The newest installment of The Double Dome podcast has dropped and is now available at podbean or wherever podcasts are available.

Sorrell College of Business Dean Dr. Judson Edwards goes head-to-head with Ron Fuller and Charlie Platt in the new episode, “The Business of Professional Wrestling.”

“I had a great time discussing the old Southeastern/Continental Championship Wrestling of Alabama/Tennessee, the last days of territories and the end of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA),” Edwards said. “The episode provides a great perspective as to how Vince McMahon ruined professional wrestling and what should have been done, and the importance of Dothan, Alabama as a wrestling town.”

Fuller, whose real name is Ronald Welch, “The Tennessee Stud”, retired from pro wrestling and co-owned Continental Championship Wrestling with his younger brother “Col.” Robert Fuller. Platt, from Dothan, was Continental’s prolific wrestling announcer and is the perhaps the most well-known voice to emanate from the Wiregrass.

The trio explores the ins-and outs of what it takes to successfully promote and market the business of professional wrestling. 

“It was a real challenge for a 26 year-old boy. I say ‘boy’ because I thought I was grown but I found out the business world is cruel sometimes – my first year was extremely cruel for me, but that’s what makes businessmen get up and go,” Fuller said of his first business experience, Southeastern Wrestling based in Tennessee.

“If you’re an entrepreneur and you want to head in that direction you better be prepared to be a jack-of-all trades because you don’t know what you’ll have to do in order to make it happen,” he said.

Platt said one of the most important things in successful business promotion is effective communication.

“People appreciate being communicated with on a one-on-one basis and not throw something that goes over their head or under their feet. Go head-on and make them feel at home,” he said. “And that’s what Southeastern Wrestling did. 

(A wrestler) could be the biggest heel on earth . . . but that person knowing that child wanted some attention and quality time, would kind of ease over to the side, sign an autograph, pat ‘em on the back and let them go,” he said. “It was a family, and we were in the fans’ homes every week, so it was a big family.”

Tune into The Double Dome wherever podcasts are available to hear more from legends of pro wrestling.