 |
| WRITERS |
| Copyright © Georgia Wrestling History, Inc.
All rights reserved. |
| PROMOTING
November 4, 2002 – Dick Steinborn When my father promoted Orlando prior to my promoting Columbus, I was my Dad’s legman in running his errands and making sure his ad was in the newspaper, helping to set up the ring, setting up chairs, and after the matches, help loading up the ring in my Dad’s 18-foot trailer. When I got my license in Columbus, I had all those years of experience from a man, my father, who was 42 years older than I was. Fred Ward was a good promoter and ran a good organization, but lacked the new ideas that were spilling out from the talent that was now entering the business, especially with television. Innovation was the thing to possess in order to progress to higher heights in the promotional end. Let me give you an example. The Municipal Auditorium in Columbus had an extremely hard ring. The Auditorium hydraulically lowered the ring lights over the ring that was only one-third of the capacity of the building. I asked the building manager what it would cost to move the ring lights to the middle of the building. “$2,500.00,” Mr. Mathews told me. There was a catwalk slung under the roof, about halfway in the middle of the building. With permission from the manager, he allowed me to apply a boat wrench bolted to the steel beam. Then, I’d run a 8,000-pound capacity quarter-inch airplane cable from that wrench down to a stainless steel ring light that I had had made at a metal shop. I knew that a match coming up between Ernie Ladd and Tarzan Tyler would be a turn away crowd for the Columbus fans. With this new setup, I added over 500 more ringside seats, and allowed the dark end of the coliseum to be a better viewing position for the fans who would be sitting in that area. Sure enough, we had to close the doors after the fire marshal had told me, “You have enough standing only crowds accepted by the law.” People were turned away at the door. At the conclusion of the event, I went to settle up with the building manager, where he informed me that I had broke all attendance records for a wrestling show in the Columbus Auditorium. My opponent Fred Ward had promoted in that city for 18 years yet failed to reach those heights. Because of the Gunkel Enterprises competition against Mr. Ward, he finally went from a one camera black and white live TV show on Saturday to a two camera color TV presentation each week. The best thing about the competition was that the city manager informed me that with two nights of wrestling in the Auditorium, it increased the city revenue with income from taxes, rent, parking, etc. Sometimes things that seem to be bad, turn out to be well done. |