These are two articles I wrote many years ago for the Wrestling Then and Now Newsletter. you can find these at the following link
https://www.angelfire.com/wrestling3/thenandnow/sample.html
SO, YOU WANNA BE A PROMOTER, HUH? by Bill M. Walkowitz
I recently acquired the job of New Hampshire promoter for the World Wrestling Alliance, a New England based independent group owned by Fred Sparta. This was gotten through my meeting with the owners, along with giving honest reviews of their shows, and giving them coverage in the sheets I write for. Plus, I've had this longing desire to bring live wrestling back to the city of Rochester, N.H. as it's been years since they had it. The group that came in before wasn't received well, and another organization that tried to come through allegedly didn't go through proper channels; they were shut down the night before their show. This article is to give you, the reader, an idea of what promoters go through in order to put a live show together.
Rochester is known in the business as a "permit" town. Because of the bad experiences the town has had in the past with wrestling, one has to leap the hurdles the Boxing and Wrestling Commission place in front of you. It is known as the toughest town in the state to promote a show, so in case they were to turn us down, I wanted a backup plan. So I went to the public library and went through several different phone books looking for cities that have armories, high schools, ice arenas, and anything that could accommodate a show.
Farmington has a high school gym that holds over 700 people, but they turned us down. Meanwhile, I was pleasantly surprised that Rochester did in fact give us the go ahead and sent rental agreement forms, which were signed and approved by the school superintendent. But we still needed a city permit to use Rochester Middle School's 500 seat gym. This was easier said than done, as getting shows like this usually needs some kind of sponsor. This isn't always easy, as some sponsors have been ripped off in the past by promoters who didn't give them their share, or possibly even used their name without permission. (Actually, I've even seen sponsors try to rip off promoters as well!) We needed the city permit which involves getting a rental agreement with the school, copies of applications to get a promoter's license, copies of insurance policies used during the show, etc. Having done all that, I still had to go to the City Council to see if it would be approved.
In the midst of all this, we did attain a sponsor, but it was later changed to the Jaycees. We decided to go with a benefit for a little girl who was crippled after being hit by a car. To add to her woes, the motor of her handicapped van blew. It was a worthwhile cause that we were proud to support. But there were, of course, other things to attend to. I wasn't sure if the middle school gym would be big enough, but the Spartas assured me it was. I felt a lot of pressure going into my first show, as I had been a skeptic of indy wrestling and wanted to prove that I could draw. As a sheet writer, irate indy promoters had told me, "If you think you know it all, co-promote a show of your own and prove it."
This was my opportunity.
Meanwhile, the day of the City Council meeting, my permit application was second to last on their agenda, and the meeting took four hours (such meetings in some cities take almost a week sometimes with all the bickering!). There was a short dispute on whether the middle school gym would be appropriate, would it hold enough, etc. I threw in the fact it was a fund-raiser and that unlike our predecessors, we wanted to do it "the right way." The Fire Chief acknowledged that I had called him about the fire code and the number of people that the gym could hold. I got full council approval that night.
The next hurdle was the city's licensing committee.
Meanwhile, another New England promoter I knew called me and was mad that I had chosen to work with the WWA. He went as far as to call me a "sleazebag" for using a fund-raiser to get a wrestling show, even though we had every intention of doing right by them. We weren't even off the ground yet, and I was already getting heat.
I put up numerous posters and flyers, and kept making sure that the ads the charity we were involved with (the Jaycees) were running like they were supposed to. Some were. Some weren't. I got three radio stations to plug the show. An ad appeared on cable access. Two newspapers also ran press releases leading up to the show. Even though the posters and fliers were taken off the poles, I kept putting new ones up. My suspicion was that a rival promoter was taking them down, but persistence paid off as they actually stayed up for more than a week.
Come the day of the shows (afternoon and evening cards), I only had gotten a couple hours sleep. I had butterflies in my stomach. After a cup of coffee and about half a pack of cigarettes in only three hours, I wound up going to the building and fogot the permits! After a mad dash home, I returned. I had gotten a couple of friends to work the chair crew to help set up and later take them down. I made sure the Jaycees had the food permit I got for them. I also got more tables for concessions, greeted some of the guys who came early from Mass., helped unload and set up more chairs and basically just buzzed around like the Road Runner on turbo. I wanted to make sure everything was right and in place; I was hoping nothing would go wrong.
As everything was coming together, I was still nervous, as I wanted to know what our draw for the first show was. Fans started to pour in and I was just starting to calm down as it looked like we were getting past the 200 mark. (We actually had 230 people for the afternoon show.) Suddenly I was drafted for intro music duty. I got a one minute crash course just two minutes before the show actually started. After the second match I got it down pat, and I also doubled as ring second, taking gear to the back.
In between shows, we cleaned up. It was a family atmosphere with guys talking with me and my wife Melody. Even George Steele came out and chatted. The atmosphere in the locker room probably rivals ECW's in that there were no egos, and no one had a problem doing jobs. Everything went like an old-time promotion was supposed to.
The evening show had people lining up an hour and a half beforehand. There was a total of 480 paid. I felt it was excellent from top to bottom. I was the official "plant," as I heckled the heels to help them get their heat. This really got the building going. The main-event featured "All American" Mike Hollow, Sgt. Slaughter, and Steele vs. Rick Fuller, The Mongolian, and Bulldozer.
I was very proud of the result as it was my first time co-promoting and we outdrew many of the indys running today. I also had the satisfaction of making my critics eat their words. A lot of promoting boils down to common sense and good old-fashioned hard work, so it makes me wonder why other indy promoters have so much trouble either getting booked or drawing. If most of them would just get off their asses and actually "promote" the show like I did, they might actually have the chance of making money. This was a dream come true, a great learning experience, and one I'm looking forward to doing again and again.
AWA WRESTLING--AT ONE TIME ONE OF THE BEST by Bill M. Walkowitz
Growing up in Chicago, we had (before Crockett, McMahon, etc.) Bob Luce's Chicago Championship Wrestling (which I'll detail at another time) and the American Wrestling Association. Long before their regular tapings at casinos in Vegas, there was that dinky, tiny TV studio. Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo made that TV studio into one of the best places for mat action anywhere. The following is a spotlight on the AWA, and what made it unique and my all-time favorite wrestling promotion.
JIMMY DOO & JAKE MILLIMAN: You knew that every time these two went to the ring, either in singles or as a tag team, they had a snowball's chance in hell of winning. But the WWF had Barry Horowitz and Crockett had the Mulkeys, so we had these two. It was always fun watching the "Milkman" try and make that comeback, get two good moves in, and always lean his head down to have his comeback squashed. I don't know which was better, watching their attempted comebacks or the facial expressions on their opponents when they got the two moves put on them.
GREG GAGNE: They say he worked hard even though he was the owner's son, but seeing him in Sgt. Slaughter's "Camp Slaughter" didn't do much for me. He was good with Jim Brunzell as the High Fliers but didn't really have the size to hold the International TV Title, and his "skip, skip, skip to my loo" across the ring when he made saves made for good laughs.
PATERA AND BLACKWELL: Indeed one of the best teams anywhere. Before Bigelow, there was Blackwell doing dropkicks and actual wrestling holds. Patera had the build and talent to make this a formidable team. I had wished Verne had pitted Animal and Hawk against them for the tag straps rather than give them to Von Rashke and Crusher; a more solid match would've been the result.
THE CRUSHER: Call me nostalgic (and what better place than WT&N to be just that, eh?), but Crusher's interviews always hooked me. When I was younger and didn't know better, I loved one of his interviews, his classic, "We're gonna murder the bums and then go up and down Halsted Street and throw people out of the bars and taverns." I called my friend Denny who lived on Halsted Street and told him I couldn't come over that weekend because the Crusher was coming, and bringing the Bruiser with him. Denny wasn't a wrestling fan, so unlike myself, he didn't buy it. But those interviews to me were what made this area so great. If Verne wanted a sellout in Chicago, just put Bruiser and Crusher on the card and the house went up every time.
WALLY KARBO: Had to hand it to him, he wanted to fine every heel who did a dastardly deed "throughout the world" on TV. Probably the funniest figurehead ever; tons better than Jack Tunney.
AL KASSIE: The Indian turned Iranian, one had to wonder what was it about AWA wrestling that he always had to be reinstated and work there (besides the fact he probably couldn't get booked anywhere else). Brody's "I work for the Sheik, and the Sheik pays me alotta money" interviews made it entertaining (especially when on Saturday nights on WCCW you'd see Brody working as a face, so you got both sides of the fence when watching him on TV). Kaissie had some of the best known heels in the business though: Abby, Mongolian Stomper, Blackwell, Kimala (for a short time) and more. He was no Bobby Heenan mind you, but then again, those shoes would always be hard to fill.
Besides the humorous individuals, the AWA also had great talent. Bobby Heenan's family had Bockwinkle, Duncum, Lanza, Mulligan, and more. The REAL Steve Regal had a feud with Buck Zumholfe that was about as long as Tommy Rich/Buzz Sawyer over that lightheavyweight title. Brody, Hansen, L.O.D., Freebirds, Wahoo, Curt Henning, Billy Robinson, and oh yeah, a steroid nut named Terry Bollea all appeared. As years went on and most left, we got other classic stuff. Buddy Rose's "217 pound" weight angle, Tommy Rich ripping off Sherri Martel's dress, Dick Slater, Tully Blanchard (both in for a short time), Adonis and Orton after Vince finished them up, as well as Manny Fernandez continuing his war with Wahoo.
From 1980 to 1983 the AWA ranked as one of the best companies in wrestling, and with a talent base like that, it's hard to argue any differently. Shortly after, Bishoff got some power and Verne didn't change when it came to promoting or payoffs, and things got bad. While we did have Zybysko and Lawler as champs, we had the Destruction Crew, Patera and Brad Rheinghans, Johnny Stewart, Derrick Dukes, as well as failed attempts to recapture that magic. The AWA started to descend to a space next to the Titanic.
Many may make wisecracks about the AWA and how they were back then, but unlike other groups going today, they didn't need to rely on constant chairshots, two dozen precut tables, excessive blading, and swear words. They had the talent to make the product work. If someone wanted solid wrestling, the AWA came through. It was done the way it was supposed to be done, by promoting the local card coming to town and running angles that meant something to those paying fans. People should get old tapes of the AWA where less made more.
