KrisZ

You think rebooking 1990 is something then try and rebook 1987 like you mentioned. You had the UWF buyout which should have given Flair all the feuds he needed for a full year which would've been in multi-man matches since Flair was hurt that year and was being hidden in tags. A UWF faction led by DiBiase with a NWA faction led by Flair going to Starrcade with a title vs. title match could have been something.

Another thing regarding The Sheik is that he just didn't kill off Detroit but almost killed Toronto dead as well.....it took Frank Tunney to stop booking him completely and retooling his system which eventually meant bringing in the JCP guys.

You're right I got it mixed up. I'm guessing maybe since so many New Yorkers were wintering in Florida that might have had something to do with it

I have no idea on that question although I think they may have started airing it due to Dusty's popularity

The way JCP booked up until Dusty came in was they split their territory itself up in 3 states Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Each state had their own booker at times and they would shift the talent around while running the main angles from TV and city centric angles. If you want to go with the JCP/GCW/CWF merger then with that NYC TV time you do a show just for that market showing matches from the 3 territories showing the top stars that you want to bring in for the monthly shows. What I meant by circuits is that you have crews just for the certain circuits where they work that circuit specifically during the week while the top guys or whatever works the weekend special shows while on the weekends on the circuits the guys that didn't make the major towns got a chance to main event instead of working 2nd or 3rd from the top. Now regarding weekend shows this is how I would set it up. Weekend #1 = New York/Philly/DC & Baltimore on the same day Weekend #2 = Norfolk/Richmond/Charlotte & Greensboro on the same day Weekend #3 = Knoxville/Atlanta/Jacksonville Weekend #4 = Tampa/Orlando/Miami That leaves Monday-Thursday to hit up your other towns in the circuit and you tape your TV on Wednesdays at whatever town.

Pretty much yeah but the Funks were always loyal to the Sheik and kept coming in.

It was the complete CWF show with WWF promos where CWF promos would be. Bruiser was still using AWA guys in 1980 and then once that relationship ended his territory went down. The last feud that actually drew there was the Battle of the Bruisers (Dick vs. Brody) Another situation I forgot to mention with Frisco was the deal where they got LA TV so there were guys who were babyfaces in Frisco but were heels in LA and the fans were completely confused. The Roddy Piper/Moondog Mayne situation in particular where they were in a blood feud in Frisco but best friends in LA. The Roop/Sullivan feud was before Shire brought in the PNW guys and that did well plus they had a nice run with Dean Ho/Muraco feuding on top but after the Rose incident it really went down.

Let's go with a JCP/GCW/CWF merger in 1983......like I said before CWF had weekly TV in New York so that was a huge plus then you had GCW on TBS which by 1983 was starting to really grow. What you could've done is basically run it like 3 different circuits as you have a North/Central/South setup for your non-anchor towns while on weekends where you run your anchor towns you bring in a mixture of the 3. That way you can keep guys fresh by interchanging them out every so often and you could do that with bookers too.

I think wrestling in the 70s was pretty similar to baseball in the 50s: people remember it with rose tinted shades, but the reality is the the business was unhealthy in a lot of places. SoCal and NoCal were fading as the decade went on. Det died. Bruiser's Indy promotion was fading / faded. It would be interesting to see someone do a history of wrestling in Ohio, because it seemed to fade with Al Haft and the others who ran it in the 50s. Ohio was huge in the early 70's as NWF was really successful there but then they got a in promotional war and both died. Los Angeles died when they lost English speaking TV but they had moments there with Piper & Chavo. Frisco died pretty much with the Buddy Rose incident. Detroit died thanks to the Sheik around 1976-77 as they were drawing pretty big in the first half of the decade and you can see the gradual decline here. Big Time @ Detroit, MI – Cobo Hall – May 3, 1975 (7,261) Lou Klein d. Ali Baba Randy Poffo & Mike Thomas d. Pretty Boy Floyd & George Steele Kurt Von Brauner d. Pez Whatley The Alaskans d. Cowboy Allen & Alo Leilani Lord Athol Layton d. Saul Weingroff Angelo & Lanny Poffo d. Fred Curry & Hank James by countout Bobo Brazil d. Killer Karl Kox Abdullah the Butcher battled The Sheik to a no contest Big Time @ Detroit, MI – Cobo Hall – August 28, 1976 (4,276) Dominic DeNucci d. Gary Fulton Mighty Zuma d. Denny Alberts Nick DeCarlo d. Johnny Davis Chris Colt d. Cowboy Dawson Andre the Giant batled George Steele to a DDQ Hank James fought Don Kent to a draw Pampero Firpo d. Killer Karl Krupp Thunderbolt Patterson battled The Sheik to a DDQ Big Time @ Detroit, MI – Cobo Hall – September 17, 1977 (3,298) The Wildman d. John Boy Ruffin Hank James d. Sachamo Boogy George Gulas & Tony Parisi d. Sam Shell & The Wildman Luis Martinez d. Nelson Royal Moose Cholak d. The Wolfman Don Kent d. Ed George by countout Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik d. Dory & Terry Funk Big Time @ Detroit, MI – Olympia Stadium – February 26, 1979 (2,609) Richard Charland, Al Costello, & John Ruffin d. Steve Cooper, Tiny Hampton, & Sailor White Al Costello d. Steve Cooper John Ruffin d. Tiny Hampton Richard Charland d. Sailor White Mighty Igor d. Mike Wayne Ed George d. Floyd Creatchman Pancho Villa d. Bobo Brazil The Sheik d. Randy Savage by countout WWA was doing well even after losing the Battle of Detroit as they were running Market Square Arena for big shows and drawing around 8-9,000 while getting 5-6,000 on their shows at their regular building Expo Center. It started going down in 1979 and then in 1980 it completely fell apart.

San Fran, Denver, Phoenix, Vegas, & SLC were all regular monthly stops for Verne in 1983 so yeah he had them as part of his territory but still it wasn't his core area of Minnesota, Wisconsin, & Illinois. PNW ran Seattle once a month as well as they focused plenty on Portland and smaller towns. GCW was running Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, Cleveland, & Columbus monthly as well sometimes twice a month but again it was up for the taking. Regarding cable/syndication of course Vince had a bigger advantage with syndication as he was buying up other territories TV times or going to rival channels in their markets where if the territory wasn't up to task they were getting eaten up. GCW though got big and Tommy Rich was touring around the country as an attraction at one point working in Frisco, Boesch, & Watts.

And here is the thing with CWF that they had that almost no one else did......they had air time in NYC for years.

Regarding the territories let's just go with January 1, 1983 as the date and look at these cities that had no real home promotion. Los Angeles Detroit San Diego Sacramento Indianapolis (WWA doesn't count) San Jose And these got monthly action at best San Francisco Phoenix Seattle Denver Cincinnati Cleveland Las Vegas Columbus, OH Salt Lake City That's a huge chunk of the country west of the Mississippi that some genius promoter (eventually Vince) would decide to try to eat up. Like I said as soon as Ted Turner put up the satellite and the country started to see GCW which at the time was as good of a wrestling TV show as any other one in the country it was over for a lot of territories.

Here is the deal with Knoxville. All-Star opened up as opposition to Ron Fuller when Roop, Garvin, Orton, Malenko, etc broke off aligning with the Poffos while just burying the Fullers on their TV and in their printed lineups. They exposed the business giving out shoot names etc and they hurt the Fullers but they also hurt their own brand as they had some success to start yeah but as soon as Ron Fuller sold the Knoxville part of Southeastern out to Bob Polk in early 1980 then Polk brought in Georgia talent every week it really hurt All-Star who basically went away before 1981. Knoxville then became a bouncing ball as Polk sold to Jim Barnett who ran it for a while before selling it to Mulligan/Flair/Crockett and they had some success through 1981 and into 1982 but then they backed out thus leaving Knoxville dormant for the next couple of years or so. There would be shows there but not on a regular basis until Ron came back in during 1985.

The Rick Steiner thing was the best for business. Luger in 1990 was Flair seeing that it made no sense to lose to Luger then because Sting was coming back and the storyline was always for Sting to beat him. 1991 was the one where you could argue Ric was in the wrong as if he wasn't going to come back then drop the belt to Barry at the least.

One of the lost great storylines is they could've done Nikita 2.0 with Muta as he turns babyface in honor of Sting to feud with Flair who he was feuding with anyway. That way you keep Luger heel which he was fantastic at then.

Buzz Sawyer was brought in when Ole got back in power....Dragon Master was there because he was Muto's mentor basically.

I am hoping they start from the start not when it started to suck

The territories started dying when Ted Turner put up the satellite.

Well there was a cut in NXT tonight but it was Alberto del Rio's brother Memo Montenegro

Flair ruled the roost at the Marriott Marquis in the ATL back in the day. It's a shame that the local Atlanta version of the JCP TBS shows aren't on tape because they did specific promos for Omni shows at ringside with an empty studio. Flair would namecheck many local bars saying what time he was going to be there and who he wanted to be there specifically females 18-30. He would show up at times wearing his robe and nothing else.

You are correct sir now there is this that goes with that photo. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2013-07-15/br...ssage-uncovered

Look at this closely

Charlotte was picked because that's her hometown