Death of the Territories

by Tim Hornbaker

  Citing an oversaturation of wrestling on TV, Owen complained to the Oregon Boxing and Wrestling Commission but received little help in return. Associate promoter Sandy Barr pleaded their case to the Portland Oregonian, saying, “There’s just too much wrestling on TV, for free. It’s killing us. People wouldn’t go across the street to watch Jesus Christ wrestle Oral Roberts.”371 Gates in Salem, Oregon, for example, fell from $65,300 in 1983–84 to $38,818 in 1985–86.

  On May 1, 1987, Owen booked Bockwinkel and Hennig again in Eugene, and the duo battled to a double count-out. The Midnight Rockers were also on the bill, going up against Mike Miller and Rip Oliver and taking a victory. That same month, Roddy Piper turned up during a telecast of Owen’s Portland show to do commentary as a favor to his old boss. It was relatively brief, but Hot Rod’s appearance was exciting to area enthusiasts. Later in the year, booker Rip Oliver left the promotion for the WWF and was replaced by Len Denton, known in the ring as the Grappler. With diminished stature, a heavily reduced circuit, and few prospects for a real transformation, the Portland franchise was a few short steps away from financial collapse. But the 75-year-old Owen was a survivor and wasn’t yet throwing in the towel. It was clear, however, that the Portland “territory” of old was practically extinct.

  The Central States was another dilapidated territory. After Crockett withdrew his talent, Bob Geigel returned in March 1987 and pulled in wrestlers from across the area. “Bulldog” Bob Brown was a familiar face, and Geigel even came out of retirement for matches against Rip Rogers that summer. The AWA champion Nick Bockwinkel was booked into Kansas City, but crowds were rarely large enough for Geigel to break even. The Memorial Hall in Kansas City was seeing 150 to 350 people a night, and grew to 600 when Bruiser Brody made his return in late May. Much like the situation in the northwest, the WWF had a sizable advantage, attracting more than 8,000 for a Kansas City show on July 12, 1987. Geigel was in no position to compete. He certainly couldn’t afford to pay superstar wages or arrange cable television and merchandising deals. But he carried on, and in October 1987, he withdrew from the National Wrestling Alliance, the organization he’d led as president for years. His departure was significant to the NWA insofar as tradition and leadership were concerned, but in the realm of the new Alliance, under Crockett’s management, it was inconsequential. Of all the pioneering territories involved in the NWA, only Crockett and Don Owen were left, and membership was down to less than 10. The vanishing importance of the NWA coalition was a sign of the times, and it wasn’t all thanks to Vince McMahon. In many ways the NWA had defeated itself, and members had forgotten why the Alliance was valuable. For many pundits and fans, JCP was now the “NWA,” and that was fine when looking at the organization in its simplest terms. But the real National Wrestling Alliance, the one formed in 1948, was gone forever.

  Chapter Nineteen

  A Bruising Tragedy

  In pro wrestling, true visionaries have always been a rare breed. Throughout history, they were the innovators, the inspired geniuses who changed the landscape of the business and left an indelible mark that continued to reverberate well after they were gone. Vince McMahon’s entire national campaign was the product of a farsighted and bold personality, and such a move required tremendous imagination. Along with his trusted associates, he fostered idea after idea, pushing past bumps in the road with unparalleled ambition. Jim Crockett and Dusty Rhodes were driven as well, and each had a hand in the skyrocketing growth of Jim Crockett Promotions. They were both visionaries, but Rhodes was the creative mastermind behind the company’s success.

  Starrcade, the Great American Bash, and countless other ideas were the product of his inventive mind. Though it was true he took heat from fans who felt he needed to step aside a bit from his top babyface role, Rhodes was still hugely valuable as JCP expanded nationwide. Dusty was a superstar, and while people in many of Crockett’s regular towns had seen him battle Tully Blanchard and Ric Flair countless times, enthusiasts elsewhere were taking in these bouts for the first time live. As a booker, he was also criticized. Feuds were overly protracted, talent was stale, and there was gross overuse of the Dusty Finish, with one wrestler apparently winning only for the decision to be reversed later. But the truth be known, Rhodes’s talent as a booker had taken JCP out of its safe Mid-Atlantic locale and given the company placement on the national stage.

  By 1987, Crockett had invested a large sum of money to purchase the UWF. He’d worked a deal with the Florida office and bought a plane to cut down on escalating transportation costs. With the new acquisition and responsibilities came the need for better organization and, more specifically, a solid plan to manage the company’s cash and assets. Enormous sums were already being spent to pay stations to air original JCP TV content, which was magnified by the addition of the UWF syndication network. It is conceivable that if Bill Watts owed $50,000 a week because of his TV deals, Crockett was on the hook for double that.372 And for such a massive syndication venture to make sense, JCP needed to be using those stations to generate income, either through advertising or by promoting live shows. Since they weren’t running events in 175-plus markets, advertising deals had to make up for their TV expenditures.

  Despite its success, Jim Crockett Promotions was still a rather humble organization. Whereas the WWF had a staff of over 70, JCP had 14, most of whom were the original office personnel from the heyday of Crockett’s regional operation.373 JCP’s Charlotte office organized live shows across the country, coordinated talent for both JCP and the UWF, and handled extensive publicity.374 Then came the responsibilities tied to television syndication and advertising and keeping the company’s books. The latter necessitated a team of experienced employees by itself, and without additional hires, the regular staff was overwhelmed.

  Crockett improved his TV arrangement, devising a specialized syndication package, called the Wrestling Network, made up of all four of his programs: NWA Pro, Worldwide Wrestling, UWF Wrestling, and Power Pro Wrestling.375 The Network operated out of the new Dallas office and created an umbrella over the telecasts with the goal of streamlining production and promoting the NWA and UWF together.376 Because JCP and the UWF had targeted the same cities prior to the buyout, some markets were receiving programming from both JCP and the JCP-produced UWF. Now viewers would get a mix of content under the Wrestling Network banner. Taking a big load off his Charlotte staff, Crockett hired Time Sales International Ltd., a company based in Connecticut, to sell advertising.377

  By June 1987, Crockett had lined up stations in 37 of the top 40 markets, and his syndication network blanketed 77 percent of the country. The WWF, in contrast, had more than 90 percent coverage. In an interview with Television/Radio Age, David Crockett, a JCP vice president and TV commentator for its weekend broadcast on WTBS, affirmed that their promotion was going to retain a “legitimate” approach to wrestling: “We’re not going to have any snakes, alligators or chainsaws.”378 But as some TV station honchos knew, viewers wanted the shenanigans of Hulk Hogan, the colorful gimmicks, the animals, and the over-the-top characters, which always did good business for the WWF. In spite of the trends in wrestling, JCP refused to stray too far into the realm of Vince McMahon when it came to in-ring characters and personalities.

  It didn’t take long for the influence of Dusty Rhodes to alter UWF programming. His pal Magnum T.A. was installed as a commentator alongside Jim Ross, and slowly the focus shifted off actual UWF performers to Crockett mainstays. As a result, the UWF was treated as a secondary outfit, diminishing the importance of its wrestlers, titles, and live events. In Florida, Rhodes tried to maintain a group of wrestlers for local shows in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, but fans weren’t interested. They wanted to see the big guns of JCP, including Dusty himself, and not second-stringers. It was the same reason the Central States’ experiment failed. With house show numbers falling, Rhodes initiated a series of cutbacks, limiting the number of monthly events. Instead of TV tapings every week, th
ey scheduled two tapings per week for 26 weeks and cut legendary commentator Gordon Solie’s salary in half. Solie had no choice but to quit. “Obviously, Championship Wrestling from Florida no longer exists,” he told a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel.379

  The anticipated Great American Bash series kicked off in Lakeland, Florida, on July 1, 1987. Ticket prices were lower than the year before, and Crockett played it much safer when it came to renting large venues, essentially avoiding them with the exception of Memorial Stadium in Charlotte and the Orange Bowl in Miami.380 Atlanta’s Omni Coliseum was the site of the inaugural War Games contest on July 4, a brutal five-on-five battle inside a two-ring cage. The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and J.J. Dillon) were defeated by fan favorites Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, the Road Warriors, and Paul Ellering. Tour attendance was impressive in Landover, Maryland (15,000), Chicago (10,000), Charlotte (25,000), and Miami (16,000), and Crockett ran the second War Games at the Orange Bowl in the Bash finale on July 31. The Horsemen were again toppled when the War Machine (Ray Traylor/Big Bubba), a masked substitute for Dillon, gave up.

  On July 11, two major championships changed hands in two different cities. Lex Luger, using a chair tossed to him by J.J. Dillon, beat Nikita Koloff inside a cage for the United States belt in Greensboro. Out in Oklahoma City, Steve Williams went over Big Bubba for the UWF heavyweight strap. It was notable that UWF grapplers appeared alongside JCP talent in cities throughout the tour. Terry Gordy, Eddie Gilbert, Chris Adams, Rick Steiner, and Sting were prominently featured in early to mid-card roles, and they were reliably good. Only a few weeks before, Sting had turned fan favorite and was feuding with Steiner, his ex–tag partner. Williams, another babyface, was at war with Dick Murdoch and formed a tag team with Terry Gordy to lock horns with Murdoch and Gilbert. (The Williams–Gordy tandem gained international fame in the early 1990s.) As for Ric Flair, the NWA world champion, he was inching into a rivalry with “Hands of Stone” Ron Garvin.

  Crockett was juggling a lot of different issues, but one of his principal responsibilities was signing and protecting his talent. The Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal, were two of his most popular attractions and had been approached by both the WWF and AWA. Retaining their services was a priority, and Crockett locked the wrestlers down with a big-money, guaranteed contract that would keep them in the company through 1990.381 Following his purchase of the UWF, he missed the opportunity to land Ted DiBiase, who promptly joined the WWF and made his debut as the Million Dollar Man in early June 1987. Between June and September, JCP also saw five grapplers depart for other organizations: Rick Rude, Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts, Chris Adams, and Manny Fernandez. Michael Hayes, the remaining Freebird, inked a contract and later fashioned a new team with Jimmy Garvin.

  Crockett and Rhodes returned the NWA brand to Detroit, an unambiguously pro-WWF city, on September 25, 1987.382 They rented the Joe Louis Arena, a venue McMahon had occupied from 1984 until recently, when he’d moved to the Silverdome. In a promo piece in the Detroit Free Press, the differences between JCP and the WWF were once again front and center, and writer Joe Barrett explained that the “NWA-UWF” combination was “less glitzy and show-business oriented than the other guys.” Promoter Gary Juster was optimistic about the event. He told the newspaper that “Detroit fans have been waiting a long time” for NWA wrestling, and the night of the program, 8,000 frenzied spectators were present at the arena to see Crockett’s best and brightest.383 And those in attendance were in for a treat. Rhodes booked Flair to lose the NWA world title, but the new champion wasn’t Steve Williams in a unification match, nor was it heir apparent Barry Windham. The new titleholder was Ronnie Garvin.

  The result was a major surprise, and strategically important. Without question, Garvin was inherently tough and carried good fan support. At 42 years of age, he was a battle-tested veteran, and had been embroiled in a feud with Flair since July. Their chemistry worked when it came to street fighting and seismic chest-chopping, and their battles garnered a lot of attention. But of all Flair’s challengers, including Windham and Nikita Koloff, Garvin was not expected to win the belt. The shock of the moment, plus the fact that Flair was finally beaten, carried a lot of excitement. The booking philosophy behind the switch related to the promotion’s upcoming Starrcade event, which was historically the biggest night of the year for JCP. Crockett and Rhodes wanted Flair to win a return match and regain the championship at that show, meaning Garvin’s reign was destined to last 62 days. The idea, credited by some to Flair himself, was agreed upon by all parties, and the Detroit switch kicked the plan into motion.

  Starrcade was a Thanksgiving tradition for JCP, and the 1987 spectacular marked the company’s first foray into the world of pay-per-view, adding to the magnitude of the event. To that juncture, PPV had been dominated by the WWF, and for Crockett to be competitive, he had to cross that bridge. Vince McMahon didn’t want to concede anything to his rival and went on the offensive to narrow JCP’s chances for success. First, he scheduled a competing pay-per-view show for Thanksgiving, naming it the Survivor Series. Then he used his leverage as a leader in pro wrestling’s pay-per-view field to get cable systems to reject Starrcade entirely, telling executives that if they went ahead and presented the JCP program, they wouldn’t get the next WrestleMania. It was a harsh move and severely damaged Crockett’s ability to land outlets. In fact, Starrcade was only available for PPV in 300,000 households, while McMahon offered the Survivor Series to seven million homes.384

  In the lead up to Starrcade, JCP TV ratings fell dramatically, and house shows in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Charlotte drew less than 2,000.385 Greensboro on October 25, 1987, drew a trifle better with 3,500. In Dallas, poor advance ticket sales caused Crockett to cancel a program outright on October 15. Despite a quality roster of athletes, the current matchups were sour, and marketing Ronnie Garvin as the lead babyface and defending champion had its disadvantages, especially when compared with WWF titleholder Hulk Hogan. Altogether, it was a bad time to lose momentum, and the leaders of JCP crossed their fingers in hopes of a triumph on Thanksgiving night.

  The WWF was just too strong. Built on the premise of teams vying in elimination matches, the Survivor Series was a loaded bill with 50 competitors in four bouts. In one of the contests, Randy Savage teamed with Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan (who returned to the promotion in September), Brutus Beefcake, and Ricky Steamboat to beat Honky Tonk Man, Harley Race, Hercules, Ron Bass, and Danny Davis. Savage, Roberts, and Steamboat were the survivors. Hulk Hogan partnered with Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, and Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event but took the loss against Andre the Giant, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed, and Rick Rude. Andre pinned Bigelow to become the sole survivor. Hogan, startlingly, was counted out three quarters into the battle and eliminated. The WWF racked up more than 400,000 in pay-per-view sales and sold out the 20,000-plus-seat Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio, turning the Survivor Series into an undeniable success.386

  In Chicago, Starrcade was underwhelming. Ric Flair recaptured the NWA world heavyweight championship from Garvin, but the hometown favorites, the Road Warriors, were subjected to the infamous Dusty Finish in their bout with Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, disappointing viewers. Dusty Rhodes was victorious in his contest with Lex Luger and won the United States title. The show was balanced to a certain degree, and drew 8,000 patrons to the UIC Pavilion, but it was far from the financial bonanza Crockett needed. He offered the program to over 40 closed-circuit TV locations and reached in the neighborhood of 20,000 homes via pay-per-view.387 Neither the fans nor the powers that be were happy with the results, and loyalists back in Greensboro were exceedingly displeased. Starrcade was their event, and had been so since 1983. Moving the show to Chicago was an effort to play ball with the WWF nationally, but Crockett estranged his most faithful fans in the process, and it was a slight that was would not be forgotten.

  The economic reality of
Starrcade, high-priced contracts with balloon payments at the end of each fiscal year, and expensive television deals was creating an untenable environment, and the future of Jim Crockett Promotions was in doubt. Company finances were strained further by exorbitant spending on transportation (jets and limousines) and the cost of maintaining two offices, in Charlotte and in Dallas.388 With regard to the Universal Wrestling Federation, Crockett had committed millions of dollars to purchase the organization, but over the last four months of 1987, he ceased running exclusive house shows and TV tapings under that banner. At Starrcade, Nikita Koloff beat Terry Taylor to unify his world TV title with the latter’s UWF television crown. But the world championship of Steve Williams and the tag team belts held by the Sheepherders were effectively retired in December 1987 when JCP completed a full-fledged merger of the two groups. The UWF was no more.389

  As the year came to a close, JCP was treading water, and Rhodes was creating new angles in attempt to spark attendance. Lex Luger turned babyface and went to war with his Four Horsemen mates, and up-and-comer Sting received a push to match his growing popularity. Over in the WWF, Sting’s former partner in the Blade Runners, James Hellwig, was off and running as the Ultimate Warrior and displaying a fierce enthusiasm that struck a chord with fans. His impressive power was exhibited each time he stepped through the ropes, especially as he put away foes with his gorilla press slam. Talent, on the whole, was never a problem for Vince McMahon. Newcomers Ted DiBiase, Rick Rude, Bam Bam Bigelow, and One Man Gang were impact players, and before the end of the year, both Gang and DiBiase were facing off with Hulk Hogan for the WWF championship. Many old faces were on the circuit, including “Superstar” Billy Graham, Don Muraco, George Steele, and Hillbilly Jim, and the tag team division was robust, led by the Hart Foundation and Demolition.