Opinion: In Defense of Inside The Ropes....

For those unaware, Inside The Ropes is a podcast and UK based company who promote live Q & A/Meet & Greet tours with professional wrestlers, past and present.

They have toured all over the UK and Ireland with successful shows featuring the like of Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Paul Heyman, Goldberg, Sting, Jim Ross, Scott Steiner, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Edge, Matt Hardy, Cody Rhodes and more, and have also had one U.S show in New Orleans, also with Paul Heyman.

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Last week, Inside The Ropes made a historic announcement, revealing that their first tour of 2019 would feature someone who fans had previously only dreamed would ever make these kind of appearances, The Undertaker, for shows in London, Glasgow and Manchester next Spring. The announcement was met with great joy and celebration among fans, but many would also question, how much would tickets to the event cost?

Bret Hart make a surprise interruption on host Kenny McIntosh and guests Jim Ross and Jim Cornette at Inside The Ropes Live in London

With The Undertaker being so huge and rare for appearances, many thought the cost for thickets would be huge, and they were correct. There has been some social media backlash from UK fans over the cost of the various tickets. While a general admission ticket costs a fair £50, the meet and greet packages are priced as:

* VIP Front Row: £375 + booking fee. Front row seat to the show, early meet & greet session access, 1 professional printed photo, 1 autograph on any item, official tour t-shirt, limited edition ITR pin, exclusive souvenir ticket, official tour poster

* VIP Second Row: £350 + booking fee. Second row seat, early meet & greet session access, 1 professional printed photo, 1 autograph on any item, limited edition ITR pin, exclusive souvenir ticket, official tour poster

* VIP Third Row: £325 + booking fee. Third row seat, early meet & greet session access, 1 professional printed photo, 1 autograph on any item, exclusive souvenir ticket, limited edition ITR pin

* VIP Combo: £300 + booking fee. Priority seating before GA, early meet & greet session access, 1 professional printed photo, 1 autograph on any item

* VIP Photo: £220 + booking fee. Priority seating before GA, meet & greet session access, 1 professional printed photo (collected after the show), no autographs are included with this ticket

Dates for The Undertaker in the UK

Now no matter what way you look at it, sure, these are quite expensive. Many fans have taken to social media to verbally bash the prices as 'disgusting'. But, has anyone stopped to ask why they are priced this way? Well it's simple really, and enough of a reason that people should take into account before they say what they feel they have to about the prices.

Simply put, The Undertaker is an extremely expensive person to book for an event. He's so exclusive that he mainly makes just WWE meet and greet appearances at events like WWE Axxess during the WrestleMania weekend, and at that rate, he doesn't even do it every year.

In order to be able to pay for The Undertaker, ITR owner Kenny McIntosh and his crew have to price these tickets in such a way that they both make their money back that they spent on the Deadman, and make a profit to continue ITR live shows.

And as crazy as it sounds, a show like this is probably the best and dare I say it, most affordable chance that you may have to meet The Undertaker in this kind of capacity. If the Undertaker is doing an event like WWE Axxess, you only have a very small chance to buy his face value ticket, priced at over $180, before it sells out in mere seconds, and mostly to scalpers.

And that is the big problem, the scalpers. I myself was one of the many who tried hard to buy an Undertaker ticket at WrestleMania week, only to not pay the truly disgusting prices from scalpers. Checking all ticket re-sale websites and social media posts every day, the cheapest I found was $650. Refusing to pay, I later spoke with a fan at the event who paid over $800 from a scalping website just for a photo and autograph with the Phenom. This is what happens every single time to everyone.

The Inside The Ropes prices may not be ideal for many, but compared to what it costs to meet The Undertaker everywhere else, £220 - £350 isn't the worst price in the world for a professional photo, autograph and in dept 90 minute Q & A session with an out of character Undertaker.

If you can't do it, that's fine, but Inside The Ropes and their crew don't deserve to be verbally bashed the way they have been getting it.