Shootin' with The Snapshot

This past Saturday my friends at Legends of the ring held a legends wrestling convention. I was personally looking forward to this for a long time. It was the first time in about many years that 3 world champions from the era of the territories were present all in one setting. To me an old school wrestling person this was a huge deal for me. The promoters came to me a few months back and asked for my assistance in booking a few guys. They had asked me to book Bob Backlund. I met Backlund at dinner for Lou Albano in NY a few months back. I had the Iron Sheik there as well. He made the introduction for me to Bob. We exchanged numbers and went looking to put him places as he is a rare appearance. When I called him for this show he told me what he needed. Bob is of the mindset that he does not like to charge for his autograph. He has not been around the convention scene or the autograph scene like many other stars have been so he does not know the way it is run. Despite me trying to explain it to him. Bob was of the mindset that he wanted to charge for his motivational speech and the autograph was going to be last and a bonus. The deal had to be made this way. I told the promoters that Bob would do it if he was on second block and did his motivational speech first followed by a Q & A and the signing last. The promoters agreed. A deal was made. Keep in mind that the norm is that you sign first and talk second. At least that is the way the conventions have been run in the past. I also booked Dominic Denucci for them.

They held the convention in a town called West Windsor which is considered Princeton but is not. The hotel was nice small hotel and very quaint. I am not sure I like the location of it. I am of the belief that a location of such magnitude should be easy accessible by train, plane, bus. Almost everyone I know has a car and can travel anywhere. This hotel was on a major highway but out of the way. Despite Monster Con being in south Jersey, a beautiful beach day, & DDP in north Jersey I felt the promoters did a great job in putting this show together. I got there at about 8 am. After I got set up and took care of the business end with the promoter for Backlund and Denuci I was able to relax. Soon after that Dominic arrived and I got him settled in. I took care of him and then took him to meet Harley and Nick who were having breakfast at the restaurant. About 1030 or so Bob Backlund arrived. I took him in the green room and took care of him and had a nice conversation with him. I left Bob alone to he could meditate. He likes to do that. The first block started with Harley Race, The Samoans, Dominic Denucci and Bill Apter. This was very well organized. All the guest were very gracious to the fans. I got a chance to see AFA for the first time in a long time and he looks great. He lost a lot of weight. It was then time for Bob Backlund to do his motivational speech. It turned into the Bob Backlund show for a while. Bob gave a run down of his career and it was very interesting. The fans were really into this. After about a half hour or so they started the Q & A. Bill Apter hosted it and this was very interesting as they talked about the way it used to be. All this was video taped by RF Video. They are back on the circuit now after a brief absence. Most of the questions were answered by Harley and Nick. Both are very intelligent and gave true insights. AFA told a great story about an injury he got and you have to see the tape to full understand what he was saying. I noticed the fans were sort of in shock with that injury story. It is quite amazing what went on back in the day. This is a must tape for any true fan. For the fans there, consider yourself lucky being apart of history. The speech and Q & A was a real homerun. After this it was time for the second block. Nick and Bob were upstairs for the this. The main draw in Bruno Sammartino was running a little late as his flight was delayed out of Pittsburgh. He arrived as the Q & A finished. At 215 Bob told me that he had to leave at 230. This threw me for a loop. Bob was under the impression that he was only going to do a 2 hour deal. These conventions are usually run in this manner. 2 hour autograph session plus a Q & A. Usually the talent stays for 3 - 4 hours. When making the deal with Bob I explained this to him but I guess I did not do a good enough job. This is where it started to fall apart. The promoters were not happy. We had to rush people through the line and sort of became hectic and a cluster fuck for a short time as time was limited. I was not happy about this. I tried to tell Bob that was not part of the deal and that he had to stay and take care of the fans and sign his extra photos which was part of the deal. The end result was that all fans were taken care of and a few extra items were signed. Bob took a bunch of photos home with him to sign for the promoters and I am sure I will see them in my mail box sometime this week as Bob is an honorable guy. Somehow I felt responsible for the miscommunication but the promoters told me that they know it was not my fault and was not holding me responsible. I thank them for that but I have been doing this for a very long time and I have very high standards and somehow I felt I let the fans down and the promoters with this situation. After this was over I escorted Bob out. I was going to take him to see Bruno but Bruno was doing his Q & A and Bob did not want to disturb him. I thanked Bob for coming and again tried to explain to him how it works at these conventions. Somehow I do not think Bob likes the concept. I sort of felt bad for Nick Bockwinkle while this mad rush for Bob was going on but Nick just smiled and knew what was going on. He took care of all the fans after they saw Bob. As far as Bruno is concerned. He did his own Q & A which went over quite well. I cannot wait to see the video on this. As soon as the fans were done upstairs with Bob and Nick they started to fill up the Q & A room. Bruno was very gracious to the fans and signed everything they had. I had to leave at the beginning of the signing as I had the NWS show to do. All in all and outside of a slight miscommunication it was great convention and a total home run for me as I like these shows. They limited the amount of vendors at the place so as to give everyone the opportunity to make money. All the elite vendors were there. I think all the video guys did well.

I rushed off to the NWS show which was about 35 minutes away and they did a fair show. They had Tito santana, Patriot, Danny Doring, and Chris Candido on the show. I want to thank Chris Candido for doing his best in making his opponent look good. Chris is a true professional and class act. NWS has a a bunch of shows coming up with some very big names. As is the norm with NWS they run fun fan friendly shows.

Eric Simms
ESS316@aol.com
www.esspromotions.com