Remember when...

Remember when soft drinks were only a dime, candy bars were a nickel, and a gallon of gas was 15 or 20 cents?  I do.  

I have eaten at every Krystal restaurant in the Southeast. Hamburgers were a dime and fries were fifteen cents. You could really splurge and get a bowl of chili for thirty cents. Days Inn was Called "8 Days Inn" and rooms were $ 8.88 a night. The Motel 6 was really that... $6.00 a night and you had to put quarters in the television to make it work. Baloney blowouts were not uncommon on the road. Bologna or baloney as we called it had many names. Tube steak, round steak, wrestler's steak, it all added up the same thing, BALONEY. A baloney blowout consisted of bread, mayo, cheese, if you were lucky and a plastic knife.

One makes sandwiches, one drives and everyone eats. Aah, the life of a big time professional wrestler.  

When I first went on the road for Gunkel Enterprises (Ga./1972) the guarantee was $ 15.00. I have made many trips for just that guarantee. Travel two to four hours in a car, arrive one hour prior to bell time, referee all the matches which started at 8:30 in Georgia and ended between 10:30 and 11:00 almost every night, shower and then go home two to four hours. Figure that up at an hourly rate and it doesn't take long to figure out you could make better money pumping gas at your local service station.

I will not knock success. The boys and girls working for WWF are making a lot of money. I came along too early. I wish I could have made the kind of money they are making today, but I would not do some of the things they are having to do to make that money. I asked Rocket Monroe recently what he thought about some of the things they are doing?  He said he would have went to jail for doing bodily harm to a promoter if they had even had the nerve to ask him to do some of this stuff.

That aside I wonder if the stars of today would have had the dedication to do it the old school way?

I heard someone say they were on the road over two hundred days last year. We worked seven days a week every week in Georgia. We would close down three or four days at Christmas, but those were the only dark days.

Bill McMinn is a dear friend. He refereed and promoted some towns for Gunkel, Enterprises, and GCW.  He began posting on this site in late February and hopefully will provide some valuable insight into our business for you.  More...