You're right. One of the reasons that Jarrett changed his allegiance to the AWA over the NWA was the fact that Crockett was hogging the title and Flair. He didn't feel that his guy (Lawler) would ever have a chance of getting a run with the belt, and also that he wouldn't keep getting the champ like they'd been used to. One thing people need to remember was that for these smaller NWA territories, getting the champ to come in was a big deal. They would get bigger gates, and be able to set up months of angles around that visit from the champ that would keep the territory going good. So when Crockett started hogging the champ to himself, quite a few of the NWA territories either broke away (WCCW and CWA being the most prominent I can think of), or just slowly dried up (Florida, South West, Central States, ect). Portland was able to hang on longer... mostly because Owens was the rare NWA promoter that didn't use the champ that often, so the lack of access didn't hurt him nearly as much. People like to talk about how Vince McMahon killed the territories, and he did. But he didn't do it without help, and Jim Crockett in his own way, probably did as much to kill off the NWA territories as Vince McMahon ever did.
That's all a little off topic though. One of the other main reasons that Jarrett switched to the AWA, which as another Bockwinkel fan I always liked... is that he simply felt that Nick Bockwinkel was a better World Champion than Ric Flair. He felt he could do better business bringing in Bockwinkel to fight Lawler than he ever could with Flair vs Lawler. Plus finally, he realized that their was a better chance that the AWA would go with Lawler as champ than the NWA, who never would have once Crockett got a hold of the belt.
As a Bockwinkel fan, I don't know if you've seen this, but if not you should. Anyone who's not familiar with him, should watch... because they don't make heels like this anymore. Here he's doing the classic heel complaining about the face's 'illegal' hold bit, but simply doing it far better than anyone else, and doing it so well in fact, that until the match started and you found out what a snake he could be, that you believe Bock and feel that the hero Gagne is a cheater. Plus you get a classic Heenan line about all the little old ladies at home that want to use the sleeper.
[YOUTUBE]BYcA83NkEUo[/YOUTUBE]
Crockett saw the writing on the wall, aka he realized not only what Vince & WWE were doing but where the business was headed, long before anyone as most of the other promoters just kept their heads in the sand. With TBS and his lucrative TV deal, he had the money to pay better wages with MUCH better exposure than the smaller, more regional based promotions. By 1986 he was putting strict limitations on Flair's schedule, he was still working 250 shows per year (down from nearly 300) but he was almost exclusively working for Crockett, although he was still making appearances in FLA (where he first wrestled a rookie Lex Luger in 1986) and St Louis. The one major exception was his yearly trips to Japan where even though they were not affiliated with Crockett or the NWA he allowed Flair to go due to high amounts of money they paid for his appearances there.
Crockett was trying to expand and put the "others out of business" just as Vince was but he made two crucial mistakes....One he lacked Vince's marketing savvy, the posters and action figures, the TV production look, he was slow to catch on to the value of the asthetics than Vince, who had worked in Arena Management promoting concerts, etc before taking over WWE full time. 2) He lacked patience. Vince would buy air time on local TV for his syndicated programs in rival territory markets (he didn't have the national exposure Crockett did on TBS, which was the #1 most watched wrestling show most of the 80s), then gradually move into doing live shows in rival areas, only a few, with stacked cards, making them like "special events" which enhanced the notion that WWE was something bigger and more special than what the audience usually got to watch. Meanwhile he focused most of his touring business where he was strongest, in his NY, NJ, CT, PA area IE the old WWE territory. Crockett would get the syndicated shows on local TV alongside the TBS exposure which was huge, then start running shows with stacked cards initially in rival markets with huge crowds and great responses. The problem was he would then want to expand and make those new cities part of his monthly or bi monthly touring schedule, and the markets became saturated, plus the shows lost some of that "special" appeal, worse the massive increase in cross country travel meant giant travel expenses, which when you're giving up sell out crowds in your home base (NC, SC, GA, KY, TENN) and playing to half filled or two thirds filled arenas 1000's of miles away meant higher costs and diminished returns. It was a financial disaster but Crockett wanted to "up the ante" on Vince, who smartly stuck to his more conservative, slow build plan for expansion, and won the race in the end.
If Crockett had followed a path similar to Vince in terms of travel and touring, he would have thrived well into the 1990s.
That said, Jim Crockett Jr, even if it was in retaliation, did as much to kill the territory system as Vince.
He's another one I never got see when he was really on top as we didn't get the AWA in my area until they got that ESPN show and by that time Nick was a shell of his former self. I knew quite a bit about him and his matches through the mags, though. It wasn't until the past few years that I've actually gotten to see some of his matches and promos thanks to You Tube; and every time I see them he climbs higher and higher on my all-time favorites list to the point where he's threatening to take the #1 spot.
