Indy Wrestling AutographsIf you want to jump start a pro wrestling autograph collection or just want to have a good time, look for indy wrestling shows in your area. These shows usually fly under the radar; they are generally not well advertised. If you do not live in a small town where news spreads by word-of-mouth and posters in store windows, often the only way to know a show is coming to town is to frequent indy wrestling websites.Up until the WWF put the territories out of business, promoters advertised wrestling cards on TV, radio and the local newspapers. It was easy to know the date of the next card, because it was on the same night each week, every week of the year. The biggest markets like New York City ran cards monthly, but they were highly advertised during the month. That is not so with Indy shows. They have inconsistent scheduling and little promotion. Indy wrestling shows just do not draw enough people in best case scenarios for a promotion to spend a lot of money on advertising. But often what they do have is names on the card that were once major draws in regional promotions and the WWF and WCW. The small cards insure that you will be able to get an autograph from most of the wrestlers. Recently an indy show came to Birmingham, and some of the names on the card - Adrian Street, Ron and Robert Fuller, Buddy Landel, Jimmy Golden, Bushwacker Luke, Greg Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, Jake the Snake Roberts among them - motivated me to take my father, who is probably the biggest wrestling fans that I have ever known, to the first wrestling event I had attended in more than a decade. This one was a little different than most indy shows, which is why I knew it was coming to town. The venue for the typical indy card holds a few hundred fans. High school gyms, national guard armories, and small town municipal auditoriums are favorites of indy promoters. The venue for this card was Boutwell Auditorium - capacity at least 5,000, closer to 6,000 when fully utilized. Boutwell had been the scene of thousands of wrestling cards since the 1920s. I saw some TV ads and a newspaper write-up for this Indy show. I thought the promotion, Wrestle Birmingham, was taking on a huge risk, paying close to forty wrestlers plus the necessary support personnel and incurring all of the expenses associated with renting Boutwell. Ringside tickets were $55, floor seating was $40, and general admission was $25. The overhead probably warranted those prices, but if it was possible for a promotion to be viable at those ticket prices, the regional promoters would still be in business. In the last days of World Championship Wrestling, some of their cards were only drawing a few hundred in cities that had been great wrestling towns for decades. On the drive to Boutwell, my father predicted the crowd at 300. We arrived close to the 7:00 PM Bell Time, and with a quick look at the crowd, I could see that it was probably short of 300. I'm sure the promoter suffered a huge loss. There had been a meet-and-greet at the auditorium at 5:00 PM. We could not make it, but someone who did told me the big names were all there, but very few fans were. It would have been easy to get a few dozen autographs. Is there an indy promotion that doesn't have its own Doink the Clown? This one was taking on Death Row during a six man over the top wrestle royal.  The referee gives Little Brutus a final warning.  Adrian Street was a top draw in the South during the 1980s in regional promotions, and he main evented at Boutwell hundreds of times for Continental Championship Wrestling. At age 70, or VERY close to it, he is still wrestling.  Pat Rose threatens a fan with a folding chair. Pat Rose worked as the manager of Malika Masaka during her match with Leva Bates. Pat Rose is now a professional bass fisherman.  During intermission some of the wrestlers sold their photos and signed autographs in the lobby. Mike Jackson was never a national star, but he has been a Birmingham favorite for several decades. A resident of Birmingham, he is the perennial Alabama Junior Heavyweight Champion. Jackson promotes his own indy wrestling shows in the Birmingham area.  I felt a little sorry for Brutus Beefcake. He was a big star in the WWF in the 1980s. Now he is selling his own photos at small indy wrestling shows, and not drawing many fans to his table.  Bushwacker Luke was faring better. He was signing autographs at a steady pace.  Indy star John Magnum, who could have been a big star when regional promotions were still in business.  It was a fun night of wrestling. The show could have been paced better, with more of the bigger names wrestling sooner. After more than 2 1/2 hours, it was getting past my father's bedtime, so we had to leave before we saw the last three matches with many of the wrestlers that we had wanted to see. |
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