Georgia defuns wrasslin

Proposed rules try to get a grip on wrestling

Chastain is worried about his future as a wrestler in Georgia. Officials with the state's Athletic and Entertainment Commission, citing health and safety concerns, have proposed a strict set of regulations governing bouts. A physician, two emergency medical technicians, and an ambulance must be ringside, a costly measure promoters say would force many small operations out of business.

Many of the rules are also at odds with wrestling's most cherished traditions. Wrestlers would no longer be allowed to physically or verbally threaten the audience. They could not engage in "unsportsmanlike or physically dangerous conduct."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/05/proposed_rules_try_to_get_a_grip_on_wrestling/


Rules may push out WWE

An attempt by a state regulating commission to rescind an exemption that keeps “sports entertainment” giant World Wrestling Entertainment from paying an additional fee on its events in Georgia has local promoters worried that the Connecticut-based company will take its profitable shows to other states.

The Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission, best known as the “boxing commission,” regulates boxing, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling events in the state. That group voted in 2005 to allow the Vince McMahon-owned WWE, and any other organization with “total assets of more than $25 million,” an exemption to its jurisdictional controls.

A move by some commission members, notable among them Cary Ichter, an Atlanta attorney who represents the father of deceased wrestler Chris Benoit, to rescind the WWE’s exemption had the wrestling organization threatening to stop doing business in the state.

“If those regulations are applied to us, we won’t do Georgia,” WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt warned the commission before it tabled a vote on the matter at a late-December meeting in Atlanta. Others worry, though, that the commission may again push lawmakers to take up the matter when the state Legislature convenes later this month.

http://www.albanyherald.com/stories/20080105n2.htm



way to go Georgia. :eyes:

ECW! ECW! ECW!