I certainly cannot speak for all studios but I have been involved with one or two companies over my lifetime and while you may not call it a trial match essentially that is what it is....In terms of cost unless the individual is local, there normally is some sort of a travel fee, food, lodging ..So it is important To a company that when you have expended the money you know that there will actually be a match to be sold to the public. There are some individuals that will just simply say yes, I can do it and unfortunately when it got to the actual act of having a match, they failed miserably.... not only a disappointment to the other competitor who showed up prepared to do a match but if another couple had spent money to come up so that they could do the match only to have “your individual “decide not to do the match they were out serious cash on a promise.....one of the ways to protect yourself against this is to have the individual come in and do a short match say five minutes or so....Making sure to have a more experienced person match against them and depending upon what the rules you are using making sure that all the aspects of the rules are tried in the short five minute test...You pay the novice a nominal fee and you pay them more experienced person a little bit more....If things went well you paid the novice for a regular match rate Later in the day after giving her a few pointers, going over the rules etc......
I cannot tell you how often people that looked like they would be excellent turned out to either not have the guts to do it or were genuinely afraid of getting hurt and would quit very early. Best case in point I can think of was many years ago JJ found a tall, thick, blonde woman (pretty) that worked in a bar and supposedly had many fights under her belt...He brought her over with several other women to have training sessions-whenever it came her time to do anything she always had a back injury, a strain, something going on that kept her from practicing....In talking to her you could hear she was a heavy smoker and when I first met her I was concerned about her stamina.....The owner of fighting Wildcats had brought in several women to do matches with some of JJ’s girls...The night before we were setting up match plans, trying to decide which matchups would give the customer the best product...Luckily the tall blonde was around so I simply asked her to go one quick round against Ellen ...Oh most thought this was a crazy matchup because the blonde was taller/stronger etc. but Ellen was game And I appreciated the fact that she went through with it. As it turns out within 2 1/2 minutes of starting the match the blonde was gasping for air and kept turning her back to Ellen -3 1/2 minutes in Ellen was in total control of the match....The next day the blonde was a no-show she basically had soaked JJ for training money done nothing and then disappeared...
Currently guys such as Suitefights etc. hire quality woman with a reputation for fighting and they produce an amazing product....In the early days people like Ellen, fighting nurse, Jen and Marie were just becoming known, In many cases it was truly amateur against amateur ...So if you were picking up the tab you might’ve had a small training match or training session just to make sure the individual could do it
