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WHAT YOU NEED IF YOU WANT TO PROMOTE WRESTLING, DANCING SAMOA JOE, WWE PROMOTING MMA AND MORE

By Mike Johnson on 2017-07-13 10:00:00

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Who do you think are the greatest ring announcers of all time?

I personally feel Howard Finkel is THE best of all time, but a lot of that may have to do with my old childhood nostalgia.  I just feel like Finkel was the ultimate in making announcements seem so important.  I also have a lot of affinity for Tom Miller, Joe McHugh and Gary Michael Cappetta.  Of the modern day announcers, I've always liked Justin Roberts, Bobby Cruise, Stephen DeAngelis and Bob Artese, but Finkel, to me, is the best.

I've been thinking about this a lot.    I wanted to become a wrestling promoter with my own wrestling promotion for some time. I want to start making a list of requirements, so what would I need?

Well, you would need a large amount of money in the bank to protect yourself from the losses you will occur at the onset, that's for sure. I can assure you that you will be losing money right out of the gate.  If you were in a State that is governed by an Athletic Commission, you would need to apply and be granted a promoter's license.  That may require a background check and a deposit for a bond.  You would need to be able to rent a venue and a ring, as well as all the other equipment needed for a show - guard rails, mats around the ring, sound system, a staff, etc. Then you'd need to hire wrestlers, pay wrestlers, pay for advertising, tickets, security, additional logistical staff, etc. Depending on the State you may need to have an ambulance or EMTs at the show and that is a cost obviously, There are a lot of hidden costs that fans rarely think of.   Of course, I would also suggest you invest in an ad on PWInsider.com, but that's just me!

Who in your opinon has been the worst "world heavyweight" champion? I'm sure the easier answer is the Great Khali, but what about those like Tommy Rich, Ronnie Garvin, The Iron Shiek, Kerry Von Erich, Ricky Steamboat and others who held a version of the world heavyweight title for a short amount of time or like Steamboat were better chasing for the championship than holding it?  

First off, I am throwing out the easy answers of Vince Russo and David Arquette. In many of the names you mentioned, they were simply designed to be short-term title holders.  Steamboat had a great legacy of in-ring wrestling during his 1989 title reign, so you couldn't consider him the worst by any stretch of the imagination.  The matches he had with Ric Flair are legend.  To me of the names you list, I guess you could say Ronnie Garvin, who hardly defended the NWA title and then lost it right back to Ric Flair, although both of the Flair-Garvin bouts were extremely entertaining in my opinion.  Some have said the original plan was for Jimmy Garvin to get the belt, but he was ill with the gout, so Ron got tapped.  I would make an argument for the first Randy Orton title reign, not because of anything Orton did himself, but just since it was completely botched from day one from a creative standpoint.   I also remember the first Diesel run being pretty hard to sit through.

I recall a rumor years ago in the wake of the Brawl for All in WWF that WWE was looking at starting an MMA league. Was there anything to this?

WWE had so many injuries during the Brawl For All, they never brought it back, nor did they ever have any plans to launch a MMA group although in 2001, they did look at buying UFC (and boy, I bet in hindsight, they wish they had) as an vehicle for Shane McMahon, who has always been a huge MMA fan, to promote.    Obviously, that didn't happen.  I think WWE would have had a hard time running a MMA company because they have always been strongest at trying to create and market personalities and it's a little harder to do that when you can't 100% control the outcomes of the fights.

I'm watching an old TNA show on the Fight Network and can someone explain to me why Samoa Joe is going to wrestle Jushin Liger and his character, this bad-ass monster, is doing a Polynesian Island dance?  It came off so unlike who Joe is to me.  Any idea why?

Well, those were actual members of Samoa Joe's family's, who have had a dance troupe for many generations.  In fact, Joe, as a child, danced at the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles.  When the match with Liger happened, Joe brought his family in to add to the pomp and circumstance of his match, as it was a big deal for Joe to wrestle and defeat Liger at that stage of Joe's career.  I never felt that the dancing before a big match hurt who Joe was perceived to be, it was just a way to reflect his culture and background.

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