Ricky Jackson

As far as running a territory that was almost consistently hot the entire time he promoted it, Vince Sr has to be top 5 all-time. The only real lull he experienced from when he first started booking MSG in 1956 (he temporarily lost control in late 59/early 1960) up to 1982 when Jr bought the company was in the late-60s when, coupled with a general drop off in hot challengers for Bruno, he briefly lost TV in the New York area and had to rely on print advertising to draw. Otherwise business in his major cities was always healthy and often very strong. Yes, Vince Sr could have run with Graham on top longer, and likely eventually turned him face and had even more success, like Verne did with him earlier in the AWA. But Vince Sr believed the long-term success of his company rested in a dominant babyface turning back heel challengers, and the track record of Rocca, Sammartino and Morales was the proof this was the way to go. And wasn't going with non-ethnic, All-American Boy Bob a non-conservative, departure from the norm idea for him? He took a big risk with Bob, who was an unproven draw in 1978. True, it was Bruno who decided his run as champ was over and not Vince Sr, and he was forced to go with a new top star. Still, his choice of Backlund was no guarantee of success, and I believe the booking of Bob on the road to the belt and immediately following his win actually displays pretty good imagination. We've gone over this before on Titans, but Vince Sr booked Backlund masterfully in 1977-78. He was booked super strong in 77, with an undefeated streak, and was treated like a special attraction from day one, only appearing on TV and in MSG sporadically. He beat Graham first time out (Yes, Graham's foot was on the bottom rope, but Bruno had never beat Superstar decisively) and then tore through Bruno's old foes, Arion, Patera, Koloff, Ladd, and gained decisive wins over them in his first few months as champ. THIS is what made Bob a big deal in the Northeast. He was looked at as the BEST, someone who couldn't be beaten. And as we know, New York loves a winner. One thing I would like to know more about is this: how much actual booking did Vince Sr actually do, as far as coming up with angles, gimmick matches, feuds, etc.? Was he heavily involved creatively like his son? I've never really seen anymore document who the actual booker was in the 60s and 70s. I think Monsoon had a lot of input. Anyway, if anyone knows more let me know.

So basically its come to WWE booking for lapsed fans who stumble on Raw while randomly flipping through the channels. You know, if all they care about is high ratings they should scrap production of new episodes and just air re-runs from the late 90s.

Yeah, I've always felt Wrestle War was a distant third to Chi-Town and Clash and never understood why it's considered the best by some.

Big props to Pete for putting this together. 50 shows and the Fabulous Four are just getting started baby!

I don't think Vince Sr in any way held back Graham. The matches against guys like Garea and Larry Z happened mostly in the small towns, where huge matches weren't really needed to draw fans. Otherwise Strongbow and Putski were top faces, and Dusty, Mil and Bruno were magastars. Also, remember the strong support many of these cards had from Bruno, where his match was the real main event and draw, such as the MSG card where Graham took on Putski but the draw was Bruno - Patera in a Texas Death Match. Basically, Graham was red hot at the time, both with the fans and at the box office, so I'm not sure how much hotter he could have been

So you basically hate wrestling

I think you underestimate how appealing it was for fans in the Northeast to see long-time babyface stars challenging for the WWWF title for the first time, after years and years of only heel challengers. Also, fans in the territory were so conditioned to having babyfaces triumph that there was an intrigue to Graham's defenses that had not existed with Bruno. A lot of fans were sure Dusty was going to win, and Mascaras, and Strongbow, and of course Bruno. Even to an extent Putski. And the intrigue was even greater when you factor in the cage setting, where babyfaces NEVER lost. Point is Graham's run was very successful, even if some of the challengers do not look impressive outside of the context of 1977 NYC

1.You can't look at Graham's reign through modern eyes as someone who was pushed to the title and was expected to be the face of the company but was undone by "bad booking". 6-7 months before he beat Bruno, Graham was told exactly when he would win the strap and exactly when he would lose it and who he would lose it to. He was never meant to have an extended run with the belt. Backlund going over on Feb 20 1978 in MSG was the plan, set in stone, 1 1/2 years before. Vince Sr wanted Bob to be truly over and accepted by the fans as the potential next big champ when the switch went down and figured it would take a year plus for that to happen organically (Bob debuted in the territory Dec 76) 2. Each major town in the territory had its own schedule as far as when programs were run. The TV in each town promoted different matches and feuds at different times. So Baltimore was its own universe, NYC its own, Boston, Philly, etc. The rematch in Baltimore was just the rematch in Baltimore, not the territory - wide rematch. Each town had its own cycle of Bruno - Graham matches that existed independently of each other

Awesome

Has Sasha Banks wrestled since the 5/20 show?

Classic, ridiculous bump by Dick Woehrle in this match between Greg Valentine and Chief Jay Strongbow where Strongbow's leg is broken

Regarding a question brought up on the show, I believe Flair has claimed the reason his first NWA title win happened in KC was because Dusty didn't want to drop the strap in a city where he was a big draw, like St. Louis, Atlanta etc.

They showed matches from several territories on the show when it first started. Basically Vince wanted to get guys like JYD, Windham, etc over with his audience because he planned on snatching them up.

Good Charlotte...I'd forgotten all about that crappy band until this godforsaken thread.

Vancouver territory sucked pretty hard in the 80s

Not only are there two separate John Cena threads on the go (and I think there is a third, Jaaawn Cena, kicking around) but the last posts for each happened at exactly 12pm today. Creepy

Thanks for the praise man. The next show will finally conclude 1981 and then the plan is to plow through 82

A few reasons why I don't do star ratings... 1.Star ratings symbolize for me the whole opinion that the only thing about wrestling that matters is watching "great" matches with a high volume of work rate. That's a generalization of course but there is a Cult of the Great Match that exists where lot of great pro wrestling is simply discounted because it's not a four star or higher match 2. I'm too lazy to think about it and come up with a criteria for ratings And I don't love everything, but I do like to talk about wrestling I love and not wrestling I hate, so it may seem that way I guess

Is that enough to get a blurb in your column this week? ☺

Haha. ..yeah I've done that twice now. I've never claimed to be a genius, just a wrestling genius

But Baba himself had two quickie NWA title reigns. Likely, the real reason is that Dusty aligned himself with Inoki and New Japan at a time when the wrestling war in Japan was quite hot

If you haven't seen them before check out his WWWF promos from 77-78 on the Dusty WWE DVD immediately. If that Dusty turned up in WWE today he would be the most over guy on the roster within days of his debut

Think of it as an hour long Dick and Kal match and it will much more enjoyable

Actually I think that run with Graham in the AWA happened after his Florida turn but not long after, maybe 6 months.

Horrible loss for wrestling. One of the greatest ever. RIP