Tony St. Clair

In March I intend to be back in the ring as referee for the PWA on there next show. The promoters, Mike Ritter and Bjorn Behrens, have been in constant touch with me since the stoke, and it is a real pleasure to work with them. Although neither one of them has been active in the ring, they really understand the business, have good ideas, and treat the wrestlers with respect. That cant be said for the last two promotions that I have been involved with, one as part owner and the other as match-maker.

Ive come to the conclusion that bad wrestlers make even worse promoters, and have no regrets about leaving these bigger promotions ( in terms of amount of shows) for a smaller but happier promotion. The only other promotion I am active in ( to many peoples suprise ) is a promotion that is considered a Backyard Promotion-although I dont class it as such so I will explain my reasons.

The owner is Crazy Johnny Tiger who was the first pupil that I trained in Germany,and who was probably my favorite pupil-not the best, not the worst,but undoubtedly the nicest and we have remained friends for ten years since I last trained him. When I told him I had done as much for him as possible but that he wasnt up to becoming a full time pro, he didnt let it get him down and decided to set up his own promotion around the small village where he lives and that he has done -and done a good job of it !!!!

Its true that some of his wrestlers have had no training,but they are in the minority and with my help most of them have had a least a ground course with either me or Karsten Kretchmer (a really good trainer) He also uses a number a guys from Holland, who like him, have been trained, are good, but not good enough to make a full time living out of wrestling. He has been lucky to find a Harley Davidson handler as a backer for his shows and with my help he had on the last show, The Honky Tonk man, Cannonball Grizzly, Joe Legend and Doug Williams, and that for entrance prices between 5-8 pounds. The show had a sell out of 500 people and although certain parts of the show were not so good overall I think the people were happy with the product and a few young wrestlers lived there dream for a couple of hours, and as long as Crazy wants my help-and he is prepared to listen to my advice- I will continue to help him.

And so I will end this-its been a long time since I wrote on the columns-but its a pleasure to be back,I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and once again. Thanks for all your support and I really needed it,

God Bless, Tony