SNOWBRAWL Thoughts, Books & DVD's and more

What a great night we had this past Saturday in Quincy, MA! A packed house kicked off the year for NECW and I was so happy to meet a lot of new fans over at the Armory.

Last Monday, we had a 3/4 page color photo spread on our Sunday, January 21 World Women's Wrestling event in The Boston Herald. My phone rang non-stop and the e-mails came flooding in after that.

This past Saturday, The Boston Globe ran a full color picture of WWW Champion, Tanya Lee on the cover of The Globe's Sidekick section. That was a real boost, and as a result, we had a lot of fans come who hadn't seen us before.

Those fans saw a heck of night of action. I'll let you click on over to the show report on the NECW website for all the details, but the most remarkable thing about promoting New England Championship Wrestling is having the chance to interact with the fans and talk to them. As I promoter, I like to be visible and accessible to the fans as much as I can. After all, they are the lifeblood of our business. I think showing them that you care about their experience gives them the feeling that they spent their money well.

I got what I consider the ultimate compliment from one of our fans Saturday night. He came up to me and said, "Mr. Goldberg, you make me look like a hero to my kids every time we come here. I'm a divorced father with 3 boys, ages 12, 8 and 5, and for me to be able to come here, buy them tickets, soda, a slice of pizza and have change left from a $100 bill... That's just a great thing that you do. You don't realize what a great thing that is." I was touched by what he said, because that is something important that few other businesses do - provide a quality live entertainment experience at an affordable price. Seeing people enjoy what we do with NECW and WWW, and getting their gratitude, as well as their patronage, is what a business should really be about.

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Recommended wrestling books & DVD's:

"Wrestling at the Chase" by Larry Matysik is a look back at Sam Munchnik and St. Louis Wrestling. Matysik, who was the play-by-play announcer for the St. Louis promotion, and later became Sam's assistant and eventual heir to the business, gives a loving and informative inside look at the promotion and the pro wrestling business of the era. For those of you who are students of the game, this book is a real education.

"Heroes of World Class" by Brian Harrison is a must-have DVD that chronicles the rise and fall of Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling. This is just a phenomenal piece of work that covers the whole thing from top to bottom. It may not be a slick as the WWE releases, but all the great moments and clips are there, as well as great interviews with some of the key players of that period. A new 2 disc version is out now, distributed by Big Vision Entertainment.

"The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA" is one of the better WWE DVD releases. DVD's are something WWE tends to get right and this one is just tremendous. I am so glad this was done by WWE after buying the footage from Verne Gagne, because it's a history that needed to be told in a forum like this.

Right now, I'm reading the Bill Watts bio "The Cowboy and the Cross", co-written by Watts and Scott E. Williams, who wrote the excellent chronicle of ECW, "Hardcore History" (another must buy).

I am anxiously awaiting Tod Gordon's book, which I am told is pretty explosive. The whole ECW story is fascinating stuff and a real education. The WWE DVD "The Rise & Fall of ECW", the Jeremy Borash produced "Forever Hardcore" and Scott Williams' book are all great pieces of the puzzle that was ECW. I regretted not getting to know Tod better at the time of my involvement with ECW, as he is someone I have a great deal of respect for. I'll update this when I've read Tod's book.