Tag: regulation

Figure Four Weekly 11/7/2016: California wrestling regulation in 1978

Posted on by F4W Staff

In  1977, Roy Shire’s northern California territory was doing its best business of the entire decade, but it wasn’t offering the usual Roy Shire style of booking with Roy Shire style workers (smaller big bumping blond heel on top) on top. Needing a break and new ideas, he brought in Bob Roop as the booker, who brought in Kevin Sullivan with him. They popped the territory with an incredibly creative program based on Roop as a two-faced heel who put up a facade of still being the Olympic hero babyface and a friend of Sullivan’s family. In fact, it got so over that Roop and Sullivan apparently got backers to try to steal the territory, only to be fired when Karl Von Steiger told Shire.

That takes us to the January 24, 1978 meeting of the California State Athletic Commission. Roop had been provisionally suspended for no-showing a number of dates and asked to have his hearing moved up as soon as possible so he wouldn’t lose more work and income. From the meeting minutes:

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Figure Four Weekly 10/31/2016: California wrestling regulation in 1977

Posted on by F4W Staff

In reaching out to various athletic commissions to get whatever old pro wrestling-related records I can find, I may have hit a relative jackpot with the California State Athletic Commission. Record retention at the different commissions varies wildly, and while the CSAC doesn’t retain event-specific records from the pre-computer era, they do have the minutes of their monthly meetings going back to 1977. After a recent request, where their records custodian couldn’t find anything about what I was looking for specifically, she decided to, I guess because she had already pulled the boxes, scan everything from 1977 to 1981 and send it to me. And while some of what’s contained within is mundane, a lot of it isn’t, because a lot of weird things can happen when territorial era pro wrestlers collide with regulators.

A surprising number (considering that this was the territory system, that is) of wrestlers and other talent would get fined for working without licenses. In March, a number of familiar or otherwise historical names pop up:

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Figure Four Weekly 10/24/2016: Deregulation of pro wrestling in Arizona

Posted on by F4W Staff

In Arizona, deregulation of professional wrestling wasn’t a pressing matter by any stretch when the topic was first broached in 1981. There was no major promotion running in the state and little to no full time work, with only one licensed promoter, who was running shows weekly in Phoenix. But when the state’s Office of the Auditor General decided to do a performance audit of the State Athletic Commission, it was one of the topics on the agenda along with improved compliance by licensees, better boxing safety regulations, and complying with the guidelines for how frequently there should be commission meetings.

The performance audit summed up its findings on pro wrestling like this:

“Further, our review found that the Commission has not complied with all statutory requirements dealing with professional wrestling. However, the results of these noncompliances do not threaten the health, safety and welfare of the public or participants. Deregulation of professional wrestling could occur without endangering the health and safety of the public or participants.”

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