NWA and WWF cable and syndication

[Kevin Ridge]

I didn't sen my first NWA/WCW program until 1994. I moved to the States in 88 but being the youngest in the family I had no seniority when he came to control of the TV remote. I'd watch WWF when I could but we ended up ditching cable about a year or so later. Fell out of the loop of wrestling in the early 90's outside of catching a random episode of Superstars in syndication. I was aware of WCW from seeing tapes of PPVs in video stores and playing video games.

 

When I got back into watching WWF in early 94, I tried to watch all the wrestling I could and came across WCW Worldwide on a local channel late at night. I could really only watch it during the summer time though as I believe it was on a thursday night. Finally got cable again in 95 so at that point I was able to watch TBS.

[Blehschmidt]

I grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia.

 

We had TONS of wrestling on tv.

 

Everyday at 4 on ESPN was either AWA or World Class, and then later Global

 

NWA was on Saturday morning at 9:05, Saturday night at 6:05, Sunday Morning at 10:05, and Sunday night (It was sometime between 5:05 and 7:05, I can't remember)

 

WWF was on Monday nights at 9, Saturday Morning at 11:00, Saturday afternoon at varying times, and Sunday at Noon

 

I think GLOW came on late Saturday nights, but I was never allowed to stay up that late!

[med2089]

I lived in northern New Jersey until the tail end of the summer of 1990. At that point, having cable in our house was spotty - sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't IIRC. Even when we didn't have cable, we still had access to wrestling through the rabbit ears, and with that we got NWA's syndicated programming (I believe it was Worldwide) on NYC's Channel 11 on Saturday mornings, which would then lead right into Superstars at noon on Fox 5 (followed by American Gladiators, of course). And then we had Wrestling Challenge on Sundays at noon as well.

 

From there, we moved to the Poconos, where if you didn't have cable, you didn't have TV, so at that point we got everything that was available at the time - TBS on Saturday mornings, nights, and Sunday nights, ESPN on weekdays, WWF on Monday nights, etc.

[Childs]

In Baltimore, we got both NWA and WWF syndicated shows when I started watching in 1985. WWF aired on Saturday morning and NWA on Sunday. We also got UWF syndicated for a stretch. We didn't get cable until later, so I was always jealous of the kids who had TBS and USA.

 

Baltimore was a good place to grow up as a wrestling fan overall, because it was competitive ground, meaning we got strong house shows from both the NWA and WWF at the Civic Center downtown and at the Cap Center outside of DC. WWF was the gateway drug, as it was for most kids my age, but by the time I turned 10, I fancied myself a "serious fan," so I preferred the NWA and its longer, more serious matches. I don't think the NWA ever overtook the WWF with the more casual elementary school set. And by the time we got to middle school, most of them had probably moved on to something else.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

I grew up in a small town in Minnesota and we didn't have cable until I was 17. The only thing I got was the AWA on Sunday mornings and the WWF (I think it was WWF Wrestling Challenge) on Saturday morning. I got into wrestling around 1987-88, so this was the dying days of the AWA and a good period for the WWF. WWF would come on right after my cartoons and I would mark out like a little kid should. It was great.

 

My dad put this arrow thingy on top of our TV antenna that picked up a few extra stations and ocassionaly, if the weather was right, we'd pick up a different wrestling program on Saturday nights. The only wrestler I remember about it was Norman the Lunatic, which makes me think it was WCW Saturday Night, but if I remember correctly, the look of the studio and setup of the show was nothing like WCW Saturday Night.

 

If we'd ever take a famly vacation and stay in a hotel, I'd have to watch WCW Satruday Night if the hotel got TBS. I knew about the NWA and other promotions through PWI and other wrestling mags, and always went out of my way to try and watch it if I ever could. I think having to work so hard to just get a glimpse of the NWA, or any wrestling at all, growing up made me into the fan I am today. The chase was part of the fun.

 

Once we got Dish Network, ECW would pop up on some of the regaionl sports networks on late Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings. If was sporadic, though. One week it'd be on the Sunshine Network, then it wouldn't be, but if I flipped around, I'd find it on MSG or some other regional network.

[victory]

I never had cable in the 80's so I only had the syndication shows here in the Chicago area.

 

The AWA was the first show I discovered in 1981 on ch. 26 at 11am on Sunday mornings. Time slot didn't change until 88 IRC when it went to 5pm on Sundays.

 

We also got a show called Chicago Championship Wrestling which was from Hammond Indiana. Not sure the exact years but it came on after AWA followed by Luce Classics from the Amp. Each show was a half hour.

 

We got World Class in the fall of 83 at 5pm on Saturday nights on either ch. 50 or 60. I can't quite remember which. I think it was 50. The legends show was on here on Sundays at 5pm and 10pm for only a few months.

 

Within a few months we then got the WWF in early 84 a week or so before Hulk won the strap. This show came on at 9am on Saturday mornings after Babe Winkelman's Good Fishing show on ch. 32 WFLD. Which would become FOX. Later we would get Superstars and Challenge. They would show one for a bit then switch for somereason. By that time it changed to 11am on Saturdays.

 

Didn't get another show until Crockett in mid 85 or so at 6pm on Sunday.

 

UWF came on in late 86 on Sunday morning at 10 am. At one point it even came on at 5pm or 6pm on Fridays. This wouldn't of been until 87 . This was a short lived time slot though.

 

Wild West also followed UWF on Sundays.

 

We also got Glow, POWW and Pro wrestling this week all on the same channel. Starting at 6pm on Saturday nights.

 

At one point in 87 or so from 5pm to 10pm on Saturday you could watch wrestling every hour just about.. World Class, Glow, POWW, Pro Wrestling this week, WWF All American and WWF Spotlight. I think there was a break at 8pm.

 

We even got Southwest (Blanchard) on a spanish station but I never knew about that show until recently otherwise I would of watched it.

 

It was a great time to be a fan and we got a lot even without cable here.

[BruiserBrody]

In Green Bay as a kid -

 

We had WWF Superstars on at 11 on one channel, then Wrestling Challenge on right after on another channel (This led to me freaking out as a kid because Randy Savage wrestled Hercules and The Barbarian on each show back to back and I thought Savage was going to get pummeled)

 

In the late 80's we had some NWA show but I was too young to remember what it was (I do recall Dusty and the Russians feuding and the RnR Express among others) Then in the late 80's early 90's we got WCW World wide on Sunday Mornings and by 1992 it was moved to midnights (I still remember sitting at my Bros house seeing the recap of Simmons pinning Vader for the belt)

 

We also had AWA for the whole 80's into the bitter end of promotion in the 90's.

 

I also suspect we had WCCW and maybe UWF syndication as I have random memories of Pre WWF Dibiase and the Freebirds that I can't explain. Didn't have cable until 2002.

[sek69]

So in short, they might have squeaked into 89 or even 90 but the writing was on the wall for JCP.

 

What interests me now is: what on earth was David Crockett saying in those meetings that was holding things up? The saga goes on for months and David is a constant barrier to the deal taking place.

 

I think David didn't want to sell the family business, there really isn't any other reason for him to object to the sale. JCP was good as dead financially at that point, and as I recall they had no money left to pay the top guys after Vince cock blocked them out of PPV in most markets in 1988.

 

What I found interesting is that interview Dave and Bryan did with Peter Birkholz where he said the oil economy crashing (what Watts blames for killing the UWF) wasn't the territory killer everyone says it is, it was just the business had changed by that point and it was clear their time was coming to an end. I was surprised since that was the common wisdom for a while now that Bill Watts could have taken over the world had it not been for the territory he was based in taking an economic hit.

[rzombie1988]

I get the feeling that alot of people had GLOW back in the day, maybe more than alot of other promotions.

 

I know Atlanta would have gotten the most at one point when Pedicino was doing all day saturday blocks of wrestling. There's a commercial for it either on youtube or on the PWTW dvd's. I also remember hearing that one town in Texas had over 27 hours of wrestling on television a week.

[Loss]

If Bill Watts had any chance of taking over the world, it would have had to have involved staying on TBS, and Vince never selling the timeslot to Crockett.

[Ricky Jackson]

Yeah, I forgot about GLOW. It was on around midnight in my neck of the woods, but I rarely ever watched it. I remember a friend of mine being into it.

[Franchise]

I didn't have cable until about 91

 

Before we got cable I was able to watch WWF Superstars & Challenge on mainstream free TV (I beleieve it was a FOX channel but I could be wrong) & SNME on NBC.

 

I was able to watch Pro or WWW NWA on some weird local channel, I think was KDOC or something out of the normal channel range.

 

I also rented CHV's & PPV's weekly from my local video store. Between this & Superstars being the #1 show for the WWF I never felt like I was missing much. Once I got cable I started watching everything I missed but by then I was WWF all the way.

 

Looking back I feel like the NWA had a better product on TV but the time slots, channels & lack of rentable videos made the WWF more appealing to me.

[King Solomon]

If Bill Watts had any chance of taking over the world, it would have had to have involved staying on TBS, and Vince never selling the timeslot to Crockett.

 

Yup! By the time Watts rebranded his promotion into the UWF the market had already been overstaurated by Crockett and McMahon not to mention the other promotions in their areas such as the AWA and World Class. Watts woulda had to get the the TBS slot. In his book Watts says that he and Turner had a verbal agreement however Turner had no control over what Vince did with his timeslot. Had Vince decided to stay on TBS then it seems like Bill's agreement with Turner would have gone through due to Turners dislike for Vince. Bill's only other option would have been to buy the slot from Vince himself. Once Crockett got the slot then Turner was willing to forget his agreement with Watts and hitch the station fully to Crocketts wagon. If Watts could have gotten the exclusive on TBS then he could have repositioned his promotion to run in the old WCW Georgia, Tennesse, West Virgina, Michigan and Ohio corridor when the old Mid South region started feeling the effects of the oil bust.

[King Solomon]

If Bill Watts had any chance of taking over the world, it would have had to have involved staying on TBS, and Vince never selling the timeslot to Crockett.

 

Yup! By the time Watts rebranded his promotion into the UWF the market had already been overstaurated by Crockett and McMahon not to mention the other promotions min their areas such as the AWA and World Class. Watts woulda had to get the the TBS slot. In his book Watts says that he and Turner had a verbal agreement however Turner had no control over what Vince did with his timeslot. Had Vince decided to stay on TBS then it seems like Bill's agreement with Turner would have gone through due to Turners dislike for Vince. Bill's only other option would have been to buy the slot from Vince himself. Once Crockett got the slot then Turner was willing to forget his agreement with Watts and hitch the station fully to Crocketts wagon. If Watts could have gotten the exclusive on TBS then he could have repositioned his promotion to run in the old WCW Georgia, Tennesse, West Virgina, Michigan and Ohio corridor when the old Mid South region started feeling the effects of the oil bust.

 

[Stuttsy]

I grew up in a small town 20 miles from Greensboro, 50 miles from Raleigh/Durham and we got pretty much everything: Superstars, Challenge, Spotlight, Pro, Worldwide, World Class, UWF, Pro Wrestling This Week, GLOW (and alter PWOW), PWF Florida from '89 and even a group called Southern Championship Wrestling out of Georgia.

 

In fact because we lived close enough to pick up the stations from both markets, a lot of times we could watch the NWA or WWF syndicated shows twice if we wanted to.

[cm funk]

I grew up in Mass, which was obviously WWF territory. We had cable from about 87 on, but didn't even get TBS until some time in the mid 90's when whatever the local cable company was was bought out by Adelphia. We did get USA, and oddly enough TNT starting in the early 90's, but not TBS until probably 95/96. I've always found that really strange. We never got WGN either, and those were two of the big "superstations" of the day.

 

WWF programming was all I had access to until I think 93 when the local NBC affiliate started carrying Worldwide. It aired at 1 or 1:30 AM on Friday Nights after Wrestling Challenge. I never saw Worldwide pre-Disney tapings so it was sometime after that.

 

I was able to watch older NWA/WCW PPV tapes starting in maybe 92/93 when I found a video store that had almost the entire back catalogue, as well as being familiar with the wrestlers/storylines from Apter mags. I caught the odd bit of WCW programming in 91-92 when visiting my grandparents too.

[ButchReedMark]

Just wondering if it's worth merging the UK TV talk from the Wrestlemania GOAT thread into here?