When we last left off it was in the later months of 1983. Around the country several of the wrestling territories around the country were doing very well for themselves business wise. Jim Crockett's Mid Atalntic, Fritz Von Erich's World Class, Bill Watt's Mid south, Jim Barnett's Georgia, and Verne Gagne's AWA were all making money with top level feuds and big names people wanted to see. With territories riding the wave of television syndication and Cable TV distribution that made their visibility much larger than it had ever been before.
However up in the Northeast part of the country things were changing. Unbeknownst to most people Vincent Jess McMahon was suffering from a very aggressive form of cancer. Fans of course were not aware of this, but plans were being put into motion for his successor within the company. Vincent originally was to pass the torch to long time Wrestler and office employee Gorilla Monsoon, but was offered to sell the stock and control of his company to his own son, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, and his group of investors known as Titan Sports. The elder had no idea of the plans his junior had in mind not only for his father's business but the business as a whole. The company was sold and the effect was almost immediate.
Vince Kennedy McMahon was never interested in operating the WWF as it had been before. Vince had a vastly different approach to pro wrestling than his father. He wanted to distance himself from the stigma of the good ol' southern boys wrasslin' and invent himself into an entertainment mogul. He rarely if ever used the term "pro Wrestling" instead saying his company was "Sports Entertainment". He openly admitted wrestling matches were predetermined to avoid the authority of local sports commissions and athletic event taxes and liscencing.Vince had a plan and knew each and every step he had to take to dominate the business like no one had done before. As the ink of the bill of sale dried Vince immediately pulled the WWF out of the NWA. Although mostly a formality, Vince never wanted to have to answer to a governing body to tell him how to run his business. Once on his own Vince's strategy was that if he was going to run shows all over the country he need big stars from around the country to appeal to different fans. His first big step was to offer to buy out Verne Gagne and the AWA, his biggest single competitor.Verne was open to the idea but told Vince that it would take time to "get his ducks in a row" with his fellow promoters and syndication partners before a sale could go through. That wasn't Vince McMahon. Abandoning the plans of a buyout Vince shifted his focus. He first went after the AWA's top talent. The first big acquisition was lead AWA interviewer "Mean" Gene Oakerland but the biggest occurring in late December/early January when Hulk Hogan appeared on WWF TV. Although pushed as the popular top face of the company and having a string of money making matches with Nick Bockwinkel that sold out show after show for the company, Hulk had become very disgruntled with the AWA. Depending on whose version of events you believe, either Verne was too set in his old School ways to put the title on a "sideshow attraction" with no amateur credentials (The Gagne side of the story) or that Verne demanded Hulk become champion but get a 50% cut of his merchandise and any money he made in an upcoming Japanese tour (Hogan's side of events). Either way after a very controversial match with Bockwinkel where Nick retained the title on a technicality Hogan went to Japan for a short tour before the planned return to the AWA to face Bockwinkel in a series of matches starting around Christmas in 1983. However Hogan was contacted by Vince and given an offer to come to the WWF and made into THEIR champion and top star and also offered an extra bonus to Hogan if he left the AWA without any notice (it was standard practic in those days for a wrestler to give his notice either 4 or 6 weeks before leaving depending on their place on the card). Hogan bolted from the AWA and Vince quickly transferred the WWF title from his father's longtime top face Bob Backlund (who had been champion since 1978 and had never been the draw that previous champions had been) to the hated Iranian Iron Sheik. The process was completed on Janurary 23, 1984. Ironically on a card kicked off with a ten bell salute in tribute to Vincent McMahon Sr. who had passed away during the week, Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik to win the WWF Title and offically kick off the Vince McMahon tenure of the WWF. With Hogan leading the way Vince went after every AWA wrestling star he could get his hands on with promises of bigger money and bonuses for leaving their former jobs without warning. Besides taking over their TV syndication slots and running house shows in their territory, Vince took a lot of the AWA talent to run cards in the very same places those wrestlers became famous. Jessie Ventura, The Vachons, Ken Patera, Jim Brunzell, David Shultz and Bobby Heenan soon jumped ship.
With his biggest star firmly in place Vince used 1984 to recruit other stars and damage his rivals as well. After a series of controversial incidents the relationship between the USA Network and Joe Blanchard's SCW promotion, Vince gladly stepped in to put his programming on a nationally aired cable network not only with a standard wrestling show All American Wrestling, but also a more talk show based program called Tuesday Night Titans that was more like the Tonight Show than a wrestling program. With a national outlet for his wrestlers to go along with his nationally syndicated show Vince started raiding other territories for their top stars. He began raiding Jim Crockett's Mid Atlantic territory, Signing Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine. Sgt. Slaughter and even booker George Scott right out from under Jim's nose. He acquired the popular Junkyard Dog from Mid South Wrestling and bought out Stu Hart's Stampede wrestling based in Calgary, Canada to get their 4 top stars (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Dynamite Kid, and Davey Boy Smith). Vince even tried to make a grab of Fritz Von Erich's eldest son and top star David, however David passed away before any real deal could have been made.
However Vince's biggest, and most infamous, conquest that year was unveiled on July 14, 1984. Now with the USA network in his pocket Vince sought out to eliminate the only other Wrestling show on cable TV, Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS. Vince secretly contacted GCW majority shareholders Jack and Gerry Brisco and offered them a huge payday and office jobs for as long as they wanted if they sold their controlling interest in the company to Vince. The Briscos both jumped at the offer and on the day dubbed "Black Saturday" Vince McMahon himself walked into the studios of TBS. Promising the "Big leagues of Professional Wrestling" Vince then presented a show that was not filled with the live studio matches the GCW fans had come to know, but pretaped matches that themselves had been shown already on other WWF programs. Viewers were outraged and complained in record numbers to TBS offices. Despite the backlash the shot had been heard by the other promoters in the country that this new kid meant business. He then lead the WWF into the "Rock N Wrestling" connection as the WWF tied into the popular rock music scene of the mid 80's. WWF personalities appeared in music videos and on MTV while stars like Mr. T from the popular show The A-Team and top music artist Cyndi Lauper appeared in WWF programming and storylines. The WWF held two specials that aired on MTV in the "Brawl to End it all" and "The War to settle the Score" both made the WWF the "it" thing of 1984.
Vince's efforts culminated on March 31, 1985 with the presentation of the first Wrestlemania. The event was carried nationally on Closed Circuit and even a few early home Pay Per View systems. The event was headlined by Hogan teaming up with Mr. T to take on the hated Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff with New York Yankees manager Billy Martin, entertainer Liberace, and Muhammad Ali all appearing on the show. Vince followed this monumental event by scoring a series of specials called "Saturday Night's Main Event" that aired 5 or 6 times a year on NBC, returning wrestling to network Television for the first time in 30 years.
While Vince was taking his product and wrestling in general to levels it had never seen, many of the promoters around the country were left scrambling having never seen this level of competition before. After the "Black Saturday" incident Ted Turner turned to Bill Watts to provide "alternative" programming to cater to the former fans of GCW, giving Mid South Wrestling a national spotlight. Eventually Ole Anderson, Jim Barnett, and those wrestlers who didn't join the WWF after the Georgia Wrestling buyout formed Championship Wrestling from Georgia and given their own slot on TBS as well. Jim Crockett, having lost his main creative force, brought in Florida Championship Wrestling star and lead booker Dusty Rhodes in to fill the void. Rhodes brought in several wrestlers to the Mid Atlantic Area to fill the void left from Vince's talent raid. Fritz Von Erich, despite losing his son and top star David, continued to expand WCCW's extensive television coverage and Verne Gagne still made money in the AWA despite their losses. Fritz, Crockett, and Gagne came together in an effort to counter Vince's programming by producing "Pro Wrestling USA" a show spotlighting stars from various territories as well, leading to the big "Superclash" stadium show presenting top stars from not only the territories involved but also Mexico and Japan. However the agreement soon fell apart but the positive from this was Verne gained a weekly television timeslot on the ESPN network. Crockett however recovered quickly when Vince gave up on the TBS venture, realizing that he had no interest in bowing to the demands of Ted Turner. Turner then sold the timeslot to Jim Crockett who then took over the reborn Georgia wrestling program to put himself as the biggest competitor to Vince and the largest member of the NWA.
With the glooves off and the boundaries of the NWA and the territorial system fading away, Pro wrestling became a much different landscape. The top promoters in the country expanded their areas not only to compete with Vince but also to bring in more money for their own. Jim Crockett progressively started expanding his territory farther into the country by either working with fellow NWA promoters or in the case of the Central States promotion, buying them out entirely. Bill Watts took his group into Texas and Oklahoma, raiding Fritz Von Erich's territory for stars before ranaming Mid South wrestling into the Universal Wrestling Federation in march of 1986 and splitting from the NWA. Although he stayed within his territorial bounds physically, Fritz Von Erich's WCCW also spilt from the NWA, and their TV show was being broadcast all over the world. And even after the death of Eddie Graham, the Florida Championship Wrestling promotion put on the Syndicated "Battle of the Belts" show that was shown on many stations around the country.
But all this expansion came at great cost. While these promotions were willing to compete, finnancially they were unable to keep up with the demands. Bill Watts UWF was heralded for it's top notch wrestling programming but behind the scenes the company was losing money hand over fist. Bill held out as long as he could but was finally unable to keep the company going and sold the UWF to Jim Crockett in early 1987. Soon WCCW, Florida Championship wrestling, and even the AWA were all facing financial crisis. The Florida promotion saw the loss of most of it's stars to Jim Crockett in early 1987 and what was left of the promotion was bought outright by 1988. The AWA and WCCW, seeing their promotions in trouble turned to one of the few promoters that was still profiting well in Memphis promoter Jerry Jarrett. Jarrett's CWA, unlike many other promotions, stayed relatively unchanged during the expansion with such stars as Jerry "The King" Lawler, Bill Dundee, and Jerry's son Jeff. Verne, Jerry, and Fritz's son Kevin and Kerry (who had control after their father sold his interest to his sons) entered an agreement of their own where AWA, CWA, and WCCW stars would appear on each other's shows. The headliner of this agreement was AWA and CWA Champion Lawler facing WCCW champion Kerry Von Erich in a series of Unification matches. This agreement culminated in "Superclash 3" ppv in December of 1988.
As this was going on Jim Crockett's NWA and Vince's WWF were in a competitive race to one up each other. When Crockett presented Starrcade 1985 from both Georgia and North Carolina, Vince attempted to one up Jim by presenting Wrestlemania 2 from 3 locations. The attempt was a failure financially but it didn't deter Vince at all. Crockett entered the ppv market with the 1987 edition of Starrcade featuring Ron Garvin V/S Ric Flair as the main event from Chicago. However Vince, not wanting competition in the Pay Per View market produced the first Survivor Series pay per veiw, featuring a 10 man team elimination match with Andre the Giant and Hulk hogan as a play off of their monumental Wrestlemania 3 encounter. Vince strong armed cable companies into carrying his show over Crockett's and Starrcade was a commercial flop. Crockett tried again in January of 1988 with the "Bunkhouse Stampede Finals" event, but was scuttled once again when Vince presented the first royal Rumble event on the USA network. Crockett shot back when he presented the first Clash of the Champions special on TBS opposite Wrestlemania 4 and Crockett came out the winner that night as he beat Vince's viewers 4 to 1.
But this took a great toll on Jim Crockett's finances. Despite selling out show after show his company was millions of dollars in debt. Ted Turner, who had long been a wrestling fan came in and a deal was worked out where Turner would buy out the company. With the corporate take over Vince quickly stepped in and offered many NWA stars contracts, snatching up Barry Windham, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson and a few others. Once the promotion was sold tensions between top star Ric Flair (turner's favorite wrestler) and booker Dusty Rhodes grew to a head with Dusty being let go from the company soon after there Starrcade 1988 event in December.
Things were quickly falling apart for the AWA as well. The Superclash event was a failure financially and matters were made worse when Verne kept what money he had for himself and refused to pay either of his promotional partners from the event. Soon Jarrett and the Von Erich's pulled out of the deal with Jarrett buying out the World Class promotion and renaming the combined promotion the USWA in 1989. Verne, having burned his last bridge, suffered. After Lawler quit the AWA and vacated title Verne scrambled to reestablish his company with what talent he hadn't lost not only in the co-promotional deal falling apart but from years of talent raids from Vince. Having lost both Texas and Memphis as places to show cards Verne at one point was reduced to filming TV shows in a small studio with no wrestling fans present (explained as a way to prevent interference). Verne valiantly fought on until the summer of 1990 when his promotion had no more money to promote shows anymore. After his material for fresh TV shows dried up, Verne presented a few cobbled together episodes using old footage overdubbed to sound more current before abandoning the concept and showing older matches in a "Best of" series of shows before the AWA faded completely by early 1991.
By 1990 the Wrestling landscape was very different. In just 6 years the Wrestling in the US went from the very many to the very few. No longer were their Territories, but you were now either one of the "Big Two" or you were an "independent" promotion. While few survived, many were left behind. However the new decade would bring challenges of its own.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Brief history of United States Wrestling part 1
So after posting my first review I realized in that going over a lot of the old school wrestling stuff, a lot of terms and references to events will pop up more than once. So to provide a bit of context I am putting together this shotgun history of professional wrestling in the United states.
Our story starts in the 1930's. Wrestling at the turn of that century had been very popular but the secret shift from legit competitions to predetermined matches and the media uncovering these shady dealings with promoters along with some very public trials in courts, left the public with a bad taste in it's mouth. As a result the attendence for wrestling shows nosedived. Starting in around 1905 and leading up to this point there was an informal recognition of the "World Champion" but due to polotics of wanting to promote "World Championship" matches in their area to drum up business, the title had become fractured. Promoters from Boston, Michigan, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Kansas City, The New York State Athletic Commission, and the wrestling arm of the National Boxing Ascociation (known as the National Wrestling Ascociation) all lay some sort of claim as having a "World Champion" all during the 30's and into the 40's. With so many versions of the world title it devalued the titles and lead to a lot of confusion amongst fans. But in 1948 a group of people would get together to try to put an end to it.
In 1948 a group of a six of the most influential and powerful Pro wrestling promoters came together for a meeting (spearheaded by Midwest promoter "Pinkie" George). The result of this meeting was the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance. The NWA was a collective effort by these promoters to opeerate under one banner for the better of the business but more importantly to put money in their pockets. Under this new collective these promoters would operate under a set of rules such as they wouldn't operate in each others' territory (area in which they promoted shows), they would do business in trading talent, and more importantly they would recognize one single world champion that would travel to the different territories for limited amounts of time to add business to the shows those promoters operated. These world champions would be determined by a vote of the NWA members during their annual meetings and only with a majority vote would a champion be named.
Once the groundwork was laid down the NWA then had the task of trying to unify all the different version of the world title. Two names emerged from these matches, National Wrestling Alliance World Champion and board member Orville Brown, and National Wrestling Ascociation Champion Lou Thesz. The alliance wanted to put the title on Brown and a unification match was to be held in 1949. However weeks before the match Brown was involved in a horrific car accident and was forced to retire, leading to Thesz being made the NWA Champion (and putting an end basically to the National Wrestling Ascociation).
By 1952 the NWA world title (held by Thesz) was the only Wrestling title left standing in the US. With the NWA the dominant governing body in the country (And soon stretching into Japan, Mexico, and Canada as well) and wrestling's new found popularity thanks to television pro wrestling was seeing a boom in business not seen since the early 1900s. With the "territory system" now in full effect many local TV stations carried some form of wrestling show, since wrestling often times was a ver inexpesive form of programming for TV stations to provide. All they needed was a studio that could seat a few dozen fans, 2 cameras, and maybe a local news personality to call the action. The stations didn't have to pay the wrestlers anything and the wrestling organziation used these show to promote the local house shows (Where the real money was in wrestling). Besides TV on the local level, the nationally viewed Dumont Network also carried a wrestling show as well. Through the 50's pro wrestling and the NWA (by now covering almost all the country and several international organizations as well) reaped the benefits.
But it wasn't to last, at least as it had before. The biggest problem facing the NWA was the investigation into Monopolistic practices by the US government. The NWA was (rightly so) accused of stifling competition, blackballing those from the inudstry who did not conform to their mode of business and several other accusations. A deal was reached in 1956
but the NWA and it's board was very wary not to incite the government again. Not to much longer after this cracks formed in the Alliance. As with any organization with that much power politics and ego disagreements arose over the direction of the World Championship. Since whomever booked the world champion controlled the NWA, there was a lot of struggle and competition for the promoters to push their top wrestlers to win the world title. A major rift was growing with several NWA members backing long time champion Lou Thesz while others (most notably the Stetcher family of the Minnesota Territory) wanted to give the Title to Verne Gagne. Gagne was a former amateur champion who made the 1948 Olympic greco roman wrestling team and had been the head promoter and top star of the Dumont Network's wrestling show. However Gagne didn't garner enough of the NWA's support over fears that the Stetcher's would keep Verne for their own territory. Dismayed over not being able to win the World Title, Verne bought out the Stetcher's and split their territory away from the NWA completely. Taking political and booking control of the newly formed American Wrestling Association Verne named the now current NWA Champion Pat O' Conner the AWA world Champion. O' Conner and the NWA ignored this complelty and Gagne became the champion of his own promotion for the first time. Another major split from the Alliance happened soon after. After a dispute over the result of a match between defending NWA Champion "Nature Boy" Buddy Rodgers and former Champion Lou Thesz. Thesz won the match and the title in a single fall, where world championship matches at the time were the best two of 3 falls. Promoter's in the northeast, lead by second generation promoter Vincent Jess Mcmahon refused to recognize the title change (and the fact that Roidgers was a major draw in the Northeast) split from the NWA and formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation and named Rodgers as their first champion in early 1963. However big the dissagreements though, The now 3 major promotional entities in the United States stayed on relatively friendly terms and although not in direct business with each other stayed out of each others way. Eventually Mcmahon was brought back into the NWA but was allowed to continue to promote the WWWF title as a world title.
As with any fads in Television the Novelty of Wrestling wore out with the national audience. Locally however business was strong with many territories around the country. Besides Gagne's AWA covering the northern Midwest and Vincent Mcmahon's WWF covering the northeast region of the country, several of the NWA terrtories emerged as major players in the 60's and 70's including Jim Crockett's Mid Atlantic Championship wrestling in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland; Bob Geigel's Central States territory based out of Kansas City: Florida Championship Wrestling promoted by Eddie Graham; amongst others. There were a few attempts to compete directly against the NWA, most notably the IWA promotion that was established in direct competition to many NWA territories around the country in 1975. The promotion fell apart within a year and tried to compete against Jim Crockett's territory but came up short and dissipated by 1976.
As the 70's turned into the 80's more players began to make themselves more influential as Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling out of Texas, Bill Watts's Mid South Wrestling, and Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio became to grow in influence. In 1982 Blachard's Promotion was picked up by the USA Network for a weekly timeslot and Jim Barnett's Georgia Championship Wrestling began to beam nationally when the Ted Turner owned TBS began to beam to a national audience as the Wrestling business entered the cable Television industry.
Another big step in the industry first appeared in this time. "Spot Shows" or special events a promotion would put on outside of their regular promotional schedules had been occurring for decades. These shows would go above and beyond their usual shows often featuring the end of the territories major feud, a world title match, or big names from outside the territory to bring in the special attendances, often at higher prices. Typically these shows revolved around major holidays such as Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas
but promotions were promoting more of these supershows year after year. The Cow Palace near San Francisco played host to an annual 20 man battle royal beginning in the late 60's, Fritz Von Erich prmoted several "Starr Wars" shows several times a year, Vinceent Mcmahon hosted 3 "Showdown at Shea" stadium shows during the 70's and the Crockett Promotion held annual supercards on Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 1976 a collaborated effort between Vincent McMahon, Japanese promoter and wrestler Antonio Inoki and several promoters around the country brought about the first international closed circuit telecast of a wrestling show. Closed circuit telecasts entailed an event being broadcast through satellites to large location around the country (or even the world) such as theaters, arenas, and exhibition halls where a crowd was charged to view the event. The promotion behind the event would receive half (or more) or the money brought in while the individual venues got the remainder of the share. The first of these events was the much hyped Boxer V/S Wrestler match between boxing world Champion Muhammad Ali against Inoki in a mixed rules match from Japan. This match was paired with another match with Andre the Giant facing boxer Chuck Wepner. These two match were shows on big screens and in many cases live wrestling matches were offered in arenas carrying the show. The match itself was considered a bust by American fans but made a lot of money for promoters around the country. Jim Crockett was the next to take on closed circuit when he took the traditional Thanksgiving card Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling would promote and turned it into Starrcade '83 built around the first time the NWA title would be defended inside a steel cage with reigning champion Harley Race defending against "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in the main event of a show featuring many stars from other promotions and became the first step in a change in the business.
But as I';ll write about later on, something was looming on the horizon that no one expected and would set about a change never seen before.
Our story starts in the 1930's. Wrestling at the turn of that century had been very popular but the secret shift from legit competitions to predetermined matches and the media uncovering these shady dealings with promoters along with some very public trials in courts, left the public with a bad taste in it's mouth. As a result the attendence for wrestling shows nosedived. Starting in around 1905 and leading up to this point there was an informal recognition of the "World Champion" but due to polotics of wanting to promote "World Championship" matches in their area to drum up business, the title had become fractured. Promoters from Boston, Michigan, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Kansas City, The New York State Athletic Commission, and the wrestling arm of the National Boxing Ascociation (known as the National Wrestling Ascociation) all lay some sort of claim as having a "World Champion" all during the 30's and into the 40's. With so many versions of the world title it devalued the titles and lead to a lot of confusion amongst fans. But in 1948 a group of people would get together to try to put an end to it.
In 1948 a group of a six of the most influential and powerful Pro wrestling promoters came together for a meeting (spearheaded by Midwest promoter "Pinkie" George). The result of this meeting was the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance. The NWA was a collective effort by these promoters to opeerate under one banner for the better of the business but more importantly to put money in their pockets. Under this new collective these promoters would operate under a set of rules such as they wouldn't operate in each others' territory (area in which they promoted shows), they would do business in trading talent, and more importantly they would recognize one single world champion that would travel to the different territories for limited amounts of time to add business to the shows those promoters operated. These world champions would be determined by a vote of the NWA members during their annual meetings and only with a majority vote would a champion be named.
Once the groundwork was laid down the NWA then had the task of trying to unify all the different version of the world title. Two names emerged from these matches, National Wrestling Alliance World Champion and board member Orville Brown, and National Wrestling Ascociation Champion Lou Thesz. The alliance wanted to put the title on Brown and a unification match was to be held in 1949. However weeks before the match Brown was involved in a horrific car accident and was forced to retire, leading to Thesz being made the NWA Champion (and putting an end basically to the National Wrestling Ascociation).
By 1952 the NWA world title (held by Thesz) was the only Wrestling title left standing in the US. With the NWA the dominant governing body in the country (And soon stretching into Japan, Mexico, and Canada as well) and wrestling's new found popularity thanks to television pro wrestling was seeing a boom in business not seen since the early 1900s. With the "territory system" now in full effect many local TV stations carried some form of wrestling show, since wrestling often times was a ver inexpesive form of programming for TV stations to provide. All they needed was a studio that could seat a few dozen fans, 2 cameras, and maybe a local news personality to call the action. The stations didn't have to pay the wrestlers anything and the wrestling organziation used these show to promote the local house shows (Where the real money was in wrestling). Besides TV on the local level, the nationally viewed Dumont Network also carried a wrestling show as well. Through the 50's pro wrestling and the NWA (by now covering almost all the country and several international organizations as well) reaped the benefits.
But it wasn't to last, at least as it had before. The biggest problem facing the NWA was the investigation into Monopolistic practices by the US government. The NWA was (rightly so) accused of stifling competition, blackballing those from the inudstry who did not conform to their mode of business and several other accusations. A deal was reached in 1956
but the NWA and it's board was very wary not to incite the government again. Not to much longer after this cracks formed in the Alliance. As with any organization with that much power politics and ego disagreements arose over the direction of the World Championship. Since whomever booked the world champion controlled the NWA, there was a lot of struggle and competition for the promoters to push their top wrestlers to win the world title. A major rift was growing with several NWA members backing long time champion Lou Thesz while others (most notably the Stetcher family of the Minnesota Territory) wanted to give the Title to Verne Gagne. Gagne was a former amateur champion who made the 1948 Olympic greco roman wrestling team and had been the head promoter and top star of the Dumont Network's wrestling show. However Gagne didn't garner enough of the NWA's support over fears that the Stetcher's would keep Verne for their own territory. Dismayed over not being able to win the World Title, Verne bought out the Stetcher's and split their territory away from the NWA completely. Taking political and booking control of the newly formed American Wrestling Association Verne named the now current NWA Champion Pat O' Conner the AWA world Champion. O' Conner and the NWA ignored this complelty and Gagne became the champion of his own promotion for the first time. Another major split from the Alliance happened soon after. After a dispute over the result of a match between defending NWA Champion "Nature Boy" Buddy Rodgers and former Champion Lou Thesz. Thesz won the match and the title in a single fall, where world championship matches at the time were the best two of 3 falls. Promoter's in the northeast, lead by second generation promoter Vincent Jess Mcmahon refused to recognize the title change (and the fact that Roidgers was a major draw in the Northeast) split from the NWA and formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation and named Rodgers as their first champion in early 1963. However big the dissagreements though, The now 3 major promotional entities in the United States stayed on relatively friendly terms and although not in direct business with each other stayed out of each others way. Eventually Mcmahon was brought back into the NWA but was allowed to continue to promote the WWWF title as a world title.
As with any fads in Television the Novelty of Wrestling wore out with the national audience. Locally however business was strong with many territories around the country. Besides Gagne's AWA covering the northern Midwest and Vincent Mcmahon's WWF covering the northeast region of the country, several of the NWA terrtories emerged as major players in the 60's and 70's including Jim Crockett's Mid Atlantic Championship wrestling in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland; Bob Geigel's Central States territory based out of Kansas City: Florida Championship Wrestling promoted by Eddie Graham; amongst others. There were a few attempts to compete directly against the NWA, most notably the IWA promotion that was established in direct competition to many NWA territories around the country in 1975. The promotion fell apart within a year and tried to compete against Jim Crockett's territory but came up short and dissipated by 1976.
As the 70's turned into the 80's more players began to make themselves more influential as Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling out of Texas, Bill Watts's Mid South Wrestling, and Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio became to grow in influence. In 1982 Blachard's Promotion was picked up by the USA Network for a weekly timeslot and Jim Barnett's Georgia Championship Wrestling began to beam nationally when the Ted Turner owned TBS began to beam to a national audience as the Wrestling business entered the cable Television industry.
Another big step in the industry first appeared in this time. "Spot Shows" or special events a promotion would put on outside of their regular promotional schedules had been occurring for decades. These shows would go above and beyond their usual shows often featuring the end of the territories major feud, a world title match, or big names from outside the territory to bring in the special attendances, often at higher prices. Typically these shows revolved around major holidays such as Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas
but promotions were promoting more of these supershows year after year. The Cow Palace near San Francisco played host to an annual 20 man battle royal beginning in the late 60's, Fritz Von Erich prmoted several "Starr Wars" shows several times a year, Vinceent Mcmahon hosted 3 "Showdown at Shea" stadium shows during the 70's and the Crockett Promotion held annual supercards on Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 1976 a collaborated effort between Vincent McMahon, Japanese promoter and wrestler Antonio Inoki and several promoters around the country brought about the first international closed circuit telecast of a wrestling show. Closed circuit telecasts entailed an event being broadcast through satellites to large location around the country (or even the world) such as theaters, arenas, and exhibition halls where a crowd was charged to view the event. The promotion behind the event would receive half (or more) or the money brought in while the individual venues got the remainder of the share. The first of these events was the much hyped Boxer V/S Wrestler match between boxing world Champion Muhammad Ali against Inoki in a mixed rules match from Japan. This match was paired with another match with Andre the Giant facing boxer Chuck Wepner. These two match were shows on big screens and in many cases live wrestling matches were offered in arenas carrying the show. The match itself was considered a bust by American fans but made a lot of money for promoters around the country. Jim Crockett was the next to take on closed circuit when he took the traditional Thanksgiving card Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling would promote and turned it into Starrcade '83 built around the first time the NWA title would be defended inside a steel cage with reigning champion Harley Race defending against "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in the main event of a show featuring many stars from other promotions and became the first step in a change in the business.
But as I';ll write about later on, something was looming on the horizon that no one expected and would set about a change never seen before.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Final Conflict 1983
I began to think about what my first review would be for this little project and looked over my collection to find the right subject to look over. I decided to go after one of my earliest, and more obscure, parts of my wrestling collection.
Final Conflict 1983
This is an event not a lot of people are really aware of and even fewer have seen. It was never released commercially in any form and the only way any of the footage saw the light of day was it was in the personal collection of Jim Nelson who wrestled on the show. He gathered together the raw footage from this show and it was sold on DVD if you looked hard enough.
Setting the stage, it was March 12, 1983 at the Coliseum in Greensboro North Carolina. In these days before monthly pay per view broadcasts and mountains of hours of TV wrestling every week The fabled Territorial system of the NWA was still very much in effect where individual promoters operated in defined borders of the country under the National Wrestling Alliance banner. The Vince McMahon buyout of his father and subsequent national expansion of the WWF was months away and out of the territories at the time, one of the biggest was Jim Crockett Jr.'s Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. Mid Atlantic operated mostly between Baltimore, the Carolinas, and Virginia, but also booked talents for the Georgia and Florida Territories so they had a strong presence in the NWA. The hottest feud that they had was between the defending NWA Tag Team Champions Sgt. Slaughter and his Private, Don Kernodle and the challenge of the former Champions, the popular Ricky Steamboat (pre Dragon days) and Jay Youngblood. The feud (which I will get into later) had been brewing for months and this card was set up to be the finality of the feud. Longtime Mid Atlantic announcer Bob Caudle is at Ringside. So with the stage set we get to the action.
The Greensboro crowd is lively as The "Voice of Mid Atlantic Wrestling" Dr. Tom Miller goes through the usual announcements before the show starts about were the local fans can watch Mid Atlantic on TV before the playing of the national anthem. You can tell right off this is spliced together raw footage as instead of seamlessly going from one segment to another it just cuts right to the next bit of action.
Gerry Brisco V/S Ken Timbs
This was your typical opening match for these types of shows featuring a recognized name in the area to get the crowd fired up. Brisco is well known for being the younger brother of former NWA Champion Jack Brisco and was a big name himself in the NWA, having won a number of tag titles with his brother and also being the champion of the Mid Atlantic region in the early 70's. Timbs on the other hand was a generic bottle blond bad guy and a bit of the journeyman wrestler who bounced around the territories in the 80's, mostly know for his future team with Eric Embry as the Fabulous Blonds before wrestling in South and Central America for the rest of his career before passing away in 2004.
The match begins with Brisco using amateur wrestling while Timbs tries his luck with a wrist lock but that doesn't get him very far. Both Brisco brothers were NCAA wrestling stand outs so whatever Timbs tries Gerry just counters his way out of it. Timbs finally gains the advantage with the wrist lock and pulling of the tights that just makes Gerry mad. Timbs keeps working over the arm with a wrist lock and wrapping Brisco's arms in the ropes before making the mistake of whipping Brisco into the corner and not following up. Brisco hits a dropkick and finishes Timbs off with a figure 4 leg lock (the finisher of both Briscos) to win the match.
Winner: Gerry Brisco in 5:00. Well that match was certanly quick, even for the standards of the day. It did what it was supposed to I guess with getting the crowd fired up.
Dr. Tom Miller comes in the announce the Easter Sunday card featuring the Brisco brothers V/s Dory Funk Jr. and Paul Jones.
Mike Rotundo V/S Rick Harris
Rotundo was just getting started in his wrestling career as was known as the young Syracuse wrestling stand out. Eventually he'd have an incredible run as Capt. Mike Rotundo and as IRS in the WWF. Rick Harris was later known more famously as Black Bart, and was a generic kick and punch brawler who had decent runs in Florida and Mid Atlantic before being known as one of the worst recognized world champions of all time when he won the WCCW title in 1986. Beyond that he was used as a jobber for both WWF and WCW. The match starts off slow with Harris using power to try and wear down Mike, working arm and wrist locks to show he's more powerful while Mike using his counters to get out of it. Harris switches to punches and forearms before settling for a headlock at Mike counters only for Harris to nail Mike with a knee to regain control. They trade moves back and forth before Harris runs into Rotundo's airplane spin and the 3 count.
Winner: Mike Rotundo in 6:00. These guys aren't getting paid by the hour tonight. It was basically Harris dominating with Rotundo countering for the win.
Dr. Tom Miller makes another announcement about the Easter Sunday card featuring a 6 man match with Greg Valentine, the One Man Gang, and Sir Oliver Humperdink going against Bugsy Mcgraw, Jimmy "Boogie Woogie man" Valiant, and Andre the Giant.
Johnny Weaver & Pvt. Jim Nelson V/S Gene Anderson & Red Dog Lane
Our undercard tag match of the evening. Johnny Weaver was a long time staple of the area, going back to the early 60's. At this point his wrestling days were winding down and he was used mostly as a tag partner for younger guys to show them the ropes in the ring. Pvt. Jim Nelson was formerly part of Sgt. Slaughter's corp but turned against the Sarge to help train Steamboat and Youngblood for the main event. He would later be better known as the Russian Boris Zukov in the AWA and WWF. The opponents are Gene Anderson, another long time staple of east Coast Wrestling and was part of one of the best Tag teams of all time the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with his "brother" Ole Anderson that was a top draw back in the 70's and early 80's until Gene suffered a stroke and became a manager for a while before coming back. At this point Ole was wrestling as a face in Georgia while Gene was used the same as Weaver was, helping younger guys. Red Dog Lane (from Mule Shoe, Texas) I have no clue about so he never amounted to much I would guess. Weaver and Lane start the match with Weaver leading Lane through some moves and outfoxing the younger Lane. They do a cool spot in the match where Lane goes for a Monkey flip and Weaver just sits down. A simple counter but one I've never seen before or since. Tired of being schooled Lane tags in the vetren Anderson. Gene takes control with punches and works over Weaver for a while. Weaver scoots through Gene's legs to tag in Nelson who takes on both opponents with bodyslams. Weaver tags back in and is caught with a knee from Gene. Gene and Lane trade offense on Weaver before he makes the tag to Nelson who pins lane with a small package.
Winners: Johnny Weaver and Pvt. Jim Nelson in 7:00 minutes. A quick basic tag match where the veterans lead the younger guys around. Short and inoffensive.
You can tell this was raw footage as we hear bob Caudle talking to the people in the back about David Crockett joining him for commentary while Dr. Tom Miller hypes the Easter Sunday card to the crowd again leading to the first intermission.
NWA Television Title: Dick Slater (champion) V/S Roddy Piper
Our first title match of the evening as the NWA TV Champion Slater is managed by Gary Hart. Slater came out of Florida in the late 70's as one of Dusty Rhodes's buddies and was known through his career as "Mr. Unpredictable" as he changed from a technical wrestler to a crazy brawler mid match and changed from heel to face so often as well. He bounced around the territories with stints in Georgia, Florida, Mid Atlantic and Mid South and had a brief run in the WWF and two runs in WCW before going into semi retirement and facing some legal issues. Hart was a former wrestler turned manager who had his most success being a foil for the Von Erich family in Texas, and was in Mid Atlantic after having a falling out with Fritz Von Erich after their big 1982 Christmas show that sparked World Class's huge run. He would stay in the area until mid 1984 before going back to be the booker and lead manager. Roddy Piper had made a name for himself in the Northwest Territory under Don Owen before moving to Mid Atlantic and his star grew even more. His wrestling skills were average but his timing and his abilities on the mic got him over big with the fans. He started in the area in the early 80's as a heel but became a popular face. He eventually jumped to the WWF and was a big time player n the Rock N wrestling Connection. The match starts very oddly as Gary Hart comes to the ring and grabs to house mic to tell Dick Slater it was match time and get to the ring, I guess playing into the Mr. Unpredictable namesake. This match is for the TV title where the match itself was time limited to 60 minutes but the belt itself was only on the line for the first 15. The match kicks off as Slater chokes Piper with a towel, but Piper reverses it and begins to choke Slater. Both men are known for their high energy offense so this match picks up in a hurry as fists start flying and the crowd finally gets into the action. Both men trade offense back and forth while Hart keeps jumping on the ring apron. The Referee even shoves him to the floor at one point but Hart keeps coming back up. Slater goes for a spinning toe hold that Piper counters with a poke to the eyes. action spills to the floor where Piper is thrown to the ringpost to give Slater the advantage but Piper comes back again. Hart keeps trying to distract the ref but it doesn't work as Piper keeps on the offensive. Both men slug it out trading punches as the pacing of this match over the earlier ones is like night and day. Piper goes for the sleeper hold and Hart keeps trying to distract the ref. Slater gets out of it on his own but Piper regains the advatage again. Hart distracts Piper and then the ref as Slater throws Piper over the top rope (which would have been a Disqualification had the ref seen it). Slater suplexes Piper in the ring and pins him, but Piper has his foot on the ropes so the ref restarts the match. Hart keeps trying to distract the ref but Piper scored the hit on Slater and scores the pinfall. Unfortunately it was outside the time limit so Piper doesn't get the belt.
Winner: Roddy Piper in 17:00. This match was so much better than the undercard matches. While the previous matches were very basic and "old school" this match had a lot more energy from both the wrestlers and the crowd.
Unfortunately this collection omits the World title match where NWA Champion Ric Flair went to a 60 minute draw against US Champion and former Tag Partner Greg Valentine. Knowing both men's styles it probably wasn't breaking any speed records but was a heavy hitting battle.
NWA World Tag team Title: Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle (Champions) V/S Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood.
The cage is up and it's time for our Main Event. The feud got started when Slaughter and Kernodle "Won" the NWA Tag Titles in late 1982 (In reality the previous Champions Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen left the area for Georgia and the titles were given to Slaughter and Kernodle without a match). Meanwhile Steamboat and Youngblood got back together as a tag team having won the titles 3 times prior to this and made it known they wanted a shot. Slaughter's main weapon was the Cobra Clutch which no man could break, but Youngblood developed a counter for it, demonstrating it on Kernodle during a tag match (The famous quote from Slaughter "You didn't counter MY Cobra Clutch"). Previous matches between these teams turned into wars without a clear winner or a dubious ending so Steamboat and Youngblood demanded one more match. Slaughter and Company returned with a clause that said if Ricky and Jay lost the match they'd have to split up as a tag team. Ricky and Jay then alluded to someone who was "helping" them train and a little while before the match it was revealed to be Pvt. Jim Nelson. The build up to this match was huge for the territory for the time and they packed the Greensboro Coliseum. The match begins with the challengers entering the ring first. The cage is barely taller than they are and is cyclone fence. The champions enter to the theme from Rocky and instead of military combat attire they are wearing work out gear. David Crockett has a conversation with someone in the back over the fact that Kernodle's t shirt has the wrong date printed on it. The refferee is Sandy Scott, former wrestler and brother of booker George Scott. The early action has the challengers dominating Kernodle with headlocks. This pretty much goes on for 10 minutes. Sarge tries to come in to help but it is ineffective as Scott chases him back. They have to do something since Nothing much has happened yet. There is a breif spot where Steamboat and Youngblood work over Don with some high flying moves but once again go right back to the headlock. Kernodle tries to go for a tag but Youngblood chops him down and goes back to the headlock again. Jay and Ricky finally start doing real offensive maneuvers before Kernodle makes the tag. Slaughter tries to go on the offensive but Jay sends him flying in the cage twice. Slaughter gains an advantage and tries to push Jay's head into the cage but Jay blocks it. Jay makes the tag and the challengers keep going for pins but the champions kick out. Slaughter impresses people by doing a leapfrog over Jay Youngblood before tossing him into the cage. Sarge tosses him into the cage a few more times before Jay starts to bleed from the forehead. Jay tries to make the comeback but Sarge and Don work him over more and more. The crowd really starts to react as Jay tries to make a comeback. Sarge tries to go for the Cobra Clutch by Jay slips out and sends slaughter into the cage cutting him open before making the tag. Steamboat rages on both Champions sending Kernodle into the cage twice before going for a diving chop only to have Sarge pull his partner out of the way and the Champions take the advantage. Don goes for the attack as Steamboat dives out of the way and Kernodle is cut open. Slaughter and Kernodle try for the finish but Steamboat counters, only to get sent into the cage and busted open. The ring is full of blood stains now. Slaughter sets Steamboat up and climbs to the top rope and then to the top of the cage for a Huge dives that of course misses. Both men tag and Youngblood dominates with hits and chops. The challengers take over on Kernodle as Sarge can't stand up in the corner. Slaughter tries to interfere but is taken out again as the challengers are in charge and the fans are really getting into it now. Jay goes for his own Cobra clutch on Kernodle while Ricky locks Sarge in a sleeper but Slaughter escapes and breaks up the Cobra clutch to save his partner but it also takes down the ref. Slaughter slips something into his elbow pad and clotheslines Youngblood. He places Don on top for the pin but when the ref comes around he shoes Slaughter back in the corner. Meanwhile Steamboat slips in and reverses the cover. The ref turns around and we have new NWA tag team champions.
Winners: Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. The fans go crazy as wrestlers from the back come out to congratulate the new champions. The match started out painfully slow but picked up half way through as the challengers worked the crowd up to a frenzy before the finish. We then see the former champions slowly and painfully make there way back to the locker room as one fans yells to them to "get them in the parking lot", priceless.
As some bonus material on the disc we see a segment not to long after this event from the TV show of the Brisco's heel turn after a match with the Champions and then attacking Jim Nelson. We also get treated to a Nelson match with Ric Flair.
Overall it wasn't much of a show, even for that time. Sure it's hard to say without the World Title match but the 3 openers were just overblown TV squash matches. However the build up for the main event and the show in general was HUGELY influential in the wrestling business. Why? This show did so well that a few months later Jim Crockett put on another big show with the tag title rematch, only this time Slaughter and Kernodle would have to split up if they lost. That did such great business that Crockett Promotions got together with a few other promoters, got some closed circuit clearance, and presented the first Starrcade event, often seen as the first of the modern Wrestling supercards, laying the ground work for the wrestling pay per view events today.
Final Conflict 1983
This is an event not a lot of people are really aware of and even fewer have seen. It was never released commercially in any form and the only way any of the footage saw the light of day was it was in the personal collection of Jim Nelson who wrestled on the show. He gathered together the raw footage from this show and it was sold on DVD if you looked hard enough.
Setting the stage, it was March 12, 1983 at the Coliseum in Greensboro North Carolina. In these days before monthly pay per view broadcasts and mountains of hours of TV wrestling every week The fabled Territorial system of the NWA was still very much in effect where individual promoters operated in defined borders of the country under the National Wrestling Alliance banner. The Vince McMahon buyout of his father and subsequent national expansion of the WWF was months away and out of the territories at the time, one of the biggest was Jim Crockett Jr.'s Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. Mid Atlantic operated mostly between Baltimore, the Carolinas, and Virginia, but also booked talents for the Georgia and Florida Territories so they had a strong presence in the NWA. The hottest feud that they had was between the defending NWA Tag Team Champions Sgt. Slaughter and his Private, Don Kernodle and the challenge of the former Champions, the popular Ricky Steamboat (pre Dragon days) and Jay Youngblood. The feud (which I will get into later) had been brewing for months and this card was set up to be the finality of the feud. Longtime Mid Atlantic announcer Bob Caudle is at Ringside. So with the stage set we get to the action.
The Greensboro crowd is lively as The "Voice of Mid Atlantic Wrestling" Dr. Tom Miller goes through the usual announcements before the show starts about were the local fans can watch Mid Atlantic on TV before the playing of the national anthem. You can tell right off this is spliced together raw footage as instead of seamlessly going from one segment to another it just cuts right to the next bit of action.
Gerry Brisco V/S Ken Timbs
This was your typical opening match for these types of shows featuring a recognized name in the area to get the crowd fired up. Brisco is well known for being the younger brother of former NWA Champion Jack Brisco and was a big name himself in the NWA, having won a number of tag titles with his brother and also being the champion of the Mid Atlantic region in the early 70's. Timbs on the other hand was a generic bottle blond bad guy and a bit of the journeyman wrestler who bounced around the territories in the 80's, mostly know for his future team with Eric Embry as the Fabulous Blonds before wrestling in South and Central America for the rest of his career before passing away in 2004.
The match begins with Brisco using amateur wrestling while Timbs tries his luck with a wrist lock but that doesn't get him very far. Both Brisco brothers were NCAA wrestling stand outs so whatever Timbs tries Gerry just counters his way out of it. Timbs finally gains the advantage with the wrist lock and pulling of the tights that just makes Gerry mad. Timbs keeps working over the arm with a wrist lock and wrapping Brisco's arms in the ropes before making the mistake of whipping Brisco into the corner and not following up. Brisco hits a dropkick and finishes Timbs off with a figure 4 leg lock (the finisher of both Briscos) to win the match.
Winner: Gerry Brisco in 5:00. Well that match was certanly quick, even for the standards of the day. It did what it was supposed to I guess with getting the crowd fired up.
Dr. Tom Miller comes in the announce the Easter Sunday card featuring the Brisco brothers V/s Dory Funk Jr. and Paul Jones.
Mike Rotundo V/S Rick Harris
Rotundo was just getting started in his wrestling career as was known as the young Syracuse wrestling stand out. Eventually he'd have an incredible run as Capt. Mike Rotundo and as IRS in the WWF. Rick Harris was later known more famously as Black Bart, and was a generic kick and punch brawler who had decent runs in Florida and Mid Atlantic before being known as one of the worst recognized world champions of all time when he won the WCCW title in 1986. Beyond that he was used as a jobber for both WWF and WCW. The match starts off slow with Harris using power to try and wear down Mike, working arm and wrist locks to show he's more powerful while Mike using his counters to get out of it. Harris switches to punches and forearms before settling for a headlock at Mike counters only for Harris to nail Mike with a knee to regain control. They trade moves back and forth before Harris runs into Rotundo's airplane spin and the 3 count.
Winner: Mike Rotundo in 6:00. These guys aren't getting paid by the hour tonight. It was basically Harris dominating with Rotundo countering for the win.
Dr. Tom Miller makes another announcement about the Easter Sunday card featuring a 6 man match with Greg Valentine, the One Man Gang, and Sir Oliver Humperdink going against Bugsy Mcgraw, Jimmy "Boogie Woogie man" Valiant, and Andre the Giant.
Johnny Weaver & Pvt. Jim Nelson V/S Gene Anderson & Red Dog Lane
Our undercard tag match of the evening. Johnny Weaver was a long time staple of the area, going back to the early 60's. At this point his wrestling days were winding down and he was used mostly as a tag partner for younger guys to show them the ropes in the ring. Pvt. Jim Nelson was formerly part of Sgt. Slaughter's corp but turned against the Sarge to help train Steamboat and Youngblood for the main event. He would later be better known as the Russian Boris Zukov in the AWA and WWF. The opponents are Gene Anderson, another long time staple of east Coast Wrestling and was part of one of the best Tag teams of all time the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with his "brother" Ole Anderson that was a top draw back in the 70's and early 80's until Gene suffered a stroke and became a manager for a while before coming back. At this point Ole was wrestling as a face in Georgia while Gene was used the same as Weaver was, helping younger guys. Red Dog Lane (from Mule Shoe, Texas) I have no clue about so he never amounted to much I would guess. Weaver and Lane start the match with Weaver leading Lane through some moves and outfoxing the younger Lane. They do a cool spot in the match where Lane goes for a Monkey flip and Weaver just sits down. A simple counter but one I've never seen before or since. Tired of being schooled Lane tags in the vetren Anderson. Gene takes control with punches and works over Weaver for a while. Weaver scoots through Gene's legs to tag in Nelson who takes on both opponents with bodyslams. Weaver tags back in and is caught with a knee from Gene. Gene and Lane trade offense on Weaver before he makes the tag to Nelson who pins lane with a small package.
Winners: Johnny Weaver and Pvt. Jim Nelson in 7:00 minutes. A quick basic tag match where the veterans lead the younger guys around. Short and inoffensive.
You can tell this was raw footage as we hear bob Caudle talking to the people in the back about David Crockett joining him for commentary while Dr. Tom Miller hypes the Easter Sunday card to the crowd again leading to the first intermission.
NWA Television Title: Dick Slater (champion) V/S Roddy Piper
Our first title match of the evening as the NWA TV Champion Slater is managed by Gary Hart. Slater came out of Florida in the late 70's as one of Dusty Rhodes's buddies and was known through his career as "Mr. Unpredictable" as he changed from a technical wrestler to a crazy brawler mid match and changed from heel to face so often as well. He bounced around the territories with stints in Georgia, Florida, Mid Atlantic and Mid South and had a brief run in the WWF and two runs in WCW before going into semi retirement and facing some legal issues. Hart was a former wrestler turned manager who had his most success being a foil for the Von Erich family in Texas, and was in Mid Atlantic after having a falling out with Fritz Von Erich after their big 1982 Christmas show that sparked World Class's huge run. He would stay in the area until mid 1984 before going back to be the booker and lead manager. Roddy Piper had made a name for himself in the Northwest Territory under Don Owen before moving to Mid Atlantic and his star grew even more. His wrestling skills were average but his timing and his abilities on the mic got him over big with the fans. He started in the area in the early 80's as a heel but became a popular face. He eventually jumped to the WWF and was a big time player n the Rock N wrestling Connection. The match starts very oddly as Gary Hart comes to the ring and grabs to house mic to tell Dick Slater it was match time and get to the ring, I guess playing into the Mr. Unpredictable namesake. This match is for the TV title where the match itself was time limited to 60 minutes but the belt itself was only on the line for the first 15. The match kicks off as Slater chokes Piper with a towel, but Piper reverses it and begins to choke Slater. Both men are known for their high energy offense so this match picks up in a hurry as fists start flying and the crowd finally gets into the action. Both men trade offense back and forth while Hart keeps jumping on the ring apron. The Referee even shoves him to the floor at one point but Hart keeps coming back up. Slater goes for a spinning toe hold that Piper counters with a poke to the eyes. action spills to the floor where Piper is thrown to the ringpost to give Slater the advantage but Piper comes back again. Hart keeps trying to distract the ref but it doesn't work as Piper keeps on the offensive. Both men slug it out trading punches as the pacing of this match over the earlier ones is like night and day. Piper goes for the sleeper hold and Hart keeps trying to distract the ref. Slater gets out of it on his own but Piper regains the advatage again. Hart distracts Piper and then the ref as Slater throws Piper over the top rope (which would have been a Disqualification had the ref seen it). Slater suplexes Piper in the ring and pins him, but Piper has his foot on the ropes so the ref restarts the match. Hart keeps trying to distract the ref but Piper scored the hit on Slater and scores the pinfall. Unfortunately it was outside the time limit so Piper doesn't get the belt.
Winner: Roddy Piper in 17:00. This match was so much better than the undercard matches. While the previous matches were very basic and "old school" this match had a lot more energy from both the wrestlers and the crowd.
Unfortunately this collection omits the World title match where NWA Champion Ric Flair went to a 60 minute draw against US Champion and former Tag Partner Greg Valentine. Knowing both men's styles it probably wasn't breaking any speed records but was a heavy hitting battle.
NWA World Tag team Title: Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle (Champions) V/S Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood.
The cage is up and it's time for our Main Event. The feud got started when Slaughter and Kernodle "Won" the NWA Tag Titles in late 1982 (In reality the previous Champions Ole Anderson and Stan Hansen left the area for Georgia and the titles were given to Slaughter and Kernodle without a match). Meanwhile Steamboat and Youngblood got back together as a tag team having won the titles 3 times prior to this and made it known they wanted a shot. Slaughter's main weapon was the Cobra Clutch which no man could break, but Youngblood developed a counter for it, demonstrating it on Kernodle during a tag match (The famous quote from Slaughter "You didn't counter MY Cobra Clutch"). Previous matches between these teams turned into wars without a clear winner or a dubious ending so Steamboat and Youngblood demanded one more match. Slaughter and Company returned with a clause that said if Ricky and Jay lost the match they'd have to split up as a tag team. Ricky and Jay then alluded to someone who was "helping" them train and a little while before the match it was revealed to be Pvt. Jim Nelson. The build up to this match was huge for the territory for the time and they packed the Greensboro Coliseum. The match begins with the challengers entering the ring first. The cage is barely taller than they are and is cyclone fence. The champions enter to the theme from Rocky and instead of military combat attire they are wearing work out gear. David Crockett has a conversation with someone in the back over the fact that Kernodle's t shirt has the wrong date printed on it. The refferee is Sandy Scott, former wrestler and brother of booker George Scott. The early action has the challengers dominating Kernodle with headlocks. This pretty much goes on for 10 minutes. Sarge tries to come in to help but it is ineffective as Scott chases him back. They have to do something since Nothing much has happened yet. There is a breif spot where Steamboat and Youngblood work over Don with some high flying moves but once again go right back to the headlock. Kernodle tries to go for a tag but Youngblood chops him down and goes back to the headlock again. Jay and Ricky finally start doing real offensive maneuvers before Kernodle makes the tag. Slaughter tries to go on the offensive but Jay sends him flying in the cage twice. Slaughter gains an advantage and tries to push Jay's head into the cage but Jay blocks it. Jay makes the tag and the challengers keep going for pins but the champions kick out. Slaughter impresses people by doing a leapfrog over Jay Youngblood before tossing him into the cage. Sarge tosses him into the cage a few more times before Jay starts to bleed from the forehead. Jay tries to make the comeback but Sarge and Don work him over more and more. The crowd really starts to react as Jay tries to make a comeback. Sarge tries to go for the Cobra Clutch by Jay slips out and sends slaughter into the cage cutting him open before making the tag. Steamboat rages on both Champions sending Kernodle into the cage twice before going for a diving chop only to have Sarge pull his partner out of the way and the Champions take the advantage. Don goes for the attack as Steamboat dives out of the way and Kernodle is cut open. Slaughter and Kernodle try for the finish but Steamboat counters, only to get sent into the cage and busted open. The ring is full of blood stains now. Slaughter sets Steamboat up and climbs to the top rope and then to the top of the cage for a Huge dives that of course misses. Both men tag and Youngblood dominates with hits and chops. The challengers take over on Kernodle as Sarge can't stand up in the corner. Slaughter tries to interfere but is taken out again as the challengers are in charge and the fans are really getting into it now. Jay goes for his own Cobra clutch on Kernodle while Ricky locks Sarge in a sleeper but Slaughter escapes and breaks up the Cobra clutch to save his partner but it also takes down the ref. Slaughter slips something into his elbow pad and clotheslines Youngblood. He places Don on top for the pin but when the ref comes around he shoes Slaughter back in the corner. Meanwhile Steamboat slips in and reverses the cover. The ref turns around and we have new NWA tag team champions.
Winners: Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. The fans go crazy as wrestlers from the back come out to congratulate the new champions. The match started out painfully slow but picked up half way through as the challengers worked the crowd up to a frenzy before the finish. We then see the former champions slowly and painfully make there way back to the locker room as one fans yells to them to "get them in the parking lot", priceless.
As some bonus material on the disc we see a segment not to long after this event from the TV show of the Brisco's heel turn after a match with the Champions and then attacking Jim Nelson. We also get treated to a Nelson match with Ric Flair.
Overall it wasn't much of a show, even for that time. Sure it's hard to say without the World Title match but the 3 openers were just overblown TV squash matches. However the build up for the main event and the show in general was HUGELY influential in the wrestling business. Why? This show did so well that a few months later Jim Crockett put on another big show with the tag title rematch, only this time Slaughter and Kernodle would have to split up if they lost. That did such great business that Crockett Promotions got together with a few other promoters, got some closed circuit clearance, and presented the first Starrcade event, often seen as the first of the modern Wrestling supercards, laying the ground work for the wrestling pay per view events today.
The start of something new
For a long time I had been given the advice that if I was to ever get any kind of paying job in writing I probably needed to start a blog. I had always thought about it but other things kept diverting my attention. Well, it was time to finally bite the bullet and start one.
But what to talk about? And would anyone care?
Well, the answer to the first question was staring me right in the face. I have a huge collection of Wrestling and Anime dvds and such so I figure I can reveiw those. Would anyone care? Probably not but we'll give it a whirl.
So with that, I present "From the Collection" a random review site of Wrestling, Anime, and any other of the more geekier pursuits that come my way.
But what to talk about? And would anyone care?
Well, the answer to the first question was staring me right in the face. I have a huge collection of Wrestling and Anime dvds and such so I figure I can reveiw those. Would anyone care? Probably not but we'll give it a whirl.
So with that, I present "From the Collection" a random review site of Wrestling, Anime, and any other of the more geekier pursuits that come my way.
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