AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
Even with temperatures in the 70s on October 20, and green leaves still on the trees here in southern New Jersey, Christmas and New Year will soon be here. Ads for holiday movies are already running on TV and in print. Your friendly not-so-local retail mega-store will soon be killing lots of trees to print advertisements to sell you and I all sorts of goodies. Ads will be running on TV non-stop. People will maul each other to get this year’s “must have” toy or game system for their kids or themselves.
Meanwhile, in the Philadelphia/South Jersey region, there’s a wrestling tradition around those holidays…one somewhat more in keeping with the true spirit of the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year’s season.
For the twelfth straight year, independent wrestling promotion United Wrestling Coalition will hold its annual Toys For Tots show at Burlington County College in Pemberton, NJ. All UWC wrestlers donate their time for the evening as well, with this year’s main event a match between UWC Champion Reckless Youth vs. Steve Corino vs. Raven.
As with other Toys for Tots events, no admission is charged. Fans are asked to bring an unwrapped toy with a value of at least $10 as “admission”. UWC fans, along with local donations, and scout drives, usually lead to 1,000 toys being collected yearly, with over 11,000 toys collected since the event’s inception
UWC needs assistance with wrestling (or other) door prizes to have available as a raffle which traditionally takes place throughout the show we have during the show. UWC typically has about 50 door prizes during the show, with each fan receiving 3 raffle tickets upon entering the gym, with additional tickets available for purchase as well.
What I’d like to see happen is for wrestling promotions and individuals with items that can be donated toward UWC’s work. If there are any wrestling promotions or interested others on the East Coast who’d like to help UWC put together their items for raffle; please e-mail me at the e-mail address, or e-mail Jeff Bradley at njjeff73@cox.net.
If any other wrestling organizations have holiday charity events between now and the New Year, please feel free to write me at the address below.
I couldn’t let this column get away without saying something about this weekend’s debacle of a convention in San Francisco, CA. The details of the incompetence exhibited by the event’s promoters this weekend was so bad, it was described by SLAMwrestling.com as “In terms of man-made disasters, [it] can be compared to the Hindenberg crash-landing onto the Titanic.”
If you’re a fan or worker, here’s some helpful hints for how to deal with these situations:
1) If you’re a worker, unless you know of the promoter or sponsoring organization, and can check them out in advance, get plane tickets (if applicable) and your pay in advance. Steve Austin did.
2) If you’re a fan, no matter how tempting, don’t buy one of the all-encompassing passes that cost a lot of money in one shot. For that matter, don’t buy ANYTHING until you actually get there and/or can verify that the people promised are actually there.
3) If you own a website like me, be hesitant to promote such events until you get more definitive proof that the event won’t be a mismanaged disaster like this one was.
Until next time…
If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com.
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