When Wrestling Was Real: The ''Good Old Days'' of Professional Wrestling Are Back!

December 2, 2014 (MMD Newswire) — Professional radio personality Jeff Manning seemed to be “living in the past” as he frequently expressed his fond childhood memories of professional wrestling. He would eagerly relive his experiences of watching the greats at Los Angeles’ famous Olympic Auditorium – Freddie Blassie, John Tolos, Pedro Morales, and so many more.

Manning spoke of the 1980′s when professional wrestling began to change – when the “good old days” sadly dimmed and consequently became a thing of the past. The vast majority of his listeners and friends shared his feelings of loss.

“It almost felt as though the whole world was in mourning, that we had lost something that was so precious, so important to us” Manning shared. Rather than simply roll over and accept the demise of professional wrestling, however, Manning vowed to bring back the sport that he loved – the way it used to be.

On December 9, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, his dreams and the dreams of tens of millions of “old school” wrestling fans come to life! It took him a good portion of his life to do it, but the good old days of professional wrestling are back! History is about to be made!

On December 9, 2014, the premiere TV tapings for the new national network TV show take place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Paragon Pro Wrestling in association with Stations Casinos is proud to present this wrestling event at Texas Station Gambling Hall and Hotel. To celebrate this milestone, Paragon Pro Wrestling will give prizes to lucky fans in attendance, including cash prizes.

Wrestling fans from all over the world are expected to fly in to experience this historic event in person. “Want an excuse to come to Vegas?” CEO Jeff Manning asks. “Here’s your perfect excuse! In fact, those people who show their airline ticket at the box office will be granted free admission! Come celebrate with us! The good old days of professional wrestling are back!”

The PPW Management Team: The Paragon Pro Wrestling Management Team is unique in the world of professional wrestling. In addition to impressive business backgrounds, each person at the top level of PPW management shares extensive experience in both broadcasting and professional wrestling – quite a departure from other wrestling companies with management comprised of either wrestlers or broadcasters, but not both.

JEFF MANNING* – CEO

At twenty years of age, Jeff Manning began a 15-year career as a professional radio personality, working his way up to a major Los Angeles station – the one that made the legendary Wolfman Jack famous. Manning’s radio career included stints as Morning Personality, Talk Show Host, Program Director and Operations Manager.

Professional wrestling has been in Manning’s blood most of his life. As a youngster, he routinely watched top wrestling stars such as John Tolos, Freddie Blassie and Pedro Morales compete at Los Angeles’ world-famous Olympic Auditorium. Manning began his wrestling career in Northern California wrestling promotions in the late 1980s. That career blossomed into work as a referee and wrestling manager.

In 2005, his own professional wrestling promotion was born in Salem, Oregon. His West Coast Wrestling Connection celebrated its 9th anniversary in March, 2014. To the professional wrestling community, he is also known as the on-air personality, Morty Lipschitz.

HERB KRAFT – COO

Popularly known as WMDL (the Worlds’ Most Dangerous Lawyer) Herb Kraft began his successful broadcasting career as a young teenager. While continuing as a broadcaster and radio personality, he was graduated from law school at age 21. As an attorney, he specialized in broadcasting and corporate and securities law.

Never one to waste a moment, he continued to work full time in broadcasting while practicing law. He began an additional side business promoting wrestling with the top wrestling organizations in North Florida and Alabama. While hosting a national radio network legal advice program, he creating a best-selling legal forms software package and worked as the Senior Vice President of Publishing for a top-ranked software publisher.

Combining broadcasting and wrestling again, Kraft joined Ring of Honor Wrestling in 2008 and worked with several California-based wrestling promotions before he found his home in top management Paragon Pro Wrestling.

ROBERT BLAGMAN* – CMO AND MANAGER OF GLOBAL SYNDICATION

Robert Blagman creates, produces, and syndicates television programming for national and international TV networks. His company, Media Fusion, and its affiliates will be bringing a new slate of TV series to market in 2015. Robert is CMO and manager of global syndication and sales for Paragon Pro Wrestling. Paragon is an exciting new direction in international pro wrestling; a sport that ranks with NASCAR, the NFL and World Cup Soccer in consumer popularity.

The Media Fusion group of companies was created in 2002 to serve the changing global media landscape. Robert expanded a consultancy to include advertising and marketing in more than 20 countries, including Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. His annual marketing billing averaged $60 million from 2002-2011 and included companies in varied industries.

In 1998, Robert, partnered with Eicoff & Co. a division of Ogilvy & Mather and won the “Best Corporate Transactional TV Program” award for Kodak and was also named “One of The Top Ten Media Executives Leading Us Into the 21st Century” by Response Magazine.

Robert’s previous work involved the extraordinary creation, development and management of a new TV network in a newly post-Communist Eastern Europe in 1995. He also created the sales division from the bottom up – training, managing, and setting budget goals and new business strategies.

The Walt Disney Company brought him in as the Vice President, National Sales Manager for their broadcast division after holding a similar position at local Los Angeles KCOP-TV.

In 1985, he was named Vice President, National Sales Manager at Katz Communications, American TV Sales division. He was the youngest executive to be promoted to Vice President in the company’s 80 year history. As V.P. and National Sales Manager, Robert managed 91 TV ad sales executives in 21 U.S. cities and trained more than 25 sales candidates. During his ten years at Katz, Robert sold and created more than a documented $1.4 billion of commercial airtime.

LEN DENTON* – DIRECTOR OF WRESTLING OPERATIONS

Director of Wrestling Operations for Paragon Pro Wrestling, Len Denton is a Hall of Famer and one of professional wrestling’s best-known living legends. Although he was successful wrestling under his own name and as one of the “Dirty White Boys,” Denton is best known as the iconic masked “Grappler.”

He was – and still is – a top main event wrestling star. He began his career as a teenager, quickly becoming a main stay of Big Bill Watt’s Universal Wresting Federation, where he wrestled all of the major stars in professional wrestling.

Amongst his many “firsts” in wrestling was his dubious honor of being the first victim of Jake “The Snake” Robert’s DDT, the most famous wrestling maneuver of the 1980s and ’90s. He was the booker (matchmaker and TV writer/manager) for Harley Race’s Central States Wrestling and for Don Owens’ Pacific Northwest Wrestling.

His autobiography “Grappler: Memoirs of a Masked Madman” is the #1 ranked professional wrestling book at Amazon.com.

ROCK RIDDLE* – DIRECTOR OF TALENT AND MEDIA RELATIONS

The official publicist for Paragon Pro Wrestling, Rock has over thirty years of professional experience in the film and television industry. His background includes: Chief Publicist and President of APS Entertainment and Hollywood Success Marketing & Public Relations as well as Screen Actors’ Guild franchised talent agent and agency co-owner, personal manager, producer, casting director, stunt person, radio and television talk show host, film and television actor, Amazon.com #1 best-selling award-winning author, and professional speaker – not to mention his “legend” status as the original “Mr. Wonderful” of professional wrestling and professional wrestling Hall of Famer.

Rock Riddle is a recipient of the prestigious Reel Honoree Award. For fifty years this award has been presented to outstanding professionals who have made a contribution to both professional wrestling and the entertainment industry. Past recipients have included Sylvester Stallone, Charles Bronson, David Carradine, Robert Conrad, Kirk Douglas, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney, James Cagney and forty-plus additional notables.

Riddle is also a recurring on-air personality for the TV shows and makes personal appearances at most of the live events.

*Jeff Manning, Robert Blagman, Len Denton, and Rock Riddle are available for interviews. Please e-mail PR@ParagonProWrestling.com for additional information and/or to schedule an interview. For advertising opportunities on the local, national, and/or international TV shows, please call the PPW Hotline: (971) 600-8215 or email info@ParagonProWrestling www.ParagonProWrestling.com