Calgary high-tech production company Digital Artisans Guild Inc. has taken a flying header into Hollywood with a planned TV and Internet show development deal featuring flashy teenage wrestlers and dancers.

DAG, which once produced Stampede Wrestling out of the Ogden Legion, has partnered with Mandalay Sports Entertainment and E-Media in a two-year deal with revenue projected at $350,000 US per episode. DAG already has two shows out of a planned 100 episodes in the can.

The visual communication company unveiled the project last week in a centre of a canvas wrestling ring at its new 6,800 sq. ft. office/studio complex in northeast Calgary.

Company CEO Milton Kiehlbauch said DAG and Mandalay have signed a letter of intent to produce, market and distribute the interactive matrats.com show, which will target the under-21 market with thumping music, gyrating dancers and teen-themed scripts focused around the wrestling ring.

Dave Olecko, Business Edge
From left, Digital Artisans Guild CEO Milton Kiehlbauch, Mandaly Sports Entertainment's Jason Hervey, DAG's vice-president Graham Owen and Mandalay's Marc Iadanza reveal plans for their wrestling show.

“We consider (matrats.com) to be very pivotal. It’s a significant property we are ecstatic about developing with Mandalay,” Kiehlbauch said, adding the partnership will work on developing new revenue streams including pay per view, special events broadcasting and Internet plays.

Shot in a widescreen 16X9 format using high-definition technology, it’s expected that Web TV and computer users will be able to contribute to the story development — and even choose which wrestlers will be matched up — as the episodes unfold.

Mandalay Sports Action principal Jason Hervey — formerly known to TV viewers as the older brother Wayne Arnold on the series The Wonder Years — calls matrats.com “a new generation of sports entertainment.”

“I grew up around the business, I grew up around all the boys, and I’ve always had a love for professional wrestling,” said the former child actor, who now produces WCW Superstar Series for Time Warner, and who may have an on-screen role in matrats.com

Wrestling talent includes Ted Hart — nephew of Bret “Hit Man” Hart and his late brother Owen — and Harry Smith, son of Davey Boy Smith.

A starting date for the weekly show has not been announced, nor would Mandalay confirm if any TV contracts or other deals have been signed.

Kiehlbauch said DAG, which went public this past December, has had a whirlwind introduction to the markets. “It’s been fast,” he admits.

“We were probably a year in preamble with CDNX, and went public Dec. 14, at absolutely the lowest point of the market, at the worst time . . . but our board of directors said there was nowhere to go but up.

“It’s really hard for some Canadian companies to get their heads around a Hollywood scenario. If we were in Hollywood with what we’ve done, we would have people knocking on the door. But if you’re dealing with Canadian dollarettes, you’ve got a huge capitalization issue because you have to fulfill all these productions.

“And you’ve got the oil and gas company guys scratching their heads saying, ‘we’ve never seen anything like this.’”

Mandalay said it has yet to determine the size of the equity position it plans to take in DAG.

“We were looking for a property that would work both over broadband as well as over television. We needed something absolutely compelling to be able to prove what broadband can do,” said DAG vice-president Graham Owen. “These kids are phenomenal. They are doing moves that nobody else has ever done before.

“The kids that get into the audience here are auditioned. They don’t get in here unless they can dance, and,” he added, “it is a show for the good looking.”

At press time, DAG was trading for about 40 cents on the CDNX.