You are here: Home>Stories>Allan Bolte>#1


Search Kayfabe Memories

Regional Territories 4

This section contains monthly articles on over two dozen territories. To relive those wonderful days of old, click here.

Wrestlers 4

Enter this section for bios/profiles of various wrestlers from the regional days. To find more out about your favorite pro wrestler, click here.

Stories 4

This section contains stories from the pros themselves told exclusively to Kayfabe Memories. Want to know more as told from the wrestlers themselves? Click here.

Old School Book Reviews4

Click here to find various book reviews from old school wrestlers. 

KM Links 4
For tons of links to old school related sites, click here.
KM Micro Wrestlers4
What are Micro Wrestlers?  Click here  
to find out.
KM Interviews... 4
Click here to read exclusive interviews with stars from the regional territories.
 

View Old Guestbook

 
 

www.kayfabememories.com is © 2004 AtomDesigns. All promotional art, characters, logos and other depictions are © their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

All contents save Wrestler Stories are © Kayfabe Memories.

Website designed and maintained by  AtomDesigns © 2004 . If you experience any problems with this site or have any questions, please contact the Webmaster.

 

MY FIRST RING ANNOUNCING JOB

Some of you remember me as the Northern California ring announcer. At 19, I was announcing in the Cow Palace for Promoter Roy Shire; to this day some of the greats in the biz still state that Shire ran one of the leading four territories in the country. I announced from 1974, January, until Roy closed the territory in 1981, after successfully promoting yet another 18 man battle royal, sold out.

I had been a fan (and a mark) and I knew Louie Miller, another promoter who ran Sacramento, Richmond, Stockton and a few spot towns. The announcer didn't show and Miller said he wanted me to announce. Superstar Billy Graham was on the card at the Richmond Auditorium; though a bit nervous I loved it and it all went well. Miller said I was good and he'd use me in Stockton, too. Shire happened to be at the match in Stockton and said he liked my style and would use me in the Cow Palace. "The Palace is the plum and if you're good I'll hire you forever; if not Bolte, I'll throw your ass out the same night you came in," Shire told me.

Needless to say I was good. My first Palace gig included Kinji Shibuya (pretty much his last year of wrestling), Earl "Mr. Universe" Maynard, Mr. Saito, Irish Pat Barrett and a special fly-in, 600 lb Haystack Calhoun. About 10,000 people showed and it felt different standing in the ring four feet from these superstars, mike in my hand!

Eventually Shire and other promoters (the late  Terry Garvin; Louie Dondero; John Swenski and Miller) had 13 towns running at least every two weeks, four and five nights per week. Hank Rennar (a great person and good personality announcer) did Sacramento house shows on Wed and TV tapings at Channel 40 in Sacramento Monday nights. I announced Palace, Stockton every other Tues; Richmond and Santa Rosa occasionally; Fresno monthly and I filled in for Hank (including 3 TV tapings) when he was gone. Swenski announced San Jose and Salinas.

I eventually took over the programs (a good money maker) and edited and produced the programs at all of the arenas in Northern Calif.  Though I was kayfabed for the first year, eventually promoters realized I was "smart"  and I became a regular backstage dressing room member. I also had written for several wrestling magazines and at one point I wrote regular articles for five national wrestling mags including Wrestling World, Big Book of Wrestling, Wrestling Today and others.

I also ventured out to announce bodybuilding shows and I wrote for 3 bodybuilding magazines. To this day I have been ring announcer for virtually every independent promotion and have announced house shows for the WWF, NWA, Big Time Wrestling, Bay Area Wrestling,  All Pro Wrestling and others. Roland Alexander, incidentally, who is the promoter of All Pro Wrestling also was at every event from those days on. I knew he would eventually break in the business and to this day he runs one of the best wrestling schools, located in Hayward, and he promotes several live events. I have nothing but good things to say about Roland as a person and as a wrestling promoter.

KM DVD/VHS Store 4
Click here to purchase DVD or VHS products direct from the official distributors.
KM Replica Masks 4
Click here to purchase pro quality replica wrestling masks of all your favorite old school masked wrestlers.   
KM Store 4
The KM Store now features products featuring the GCW logo as well as some other very cool images.  To see what's new and to purchase T-Shirts, ball caps, mouse pads and more, click here
KM Message Board 4

Want to chat with other fans of regional wrestling? This message board has forums for over two dozen promotions. Click here.

KM Belt Gallery 4

This section contains an extensive title belt gallery... images of heavyweight, tag, U.S. and various regional title belts.  To view it, click here.

Old School Tape Review 4

Reviews of various PPV's, commercial tapes and regional wrestling TV shows are available in this section. To read more, click here.

 

Website designed & maintained by

 

 

Thanks for visiting!