Best and worst territories

[RMMA]

Before WWE monopolized the pro wrestling business, there were numerous territories throughout the United States and Canada. Throughout my time watching pro wrestling, I seen various shows and matches throughout the various promotions. Each had there distinct style and approach to booking pro wrestling.

I'm wondering what was the best and worst territories back then, from what I seen Memphis, Mid-South and Mid-Atlantic is awesome viewing. Prime Memphis had the perfect mix of characters, storytelling and wrestling in one show.
I heard alot about Central States being one of the worst territories out there, can anyone elaborate on what make it so bad?

 

[My Spot]

I've never liked World Class outside of the Freebirds/Von Erich stuff.

 

[The Clamburglar]

Stampede.

 

[Pittie Petey]

UWF(Bill Watts not Herb Abrams) was my favorite territory
It was nonstop rough and rugged action with great booking and awesome characters
It gets criticism because of all the hot shotting and if it lasted longer that may have become a problem but as it stands it was pretty close to perfect in my eyes
Big tough brawlers like Hacksaw Duggan, Dr Death Steve Williams, One Man Gang, Terry Gordy etc mollywhopping the shit out of each other on a nightly basis
Plus you had solid workers like Chris Adams, Terry Taylor and Ted Dibiase
Add in great hateable heel managers like Michael Hayes, Eddie Gilbert, Skandor Akbar and some of the hottest chicks in Missy Hyatt and Sunshine and you got a recipe for greatness
The Fantastics vs Sheepherders had some great bloody cage matches in the UWF that are definitely worth checking out

 

[RMMA]

I've never liked World Class outside of the Freebirds/Von Erich stuff.

Relying on one major feud to carry a promotion hinder World Class in the end. They had other heels the Von Erich could feud with like Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams. Ric Flair was quite the draw down in the WCCW as seen in his matches against Kerry Von Erich.

 

[Thai Domi]

Georgia
Florida
Mid Atlantic
Mid South
WCCW

I used to dig on all of these.

 

[sleepwalk]

I don't know if you'd call the AWA a "territory" per se, but it was strongly based in the mid-west. That said, the talent alone there was ridiculous and their marketing was great. Storylines were a bit light, though.

 

[Big Burly]

Central States was where old wrestlers went to die... Or retire. It was pretty boring stuff. Bulldog Bob Brown. Need I say more. Old school, but bad, boring old school.

Great territories? Mid-South/UWF. Florida (CWF). Mid-Atlantic. Georgia (GCW). Don Owens' Pacific Northwest. Roy Shire's San Francisco area. St. Louis. Amarillo (60s to mid-70s). Calgary was good until the mid-80s. LA had some great moments from the 40s through the early to mid 70s.

AWA had all the goods and talent, but couldn't change with the times. WWF stole/took all of their young talent. Curt Hennig, Scott Hall, John Nord (not a big name, but he was taken, too), Hulk Hogan, and Mean Gene were in the AWA. They took the announcer Ken Resnick, too. Hogan had been a heel in the WWF, he went to Japan and became a face. He went to the AWA as a heel/face and hit it huge there.

WWF took many of the biggest from the Mid-South, like JYD, Jake the Snake, One Man Gang, and Butch Reed

WWF was also a territory, just like the AWA. Until Vinny Mac took it over and aggressively went after territories and their talent.

WCCW had some big moments, but once 1986 hit, it was a rapid downhill for them. From the great Von Erich vs Freebirds feud (among other things) to John fucking Tatum. HUGE drop-off.

Memphis was a territory of mostly small guys. Lots of great story-lines. Innovative tag teams started there (Rock and Roll Express, Bruise Brothers, the Fabulous Ones). Great managers came from there (Jimmy Hart and Jim Cornette). Of course, so did Downtown Bruno. For all the great that Memphis had, they laid a lot of duds. The area was dominated by Jerry Lawler as much or more than WCCW was dominated by the Von Erichs, and for a much longer time period.

Georgia, Florida, and the Mid-Atlantic were hotbeds of talent, possibly the hottest for talent. Mid-South had great storylines and was not shy on talent either. It was a big-man's territory, with a lot of David vs Goliath storylines. These 4 areas were the very pinnacle for me. Florida was Dusty Rhodes. Mid-Atlantic was Flair, Steamboat, Valentine, Mulligan, Wahoo, Piper, the Anderson Brothers. Georgia was Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar, Ole Anderson, Tommy Rich (gag), Stan Hansen, Ted Dibiase, Bob Armstrong.

 

[My Spot]

 

[RMMA]

Central States was where old wrestlers went to die... Or retire. It was pretty boring stuff. Bulldog Bob Brown. Need I say more. Old school, but bad, boring old school.

Great territories? Mid-South/UWF. Florida (CWF). Mid-Atlantic. Georgia (GCW). Don Owens' Pacific Northwest. Roy Shire's San Francisco area. St. Louis. Amarillo (60s to mid-70s). Calgary was good until the mid-80s. LA had some great moments from the 40s through the early to mid 70s.

AWA had all the goods and talent, but couldn't change with the times. WWF stole/took all of their young talent. Curt Hennig, Scott Hall, John Nord (not a big name, but he was taken, too), Hulk Hogan, and Mean Gene were in the AWA. They took the announcer Ken Resnick, too. Hogan had been a heel in the WWF, he went to Japan and became a face. He went to the AWA as a heel/face and hit it huge there.

WWF took many of the biggest from the Mid-South, like JYD, Jake the Snake, One Man Gang, and Butch Reed

WWF was also a territory, just like the AWA. Until Vinny Mac took it over and aggressively went after territories and their talent.

WCCW had some big moments, but once 1986 hit, it was a rapid downhill for them. From the great Von Erich vs Freebirds feud (among other things) to John fucking Tatum. HUGE drop-off.

Memphis was a territory of mostly small guys. Lots of great story-lines. Innovative tag teams started there (Rock and Roll Express, Bruise Brothers, the Fabulous Ones). Great managers came from there (Jimmy Hart and Jim Cornette). Of course, so did Downtown Bruno. For all the great that Memphis had, they laid a lot of duds. The area was dominated by Jerry Lawler as much or more than WCCW was dominated by the Von Erichs, and for a much longer time period.

Georgia, Florida, and the Mid-Atlantic were hotbeds of talent, possibly the hottest for talent. Mid-South had great storylines and was not shy on talent either. It was a big-man's territory, with a lot of David vs Goliath storylines. These 4 areas were the very pinnacle for me. Florida was Dusty Rhodes. Mid-Atlantic was Flair, Steamboat, Valentine, Mulligan, Wahoo, Piper, the Anderson Brothers. Georgia was Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar, Ole Anderson, Tommy Rich (gag), Stan Hansen, Ted Dibiase, Bob Armstrong.

Fantastic post, going to watch alot more of World Class/Mid-South sounds like excellent viewing. Memphis is a personal favorite territory of mine since I seen so much of it over the years, the Dundee vs Lawler Feud in it's various incarnations. Lawler vs Kaufman, Savage, Mantel,etc.

Just found youtube footage of Continental Championship Wrestling set in Alabama and Tennessee. I love the southern promotions in general, at the time they can be outlandish and grittier counterpart to WWE. If anything, the south is a precursor to ECW in general.

They didn't care and were more willing to take risks in edgier story-lines and more violent matches.

 

[RMMA]

Cornette's promotion, from what I seen they try to revive the southern style of wrestling it's too bad it was formed during a down period in the business. The early 90's wasn't exactly the safest time to launch a promotion, ECW was formed in 92 and grew steadily from there to it's eventual fall in 01.

 

[Bluesbreaker]

Georgia
Florida
Mid Atlantic
Mid South
WCCW

I used to dig on all of these.

Pretty good answers here.

 

[RMMA]

A typical Ric Flair Schedule in the 80's, from 1984.
https://www.facebook.com/ProWrestlingClassics/posts/769556579736714

In one calendar year, must of covered all the territories and wrestle worldwide in one year. Absolute insane, brutal schedule, and to Ric is still going today makes it more amazing. Each territory had there top star who would take on the NWA champion, so there is a nice spread of the top main event talent throughout the promotions. As a result, gives the home-grown talent within that territory to grow and develop without being dominated by all the top stars at once like in today's WWE or back during the Monday Night War.

 

[My Spot]

That's why Ric spent so much time as champ. No one else wanted that schedule. Same with Harley Race before him.

 

[Kinger85]

actually ordered some old Memphis and old Smokey Mountain dvd's for Black Friday.

Really glad that the WWE Network is also starting to add more territory stuff.

 

[Pittie Petey]

That's why Ric spent so much time as champ. No one else wanted that schedule. Same with Harley Race before him.

Thats why Terry Funk gave it up after a year
The schedule was way too intense

 

[RMMA]

Thats why Terry Funk gave it up after a year
The schedule was way too intense

I don't know how the long-reigning NWA champions were able to go year after year. Would be the most mentally and physically draining schedule in the entire history of professional wrestling being the NWA champion.

At the same time, those who manage to survive the grind like Ric Flair and Harley Race are highly revered by there peers and fans for all those years in the main event and still able to produce high quality matches and storylines in spite of the schedule which makes them more amazing.

Also, on the 84 schedule there were Flair/Blanchard matches which would be awesome to watch before they form the four-horsemen with Arn/Ole & JJ.