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PLSNINTERVIEW
John D’Amico
By RobLudwig
The world of professional wrestling
is one part theatre, one part soap
opera and three parts loud music,
rabid redneck fans and outrageous wrestlers.
Good or bad, everybody has a take
on wrestling. Yet no one can argue with its
marketing prowess. Imaging and branding
have been prevalent in professional
wrestling ever since Terrible Ted, the wrestling
bear, took down Bunny Dunlop in
the 1950s. But how do they do it now? As
WWE’s senior production manager John
D’Amico explains, it’s a lot good people,
hard work, and of course, a lot of sweat.
PLSN: What’s your role
at World Wrestling
Entertainment?
John D’Amico: I’m the senior production
manager. I oversee our non-televised
live events. We do over 200 shows with
each brand—RAW and SmackDown—and
starting in June we’re going to add a third
brand, ECW. It’s a smaller show than our
TV production. It’s a one truck show with
a 30-foot by 30-foot lighting rig with 24
PAR cans.
What is your typical
day like?
We’re in Boise, Idaho, today. We start our
load-in at 11 a.m., which is convenient for everybody.
It’s a one truck show and we contain the
lighting and the wrestling rig in that one truck.
It takes about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to
set up the lighting rig and about another hour
to set up the wrestling ring. Usually, at about
three or four o’clock in the afternoon, the talent
arrives and they workout in the ring. Our shows
generally kick-off at about 7:30 in the evening.
They’re usually about two-and-a-half to three
hour shows with about 10 matches. Then we
do a breakdown; we’re usually out in about an
hour to an hour-and-a-half. We actually do a lot
of driving. Generally, it’s just myself and one production
crew guy who’s also the referee in the
show. So, he does double duty. During the show
I call the spotlight cues, operate the lighting, and
play all the entrance music for the talent.
That’s triple duty for
you. Do you use local
service providers?
We use local crews in each venue. I also
do all the advance work for all non-televised
events, the crews and catering. I also
arrange for any lighting or audio we may
need on these shows.
That sounds like a lot
of work.
It is a 365-days-a-year job.
Do you use your nontelevised
events to
create your
branding?
This is how we
get it out to the public.
Of course, we
have TV time—we’re
live Monday nights
on the USA network,
on UPN on Friday
nights, and ECW
looks like it’s going
to be taking a slot on
the Sci-Fi Channel.
We do the live events
in each town so that
people get to see the
performance live.
WWE’s Wrestle Mania
26 PLSN AUGUST 2006
www.PLSN.com