Column – The Needs of Many – Nikita Allanov

Professional wrestling attracts some of the biggest pieces of shit to it in the world. The business is full of liars and cheats. Unfortunately, everyone in the sport is then painted with the same brush. Everyone’s favorite Vulcan, Mr. Spock, said it best: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. However, in professional wrestling, the few ruin things for the many.

The following is one such example. In my last column, I spoke about how a colleague and myself had been working to establish a Fraternal Order of Professional Wrestlers. A “union” of sorts, but without being a labor union. Our feelings led us to research into such a foundation, because there is an abundance of scumbags in the professional wrestling business, and there is a shortage of standards.

One of the problems is the irregularities in different state athletic commissions as far as who can be a wrestling promoter, and who cannot.

On Saturday Night, February 27th, Charles Fiber, was arrested at the Wheeling Eagles Hall in Wheeling, WV. Fiber, under the name of “Jack Blaze” was promoting a wrestling event at this facility, and was taken into custody while doing an in-ring talk segment by the West Virginia State Police. The charges were related to providing false information to the authorities in regard to his status as a sex offender.

Yes, just so that there is no confusion, you did read that correctly. Fiber was a registered and convicted sex offender who was promoting wrestling shows.

From a January 10, 2010 column that appeared in the Wheeling Times-Leger promoting a wrestling event promoted by Fiber, he is quoted as saying “We hope mom and dad will bring the kids for a great evening of entertainment.” Fiber served approximately 18 months in a federal penitentiary for possessing child pornography and attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor.

The first question that one must ask is, how was a convicted child pornographer able to promote “family friendly” wrestling shows in the first place? Well, the answer is that in West Virginia, there is no athletic commission, or any other body that oversees or sanctions professional wrestling. All that you have to do in West Virginia in order to promote wrestling events is have access to a building and ring. While there are certainly pros and cons to athletic commissions in general, if there was some kind of agency requiring promoters to have a surety bond, Fiber would never have been in a position to promote shows, as his sex offender status would have prevented any reputable insurer from providing the bond.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I regularly wrestle in the Wheeling area. Although I have had encounters with Fiber before, I have never wrestled on any shows with him. In fact, I have wrestled in the Wheeling area almost exclusively for Black Diamond Wrestling, a promotion that promotes family friendly traditional wrestling events in conjunction with area schools, charities, and police organizations such as the FOP and DARE. In fact, the Wells Township Police Department has an excellent working relationship with the promotion.

Because of my familiarity and fondness for competing in the Wheeling area, this incident hurts me. Fiber and his cohorts are generally people that should not be in the business in the first place. Fiber and his longtime associate Alan Decker are two gentlemen who want to be involved with professional wrestling, both in the ring and from the business side, but have no clue what they are doing. There are a number of venues, sponsors, and other outlets that have been ruined for professional wrestling in that area because of the business practices of Fiber. Generally, these guys get enough money together to rent a ring and a venue, put on a show with largely untrained or sub par talent, and a “WWE Legend” headlining the card. In January Fiber’s company promoted a show featuring Gangrel, and Fiber was actually taken into custody while introducing Jim Neidhart on his card this past weekend.

It was no secret that Fiber was into child porn. On many area wrestling websites with gossip-based messageboards, it was brought up regularly. However, everyone appeared to look the other way – apparently it is OK to wrestle for someone aroused by pictures of naked children.

So, as Fiber was arrested on the 27th, there came media coverage of the incident. Television station WTRF in Wheeling ran a story on that evening’s news broadcast, and had details of the arrest on their website. The headline? “Sex Offender Arrested At Wheeling Wrestling Event”.

When reading the story, it is mentioned that Fiber was the alleged promoter of the event. Apparently no one can be sure exactly who the promoter was, because, you know, West Virginia doesn’t require promoters to be licensed or even registered. In addition, it was just mentioned that he was promoting a wrestling event, not the name of the organization. Do you think when a legitimate promoter, such as Black Diamond Wrestling’s Rikk Diamond, attempt to get sponsors or partners for their events, that the person watching the news that night is going to differentiate between Fiber’s smoke-and-mirrors product, which was possibly a front for coming into contact with children, and a legitimate wrestling company?

During my twelve years in the wrestling business, I have come across the fact that your average person does not differentiate between one independent wrestling promotion and another many, many times. I have been involved with shows and also heard about shows where the promoter cheated a sponsor out of money, or damaged a building, or didn’t pay someone for equipment. More often than not, if one wrestling promoter burns a venue, that venue closes its doors to all independent wrestling, not just one particular promoter. In fact, many venues in the greater Wheeling area have closed their doors to wrestling because of the actions of Fiber and Decker, who have promoted shows in various combination of the names Steel Valley Wrestling, Extreme Valley Wrestling, and Legends of Professional Wrestling. There have been bloody deathmatches in family rec centers. There has been a stabbing at a venue owned by West Virginia University. There have been bars and halls who have been shorted on money. Many of these places have closed their doors to wrestling altogether.

So, my question is this: How many of the people who saw this news report on Fiber, are going to no longer support wrestling? How many young athletes who are hungry for more matches and more ring time, are going to lose opportunities because of Fiber?

These types of people can no longer be allowed into our sport. We obviously cannot count on state agencies set-up to monitor wrestling to do that. We cannot count on local authorities. We must do this ourselves, as wrestling promoters, competitors, and fans. We can no longer support or even give credence to people that want to hurt our sport. We have to put the “professional” back into professional wrestling. Our sport is in shambles, and fixing it is more important that any one individual.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”.

To read more about Nikita Allanov, or to leave feedback on this column, check out his official MySpace page at www.myspace.com/nikitaallanov.