THE REST OF WRESTLING HISTORY: Black Saturday

[It's...Baylariat!]

Black Saturday​

Ladies and Gentlemen. Mostly gentlemen. I'm not sexist. Just real. Anyway, welcome to the Forgotten Moments in Wrestling History. This will be a series of threads I'm going to do that will profile huge moments in wrestling history that are either forgotten or not taken as seriously as they should be. Black Saturday is one of those moments.

Background

If you notice the picture, most of you old school fans know that the background is of World Championship Wrestling, a mainstay of NWA/Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS. However, Vince McMahon is clearly standing in front of that background. Why? Well, back in July of 1984, wrestling was changed. Fans had no notice whatsoever, but their favorite superstars such as Dusty Rhodes, Ole Anderson, Ric Flair, and the voice of Gordon Solie were replaced by Hulk Hogan, King Kong Bundy, and Big John Studd and the voice of Vince McMahon and Gorilla Monsoon.

What had happened was this:

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Let me put this in perspective for you. Imagine watching WCW Monday Nitro. Now I know that Vince ended up buying WCW. But what if Vince, instead of buying the company, he bought the time slot that Nitro had and put, lets say, SMACKDOWN on it, in essence, kicking Nitro off of National TV AND using WCW Nitro's music to introduce Smackdown? That's what Vince did to GCW. He bought the Saturday Night primetime slot that had been a mainstay for Georgia and Mid-South Wrestling for many years and took the time slot.

Now, what transpired after this is historic. Basically, Vince was defeated. Yes, you heard me right. Vince had been defeated. The ratings for his show were awful to say the least. No one wanted Vince's 'Sports Entertainment'. They wanted the old fashioned wrestling they had grown accustomed to. It wasn't there, and there was no real explanation at the time. Just a lot of confused, irate wrestling fans.

Also, this is the birth of the rivalry between Ted Turner and Vince McMahon. Due to the low ratings, Turner decided to give out two more time slots to other promotions. Mid-South Wrestling promoted by Bill Watts, and Georgia Championship Wrestling had a Saturday Morning time slot. Vince wasn't happy at all because he was under the impression his wrestling program was the only game in town. It wasn't. And the ratings for the WWF Saturday Night show were abysmal. In April of the next year, Vince ended up selling his time slot on Saturday nights to another promoter who was well known in the South. Jim Crockett.

What this led to, was Vince still having USA to promote his product and a fierce rivalry with Ted Turner that wouldn't end until 2001, when Vince ended up buying WCW.

But now you know... the rest of the story. I miss Paul Harvey. Thoughts and comments are welcome.

 

[Tenta]

Since I'm in a Vince bashing move right about now...


This was Vince's attempt to, more or less, refuse to acknowledge his competition, and use his ties from New York City and cable outlets to corner a monolopy on the wrestling business, which he eventually got, I suppose. Again, I think people forget how much of an advantage Vince had by working his company in the Northeast section of the US, where cable outlets were more prone to build their headquarters, and it was simply easier to do business with Vince, because he was there. That isn't to take away credit for Vince's ability to build the WWF, but the WWF's expansion was due to far more than Rock N' Wrestling, I assure you.

Fortunately, the outrage was enough to let Turner know they'd rather have their brand of wrestling was far more welcome than Vince's entertainment, and thus, WCW won out. But again, as we'd see, the WWE would get the last laugh, I suppose. It again goes to my point that WCW had the ability to fight back against the WWE, and though the WWE was the more accepted brand name, WCW wasn't going to go down without a fight. Black Saturday could have sent professional wrestling into a monoploy even faster than it already had. Thank God that wasn't the case, and that people let Vince know they weren't satisfied with the bull he was feeding them.

 

[InterestingDrug]

Yes, I watched this DVD too.

But seriously, this is what Vince has always done. Purchased the competition. Think of it as Microsoft. Most of their product is from companies that it consumed. This is exactly what Vince did. He purchased his father's company. Hand-picked established wrestlers from various promotions to come into his company and made them stars and money. He purchased timeslots on cable channels. He purchased WCW. The rights to ECW, World Class, AWA, etc. He consumes wrestling like the Borg consumes the galaxy. Some day, when TNA folds, he'll buy their library as well.

This didnt work because he forced the change on the viewers too fast. If he had gradually worked his brand and storylines into the show, it would have worked. Instead he thrust his brand down everyone's throats and the people revolted. He may have failed here, but he learned from his mistake and never made it again. And in the end, he got the last laugh, as he was the only one standing.