JerryvonKramer Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 It's September 1986, let's pretend you have a magic box that can pipe in TV from anywhere in the USA. I want to take a look at what an average week in wrestling on television would look like complete with the main commentary teams and on which channel they aired. Nothing like this exists online, so eventually, I want to do this for every year - if we're able to make this as complete as possible I might even stick it up on a website somewhere. I've made a start, help me flesh this out. I've been using this site, this site, this site and of course History of the WWE. Any help to fill in gaps, glaring omissions, correct mistakes etc. would be much appreciated. Monday WWF Primetime Wrestling on USA Network (B-show) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan WWF Madison Square Garden on MSG Network (monthly) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon, Gene Okerlund & Lord Alfred Hayes Tuesday Wednesday AWA All-star Wrestling on syndication (B-show) Host: Verne Gagne (????) CWF Championship Wrestling from Florida on ??? (A-show) Hosts: Gordon Solie, Mike Graham and Buddy Colt Thursday Friday WCCW World Class Championship Wrestling on syndication (A-show) Host: Bill Mercer Saturday WWF Superstars on syndication (A-show) Hosts: Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura WWF at Philadelphia Spectrum on PRISM network (monthly) Hosts: Dick Graham and Lord Alfred Hayes WWF at the Boston Garden on NESN (monthly) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes NWA World Championship Wrestling on WTBS (A-show) Hosts: Tony Schiavone and David Crockett NWA World-Wide Wrestling on syndication (A-show) Hosts: Tony Schiavone and David Crockett NWA Pro on syndication (B-show) Hosts: Bob Caudle and Johnny Weaver CWA Championship Wrestling on TV5 (???) (A-show) Hosts: Lance Russell and Dave Brown UWF Universal Wrestling on syndication (???) (B-show) Hosts: Jim Ross (????) and Bill Watts (????) PNW Portland Wrestling on KPTV (A-show) Host: Don Coss and Dutch Savage Sunday WWF Wrestling Challenge on syndication (C-show) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan WWF All American Wrestling on USA Network (C-show) Hosts: Gene Okerlund (and Lord Alfred Hayes??) WWF Wrestling Spotlight on syndication (recap show) Hosts: Gene Okerlund and Lord Alfred Hayes NWA Best of World Championship Wrestling on WTBS (recap show) Host: Tony Schiavone AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN (A-show) Hosts: Ron Trongard, Lord James Blears and Lee Marshall UWF Power Pro Wrestling (A-show) Hosts: Jim Ross and Bill Watts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 Saturday: Stampede Wrestling on Channel 2&7 Host: Ed Whalen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 Syndication was the norm so it varied if those shows aired on Saturday or Sunday. Florida TAPED on Wednesday. CWF and whatever the B-show was named at the moment aired on the weekend. UWF was the A-show. PPW was the B-show, consisting of recaps, old matches, matches from other territories to hype newcomers, and house show footage. At the end of October it became the same type of show as UWF, just taped in Fort Worth. It was still the B-show but important stuff happened on it at times, and it was also pushed to TV stations as "Texas style wrestling," an alternative to WCCW since they raided the boooker/roster and were taping in the same market. Also, in addition to syndication, PPW aired nationally on cable on Tempo Television. Also, "Mid South Classics" was on in some markets. The WWF had just radically changed their syndicated TV for the new season. The A and B shows were taped on the road every month at different major arena each time instead of the same small building in NY or PA. They also changed the names of all three shows: A-Show "Championship Wrestling" became "Superstars of Wrestling," B-show "All-Star Wrestling" became "Wrestling Challenge," and C-show (recaps with some exclusives or matches otherwise aired only on USA Network) "Superstars of Wrestling" (Yup) became "Wrestling Spotlight." As for the USA Network shows, Prime Time was still on Tuesdays I think. TNT was still on for a few more weeks, having been moved to Thursdays IIRC. All American always had the late Sunday morning slot. WCCW also had "Championship Sports" on KTVT Forth Worth (a Southwestern superstation), a long running Saturday night show, and "WCCW Classics," old episodes that aired in handful of markets. The main show also aired on a delay on ESPN. Crockett's Saturday morning TBS show (Championship Wrestling) is missing. I believe this is also when the weekend evening shows became "World Championship Wrestling: Saturday/Sunday edition). They may have still had a third syndicated show (East Coast Wrestling I think) at this point showing old stuff and house show matches. Also, they took over production of Bob Geigel's territory out of Kansas City a few weeks earlier, added it to their syndication package as NWA All-Star Wrestling, and sent in some of their talent (Bill Dundee to main event and book, sometimes Big Bubba, various prelim guys, and sometimes main eventers). Texas/USA All-Star Wrestling aired locally in Texas and nationally on Tempo, but the office was about to close and briefly be replaced by "Texas Championship Wrestling," which was the WCCW crew doing tapings at Gilley's that didn't really have anything to do with the angles on the shows taped in Dallas & Fort Worth. I THINK Polynesian Pacific Championship Wrestling was shill chugging along both locally in Hawaii and nationally on FNN. Dubbed recent All Japan Women shows were airing weekly on Tempo. EMLL had a one hour show on Univision that was taped at Arena Mexico. All of the CWA/Memphis shows were called Championship Wrestling. In Memphis, the studio show was 90 minutes long and aired live. For the other cities in the territory, it was edited down to an hour, had local promos added, and aired the next weekend, so the other towns were all a week behind. In cities (like Tupelo or Jackson) that picked up WMC or where there was room for a second show (Evansville a few months later), they got the B-show. Same opening, same name, but it generally aired house show matches. I'm not sure if it was still the case in '86 but the cities outside of Portland in Don Owen's territory (mainly Seattle) got "Big Time Wrestling," a shorter show with different matches from the same taping. Capitol Wrestling taped in Salem maybe have been on around this time too. Continental Championship Wrestling had their weekly show taped in Alabama that also reached into north Florida and east Tennessee. The Savoldis' weekly ICW show aired in syndication and on Tempo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 Bix - that's one of the most informative posts ever made on a wrestling board. Thanks a lot, I'll try to adjust the OP to reflect your changes soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 Monday WWF MSG on MSG Network (monthly) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon, Gene Okerlund & Lord Alfred Hayes Saturday WWF at Philadelphia Spectrum on PRISM network (monthly) Hosts: Dick Graham and Lord Alfred Hayes WWF at the Boston Garden on NESN (monthly) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes These didn't air on a fix day each month: MSG - January 27, 1986 - Monday MSG - February 17, 1986 - Monday MSG - March 16, 1986 - Sunday MSG - April 22, 1986 - Tuesday MSG - May 19, 1986 - Monday MSG - June 14, 1986 - Saturday MSG - July 12, 1986 - Saturday MSG - August 25, 1986 - Monday MSG - September 22, 1986 - Monday MSG - October 20, 1986 - Monday MSG - November 24, 1986 - Monday MSG - December 26, 1986 - Friday The day is less important than to make a general statement: WWF SNME = NBC several times a year WWF Taped House Show = roughly monthly local to the arena (NY, Boston, Philly, later Los Angeles) Monday WWF Primetime Wrestling on USA Network (B-show) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan I don't know if I would call this a "B-show". It was in a sense the A-Show of USA. It did recap the storylines, but also ran unique matches. The Tito-Savage title change aired on Primetime, not in syndication. MSG main event matches would appear on here on occassion. Saturday WWF Superstars on syndication (A-show) Hosts: Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura Yep. Sunday WWF Wrestling Challenge on syndication (C-show) Hosts: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan I don't think I would go to this being a C-show. It had it's own angles and stuff. Hogan went on the Snake Pit. Possibly a B-show, but in a sense more of an "A-" or "B+" show. The WWF had so much talent that it used both to get over the talent base. WWF All American Wrestling on USA Network (C-show) Hosts: Gene Okerlund (and Lord Alfred Hayes??) WWF Wrestling Spotlight on syndication (recap show) Hosts: Gene Okerlund and Lord Alfred Hayes All-American by this point was closer to a recap show. They would roll some stuff out here and there, but it was the secondary show of USA. Spotlight was a throwaway, but more of the same from the WWF: blanket the markets in hope a fan catches at least one of them. As for the USA Network shows, Prime Time was still on Tuesdays I think. TNT was still on for a few more weeks, having been moved to Thursdays IIRC. All American always had the late Sunday morning slot. Primetime moved around a bit. I think their preferred night for it was Monday for much of the year, but there were other things on USA at the time that bounced it and the WWF wasn't yet and anchor for them. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 If you lived in the New Jersey/ New York market you got U 68 on UHF. For awhile they had a different wrestling promotion on almost every night, or at least different shows. Saturday nights was Mid South/ UWF, I remember. You also had Mid-Atlantic with Bob Caudle, World Class ( which was also on Philly 57), and this awful wrestling from California that was pretty terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 NESN carried all of the Boston Gardens shows in 1986. PRISM had 11 of the 13 Philly Spectrum shows. Sorry, didn't see them listed above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted June 30, 2012 Report Share Posted June 30, 2012 It was a helluva time to be a wrestling fan and own a big c-band satellite dish. I couldn't keep up no matter how hard I tried. Not everything listed above was accessible via the big dish, but there was so much on there you didn't feel like you were missing anything even if you were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted June 30, 2012 Report Share Posted June 30, 2012 This really doesn't tell anyone much of note, but we could get CWF and Watts tv on UHF here in Charleston in 86. No clue how or why with the Florida, but you could get it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Just trying to get my head around WWF TV from this timeframe. So they had Superstars, which was your traditional A-show, hosted by Vince and Jesse, with all your major matches and angles. Mostly jobber matches. They had Challenge, which was more of the same but more mid-card level, hosted by Monsoon and Heenan. It was enough of a show to have The Snake Pit as a regular feature. Mostly jobber matches. Then they had Prime-Time, which was mainly Monsoon and Heenan messing about in the studio and recaps, with the odd house show or old MSG match thrown in for good measure (seems like sometimes they would show stuff from 3-4 months ago). On the one hand, a lot of recaps, on the other a lot of original content (Monsoon and Heenan in the studio) and a more star vs. star matches, even if they were usually meaningless and old house shows ones. Just before this they also had Tuesday Night Titans which was a talk-show format hosted by Vince with Lord Alfred Hayes there too, but that was more skits like the famous Hogan and Hayes milkshake one. Let's say Prime Time largely replaced TNT. So what, they had THREE major shows on national TV? What I can't help think about here is Monsoon and Heenan's schedules. They did two shows a week? Plus Heenan was somehow on the road as a manager, so how did he do that? Monsoon also did all those televised house shows from MSG, Boston and Philly. And all the PPVs. He must have knackered. Compared to that, Ventura only did one show a week and the occasional SNME or PPV. And by 86 did Vince do anything outside of Superstars? (naturally, he was busy elsewhere) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Fuck a week let's look at your average Saturday afternoon at my home in 1986. 9 AM - 10 AM: Championship Wrestling on TBS 10 AM - 10:30 AM: Pro Wrestling This Week on WATL 11 AM - 12 PM WWF Superstars of Wrestling on WPXA (Macon) 12 PM - 1 PM: World Wide Wrestling on WMAZ (Macon) Of course in the South 1 PM - 5 PM on Saturdays was college football time. 5 PM - 6 PM: WWF Wrestling Challenge on WVEE (Atlanta) 6:05 PM - 8:05 PM: World Championship Wrestling on WTBS 8 PM - 9 PM: UWF Wrestling on WATL 9 PM - 10 PM: Continental Championship Wrestling on WATL 10 PM - 11 PM: World Class Championship Wrestling on WATL 11 PM - 12 AM: Deep South Wrestling on WATL 12 AM - 1 AM: Memphis Wrestling on WATL 1 AM - 2 AM: Championship Wrestling from Florida on WATL 2 AM - 3 AM: NWA Pro Wrestling on WATL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 What I can't help think about here is Monsoon and Heenan's schedules. They did two shows a week? Plus Heenan was somehow on the road as a manager, so how did he do that? Monsoon also did all those televised house shows from MSG, Boston and Philly. And all the PPVs. He must have knackered. Compared to that, Ventura only did one show a week and the occasional SNME or PPV. And by 86 did Vince do anything outside of Superstars? (naturally, he was busy elsewhere) All of the TV was taped in long ass TV tapings once a month and the commentary was pre-recorded weeks in advance. My guess is they probably taped a few Prime Times in a row, too. So while it might not have been ideal, it's not like they were required to go on the road doing TV tapings every week. They probably did a month's worth of commentary and Prime Time stuff in a span of a couple of days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Wasn't GLOW on in 1986? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Yeah it would come on Friday nights at 11:00 PM here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Saturday nights on WPGH were the best here. You had WCCW come on at 10pm, GLOW at 11pm, and NWA Worldwide on at 12 midnight. I always liked Worldwide more as a kid, they had matches from arenas instead of the TV studio (which made them seem a million times more important to me even if they were still mostly jobber squashes). Plus the ring they used had different ropes that would make a snapping sound when someone would hit them, which for some reason was the coolest thing in the world to me at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boon Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Fuck a week let's look at your average Saturday afternoon at my home in 1986. 9 AM - 10 AM: Championship Wrestling on TBS 10 AM - 10:30 AM: Pro Wrestling This Week on WATL 11 AM - 12 PM WWF Superstars of Wrestling on WPXA (Macon) 12 PM - 1 PM: World Wide Wrestling on WMAZ (Macon) Of course in the South 1 PM - 5 PM on Saturdays was college football time. 5 PM - 6 PM: WWF Wrestling Challenge on WVEE (Atlanta) 6:05 PM - 8:05 PM: World Championship Wrestling on WTBS 8 PM - 9 PM: UWF Wrestling on WATL 9 PM - 10 PM: Continental Championship Wrestling on WATL 10 PM - 11 PM: World Class Championship Wrestling on WATL 11 PM - 12 AM: Deep South Wrestling on WATL 12 AM - 1 AM: Memphis Wrestling on WATL 1 AM - 2 AM: Championship Wrestling from Florida on WATL 2 AM - 3 AM: NWA Pro Wrestling on WATL Did people ever leave the house on a Saturday? Seriously thats an amazing line for just one day, considering most is on one channel... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Is from 8PM onwards that Joe Pedicino Superstars of Wrestling thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Yeah and it would expand to 4 AM a couple of years later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Kris has me jealous and Charleston was always a market that got random stuff you wouldn't think it would get (Florida, SMW, one of Prentice's post-OMW feds). I know Chattanooga got a shit load of tv in the 80's and even early 90's as well, but I really only caught it in snippets when I was on vacation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 What I can't help think about here is Monsoon and Heenan's schedules. They did two shows a week? Plus Heenan was somehow on the road as a manager, so how did he do that? Monsoon also did all those televised house shows from MSG, Boston and Philly. And all the PPVs. He must have knackered. Compared to that, Ventura only did one show a week and the occasional SNME or PPV. And by 86 did Vince do anything outside of Superstars? (naturally, he was busy elsewhere) All of the TV was taped in long ass TV tapings once a month and the commentary was pre-recorded weeks in advance. My guess is they probably taped a few Prime Times in a row, too. So while it might not have been ideal, it's not like they were required to go on the road doing TV tapings every week. They probably did a month's worth of commentary and Prime Time stuff in a span of a couple of days. Did they know what was going to happen going into those tapings? Because they always *sound* like they are there live. The only person who really comes across like he's recording it after the fact is Solie because he was open about it. I'm not a fan of those Solie retrospective-style commentating. Seen quite a few clips and matches from the late 70s where he talks about the match as if it happened months ago. Find it makes it impossible for me to be immersed in what is going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Yeah and it would expand to 4 AM a couple of years later *Grumble* Wish I lived in the states. Although we did get loads of wrestling on Satellite in the UK in about 1990, loads of it were tapes from the 80s as well so that was pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Superstars had a great run too as they went for 7 years. It's a shame that just a couple of hours are on tape as far as I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyonthewall2983 Posted July 6, 2012 Report Share Posted July 6, 2012 This is early-mid 90's but I remember Superstars and Challenge aired on our CBS affiliate (from Ft. Wayne, IN), opposite SNL. The Fox affiliate had WCW Worldwide. And in 1994 I discovered ECW on the public access channel being run by my hometown of Auburn, IN. The Memphis show was on there too, but I don't remember seeing that until '96. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smack2k Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 Saturday nights on WPGH were the best here. You had WCCW come on at 10pm, GLOW at 11pm, and NWA Worldwide on at 12 midnight. I always liked Worldwide more as a kid, they had matches from arenas instead of the TV studio (which made them seem a million times more important to me even if they were still mostly jobber squashes). Plus the ring they used had different ropes that would make a snapping sound when someone would hit them, which for some reason was the coolest thing in the world to me at the time. Well stated...Worldwide (and even Pro) were WAY better than the "muthasheeep" (If ya wheel) on Saturday Nights.. Worldwide (and Pro) you got to see way more competitive matches and full angles take place. I fuckin hated when you'd see Sat night WCW and they'd show an angle, but only the end...I would just sit there wanting to see the whole lead up as well...thankfully I found WWW on TV late Sat night's. I'd actually see the whole angle go down from what they talked about 3 hours earlier... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2013 Want to get the genesis of Crockett / WCW TV right. Mid-Atlantic --> NWA Pro --> WCW Pro [synicadted, later TBS] World Wide Wrestling --> WCW WorldWide [syndicated] World Championship Wrestling [GCW] --> World Championship Wrestling [WWF] --> NWA World Championship Wrestling --> WCW Saturday Night [TBS] NWA Power Hour --> WCW Power Hour [TBS] WCW Main Event [TBS] ---------- One thing I struggle with is the sense of hierarchy among these shows. Worldwide and WCW both seem like "A-shows" to me. MACW was an A-show before the merger with GCW but after that (and when it become Pro), it was more or less a B-show. Main Event was a B-show. But what was Power Hour meant to be? Is that basically right though? A: Worldwide and WCW B: MACW/Pro, Power Hour [?] C: Main Event. Seems a bit nuts: FIVE separate weekly shows from 86 to 94 in the pre-Nitro years. Were any of these recapathons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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