Professional Wrestling in the State of Missouri has been unfairly ruled over and taxed for years by the Missouri Athletics Commission / Missouri Office of Athletics. 

Often treated the same as professional boxing, kickboxing, full-contact karate, and other mixed-martial arts, Professional Wrestling, the wrestlers, and the promoters have been and continue to pay indefensible amounts of fees, have to jump through numerous hoops to gain and maintain their licenses, and then are taxed coming and going by the Missouri Athletics Commission.

Here is an example. A promotion is holding an event and where they are charging $20 per seat. And in this example, let's say the promotion donates 10 seats to a local charity. Complimentary tickets, meaning that the promotion will see no profit from those seats. Now, under the new rules set this year by the Missouri Athletics Commission, that promotion will now be taxed for every single seat, even complimentary seats. Even seats that may have been donated to a charity. 

Do you need another example? In 2022, the permits for Professional Wrestling are $150 per day, per event with a plan to raise the cost of the licenses for the wrestlers across the board.

And why? Not because they need the funds to ensure the safety and welfare of the athletes but because the Missouri Athletics Commission uses those funds to ensure that they have continue to exist.

Yes, All the money that is paid by our local Professional Wrestling promotions do not go back to the tax payers, they do not help protect the athletes, but they go into the coffers of the Missouri Athletics Commission to make sure that they have the funds to continue for another year.

And when, addressing the worries of the promotions about the Missouri Athletics Commission continuing to add on to the cost of running Wrestling in Missouri, the Missouri Athletics Commission responded by saying, "While no one, including myself, likes to pay more for services, if the surcharge on all events regulated by the office does increase revenue to at least equal expenses, the office will have to loo into other methods to increase revenue. At least now the surcharge, it can be passed on to the attending public"

And this is fraction of the problems with the Missouri Athletics Commission and Professional Wrestling. Their rules, regulations, and reasonings behind these fees. I humbly request that Professional Wrestling is removed from the Missouri statute 317 and is no longer under the authority of the Missouri Athletics Commission / Missouri Office of Athletics.