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.
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