I found this at the state of Illinois Department of Professional Regulation web site (http://www.state.il.us/dpr/who/ar/boxing.htm). These are the rules you must follow (have followed?) in order to have a match in that state. It gave me a good laugh.SUBPART C: WRESTLING
Section 1370.200 Applications for Licenses
a) Wrestling Promoter. Applications for registration shall be completed on forms supplied by the Department and shall be submitted with the required fee. The application shall include:
1) Two recent photographs;
2) Proof of the filing of the bond required by Section 9(1) of the Act; and
3) A financial statement showing sufficient liquid assets to meet the financial obligations for anticipated events.
b) Other Applications for Licensure. Applications for licensure as managers, referees, and timekeepers shall be completed on forms supplied by the Department. The application shall include:
1) Two recent photographs;
2) Evidence of good moral character through information relating to his other business and financial interests.
Such evidence shall consist of but not be limited to, information showing whether there is a conflict of interest and whether the applicant has satisfactory business expertise.3) Proof that the applicant has had at least one year of experience in the same area in amateur wrestling contests or has been licensed in another state for one year; and
4) The required fee.
5) For managers and trainer/seconds, a listing of all contestants for which he will act in his professional capacity.
Section 1370.210 Structure of Ring
a) The ring for a wrestling exhibition shall be no less than 15 feet square, or larger than 24 feet square. The ring floor shall be constructed of at least a one-inch base of building board; it shall be padded with a one-inch layer of ensolite, foam rubber or their equivalent. There must be a top covering of canvas, duck or similar material tightly stretched and placed to the ring platform. The covering must be lean and free of resin. The ring shall have four posts not less than 3 inches in diameter that extend from the floor of the ring to a height of no less than 48 inches or more than 58 inches. The posts shall be securely anchored and adequately padded.
b) The ring shall have a minimum of three ropes, each not less than one inch in diameter. The ropes shall be padded with a soft material.
c) The floor of the ring shall not be more than four feet above the floor on which it is standing, and shall be supplied with steps for the entry and departure of contestants and officials, as the Department may require.
d) The platform of the ring must extend beyond the ropes for a distance of at least three feet.
e) The ring shall be kept clear of obstructions.
Section 1370.220 Preparations for an Exhibition.
a) Prior to engaging in an exhibition, all wrestlers shall submit to a physical examination on the day of the exhibition.
b) The physical examination shall be conducted by a physician. He shall conduct such examinations and tests as may be required, to attest to the fitness of the contestants engaged in the exhibition.
c) The promoter shall provide a stretcher and oxygen inhalator at ring side in case of emergency.
d) Dressing rooms must be equipped with:
1) Showers; 2) Rubbing tables; and 3) Chairs or benches.
e) The wrestler's skin must be free of grease or other foreign substances. The fingernails must be trimmed well below the tops. Clothing shall be suitable for an athletic contest and shoes shall have soft tops and soles.
Section 1370.230 Conduct of an Exhibition
a) The referee shall be the chief official of every exhibition and shall remain in the ring during the entire time of the exhibition.
b) In the event a referee becomes incapacitated and is unable to finish officiating the exhibition, time out shall be called and another referee shall immediately be assigned to officiate.
c) Referees shall be selected and assigned by the Department. When a referee has cause to suspect a violation, he shall file a report to the Department describing the incident(s).
d) The referee must report for duty at least one hour before the scheduled starting time of the show.
e) Referees must first report to their dressing room, then to ringside. They must stay at ringside and will avoid conversation, except with Department officials.
f) At the beginning of the exhibition, the referee shall call the wrestlers to the center of the ring.
g) The wrestlers and the referee shall be the only persons allowed in the ring during the progress of an exhibition.
Section 1370.240 Length of an Exhibition
a) All exhibitions will be limited to three falls or a sixty-minute time limit; the wrestler gaining the most falls will be the winner of the exhibition.
b) The exhibition shall begin with the sound of the gong.
c) In time-limit matches the timekeeper shall sound the gong at the end of the designated time limit to indicate the end of the exhibition.
d) At the end of each five minutes the timekeeper shall call out the time that the participants have been wrestling sufficiently loud for the referee to hear.
e) When an exhibition ends before the scheduled time limit, the timekeeper shall give the referee the elapsed time.
f) If it becomes necessary to delay an exhibition temporarily, during the course of its progress, the timekeeper's watch shall be stopped during the delay.
Section 1370.250 Scoring
a) Conceding or quitting due to pain or injury inflicted by an opponent's legitimate hold constitutes a fall. To end the fall the referee shall slap the back or shoulders of a wrestler securing the fall so that the opponent under him will not be strained by being held too long in a painful position.
b) If there have been no falls, or if each wrestler has won one fall at the end of the specified time limit, the referee will declare the match a draw.
Section 1370.260 Holds
Any type of hold, grip, lock, or trip shall be allowed, except:
a) Strangle holds, scratching, gouging, hitting or striking with the fist, pulling hair, using knuckles and kicking;
b) Shutting off breathing by covering nose and mouth at the same time; and,
c) Deliberately throwing opponents out of the ring.
Section 1370.270 Wrestler out of ring
When one wrestler is out of the ring, whether on the apron, under the ropes, or on the floor, his opponent shall immediately retire to the opposite side of the ring and remain there until the wrestler who is out of the ring has returned and the referee has instructed them to resume wrestling.
a) When wrestler falls from ring
1) When one or both wrestlers fall from the ring so that part of the body touches the floor, the referee and timekeeper shall begin a count.
2) The count shall be to either 10 or 20, as determined by agreement between the wrestlers and the Department at the time of application for the permit.
3) If neither wrestler returns before the end of the count, the match shall be declared a draw.
4) If one wrestler returns to the ring before the end of the count, but his opponent fails to return before the end of the count, the match shall end with the wrestler in the ring being awarded the decision.
b) Wrestlers under ropes
1) When wrestlers roll under the ropes but not off the apron of the ring, the referee and timekeeper shall begin a count of five.
2) If neither wrestler returns before the end of the count of five, the match shall end and neither wrestler will be awarded the decision.
3) If one wrestler returns to the ring before the end of the count of five and his opponent fails to return before the end of the count of five, the match shall end and the wrestler in the ring shall be awarded the decision.
Section 1370.280 Disqualification
a) A referee shall disqualify a wrestler for any of the following reasons:
1) Roughing up the referee;
2) Failure to break after winning a fall;
3) Leaving the ring of his own free will; and
4) Failing to break after the referee instructs the aggressor to break and the referee counts to four. The hold must be released before completion of the count.
b) A referee, at his discretion, may disqualify a wrestler for any of the following reasons:
1) Grasping or hanging onto clothing, mats or ropes for support;
2) Failure to comply with instructions;
3) Use of illegal holds;
4) Use of foul language; and
5) Other unsportsmanlike conduct.
Section 1370.290 Australian Tag Team Wrestling
In addition to the above Rules governing wrestling, the following requirements shall apply to Australian Tag Team Wrestling:
a) There shall be a 60-minute time limit or two of three team falls, with two minutes rest between team falls. Team falls occur only when one wrestler from a team has lost a fall.
b) The exhibition begins with one wrestler from each team wrestling each other while the team partner remains on the apron of the ring.
c) Tagging
1) In order to reach his partner, a wrestler must have hold of a regulation three-foot double rope with a knot in one end, and the other end looped over the ring post of his team's corner. At the time of a tag contact between partners, the wrestler outside of the ropes must have both feet on the apron floor and must reach only over the top rope to make the contact.
2) A wrestler can enter the ring only if his partner is defeated, or he is able to touch his partner's hand to relieve him.
d) After tagging his partner, a wrestler in the ring must retire to the outside of the ring before his partner can enter the ring.
e) Team partners may substitute for each other as often as they desire, but must do so by the procedure outlined above.
f) Time out must be taken after an injury to permit the injured contestant to be removed from the ring.
g) If a wrestler is injured so that he cannot continue, his partner must carry on alone.
h) If neither team has been able to win two falls at the expiration of the time limit, the team having the most falls to its credits is to be declared the winner.
i) It shall be cause for disqualification for a contestant, while awaiting his turn, to release his hold on the rope in his corner, until tagged by his partner.
j) It shall also be cause for disqualification for a contestant, while awaiting his turn on the apron, to assist his partner or to interfere with an opponent.
Section 1370.300 Medical Supervision
a) No wrestling exhibition shall be allowed to proceed unless a physician is available at ringside or on call. If the physician is on call, a registered nurse, certified paramedic or a registered physician's assistant must be available at ringside. The medical personnel shall not leave until after completion of the final exhibition.
b) In order that the medical personnel shall be prepared to assist in the event of injury to a wrestler, the medical personnel shall have available drugs and medical supplies to be administered only by the physician or at his direction.
c) The medical personnel present shall report in writing to the Department all injuries received by any contestant.
He shall report on the fitness of the wrestler to engage in further competition.d) The medical personnel present shall fill out insurance forms as may be required in connection with a wrestler's injury.
In regards to the guy who wrote you about the improper handling given to Kim after being "thrown" from the car...well, he hasn't watched wrestling long!
Most of the time, the fake EMTs use terrible protocol who look like they received their medical training by merely watching "ER". Heck, even when the real trainers came out to treat the legit Villano bump a couple months ago, they did a terrible job at rolling him over. Granted, Villano walked away from it, but they still did a terrible job by moving his neck around too early after they came to the scene. When neck injuries are still in question, you NEVER manipulate the neck the way they did.
Later is NBC's post Conan O'Brien talk show, about 1:35 EST, Monday thru Thursday. Since Greg Kinnear (sp?) left because he thought he was a movie star, Later's had a different host each week. At this point, everyone but CRZ has hosted. Anyway, Rita Sever, who host what's on instead of Later on Fridays, Friday Night, is the host this week, for the second time. DDP was previously on Friday Night, as Rita went to Halloween Havoc '97 and talked to some of the wrestlers (I remember Mysterio and Disco being on, and probably Hall and some others)The show starts off with the stuff that's been played on Nitro and Thunder: Rita showing she's got the standard DDP interview down (using both "scum" and "bang"), and shorts out Jason Hervey's phone. Jason is DDP's good friend, ya' see.
To start of the show, they do a comedy bit, as usual. Tonight, Rita talks about NBC not wanting her to host again, because she has an anger control problem. She doesn't believe that, but they show some skits from Friday Night to back that up: Rita beats up NBC exec when he won't give her an earlier time slot, beats up a drunk Santa and takes his place and beats up actresses at a audition. Then, they show a clip from this week's story meeting, where Rita wants to do a serious interview with DDP, and the (evil) producer wants to make fun of him, because wrestling is getting good ratings. They argue, and Rita spears him. Kinda funny, but you had to be there.
Lead in to first commercial break - Scenes from Halloween Havoc '97, DDP vs Savage.
Back from break, Rita introduces DDP, mentioning his new video, then showing a clip presumably from the video, Road Wild '98.
DDP comes out, dressed like a normal person (ie, not in his wrestling outfit like Savage was the time he was on Later), does the Diamond Cutter signal, and gives Rita a DDP shirt. They didn't play his intro music or the song he ripped off when he came out; it was one of Fat Boy Slim's songs. I've got no idea why.
They talk about Superbrawl (which Rita keeps saying so it sort of sounds like Super Bowl.) DDP dubs Scott Steiner "Big Poppa Chump" and talks about him messing with Kim. Rita says "real real, real fast".
Rita asks about the real injuries that he wrestlers deal with. DDP mentions some shoulder problems and Savage still being out with the ACL injury.
They talk about how Page became a wrestler, wanting to be one as he was growing up, being a manager, doing color commentary and finally getting in the ring. He mentions somewhere around here that his two toughest (on his body) matches were against Giant and Goldberg, in that order.
Rita asks why he wanted to get in the ring. DDP says he always wanted to do it since he was a kid, and he figured if got in the ring for a little while, he could become the Jesse Ventura of the '90s and move up in the announcing teams. He talks about how he was the first guy at the Power Plant and worked hard to make it where he is.
Rita says that DDP isn't his real name, and DDP says his real name (which I won't put here because I don't want to horribly spell his last name). He said he finally starting clicking when he stopping trying to make the DDP character something he wasn't and started making it more like how he really is. DDP talked about getting into whatever he's doing. Fighting Savage, Randy through Kim across the ring by the hair, which seriously ticked off DDP. DDP figures Savage did it just to tick him off. (Well yea, it's Savage.)
When he was growing up, the four wrestlers he was a mark for are ...Jake Roberts, Randy Savage, Curt Hennig and Terry Funk. (And all four of them are wrestling...or at least a pale imitation of wrestling.)
DDP mentions some of the bigger names in WCW, including Hollywood "Scum" Hogan and says that WCW is on fire right now.
Rita mentions the Road Wild match with Jay Leno and they talk about how that all got set up from the Malone/DDP/Hogan/Rodman thing on Leno. The next night, Malone was on and Leno said that he did like wrestling, which got the whole thing going and some more mainstream attention. Says that him and Malone are "Twin brothers from different mothers." DDP says that wrestling is for everyone and attacking everyone, thanks to the mainstream crossover. DDP also says that wrestling has to be more than just a fight and the major sports wish they had fans that were as into the action as WCW's are.
Leading out to commercial, we see the end of the Road Wild Match. (Kevin Eubanks looks like Vincent...or I'm getting really bad reception.)
As we come back, DDP's going show Rita how to do a few moves. They get a stagehand, Steve, to help out as the dummy. (I was expecting Ray Lloyd to show up again.) They follow a pattern...DDP does a move, Steve hurts, Rita does the move, Steve hurts some more. They go over a full nelson, a foot stomp/mule kick combo to get out of a waist lock (Page does the mule kick a little too well for Steve's taste) and a wristlock. Then, DDP shows the setup to the Diamond Cutter, but promises to Steve that he won't do all the way. Rita tries it, and accidentally snap mares him to the ground. DDP shows the setup again, but Steve doesn't want to stay in it too long, figuring what's going happen next. Rita starts to send them to commercial, and DDP grabs an unsuspecting Steve and gives him the Diamond Cutter. (Funny, because DDP was saying the whole segment he wasn't going to do it, and then he just does it for no reason.) I'm not sure if that was a planned spot, or if DDP just surprised the heck out of Steve.
Replay as we go to commercial...Rita trying the mule kick.
They come back from commercial with just enough time to plug DDP's stuff.
And that's it.
- Las Vegas WCW Nitro Grill, due to open around April 15th. DDP says that unlike places like the Rock and Roll Cafe, where there's no actually rockers, there will be wrestlers at the Grill.
- DDP's new video, "Feel The Bang" (From the packaging, it looked like a WCW Superstar video, like Sting and Savage. So, does this mean he'll disappear too?)
- Superbrawl IX, where "Scott Steiner will...feel...the...BANG!"
I found something you might find humorous. The address is http://www.mrev.net/slack/main-event/.
The page is a celebrity superfight page and they were doing them before MTV. The highlights include: The Crow vs. Sting, Raven vs. Edgar Allen Poe, The Outsiders vs. Xena, Hollywood Hogan vs. The Predator, Goldberg vs. A Speeding Truck, Scott Hall vs. Monty Hall, Lex Luger vs. Lex Luthor, and The Four Horsemen vs. the Teletubbies.
93) Andy Kaufman guests on Letterman (and tussled with Jerry Lawler) - July 28, 1982
100) $6,000,000 Man "Secret of Bigfoot" - February 1, 1976 - this episode books Steve Austin (the first) v. Andre the Giant in a Sasquatch costume. Austin won.