More Thoughts on the "Indy" Wrestling Today

Ok, I have been "missing" for about 3 months now. Long story, but the short version is - my place got flooded in Ridgeland, Ms. on Labor Day, salvaged what I could and stayed in North Mississippi for a couple of months with no internet service, had to decide where to go from there, and the good news is, I have moved to the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast where I lived for awhile about 12 years ago, had always planned to move back here, and I Love It!! So, after getting back in the groove of being an official beach bum again, I will try and pick up where I left off in my last post.
  I had talked about a couple of Indy (Independent) shows I had been to, and about the wannabe promoters and wrestlers, who just don't have a clue. Well, I went to another one this past Saturday night and the result was about the same, about what I had expected. 30-40 people in attendance, half of the "wrestlers" should have been ashamed to even climb in the ring and attempt to convince the few fans there that they should be taken seriously, and obviously almost no serious promotional effort was put into this. Now, let's look at this from a promoter and wrestler view point. Let's just say I counted wrong and there were 50 people there. The ticket price was $8, or $6 if you brought a toy for the needy children at Christmas, which was a great cause. By the way, the "promoter" also wrestled in the main event and actually was fairly decent. I had never seen him before but there was an obvious crooked referee involved, which at the end brought out a good referee, which was to lead up to another match later on (I think they run this town maybe 3 times a year) and they are going to draw a big crowd the next time? Gimme a damn break here! Lousy finishes with no rhyme or reason. Back to my point, just say you had 50 fans that paid $8.00 to attend, which is a total of $400.00. You had 13 "wrestlers" (one wrestled twice) and 2 referees, plus 1 "manager", plus 2 lady "valets". Now if I added correctly, you have 18 "entertainers"? that should expect to be paid something. Well, let me back up here, you have maybe 5 that would I would even consider paying anything. The rest I would never even consider booking on a card that I promoted unless it would be to put a couple of these punks in the ring with a real professional wrestler that would stretch them and chew them up in about 90 seconds and have their butts carried out of the  ring knowing that they should NEVER, EVER claim to be a wrestler again, and should never even come close to a wrestling ring again unless they buy a ticket and sit in the back.  So, 18 folks on the card, $400.00 gross ticket sales, Now let's divide this money up. WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING?
  For all the playtime promoters out there I will say this. You are giving such a slap in the face to any legitimate wrestling promotion out there that would come into your towns that you are putting on shows that are a damn disgrace to the sport. You CANNOT just say that you are bringing wrestling to the town and maybe, rely on Facebook to bring in the crowd! You  CANNOT have a card where half the guys weigh maybe 130-150 lbs with no clue of how to work and obviously have never been trained by anyone with real experience and knowledge of the wrestling business. AND IF you continue to book shows with this kind of talent that will work for nothing, then you can expect to get nothing in return. BUT PLEASE don't book it as "Professional" or "Championship" Wrestling, because it is not. You would be doing the fans a favor if you would just say something like "Hey, we have a little wrestling club where guys are going to get in the ring and pretend to be wrestlers, FREE ADMISSION, and if you are entertained at all and got a few laughs, you may leave a donation in the cup on your way out so we can buy these guys a coke and hotdog after they are through"! For all you playtime wrestlers out there, well... never mind.
  OK, now that I got that off my chest and ran my mouth on the subject, I will give you my calmed down opinion of the few wrestlers this past Saturday night worth mentioning. You had one masked wrestler, big and impressive, that I could tell knew his way around the ring and had probably been trained well. You had one tag team that I had seen before with potential that work well together, although the finish was not great and the team they worked against was fair at best. If these guys had the opportunity to work with some real talent on a regular basis I think they could develop a great deal. In the main event, you had the "Promoter/Wrestler" who actually worked hard and was not bad at all but again, lousy finish. The guy he worked against was a young impressive looking guy which I had also seen before and actually had improved somewhat. I think the first time I saw him he had only had a few matches, but he seems to be a good natural heel with potential. I just wish these guys could get the proper training.
  So, all that being said the bottom line is this. You have a few guys out there that just need to be working with better talent in order to improve. Most of the others should duck their heads and go home, and stay there. As for the promoters, they "just ain't got a clue!"
  Thanks for stopping by, more to come, and I welcome your comments!

More Thoughts on the Independent Wrestling Promotions of Today

It has been a few weeks since my last post, I think I had brain-freeze or something, but now I am back and want to follow up on my thoughts of "Indy" wrestling groups that are running today. I first want to talk about two recent "wrestling matches" I saw (well, one I actually watched) here in the Mississippi area. Both were pretty much the same. Both were actually promoted by a good professional wrestler that most of you probably know. Both had the same problems. Terrible location, lack of wrestling talent and lack of promotion. The first show drew about 35 people and started about an hour after the announced start time. I counted 16 people at the second one, half I think were with the "wrestlers", I left at 10:30 pm (scheduled bell time was 8 pm) and they still had not started. They were waiting for the "late crowd" to arrive. By the way, this one was at a night club. You WILL NOT build a wrestling promotion like this! Just because you are actually an experienced  professional wrestler does not mean you can be a promoter. Just because you are an experienced promoter does not mean you can be a wrestler. Hell, I enjoy watching a good movie but, that does not mean I can be a great actor that people will pay money to see! That is just called Common Sense! Yes, there have been times in the past that these thing have happened, but that does not make it the norm. It reminds me of the TV commercial today where at the end, Alec Baldwin is sitting in the co-pilot chair of an airliner and reaches up to flip a switch or something. The pilot reaches over and stops him and then he turns towards the pilot and says "It's OK, I've played a pilot before"! This brings me to two main things that I have a problem with in some of the promotions running today that I know of.
#1. Wrestler/Promoter. And I use these terms loosely. Although they may be doing a pretty good job of advertising their shows, they are not doing justice to the overall promotion. If you have some young guys that do have talent and potential, Push them! Get them over with the fans! You are not helping them, yourself or the fans if you continue to put yourself in the main event as the main attraction! You need to realize that you may just be a young good-looking guy who knows "a few" wrestling moves, trained "somewhere" by "somebody", has some money, can cut a pretty good interview and want to impress the ladies, or you may be someone who has a basic wrestling knowledge, been in the wrestling business for a number of years, but never were a Main Event wrestler in any territory, can cut a pretty good interview, should have hung up your boots a long time ago, and you can now only waddle around the ring because you are too fat and out of shape.
#2. Failure to Learn. For any wrestler or promoter that says "You can't tell me anything about wrestling" or "You can't tell me anything about promoting" because you think you have done or seen it all, I have to feel sorry for you. My background is in promoting and, was fortunate enough to do very well for a long time. But the thing is, I was constantly learning from my father, as well as others. I made my mistakes. My father made his mistakes. Others made their mistakes. The difference is, we were always open to advice from others. If you agree, go with it. Try it. If you disagree, go with your gut feelings. That is the best way to learn. There are a few guys still around from my days that I keep in touch with and consider really good, if not great, wrestlers in their time, but the one thing I have never heard any of them say is "You can't tell me anything". Just the opposite. They will say "There were a helluva lot of guys who could tell me something, AND teach me something"! It's a bit sad that the true art of wrestling and promoting is being lost these days.
But, it may not be totally lost. I am hearing a couple of good things that are in the works in different areas, people that are sincere about doing it right. As a matter of fact, I am in the process of lining up a match here in Mississippi next month to help benefit a very worthy cause. The one thing I can promise is that I will promote this event to the best of my ability, and I will have a card with some really talented wrestlers. It has taken me awhile to line up the talent but I am very pleased with the guys I will bring in. I could have easily made a couple of calls and brought in a bunch of guys to get in the ring and do "something".  But thanks to a couple of good contacts, many phone calls and looking at many videos, I will have both seasoned and really good young up and coming talent. Whether 30, 300, or 3,000 fans show up, we are going to put on one helluva wrestling match! Looking forward to my next "learning experience"! Have a great and safe labor Day Weekend, Y'all!!

What's With The Independent Wrestling Promotions of Today?

I am not talking about the two big promotions you see on TV today, but rather the smaller independent ("Indy") shows that are popping up everywhere today, I haven't heard of any here in Mississippi in a while, but there were a number of them that tried over the past years. It's really sort of funny because I had a couple of different guys call me after we stopped promoting and ask for my advice on starting a promotion. The two things that struck me were; #1. "If you have all these questions and want my advice, how do you figure you have the basic knowledge or background to start a new promotion?" I never asked them this question because I would never want to come across as rude or intentionally insult someone's ability. I would listen to them, but this question was always in the back of my mind. #2. "If there were still good money to be made promoting and you had the wrestling talent to draw big crowds, do you really think I would have just walked away from it to leave the door open for someone else to step in and take over?" Now this question I did ask them at the end of the conversation. I wanted them to really think about that. I never told anyone they could not do it. I just wanted them to know it would be a tough road at that particular time. Back when we were promoting you had different territories and the promoters would pretty much respect that, and would even swap some of the wrestlers back and forth. You did have the occasional promotion "easing into" a neighboring state or territory, maybe because their TV overlapped and was seen there, or they were just wanting to expand, or maybe even out of spite. But, these issues were usually settled fairly quickly with no major battle or war. Then things changed. Vince McMahon, Sr. passed away and Vince, Jr. took over. He had millions, and threw the mutual respect out the window. He was determined to take over and had the money to offer the top talent from the territories to come with him. Whether they agreed with the way he ran his promotion or not, the money talked. Maybe more on that in a different post.
So, back to today. I keep in touch with some old friends from the wrestling business that live in different areas and I keep hearing the same thing. Wanna-be promoters trying to run towns with wanna-be wrestlers. The 'promoters' really do not have the background in the wrestling business and the 'wrestlers' maybe bought some boots and tights off the internet, practiced in the back yard with their buddies, maybe even had an actual wrestler train them a bit, and now think they are professionals. Ready for the big-time, trying to fly around the ring imitating the WWE. I am not faulting these guys for wanting to do something big, but the problem I have is that they are not representing true wrestling and the fans can clearly see this. I do not fault any of the guys in the big groups either. They are making big money. I wish them all well and hope they make zillions. But, they are not representing true wrestling either. They are entertaining. However, I do applaud WWE because they actually seem to be trying to get back to some of the basics. Very little, but it is a small step.
On the flip side of all of this, do I feel that the wrestling fans in Mississippi and other states will ever have the opportunity to once again see a return of "old school" wrestling  and quality promotions in their towns? There may just be a return. There may just be some good things brewing out there. Stay tuned for more on this subject in my next post. As always, thank you for stopping by and, your comments are welcome! Gil

"Pretty Boy" Ripper Collins, Greenwood, Ms. TV, What Could Go Wrong?

L-R Superstar and "Pretty Boy"

So far I have talked on the serious side about the background of ICW Wrestling and given my opinion, for what it's worth, on a few folks and a couple of promotions, and I want you to know that anything I write about will be from my own personal experiences and not from the many things I have heard or know of. That being said, I am going to switch to the lighter side of behind-the-scenes incidents that can and do happen in the wrestling business which the fans never see, or, in this case, lots of folks in the Greenwood, Mississippi TV viewing area DID see! If you were one of those lucky ones, you will never forget. I surely will not! True Story - "Pretty Boy" + Johnny Cascio + Channel 6 + General Manager on the phone + Christmas Time + Decorations = A Night To Remember! Let me tell you, if you did not know and had not been around "Ripper" Collins, or were not there at the TV studio that night, there is no way you can fully appreciate the scene, but I will do my best to give you an idea of the chaos!
Johnny Cascio was the sports commentator for Channel 6 TV in the Greenwood/Greenville area. When we started filming our weekly ICW Wrestling Show live from the Sportatorium each Friday night in Greenwood, we had recruited Johnny to be "the voice of ICW", calling the matches from the commentary position. Johnny was a natural! He called the matches with excitement and enthusiasm in a very serious manner, such as the Jim Ross of today. Excellent at what he did!
"Pretty Boy" Ripper Collins was one of the wrestlers we brought in during that time who had been around different areas but not really known to the fans in the South. Well, it did not take him long to get their attention and realize that this was a wrestler that was "outrageous, flamboyant and, very unpredictable! His wardrobe was usually very bright and  outlandish and especially for Friday "TV" nights, he would go get his hair 'done', nails polished, and usually a bit of make-up. Now here is what happened this particular night; It was after our live TV taping at the Sportatorium and we were at the Channel 6 Studio to cut interviews. It was at Christmas time. We were waiting for Johnny to finish his late broadcast. During this "waiting", Pretty Boy had been wandering around the set out of view and had come across their Christmas Decorations. Nobody had really paid any attention to what he was doing because he was always into something! Johnny was wrapping up his broadcast and, to Ripper's defense, I guess it did seem like it was over when Johnny said "goodnight". Well, about the time the words got out of his mouth, here comes...(you have to try to picture this in your mind) "Pretty Boy" - dancing, prancing and skipping onto the the set, with all sorts of ornaments and garland in his hair and pinned on his outfit, throwing glitter and whatever into the air, singing "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" in a high pitched voice, then at Johnny's side at the chair with a piece of mistletoe in his hand, held it over Johnny's head (who was still looking straight ahead), then leaned over and gave Johnny a big kiss on the cheek! It was hilarious! Camera crew was cracking up, Johnny turned red in the face and then - Here comes the problem! The cameras were still rolling! The phone is ringing - for Johnny - and it is the General Manager of Channel 6! He not only demanded to know what was going on and Who was that, but also WHAT In The Hell WAS that?!! By then the rest of us realized what was happening. Johnny was still red, still on the phone with the boss, somewhat speechless, our Booker Frankie Cain, The Great Mephisto was chewing Ripper up and down, and as far as I remember, I was standing there speechless like Johnny, but at the same time trying to hold back the laughter! The rest of the crew at the station were still rolling on the floor. Needless to say it took a bit of talking and a cooling off period for the General Manager. So, I never will forget the night that "Pretty Boy" Ripper Collins, the big dancing Christmas Ornament, invaded Channel 6 TV in Greenwood, Mississippi! I could write a book about this man! There were so many more "incidents" with him! Felt like strangling him sometimes but yet, couldn't help but love the guy - Never a dull moment!! Great memories! Thanks for reading and, Stay Tuned!

Loyalty - The Spoiler, Don Jardine

In my last 2 posts I talked about false loyalty. Tonight I want to talk about true loyalty. At the time we formed ICW Wrestling in Mississippi, going head-to-head in competition with Mid-South Wrestling, it was not an easy task getting wrestlers to come in and work for us, so we mainly started out with a few "old timers" and brought in some young talent from different areas who were not yet known here in Mississippi. One wrestler who did come in for us later was The Spoiler, real name Don Jardine. For those of you who have followed wrestling to any degree there is no need to say that The Spoiler was a main event card throughout the country and to this day is still considered by many as one of the greatest Masked grapplers of all time. He had worked for Leroy McGuirk and then for Bill Watts here in the South drawing huge crowds all over.
Now here's where the loyalty came in. Of course Bill was running Jackson and some other towns against us where he could, The Spoiler would come in for us on some of our cards but NEVER worked for Bill in towns against us during that time. How he managed to do that, I don't know. Maybe because he could pretty much do whatever he wanted to.
His reason for doing this? I don't know, because he didn't have to work for us, or for Bill. This man could have easily gone to any big territory anytime he wanted to, and make good money. It wasn't for the money. It wasn't for the exposure. I really think it was something more than loyalty. I think a better word would be RESPECT. Respect for my father.
RIP Don.

Loyalty? Grizzly Smith - The BIG STOOGE - Part 2

Jackson, Mississippi. Huge crowd at the Coliseum. The night of the big Cage Match. Grizzly Smith vs The Great Mephisto! (If you didn't read my last post, you may want to scroll down and get the lead-up to this true incident).
I can tell you that one of the worst things that can happen in a promotion is substitutions, especially in the main event. I can say that we were very fortunate to have only a couple of these incidents in our many years of promoting wrestling, and those few times were legitimately unavoidable, either injury or travel problems. We NEVER, EVER advertised a big name to draw a crowd knowing that we did not have them signed and booked. Unfortunately, there were a few promotions that would do just that. So, here we are, after the big street fight, the pictures and story in the Clarion Ledger, both men bloodied and arrested, the time has come! Lock them in a 10' steel cage and let them fight until the toughest man is able to walk out, leaving his defeated opponent lying in the ring!
Time has come after the other great matches for the Cage Match! The cage has been set up. The crowd is ready, and loud! Mephisto has been there from the beginning. Grizzly Smith? Has not been seen or heard from. Only one thing to do. My father goes to the ring and announces "Ladies and gentlemen, we do not know if Mephisto has attacked Grizzly again in the alley or what has happened, but he has not shown up and is not here tonight". You can imagine the crowd's reaction! By the time he has finished this announcement Mephisto has hit the ring, grabs the mic and says "Grizzly Smith, I have bailed myself out of jail, I am here, and if you have a single ounce of guts and courage in your body you will do the same and hit this ring RIGHT NOW!" No Grizz.

So, did Bill Watts' plan work? To plant Grizzly as a stooge, keep him informed of everything we were doing, build up to a huge main event then not show up, therefore killing our territory?

Well guys, it did not. They under-estimated the talent we had working for us and the loyalty and desire of the fans in Mississippi to see great wrestling! A challenge was issued to Mephisto that night by another great wrestler in the dressing room, we had a great cage match, the crowd popped, and by the time they left the arena they had forgotten all about Grizzly Smith! Not one person asked for a refund. The crowd got what they came to see. International Championship Wrestling. And, we continued to outdraw the Mid-South group in every single town they came into to run against us!
Bill Watts? I know this killed your huge ego and you will have to admit to anyone today if you are truthful that we out-promoted, out-booked, and out-wrestled you!
Grizzly Smith? Rest-in-peace my friend. You were looking out for yourself. Hope you were paid well for it because it was a helluva ride!
Next time - Real Loyalty - The Spoiler, Don Jardine! I welcome your comments!

LOYALTY? Grizzly Smith - The BIG STOOGE!

During the time  in the 1970's when we pulled away from the Bill Watts promotion, Mid-South Wrestling, and formed International Championship Wrestling in Mississippi, we had many wrestlers that were loyal to us and willing to take a chance on our promotion. I will forever be grateful to these guys. On the other hand, there were those that truly wanted to see us fail, whether it was for fear of "bucking" the big established group, fear of being "blackballed" if they came with us and we failed, or greed and the desire to dominate and intimidate. Yes Bill, talkin' bout you. So, here comes the big plan and the attempted screw job. Enter the Big Stooge Grizzly Smith. Grizz' had come to us claiming to be fed up with Bill and wanting to be a part of ICW. Although we had doubts in the back of our minds, he was very convincing and we decided to give him a chance. Things were going great, Grizz' was always there on time and wanting to help in any way. A big feud developed between him and The Great Mephisto (Frankie Cain) that led up to a big upcoming cage match at the coliseum in Jackson, Ms.. Just prior to this, these two ran into each other while Christmas shopping mid-day in downtown Jackson, a street fight erupted, police were called, a newspaper photographer showed up on the scene, and the two bloodied men were handcuffed and arrested. So, what happens the night of the big Cage Match?? Stay tuned for Part 2!

My Thoughts on TNA Impact Wrestling

I posted my thoughts earlier on WWE and tried to be fair and give credit where credit is due, and even pointed out 2 wrestlers that, in my opinion had actual wrestling ability. I will do the same for TNA. This will be short and sweet.
Production - Fair
Honestly, that is the only credit I can give this group.
I am not even going to give the couple of wrestlers that I consider capable, of any credit at all. Reason being, they have sold out. Period!!
The last show I tried to watch, in the first 6 minutes, I heard "Ass", which I can deal with occasionally in a heated interview, (IN THE FIRST 6 MINUTES!) but was followed by "J***Off", "Sc**W", and "C**P". I switched channels at that point but if they followed their usual pattern, there was probably some bleeped words such as "Bi***h", "C**nt", "A***ole", "P***Y" and others. Fill in the blanks if you want to.
Plus, when you have one of your top guys being billed as "The Whole F''ing Show" and a fat, tattooed lady wrestler constantly grabbing her breasts, rubbing her crotch, and hunching on an opponent, it is disgusting!
Hulk Hogan, you have never been a wrestler, never could be, never will be. Just a character.
Sting, Steiner, Angle - Shame on YOU!!
Jeff Jarrett - I guess you disappoint me more than anyone. You come from a great wrestling family. What happened to your pride and respect for the wrestling business your family worked so hard in and where they were respected?
Jeff, a word from me for what it is worth: Can't you look back and see that Vince started out like this and almost lost all his sponsors and viewing audience? Almost went under? Why in the world would you try to go back to that? The wrestling fans deserve so much more!!
Ok, I have tried to be fair. This is how I see it. And, if any of you guys I mentioned don't agree, "Get over it Princess".  I don't think there is anything that would change my mind at this point.
Enough of that. My next 2 posts will be on LOYALTY! Stay Tuned!

Some Great Talent on the 1970"s ICW Wrestling Cards in Mississippi

Fans remember the great cards we had in Mississippi after pulling away from Watts and forming International Championship Wrestling! This is from a fan, posted some time back on one of the big wrestling forums out there on the internet. Just check out the names! (Thanks to Mississippi Fan)
"I got to looking through some of my old stuff about Percy Pringe and Izzy Slapowitz during their run for the Culkin's Mississippi promtion in 1978 and thought I would list a portion of that week's cities, dates and cards?
Saturday, April 29 (TV card on Channel 12 WJTV Jackson)"
1. Lord Michael Hayes draws Johnny Mantell.
2. Hair vs. $500 challenge tag team match. Tom Shaft and Terry Gordy beat the Great Mephisto (Frankie Cain) and "Hippy" Troy Graham. Graham gets his head shaved. During the tag match, Mephisto refused to tag Graham several times and Troy finally hit him. Mephisto put the old boot to Troy and Shaft pinned him. This set up a real good feud between heel Mephisto and new babyface Graham.
3. Tag Team Match. Percy Pringle's Mongolians beat a 'bloody' Ricky Fields and Terry Latham 2 out of 3 falls after Percy hit Fields with his cane ringside.
Vicksburg, Monday May 1, 78
1. Tag Team Match. "Hippy" Troy Graham & Ricky Field vs. Great Mephisto & Mongolian 1#.s
2. Tom Jones vs. Jim "Hamgman" Starr.
3. Terry Latham vs. Lord Michael Hayes.
4. "Ripper" Roy Collins vs. Ed Flukett.
McComb, Tuesday Mar 2, 78.
1. Six Man Tag Team Match. "Flying' Phil Watson, "Ripper" Collins & Mongolians w/mg. Percy Pringle.
2. Four Man Tag Team Match. Tom Shaft & Tom Jones vs. "Hangman" Jim Starr & "Hippy" Troy Graham.
3. Johnny Mantell vs. Nikita Alexiv.
Jackson, Wednesday May 3, 78
1. Six Man Tag Team Match. Tom Jones, Terry Latham & Ricky Fields vs. Manager Percy Pringe & the Mongolians.
2. Grudge Match. "Hippy" Troy Graham vs. The Great Mephisto.
3. Women's Match. Donna Star vs. Masked Beauty.
4. Johnny Mantell vs. "Hangman" Jim Starr.
5. Ray Hudson vs. Lord Michael Hayes.
6. Larry Harden vs. Nikita Alexiv.
Hattiesburg, Thursday May 4, 78
1. Four Man Tag Team Match. Doctor X (Jim Osborne) & Tom Shaft vs. Mongolian II & the Scorpion (Jack ? Graham).
2. Terry Gordy vs. "Hangman" Jim Starr.
3. Lou Thesz (THE ONE and ONLY) vs. "Bad" Bill Ash.
4. Phil Watson vs. Lord Michael Hayes.
"During this time, they may have been promoting two different cards nightly so I am not sure who else was wrestling where on the same night as others."

Hope some of you found this interesting.

My Thoughts on WWE Wrestling

WWE - This is exactly what they say it is - ENTERTAINMENT - Nothing More - Nothing Less.
As far as production, it is a multi-million dollar show which is impressive. As far as characters, there are many. Some good, some bad. As far as actual wrestling talent and ability? Very little. My opinion on which guys may actually have a bit of wrestling ability? I will name 1 from each group; Babyface (good guy) and Heel (bad guy). This may surprise some of you but this is my honest opinion:
Babyface - Daniel Bryan (Bryant?)
Heel - CM Punk
The reason I chose these two is because from watching their work in the ring, it appears that these two may actually have the ability to work a 30 minute, 45 minute, or even one hour match and have one that would show their ability and never lose the attention and excitement of the crowd. They actually know how to wrestle! BUT, the only way this would work is to leave out the damn script writers in the back, whoever they are, trying to lay out a match move-by-move,  and let these guys go out and do what they know how to do! WRESTLE! I welcome your comments.