a big shot he is i guess.
4. This isn't the PC police getting someone fired, Gabe apparently had a vintage meltdown at the show after it happened. So no old timers and closet right wingers, this wasn't evil liberals ruining your wrestling.
5. He was shit on commentary all show, he might have been quietly not asked back anyway. He spent 2 hours before this talking about himself, putting himself over and making bad jokes.

the stream for 73 was very good, HD quality. seems like quality will still vary from venue to venue.

WXW out of germany was announced today, this is fantastic news, they do a lot of good stuff and use a lot of good guys from what I've seen

Gonna bust out and get a year sub when I get my PS4 in a couple weeks. Seems like it works and has a ton of great content.

as someone who paid for a year, i think its a really good value and have no issue with their service. But i do have this nagging thought in the back of my head that says "boy i hope they don't go under".

agreed that money aint coming back to you if they fail

literally as we were having this conversation Jeremy Botter, the main face of floslam, has left flosports. stuff like this worries me.

Yeah I saw that and also the guy who originally accepted the job as chief editor left before ever starting that job

This seems like it could fall apart at any second

OTT is also a partner now. I don't know if I'll ever sign up for the year long subscription.

"Big" Mike Johnson wrote:Multiple sources over the last week have indicated to PWInsider.com that the relationship between Flosports and Sal Hamoaui's WWN, the parent company of EVOLVE, Style Battle, FIP, SHINE and the now-defunct Dragon Gate USA, is "fraying" and the two sides look to be heading for a legal showdown.

PWInsider.com has confirmed that Flosports filed a lawsuit against WWN on 9/15 in Travis County Court in Texas and that WWN are in the process of preparing a counter-suit. PWInsider.com is working to acquire the lawsuit.

Sources indicate that while the two sides announced a five year deal publicly in October 2016, there is actually just over a year left on their current agreement and there has been a breakdown of relations between the two sides. Flosports pays WWN to produce a number of events for the streaming service every month. That content fills out the majority of Flosports' offering to its pro wrestling side.

Using the name Floslam, Flosports launched its pro wrestling service in October 2016, charging $20 a month/$150 a year for access to live and video on demand programming, including older events and documentary style features. There was a great excitement in certain circles that the company, which had touted back in August 2016 that they had received $21.2 million in new funding, was going to change the landscape for independent wrestling and become a major competitor to WWE's streaming Network. The irony there was that WWE was one of the investors in the company.

Unfortunately, despite the initial acquisition of WWN content, the rollout for the service was, in my opinion, haphazard at best. The Roku app had issues until recently as it was not supported by many of Roku's devices (although it worked well with a Roku Express once I purchased one) . The service was not available on any other standard apps, such as Playstation of even Apple. There was no marketing to support the service beyond their social media account and emails sent out to existing subscribers. A number of companies that joined the service, including House of Hardcore and Germany's WXW, would later leave while some companies that were touted as partners were simply involved for one or few events. At one point, the service was even raised to a $30 per month price point (with no advance notice), although that was later rolled back to $20.

As I have covered before in great detail, it was as if the Flosports decided to put a plane in the air without knowing where it was going or how to land.

Despite all the issues, as of this writing, the two sides are still working together, as this weekend's WWN events will air as scheduled on Flosports.

WWE, which has cultivated a relationship with WWN's Gabe Sapolsky, is sending Cedric Alexander to appear on those events, but not as part of the Flosports broadcast. One would have to assume that if WWN can wrangle itself free of the Flosports issues, the long-planned WWE Network tier system could be their next destination.

Should this situation end with the departure of WWN content, one does have to ask what would be left for Flosports if they wish to continue with a streaming service dedicated to professional wrestling. House of Hardcore's most recent live events have not been carried on the service, which we are told was a decision made by Tommy Dreamer.

PWInsider.com contacted Hamoai, who referred us this morning to WWN's attorney, Sean Heller. We are currently awaiting a statement from Mr. Heller.

PWInsider.com has also contacted Flosports, who have not returned queries regarding the situation.

Beyond professional wrestling, Flosports also handles streaming services for a variety of other sporting events, including collegiate wrestling, MMA, fitness, boxing, softball, tennis, gymnastics, marching, basketball, volleyball, eSports, cheerleading, and track.

Full Disclosure: I am a current annual subscriber to Floslam.

https://www.pwinsider.com/article/112437/flosport-wwn-relationship-looks-to-be-coming-to-an-end.html?p=1

im gonna end up subbed to wwe network to watch evolve aren't i?

Flo suing wwn for 1 MILLION DOLLARS

https://www.pwtorch.com/site/2017/09/21/breaking-flosports-files-lawsuit-wwn-misrepusentation-ippv-vod-buyrates-wwn-planning-countersuit/

Surely this kind of lawsuit will attract other Independent promotions to take WWN's place