Not every wrestling executive feels the need to strut about arms flopping like Vince McMahon. Some go unnoticed but no more! Laurie Blake takes a look at the 10 most powerful people in wrestling you haven't heard of.
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00:00 Authority figures in wrestling come in all shapes and sizes, from Constable Corbin in
00:04 his very sensible waistcoat, to Dad who got lost while walking the dog Commissioner Foley
00:09 and even swaggering incomprehensible growler Vince McMahon. But not all authority figures
00:13 have actual authority, not all of them are a higher power. By which I mean have a major
00:19 role backstage like Triple H and his corporate alter ego Paul from the back office. And not
00:23 all of those with the power in wrestling have a presence on the weekly shows. Tony Khan
00:27 for instance has shied away from having too much involvement on screen in his role as
00:31 president but there are people with control and influence in companies around the world
00:35 with even less fame. A type to shape the business and mostly go unnoticed by the average fan,
00:42 these are the most powerful people in wrestling who you maybe haven't heard of.
00:47 Before we crack on with the video though, why not give us a subscribe if you like wrestling
00:50 lists and you would like them delivered to your subscription feed on YouTube free of
00:54 charge. Every time you click, Adam gets a little ding in his teeth, like an angel getting
00:59 their wings.
01:00 10. Ed Nordholm
01:02 Impact Wrestling had a pretty rocky road through the early years of its life. The company was
01:07 founded by Mid-South wrestling maven Jerry Jarrett and eventually sold to Panda Energy
01:11 with Dixie Carter running the promotion as its figurehead. As we all know, she didn't
01:16 do the best of jobs and the promotion was eventually purchased again, this time by Anthem
01:21 Sports and Entertainment.
01:22 Now heading up the promotion is Ed Nordholm, the Chief Corporate Officer for Anthem Sports
01:27 and Entertainment and the President of Impact Wrestling. Which should be called something
01:30 like Impact Smash Daddy. Or something fun but less obviously sexual.
01:35 Under Nordholm's leadership and with the help of other higher ups like Scott D'Amore,
01:39 Impact is having a proper little renaissance. Well done folks.
01:44 9. Kurt Bauer
01:46 Kurt Bauer is a former member of the WWE writing team, having worked on Raw and Smackdown starting
01:51 in 1999. He then launched Major League Wrestling in 2002 which ran until 2004 and its first
01:59 run and then eventually relaunched the whole thing in 2017.
02:03 Currently Bauer serves as the owner and Chief Executive Officer of MLW, one of the most
02:07 prominent independent promotions in wrestling today. Kind of the Major League of Indepen-
02:12 you might say. Nyuh nyuh nyuh. This is such a dry list. Couldn't I have done like people
02:19 falling over or something?
02:20 Bauer has been involved in wrestling for decades and MLW has become a proving ground for a
02:25 lot of talent that are going to make it big elsewhere. Names like MJF and Brian Pillman
02:29 Jr both came through the promotion.
02:31 If you're wondering where you may have heard Bauer's name recently though, it's because
02:34 he and MLW are behind the recent antitrust lawsuit filed against WWE. Depending on how
02:40 that goes, Bauer might be able to move up this list. Or completely off of it if he becomes
02:44 a household name off the back of it.
02:46 8. Joe Koff
02:49 This is a difficult one to discuss given the current state of Ring of Honor. Joe Koff
02:53 is the Chief Operating Officer for ROH, working with parent company Sinclair Broadcasting.
02:59 With Ring of Honor being put on hiatus and every contracted talent being released, Koff
03:03 was the one to take the blame publicly, saying in an interview that he had managed the company
03:08 too cautiously and they missed a big opportunity to grow in 2018 when the Elite was at its
03:14 hottest with the success of All In.
03:16 He said that it was his decision to put ROH on hiatus, but many others have placed the
03:20 blame on Sinclair Broadcasting's mismanagement of the promotion, so I wouldn't feel too
03:24 bad Joe.
03:25 7. Bret Lauderdale
03:28 You wouldn't think that an unsuspecting referee for Combat Zone Wrestling would go
03:31 on to be the owner of Game Changer Wrestling, but this is just what happened with Bret Lauderdale.
03:36 How is that for a super businessman origin story? Or probably should that be villain
03:41 because GCW specialises in the sort of competition that would make Jigsaw Koffer Lung, something
03:45 he might use as a cunning trap in a later film? God this is a dry list.
03:50 Lauderdale purchased the promotion in 2015 when it was known as Jersey Championship Wrestling,
03:54 Bret then rebranded it to GCW and the name has become one of those talked about on wrestling
03:58 Twitter all the damn time because people keep hitting each other with stuff.
04:02 Under Lauderdale, GCW has made a name for itself not just through its penchant for death
04:06 matches and hardcore wrestling, but also by promoting major indie events like Bloodsport,
04:11 Joey Janela's Spring Break and Effie's Big Gay Brunch. GCW has essentially quickly
04:16 grown to rival other major long-running promotions on the US indie scene in terms of popularity,
04:21 while also promoting diversity and inclusion across the entire independent wrestling spectrum.
04:26 Turns out light tubes and thumbtacks are the great equaliser.
04:30 6. Takami Obari
04:33 Now this is a fairly new inclusion as until little over a year ago the President and CEO
04:37 of New Japan Pro Wrestling was Harold Meij. Meij stepped down in late 2020 and Takami
04:43 Obari would take his place. Obari's appointment effectively greased the hinges on the old
04:47 forbidden door, allowing that bad boy to swing wide open for talent to cross between New
04:51 Japan and All Elite Wrestling on a more regular basis.
04:54 So Obari is sitting pretty at the top of the promotion, but Dave Meltzer reported in the
04:58 Wrestling Observer Newsletter that many on the New Japan roster were privately not very
05:02 pleased with Obari being appointed the new company president, because he is not someone
05:06 with a career in pro wrestling and will have a hard time winning over those he is asking
05:10 to follow him, but for now he is definitely the one calling the shots.
05:15 5. Frank A. Riddick III
05:18 WWE went through a sizeable turnover over the last two years, turnover that saw many
05:23 of the top executives fired, cut, furloughed or some combination of the three.
05:28 Many of the names that would easily have found their way onto this list before were out of
05:31 jobs. Names like Michelle Wilson and George Barrios were dismissed, but avoiding a future
05:36 endeavoring and keeping hold of his corner office was Frank A. Riddick III.
05:40 Riddick is one of WWE's executives in 2022 that doesn't get much press, even though
05:44 he is the chief financial officer of the company. Budget cuts, my guys. Budget cuts.
05:51 Riddick took over the role as the interim CFO in November 2020 after having spent more
05:55 than 13 years on the WWE board of directors.
05:59 Nick Khan and Vince McMahon might be the ones calling the major shots these days, but Riddick
06:02 is on the shortlist of the most powerful folks in WWE, and that makes him one of the most
06:07 powerful people in wrestling as a whole.
06:10 4. Megha Parekh
06:12 It was almost very difficult to include a name from All Elite Wrestling on this list
06:15 because Tony Khan is a public owner for AEW and the Executive Vice Presidents of Promotions
06:20 are all top stars on TV and wear some of the loudest clothes going. Young Bucks, I'm
06:25 looking at you.
06:26 If you don't know who those guys are, they haven't been doing their jobs properly.
06:30 However, that's not the case for Megha Parekh, who serves as the legal counsel for AEW and
06:34 also for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL team also owned by the Khan family. Tony recently
06:40 name dropped her while discussing the diversity of the AEW team, but that's about it for
06:45 mentions.
06:46 You don't hear her name because thankfully AEW doesn't exactly have the long history
06:49 of legal battles that WWE does, but that probably comes with having only three years under your
06:54 belt as a company as opposed to six whole decades, and also not having destroyed the
06:59 entire independent wrestling scene at one point. You're warring with rival companies
07:02 over a Monday night, they basically built a monopoly, they tried to destroy all the
07:07 competitors, there were steroids. Regardless, we were actually talking about AEW, and if
07:11 anyone is going to take on the second biggest wrestling promotion in North America, they
07:15 are going to have to go through Megha Parekh.
07:18 3. Allison Danger
07:21 Now this is probably the point where powerful and influential start to become interchangeable
07:25 on this list as Allison Danger holds a great deal of importance in the world of wrestling
07:29 as a long-time promoter of Shimmer, and a very influential name in women's wrestling
07:34 to boot. Danger was part of Shimmer since day one and she has virtually unparalleled
07:38 insight into women's wrestling and wrestling in general as the real-life sister of Steve
07:43 Carino. She has a more than impressive independent career under her belt, and there would be
07:47 few women's wrestlers today that aren't influenced by her in some way or another.
07:52 She has been instrumental in the promotion of women's wrestling and as that has become
07:55 more and more accepted and appreciated in the wider scope of wrestling, it means that
08:00 Allison Danger can appropriately get her day in the sun and be appreciated for her contributions
08:05 to the business and therefore never make it onto another list like this.
08:14 2. Jerry McDevitt
08:17 Whereas AEW doesn't have that long history of legal battles to draw from, the same cannot
08:21 be said for WWE.
08:23 At the forefront of all this is the long-time legal counsel for WWE, Jerry McDevitt. This
08:28 is the man that knows where the bodies are buried, so to speak. McDevitt has been involved
08:32 with WWE since 1987 when he helped to get Jim Neidhart out of some legal trouble, but
08:36 since then he has been thoroughly involved in WWE's legal proceedings. This has included
08:41 everything from the steroid trials in 1994 and the various concussion lawsuits levied
08:45 against the company. Even now, with MLW suing WWE, they have to go through Mr McDevitt.
08:52 The legal winged eagle. The Texas Law Hawk. I have no idea where he's from or what his
08:58 nickname is, but they all sounded good. Long story short, WWE has been virtually untouchable
09:02 in the courtroom because of McDevitt's expertise and he is a major reason why legal action
09:07 against WWE is such a daunting prospect.
09:11 1. Dave Prazak
09:13 Now one of the most influential names in all of independent wrestling and the founder of
09:17 Shimmer Women Athletes, Dave Prazak is a name that deserves far more recognition within
09:22 professional wrestling as a whole. Having worked as a promoter and manager in the late
09:26 90s and early 2000s, Prazak worked alongside the likes of CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Chris
09:31 Hero. However, it is his work in promoting Shimmer as the company's founder where he
09:35 deserves true recognition. He is one of the key figures in promoting women's wrestling
09:40 in North America, always focusing his promotion on the athletic side of women's wrestling
09:44 where very few promotions could say the same. While definitely not a household name, Prazak's
09:49 work has not gone unnoticed as he is set to be inducted into the Independent Wrestling
09:53 Hall of Fame by none other than CM Punk. Good on you sir.
09:59 And that's it, that's our list. Now usually I'd say something like let us know in the
10:03 comments down below if there were any big entries I missed, but why don't we talk about
10:07 smaller entries in the comments. Let us know if there are small promoters out there, smaller
10:12 people working in coaching or running wrestling schools that you want to give a shout out
10:16 to in our comments section because these are the people that are securing the future of
10:21 wrestling. If you want to watch more wrestling lists click the ones that have appeared on
10:24 screen now. And as always, Jam That Jam.
10:27 (gentle music)
10:30 (gentle music)