Do the territories still affect fans point of view today?

[PsychoBlack]

I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I wanted to see what you guys thought. I will use a few examples to show you what I mean. I'm from Florida and growing up I was told stories about Dusty Rhodes, The Grahams, and Randy Savage. I was told how when Flair and Race came to town it was electric and somewhere that you had to be. I have a soft spot for all of these guys and as I grew older I have looked up their work and hold it to high regards.

Now a fan from say Oklahoma may hold Bill Watts, The Freebirds, Danny Hodge and Steve Williams. While a fan from New England may admire Bruno Sammartino, Freddie Blassie, Stan Stasiak, and Billy Graham.

Most of the big territorial stars have held up over the years seeing as how they were truly great stars, But are they viewed differently in different parts of the country?

 

[Lowdown]

Its possible. Being from California I was exposed to wrestling when it was becoming more of a national spectacle. But I've read that fan bases that were a major part of the territory systems were very loyal, like Texas and the Carolinas. They had opportunities to see Jerry Lawler once in a blue moon in Minnesota when NWA did super cards with AWA. But other promotions were viewed differently depending on the region you lived.

 

[Tripleb2k1]

in the era of DVDs & Youtube, territories don't really affect opinions providing the individual remains with an open mind. What does territories affect? The lack of territories for the last 20+ years has affected the overall product of ANY promotion with the fact that guys just coming into WWE nowadays have 2-5 years experience for the most part while guys who worked the territories would debut in the company with 10-15 years experience

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It probably affects the views of some of the more hardcore fans who grew up in certain geographic areas. And certainly some of much older wrestling fans who were young during the territory days.

However, in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it has much, if any, real impact on the ideas of the vast majority of mainstream wrestling fans. What most fans care about is the here and now. Or, at least, what they themselves have grown up seeing. I don't think most of them particularly care whether or not The Briscoes were better than The Andersons or whether Danny Hodge was better than Bruno Sammartino. It's a fun little thing to debate among really hardcore, old school fans but most fans probably don't care one way or the other.

Truthfully, I don't care myself. The territory days are dead and gone. They're not coming back as they're even more obsolete now than they were 25 years ago. Fans pay respect to these legends but they're more focused on the goings on of wrestlers like Bully Ray, Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, CM Punk, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, etc.

 

[FlairFan2003]

For younger fans not so much. Of course, if you ever watched Nitro circa 1995 then you saw a great example of this idea at work every time Hogan got booed as a fan fav opposing Flair in The Carolinas, GA, KY, Tenn, Miss, & Misouri. I think today, well over 20 years gone since USWA, AWA, & World Class all died, most fans arent affected by this "Im loyal to this guy because he was from our area".

The lack of territories does have an adverse effect. With different companies all doing well at the same time a much larger number of performers had room to break into the industry. There was also more room to learn and grow, talent could more easily change appearances, gimmick, etc with more places to work and more fan bases to work in front of.

By the mid 80s however, even though some territories were still doing OK, they had become little more than a minor league system for the NWA/WCW & WWE. The Rock & Roll Express became the country's hottest tag team in the NWA having been recruited by Flair on one of his trips through the mid west. Similair story with Jim Cornette and The Midnite Express. The feud between those teams in the NWA was so huge Vince McMahon tried to copy the dynamic with British Bulldogs vs Hart Foundation. McMahon picked up Ultimate Warrior from the UWF, Curt Henning & HBK from AWA, Ted DiBiase from Mid South, Savage was in Fla and in the Mid South region, Hogan was in AWA, Kerry Von Erich from World Class, the NWA took Road Warriors after they bounced between Georgia Champ Wrestling and AWA, Mike Rotunda from Fla, Tully Blanchard and Rick Rude from Texas, Dusty had been working in Fla before becoming the fan fav centerpiece of NWA programming, Lex Luger from Fla, Sting & Steve Williams from UWF, etc.

Today with little opportunity outside WWE breaking into the business is harder, ability to change character presentation or gimmick much less, and quite frankly with less competition there is less creativity in storylines. That is what is missing in today's product vs the territorial days but if you were not a fan back then it is hard to understand what you are missing.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

I'm from southeastern Kentucky... so Jerry Lawler would pack any arena in the area. Same goes for folks like Jim Cornette, who's ran Smoky Mountain Wrestling through my area.

Now, Lawler's a star due to his commentary for the most part and most known Cornette for his runs in the WWE with Yokozuna and some older fans might remember his days with the Midnight Express...

Overall, I don't think it has a huge impact today... because the territories are more historic significance than anything today...

 

[TheHorndogSays]

There is always going to be a large fan base loyal to "their guys". That is true in ANY sport. Go into any clothing store, the sports shirts you will find are generally going to be of the local teams, if you are a fan of an outside team unless it happens to be WIDELY popular like Yankees, Lakers, Cowboys, etc. It's perceived as being YOUR team. The same philosophy holds true for Wrestling stars.

I was unsure if your post was referring the stars of the 60s-80s or todays stars but the same holds true for both mostly. If you are old enough to have gone to territorial shows, you likely have some story of "I remember when ____ faced ____ at the _____" and those childhood memories are powerful for you so you're more likely to cheer when that star comes back to town. This is why WWE usually picks Hall of Fame people who were either born in the territory or rose to prominence in the local area. I'm from the Richmond, Virginia area and while I am not old enough to have attended them in person, I still hear stories either from older relatives/friends or simply fans at local wrestling shows on the battles Flair and Harley Race had at the Colisseum. My uncle always talked about the times he saw Dusty Rhodes at the Sundome in Tampa. You can use any variation of these for local stars in your area. This is ultimately what led to Flair being the level he is on, he would go as the overall champion and battle the main talent of that territory in an hour draw and fans would flock to the arenas to see THEIR man battle THE man.

If you are referring to newer talent, it's just like I said with regards to the sports team shirts. The fans want to cheer for THEIR home grown guy. Punk in Chicago, Cena in Boston, Edge/Jericho/Kidd/Bret/Trish in Canada, Barrett and Sheamus in Europe, HBK in San Antonio (there is a good reason why most of HBKs earlier big moments happened in San An), and even Alex Riley/Mickie James/Lita from the Richmond area.

However now in the days where we can access older videos online, the idea of kayfabe being gone, and the basic loss of the territorial system, the fans have a deeper appreciation for the overall talent involved but that still doesn't compare to YOUR guy/team

 

[The Warlord]

Today...the only thing that comes close to territories is the actual city where the star is from.

In Chicago, CM Punk's rival would be booed just like Hogan was in the Carolinas (As another poster said.)

You can take Bret Hart for example, any time he went to Canada he was the favorite. I guess you can say he owned that territory...although some would say that was the benefit of the angle/storyline at the time.

Thats about the extent of it today. I guess in the territory days it covered more ground and fans were more aware of where they were in the country as it relates to what wrestlers they supported.

The 90s changed everything. It wasnt about where you were from, it was about the initials and logo for who you worked for. Companies now are country wide, and in the WWE's case, worldwide.