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http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/2004/06/04/entertainment/8828524.htm

Fri, Jun. 04, 2004 

Despite nostalgia, weekly shows are thing of past

TextJerry Oates' revival of local grappling with his Georgia
Championship Wrestling show Tuesday night triggered a few e-mails from
people pondering a question which has been bandied about for 20 years.

Could, in the remotest prospect of the imagination, local wrestling
shows return on a weekly basis, to towns such as Columbus as in the
nostalgic past?

Joe Pedicino, now manager of a north Georgia group of Clear Channel
radio stations and former host of "Pro Wrestling This Week," has
always told me no.

The last time Joe and I kicked the subject around, he placed the issue
squarely on two problems: television and economics.

"The cost of television time is too expensive today except on very,
very small stations with limited audiences," Pedicino said. "You have
to buy it today. It isn't like it was years ago when stations clamored
for wrestling shows because they drew big ratings."

Pedicino also said the tough part is the challenge of paying at least
one or two "name" wrestlers to appear on a weekly card.

"As much as you'd like to build a wrestling promotion on young guys on
the way up, you can't keep fan interest if you don't have that veteran
who can pull in the long-time fans," said Pedicino.

Long-time Georgia wrestling historian Jim Blalock, whose wrestling
days go back to the mid-'60s, said attention spans just will not bring
fans out on a weekly basis today.

"You have too much competition on television and even with activities
in small towns," said Blalock. "Back in the days you had weekly
wrestling, you could buy tickets for as cheap as $2 a night. Even if
you priced it that low today, you'd have a tough time getting people
into a weekly habit. They just have too many interests."

Ben Masters, who still occasionally produces nostalgia cards in the
region, told us last year the organization necessary is just too tough
to ever go back to weekly shows.

"You can have the best card that you think is going to bring people
out,"said Masters, "and you're constantly worrying about whether this
guy is going to make it in, this guy is going to show, and will you
make enough money to have a little bit of a profit for yourself. It's
tough."

The general consensus is while the nostalgia in us pines for those
days when a Wednesday night show at the Columbus Municipal Auditorium
with good feuds would bring us back week after week, we have crossed
an entire generation which has not been raised on that paradigm.

The best hope is for promoters such as Oates to do well enough
financially to afford monthly shows which can give audiences enough to
build a hunger with more distance between the cards.


--- Internet Rex 2.29