Was the Territory System Doomed to Fail?

[It's...Baylariat!]

As I've been watching more and more older wrestling shows and territories, I've noticed a common theme with why some of these territories failed. The promotions I'm talking about are primarily World Class Championship Wrestling, Universal Wrestling Federation, and Mid-South Championship Wrestling.

All of those territories had major stars. We're talking The Von Erichs, Freebirds, Gentlemen Chris Adams, Dr. Death Steve Williams, Terry Taylor, Eddie Gilbert, Sting, and many others. The issue with those promotions was the fact that they went to the proverbial well too many times. They recycled old angles and tried to revive them. The best example is using the Von Erichs and the Freebirds. The first time it was done, it was great. It was new, and there was some real hatred and a great story behind it. During WCCW's final days, it seemed to be recycled and just didn't have the fire it used to.

Another example is anything involving Cowboy Bill Watts in the UWF. He interjected himself in major stories constantly and with the same story... being old, but wise and able to still go when needed. We got it the first time, but the subsequent times it was done, it got stale, and ended up becoming a detriment to the promotion.

Many say that you need talent to make your shows work. I agree to an extent, but give me some great bookers who know how to tell a great story and come up with more original ideas. I'd take that over talent. You can make stars if you have the intangibles to help put a wrestler or stable over in a great, original story.

So do you agree with this assessment? Did these promotions go to the well one too many times with their superstars? What if these promotions were able to come up with more creative stories? Did recycling angles do in some of these promotions?

 

[Maikeru_1979]

a little yes but i think that the death of territories was basically one little thing..actually one big thing and that is Vincent Kennedy McMahon(sp?). When he took the WWF national then global it literally killed the territory days of pro-wrestling. because when he first went national he did everything he could do to get every territories big stars to sign with him by promising huge money and national and international fame

 

[>HERO<]

Well you cannot blame Vince for taking wwf/e global. It's a business. He had huge ambitions and if he hadn't done that we wouldn't be watching WWE right now. The storylines did affect the territories but it wasn't the only reason. The owners of the respective territories were not as smart of a businessman as Mr. Mcmahon, they were happy in their little worlds and so just didn't try to go to the next step.

 

[Tastycles]

I think this is a perennial problem in wrestling in general, how many times have we seen someone stand up to Vince since Austin? How many rehashes of the Montreal Screwjob have we seen? The list goes on and on. Unfortunately for the territories they were doing it at the same time that the WWF came along with something genuinely innovative and new with a better viewing platform at exactly the wrong time and they all went tits up as a result.

I think the most telling thing, probably, about the examples listed is that the people who owned the promotions were the ones in the stories, we saw that in AWA too probably. What that meant, of course, is that they were less likely to see when it was time to step aside, and it ultimately cost them. It's of no conincidence that the old promotion that survived the longest - Jim Crockett Promotions - was the one that wasn't run by a wrestler or a wrestler's dad.

 

[Tenta]

I've actually been turning this idea for quite a while. It's something that I think warrants discussion, and may go into a question of ethics and such. Now, I think I may want to explain that I mean that, in no other terms, I mean the NWA as it was originally composited. I mean the concept of the territory's, and keeping a handshake agreement with fellow promoters. During this time, most promoters kept their good word that they wouldn't invade the other promoter's spots. Harley Race, for years, threateded to take a shotgun backstage if anyone thought of running a booking through St. Louis. The territory system was gentlemanly, and in a word, was dignified.

But did it expect too much from all promoters? After all, let's just say one promoter grew powerful. Having all of the cable outlets of the Northeast at his disposal, what if that promoter decided that he could book the NWA Champion for more money, and the promise to be shown worldwide, without even having to travel outsied the northeast? Now, again, let's just say that other promoters became upset at the NWA Champion being booked so much for one territory. After an extended time of this, the NWA, having the ability to vote for whom they feel is the proper champion, decided to vote against this area that was suddenly making more money than the rest of the territorys. That territory, in anger, decides to leave the NWA's wing, and while this is dangerous, they still have the benefits of the northeast cable outlets, and the ability to pay more for wrestlers to come and work extended periods of time in that territory.

For the wrestler, it's a beautiful thing. A wrestler used to have to leave a territory after perhaps a year or two, mainly because now they can be on cable, and work different outlets to other stations. Now, they could be in any territory they wanted, without so much as having to leave the northeast. A biiger paycheck, less travel, and national recognition. For a wrestler, it couldn't be beat. Still, the promoter of that northeast territory has respect for the other promoter's business, so out of respect, he doesn't raid the promotions of all their talent.

No no, that duty would fall upon his son, who would conveniently take over when his father dies, see that he can make large amounts of money by running a nationwide circuit based off his cable outlets, and can afford to gut all of the other territories of their best talent. Again, it all started with one promotion getting powerful, and when ownership was turned over to a man who didn't see the same value in the "handshake agreement" of not working other areas, or allowing wrestlers to facilitate to other promotions, business began to wither for territories, and sadly, the promoters of these areas were left with nothing.

One agreement. That's all that needed to be broken for the territory system to fail. All it took was one powerful owner of a promotion to realize the beauty of nationwide cable, offer it to superstars, and all of a sudden, that same promoter could gut the entire way of living for professional wrestlers, and the promoters that booked them. It all seems so sudden, yet it should have been expected. The promoter in the northeast had advantages only allotted to a certain few. Thus, if he wanted to, he could have broken the entire territory system by himself.

And lo and behold... Just like that, that's exactly what Vincent Kennedy McMahon did. So again; was the territory system doomed to fail?

 

[IrishCanadian25]

I think "fail" is the wrong word my friend. I think "evolve" is better, simply because I do not feel the teritory system DID fail. I think it was successful in popularizing professional wrestling on a nationwide scale in a time when sydicated and cable TV and PPV did not exist. Those smaller regions enabled fans to see pro wrestling on a night-in, night-out basis, similar to how we do today, but from a different medium.

In addition, the territory set the stage for a visionary like a Mondt or a McMahon to take it to the next level by adding the large-scale entertainment value and television quality production to a product that was perfected ahead of its time. Talent was developed faster at the territory level because the talent got matches constantly and were able to refine their craft. The fact that the NWA Champion defending the title in the territory was a rare event also created a certain reverence for the concept of a championship, which remained in tact I believe until the late 1990's.

So before you ask me if the territory system was destined to fail, ask me if it did, in fact, fail, and I will tell you no it did not - it merely evolved.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

In a sense I feel the territory system was doomed to fail for basically the reason it failed in the first place: In order for a territory system to work EVERY promoter has to be in on it, the second one of those promoters decides to do whatever they want (ala Vinnie Mac) the territory system slowly breaks down, wrestlers go where the money and glamour is and all the territories fold 1 by 1 (instead of a conglomerate between a number of businesses, it now becomes a competition between the same businesses). This will always happen at one time or another because when you own a business there are 2 different kinds of owners: The ones who are complaisant and happy with the way things are (especially if it makes money) or the owner who always wants to expand, grow and make more money and when an owner fits the latter option, they will do whatever it takes to expand and grow, even if it means trampling over the other businesses.

In the old days people were alot more complaisant with the way things were (because it worked) so no one dared to really stir the pot too much, but unfortunately in todays world what you have is never enough and no matter how much you have, you want more, the profits are never enough in todays business world. This rule doesn't apply to all, but it certainly applies to the vast majority.

 

[DirtyJosé]

I don't believe the territory system was equipped to deal with a sudden growth in popularity, or with critical role national television came to play in promoting wrestling. It was asking all of it's members to play fair, and hoping that everyone could carry everyone else along.

The fallacy may have lied in the fact that nothing was contractual, merely handshake. That worked for the first generation, but obviously not the second. That is as much a fault of the shortsightedness of the NWA as it is the expansionist vision of McMahon. Crockett tried the same thing in the south, partly as a response to McMahon, and partly because he knew McMahon was on to something.

I have posted before that had there been no national expansion by a singular promotion, professional wrestling would never have had success and exposure as great as it's had with it, and it would have been dead in the water by the time UFC came around. Territories were critical to the growth and mainstream exposure of professional wrestling, but they (or at least, the initial system of "territories" and the idea of a league of promotions with one league champion) became obsolete. It's just how life, and business, works.

 

[Mr-excitement]

The territories failed for a variety of reasons, almost all of them surrounding Cable TV and the changing demographics.

The MTV generation became a BUYING force in America. Vince latched onto it, the southern promoters ridiculed the move and by the time they realized it was the future they were finished.

Second reason, the promoters of most territories were horrible businessmen. Look how long it took Crockett to get into the video tape market and even then the tapes were heavily edited and pretty bad.

Business is about marketing, marketing and marketing and they had no idea how to market the product to the MTV generation. Fritz and Vince did. They succeeded. I would dare say many times the NWA had better angles, but they had no idea how to get the mainstream public to associate with wrestling with their promotion.

 

[mikeyboy]

IC25 said it right the territory system didnt fail , wrestling just evolved and grew with the changing world. cable tv virtually made territories unnecassry.when i was growing up in the 70's all i knew was nwa/ midatlantic wrestling because thats all that was on tv.the only way i knew of wwf and awa was reading wrestling magazines .when cable tv came around we were finally exposed to new territories and for the first time you had a choice. for years wwf was still the only promotion on a national level,wwf knew how to package it and market it and they knew how to draw in the kids and with hulk hogan it grew huge,love him or hate him vinny mac is one hell of a buisnessman/promoter without him taking a risk and going national, wrestlig would probably be pretty much dead. its sad to say but the reality of it is if somethings not shoved down the publics throat by the media they are content to leave it alone or too lazy too seek it out, most people dont want to do the foot work to find their own entertainment,they are happy to be spoonfed everything. sorry about the rant , anyway my point is they didnt fail but with the product of evolution they became obsolete.

 

[Davi323]

Yes, it was doomed to fail. And the reasons why can be summed up with a single word.

Cable.

Territories worked, as long as you had the local networks willing to broadcast your shows. Since during the 60s and 70s, nobody had cable television, the only wrestling you got to see was the one your local affiliate showed you, which was usually the local promotion. However, during the 80s, and I give Vince McMahon all the credit in the world for being smart enough to see this coming, people got hooked up to cable. Why is that such a big deal? Because it opened up markets that were never available before. WCCW wasn't just being seen in the panhandle anymore, it was on ESPN, for the entire country to see. The WWF wasn't just being seen in the northeast, it was being seen by the entire country on the USA network. When TBS went from being local to a cable channel, we all got the NWA. We were exposed to multiple organizations, and those organizations picked up fans throughout the country. And therein lies the problem with the territory system. These organizations, at least those with the ability to plan ahead, knew that if they wanted to keep those fans from other parts of the country, they would have to tour to those parts of the country. That would mean encroaching on someone elses "territory", which is something you just didn't do. Except for Vince. Vince McMahon was smart enough to see the writing on the wall first, and seized upon the opportunity.

 

[Safari.GFX]

Doomed to fail? No. They could have been saved. It was a good thing great thing to be honest. Wrestling changed. People began to cut promos and so things that just weren't wrestling anymore. It changed it's whole course. Mikeyboy said it great, the product became obsolete.