As I look at the calendar, I notice a couple very noteworthy events, so without any further ado...

Happy birthday to my brother, Shawn, as he turns 43. Shawn is the person most instrumental in getting me "hooked" on pro wrestling, as it was he who brought those Inside Wrestling & The Wrestler magazines home from school when I was 8 years old, and the fascination grew....and still hasn't ended. While we have certainly have had our share of ups & downs all these years,we are golden now, & having the chance to eat lunch with him & my wonderful sister in law, Cherie this week was one of those little things you take for granted when you're younger, but enjoy much more when you're older.


July 14 may be just another day for most of you, but in the world of professional wrestling, it is a pretty significant date, for on July 14,1984, the widely popular "World Championship Wrestling" television program on WTBS (TBS) switch affiliations, so to speak, from the Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) "wing" of the   National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) to World Wrestling Federation (WWF aka WWE).

The NWA, from 1948-1982, was a conglomerate of regional wrestling promoters that essentially "controlled" the wrestling business- being on the outs with the Alliance could affect a wrestlers ability to make a living, or could & would put a considerable squeeze on an "outlaw" promoter,making it difficult to secure top talent, quality venues,etc.

But by 1982, the Alliance was floundering, largely due to the incredible gains of the cable television business. You see, one time of day, every one of these promoters had virtually an "exclusive" on their region- they controlled what was on tv and when- so, if you wanted to watch wrestling matches, you had to watch theirs- plain & simple. There was no competition- you came to their events, or you went to no events. And if a "outlaw" came to town & got hot, the NWA members would send in talent from all over the country, to help their fellow member "win the war", so to speak.

Once cable started really penetrating most of the country, the local promoters started to struggle financially, due to the fact that most of their "own" weren't perceived by the younger newer fans as "superstars"- at least not the likes of  a Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, probably wrestling's first superstar of the "Cable Era".

1984 was,with very little question, the most important year in the modern history of pro wrestling, due largely to the WWE machine & the moves Vince McMahon made that brought his organization to the very forefront of the mat game.

A little backstory : The NWA Georgia outfit was owned by a combination of Jim Barnett, Ole Anderson , & The Brisco Brothers, Jack & Jerry,& a few very small stakes partners ( 3% or less, mainly "town promoters) Barnett  in particular was a lavish spender, & the GCW group was in financial trouble, despite doing huge business in more northern cities like Baltimore,Md ,Columbus & Cleveland,Ohio, Chrlestown,WV & Detroit.  Enter Ole Anderson.

Ole was hired to be General Manager of GCW, & was given a minority stake in an outfit that he had both headlined & booked, on and off, since the mid 1970s. Ole's role included fixing the bottom line, which, due largely to Barnett's high cost lifestyle- limos,jets,fancy hotels,etc. was out of control.

Sometime in the middle of 1983, Ole fired Barnett. Now, Barnett couldn't be removed from ownership,mind you; but he could be removed from the day to day operations of GCW- and he was. Barnett, having spent his entire adult life in the wrestling business, reached out to Vince J McMahon, also known as "Vince SR". SR brought Barnett on board, although the day to day operations had already been taken over by Vince K McMahon, the same Vince we all know & love.

Meanwhile, back in Georgia, profits were not considerably stronger without the weight of Barnett's expensive tastes; there were other considerations, such as a much more shoestring talent base than fans were accustomed, & the heavy expenses of renting buildings such as The Omni in Atlanta, which was a costly venue, & a difficult one to fill given the talent at the time.

(Many trace the initial struggles of the GCW group to the closing of the old Atlanta City Auditorium, a 5,000 seater that cost only a few hundred dollars per night to rent. The Omni, a much more modern facility, held closer to 18,000, & as such, cost them much more)

The Brisco Brothers were not particularly happy with the lack of profit out of GCW, & approached Barnett with an idea: McMahon was starting to make his move, & the Brothers talked to Barnett about selling GCW to VKM. That sale included the very popular Saturday & Sunday night TBS tv shows, both showing at 6:05 pm.

VKM already had secured the USA Network as an exclusive, & was looking to grab every brass ring he could. But the TBS deal would also have to be okay'ed  by the President of TBS himself, Ted Turner. However, this wasn't as big an issue as it could have been, since Barnett had been doing business with Turner for well over a decade, and the two were friends.

Now, I don't know the exact figures, but WWF purchased GCW, all its stock,& time slots, then immediately shut the entire outfit down, known only to The Briscos & Jim Barnett; Ole Anderson & a minority partner was completely left out of the loop- as in, The other three, alongside the other minority partners, had enough stock to sell without being blocked- not that Ole didn't try.

(A famous story from the time has Ole showing up for tv as scheduled, only to find the late Gorilla Monsoon & VKM in the TBS studio. VKM took Anderson aside & told him he should come to work for him, as in WWF. Ole, ever the diplomat, reportedly uttered the following phrase: "F--- you, Vince...AND your wife".)

When Freddie Miller, the late GCW "sidekick" announcer, introduced Vince at the top of the show on July 14,1984, TBS was flodded with phone calls & letters, asking where Gordon Solie ( legendary lead announcer) was, and why they were replaced. The support, particularly from the south, was so strong that Ted Turner gave a tv slot to the new Georgia group, Championship Wrestling from Georgia ( obviously, a spin on the old name) headed up by Ole Anderson.

The time slot was not strong ( 705 am Saturdays) but irregardless, it infuriated VKM, & it set the wheels into motion for bad blood between the McMahon & Turner camps for the next 17 years. VKM refused, after initially agreeing to do so, to record the matches for the show at the TBS studios, which was a condition Turner made on his end of deal; Instead, VKM just sent in tapes from all his other shows, slightly reformatted.

Turner then cut a deal with Cowboy Bill Watts, promoter of Mid South Wrestling. In a move largely done to embarass the McMahon camp, Turner cut a deal for a short run of Mid South tv shows, which, even outside of the usual wrestling time slot on TBS, slaughtered WWF in the ratings.

Watts & Turner were slated to into business together on what would end up becoming the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) but......

In under a year, WWE sold the TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions, which was initially just a member of the NWA, then later, during the expansion, became the NWA. Watts was the odd man out, & tried to expand on his own, but without the Turner financial backing, was about to go belly up, when the  Crockett/ NWA ended up purchasing UWF from Watts, which ultimately, due to cost, spelled their doom.

However, Ted Turner once again came to the rescue, purchasing the NWA from The Crockett Family in late 1988, preserving a traditional strong ratings grabber, & renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which had previously just been the name of the tv show, not the promotion.

For a period of time, 1997-1998,WCW, led by a wrestling resurgence, fueled in no small part by a reborn Hulk Hogan, actually dominated WWE in every aspect of the business-PPV, live ticket revenue,merchandising, etc, until overspending & bad ideas ruin their show to the point of audience apathy & virtual bankruptcy.

The tradition ended in March 2001, when Time Warner purchased all of Turners tv networks, & the wrestling shows, which had long been preserved due to its strong ratings, were cancelled & the assets of the company sold- to Vince McMahon.


Until next time...
SSS