Is interested in my take on what happened last night at Ground Zero?
I arrived at Ground Zero at 7.30pm. Before entering the building, I was informed that the inspector from the Athletic Commission was already inside laying down the law.
Ground Zero is a great little club – it’s nice and dark inside, plenty of random seating and big horse statue. Hot as hell, but what isn’t right now? Spoke to a few of the familiars, a few of which were already taking advantage of the bar in the basement. The ring was just getting finished being set up.
HVW’s new announcer, Brett Wolverton said that he had been grounded and had to apply for a license on the spot. Everyone was comparing notes on who had a license and who didn’t. Eight o’clock came and went, and there was still speculation in the air about whether we would be having a show or not.
I suppose we got started about nine o’clock or so. There were two matches, the first Bryan Austin against Bryce Bryant, then the T Dawg HG vs. Neil Nitro match. ER came to ringside to do the special introduction for HG. About 5 minutes into it, the inspector walks up behind him and asks him for his license and gives him the “cut it” sign (the hand across the throat). ER gallantly keeps reading, and receives another cut it. It lasted one more, until the inspector reaches for the microphone. ER swings high and smashes the mic into the inspector….of course, that’s a joke – ER relents and hands it to HG.
The people who are familiar with HG and what he says can imagine what came out next. The inspector apparently took much offense to what was being said, because he walked out on his mobile phone. After the match, which saw HG spraying Neil in the face to win, I walked up to the dressing area where the inspector was telling them that the show was being shut down. There was of course much protest, with little effect.
This was close to 10pm. The show was going to be wrestling matches, band, wrestling, band. A few folks left, and I decided that it was getting late; I needed to head home to be at work on time this morning.
When I walked out, the Spartanburg County Sheriffs Office was pulling up. In the end, there were six county cars and about eight deputies at the club. Mick and Viper were trying to explain to the officers about the situation. The inspector told them he was just doing his job.
I listened for a little while and then bid everyone farewell. I did go over to the inspector and told him that I didn’t envy his job a bit.
I am not the biggest fan of the Athletic Commission, and I have never really heard anything good about them. I’m sure the men and women who work for them are good people and are just trying to do their jobs. From my experience though, they only seem to be used by promoters to get one over on another promoter. The fact is though, if you are going to run in South Carolina, you need to have all of your “ducks in a row”. That means a promoters license, an event permit, and all of your talent property licensed.
In the future I do want to try and run some shows, perhaps even my own promotion. As long as the commission is in operation, I see no reason to run in South Carolina.
In my opinion calling the commission in or ratting out another promoter just hurts the entire sport in South Carolina. Bringing in an inspector sends ripples through everybody who is running. To be truly fair, wouldn’t an inspector coming into an area have to check everybody who is running a show?
It doesn’t really effect me, but that’s my opinion.
