Which Promoter Theoretically Could Have Given The McMahons The Most Competition?

[Blackjack]

Bill Watts, had he had the northeast territory and the McMahons the mid-south territory, would have prevailed. There were several promoters who were better than the McMahons but just didn't have affluent territories such as the northeast. Eddie Graham is another promoter who was better than the McMahons. He's still considered to have created the best finishes in pro wrestling history. Matter of fact, when Bill Watts went to work for Eddie Graham in Florida, Eddie Graham said something about Watts being a college boy (Graham only had a 9th grade education). Graham asked Watts why he wanted to work for him and Watts said "I'm here to get my Ph. D."

Watts' Mid-South TV shows got much higher ratings than any of Vince McMahon's TV shows ever got. Same with Eddie Graham's CWF, Ole Anderson's Georgia Championship Wrestling - first pro wrestling show on cable TV, and Memphis wrestling. They all also drew higher percentages of the population of the region in which their territory was located to their arena shows than WWWF, WWF, or WWE ever did.

 

[deezy]

Only guy who had a chance was Jim Crockett because of WTBS and having a cable channel with more households than USA.

Wasn't the McMahons who killed the territories, they were just the ones to figure out the upcoming tv landscape and the importance of syndication.

 

[My Spot]

Jim Crockett if they didn't try and expand so quickly.
Watts was part of the old guard and wouldn't change. I care about kayfabe as much as anyone but sometimes you've gotta make some exceptions. Oh and he wasn't exactly politically correct either.

 

[Pittie Petey]

None of these people understood licensing and marketing the way McMahon did
It doesnt matter where McMahon started at he was always gonna end up on top because he had the drive, ruthless ambition and he understood the what the future of the business was gonna be
McMahon was a classic 80's yuppie businessman and thats why he took over the world, Crockett was a mom and pop shop run out of a garage that thought fuckin Four Horseman Vitamins was a good idea and thats why they didnt

 

[Blackjack]

Only guy who had a chance was Jim Crockett because of WTBS and having a cable channel with more households than USA.

Wasn't the McMahons who killed the territories, they were just the ones to figure out the upcoming tv landscape and the importance of syndication.

Don't be fooled, Vincent K. McMahon made many direct attacks on other territories which went far beyond just "to figure out the upcoming tv landscape and the importance of syndication."

One of his most publicized examples of his lack of business ethics was when he told all the cable TV providers that if they wanted to be able to carry WWF's Survivor Series in 1987 they would have to refuse to carry Crockett's Starrcade PPV which had historically been held on Thanksgiving and that year McMahon introduced his new Survivor Series, which he just happened to hold on Thanksgiving Day. Today this would clearly be considered illegal because of laws against "restriction of trade", "monopolization", and so forth, but back then, somehow McMahon got around it. Still it was an example of his dirty tactics he used to wipe out the territories.

 

[Pittie Petey]

Watts was too caught up in bloody tough guy brawls
Dick Ebersole was never gonna put the UWF on NBC and 7-11 wasnt making Slurpee cups the Sheepherders faces on em
Vince knew he needed cartoon characters and super heroes to go mainstream which is why the Bushwhackers are still remembered and loved today

 

[deezy]

Don't be fooled, Vincent K. McMahon made many direct attacks on other territories which went far beyond just "to figure out the upcoming tv landscape and the importance of syndication."

One of his most publicized examples of his lack of business ethics was when he told all the cable TV providers that if they wanted to be able to carry WWF's Survivor Series in 1987 they would have to refuse to carry Crockett's Starrcade PPV which had historically been held on Thanksgiving and that year McMahon introduced his new Survivor Series, which he just happened to hold on Thanksgiving Day. Today this would clearly be considered illegal because of laws against "restriction of trade", "monopolization", and so forth, but back then, somehow McMahon got around it. Still it was an example of his dirty tactics he used to wipe out the territories.

Never said McMahon didn't play dirty, just saying the territory days were numbered because of the tv landscape.

If McMahon didn't do it, Crockett was going to, in fact the TBS connection was why they could bring in all the big names.

 

[Blackjack]

None of these people understood licensing and marketing the way McMahon did
It doesnt matter where McMahon started at he was always gonna end up on top because he had the drive, ruthless ambition and he understood the what the future of the business was gonna be
McMahon was a classic 80's yuppie businessman and thats why he took over the world, Crockett was a mom and pop shop run out of a garage that thought fuckin Four Horseman Vitamins was a good idea and thats why they didnt

I contend that had the McMahon family been the promoters who ran the Mid-South territory or the Florida territory, and Watts or Graham had run the northeast territory, either one of them had the skill to defeat Mcmahon, helped along by the massive profits that running what was by far the most affluent and most densely populated territory of all.

Also some of Vince McMahon's supposed wonderful understanding of the future and his creativity was nothing more than stealing the ideas of other promoters. He got the idea for Wrestlemania from Starrcade which was developed by Dusty Rhodes while working for Crockkett, well before Wrestlemania existed.

Later on, when he was facing being run out of business by Ted Turner, Vince dramatically changed the style of the content of WWF's product. These wonderfully creative changes which which led to a very changed product named "The Attitude Era." These idea which were the foundation of The Attitude Era were not an idea Vince invented; it was an idea he took from a small independent promotion which was experiencing tremendous growth at the time by presenting a product which appealed to a more mature audience than the children whom Vince had been aimnig his product towards. Vince took ideas from Paul Heyman, the booker and owner of ECW without ever giving Heyman credit for the ideas. Vince had Stome Cold Steve Austin walk to the ring and drink beer in the ring and use foul language in his interviews and promos.

Well before Vince told Austin to do that, Paul Heyman had then ECW Champion The Sandman walk to the ring carrying a kendo stick, smoking cigarettes, and drinking beer. While The Sandman used some foul language in his promos as did some other ECW wrestlers, "The Franchise" Shane Douglas was by far the most foul mouthed wrestler in ECW during his promos and interviews. Douglas used language which had never been used before on pro wrestling, especially on TV. Then Vince had his champion, Austin use foul language the likes of which had never been used before in the company's history. The language in The WWF's "Attitude Era" was never quite as vulgar as the language being used in ECW but clearly the idea and the inspiration for using it had come from the same place from which Vince got the idea of having his champion drink beer in the ring. Those are just a few ideas Vince took from Paul Heyman as there are many more, too many more, to list here.

 

[deezy]

LOL McMahon must be lucky like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg......because it doesn't take talent to take ideas and use them bigger and better than the real geniuses ever could.

 

[Wariowokecancel]

Don't be fooled, Vincent K. McMahon made many direct attacks on other territories which went far beyond just "to figure out the upcoming tv landscape and the importance of syndication."

One of his most publicized examples of his lack of business ethics was when he told all the cable TV providers that if they wanted to be able to carry WWF's Survivor Series in 1987 they would have to refuse to carry Crockett's Starrcade PPV which had historically been held on Thanksgiving and that year McMahon introduced his new Survivor Series, which he just happened to hold on Thanksgiving Day. Today this would clearly be considered illegal because of laws against "restriction of trade", "monopolization", and so forth, but back then, somehow McMahon got around it. Still it was an example of his dirty tactics he used to wipe out the territories.

Good booking couldn't defeat the WWF.

Also the laws haven't changed. WWFE just doesn't give a crap because prosecutors don't care. WWE labor practices are highly illegal but nobody goes after them.

 

[sleepwalk]

I never really thought about it but, yeah, having the northeast sewn up was a pretty big advantage for Vince: Toronto, Boston, NY/NJ, Philly. All surrounding densely populated areas where people didn't have to drive three hours to see a show.

After watching the (surprisingly flattering) WWE doc on Verne Gagne and the AWA, I'd say that if he had Paul Heyman's creative mind and understanding of how wrestling would evolve (or Paul had his business sense and reliability) that would have been a very dangerous promoter. Verne had big TV contracts, great talents, professional merchandising, etc. If he had pulled off Vince's cable TV moves first and kept Hogan, that might have been it.

Ultimately there were three types of guys in the business then: there were guys trying to expand past the territory system like Vince was doing, there were guys trying to hold on to their territories thinking they could weather the storm, and there was Vince.

 

[My Spot]

Vince was playing chess while the old guard were still playing checkers.