Most territories at any given time?

[jdw]

Sort of a mix:

 

* They'd use talent in the area

* They'd bring in outside talent for big matches (say Londos with his belt or other "champs")

* They'd cycle through some larger talent for periods

 

In varying degrees based on the size of the city / territory / promotion.

 

The one I was talking about above had Buddy come in for several months straight working a program. It might never get one of the major champs to come in. It largely had its Local Crew, and might get lucky to pull in someone like pre-peak Buddy to run a program. In a way, they were a bit like Memphis without the AWA/NWA champs coming in, since Memphis didn't seem to cycle through Big Stars to quite the same degree that other NWA territories did.

 

A territory / city / promotion like Los Angeles in the era might get a big start to drop in for longer stretches. They also could always get a Londos or Longson or Bronko or whatever other Champ they wanted to, if they were willing to pay. They'd also bring in second level champs (Junior Heavy & Light Heavy) to come into for extended runs before the Champ headed back to the other territories / cities that they ran in (Tulsa for example).

 

There probably were a lot of those mini-Memphis promotions around, that were 95% Local Guys, and a certain percentage of guys passing through, a lot of them not even big stars but someone they could push against against the local star.

 

Kansas City was a promotion like that going back to the Brown days. It's remembered by us, and documented to a degree, because (i) it was still around at the dying days of the territories, and (ii) people went hunting in search of NWA origin stories and Orville Brown. Dozens of similar promotions have had their history die either because they are in cities no one cared about or because the city got eaten up by a larger promotion at some point, like what ever the real history behind Mid Atlantic is.

[Dylan Waco]

Barring something strange I'll be starting a South Carolina research project soon and the aim is to go as far back as I can

[Steenalized]

I meant to and somewhat started one on Chicago last summer, maybe I'll try to pick that back up if time permits. To get overly ambitious, I'd try to do Central Illinois too.

[jdw]

People have done some Chicago research in the past. If you're looking to do more, I'd go over to the Thesz board and ask what's been done before. I want to say that someone actually published a results book on Chicago, so a lot might have been done.

[jdw]

Barring something strange I'll be starting a South Carolina research project soon and the aim is to go as far back as I can

 

That would be pretty damn cool.

[Strand Peanut]

Yeah, Mondt booked Rocca, going back to 1949 I believe. Vince Sr became involved in New York in 1956 when DuMont decided to air McMahon's DC TV in the area, which became a big hit and revitalized the Garden when Vince Sr and Mondt eventually teamed up to run shows.

Did Mondt book him? Or did he just own a piece? Did he book his LA storylines? Or just tell Rocca to go there? Did LA call Mondt and book Rocca?

 

I always have the same thoughts about Vince Sr's rake from Andre. And how they used Buddy. And why Londos dropped Mondt. (Which makes me think of how JCP used Flair during Vince Jr's expansion.. tho not those questions)

 

Wrestling in NYC has always had this sort of element.. I'm not so sure it's unique, but it stands out in contrast to the rest of rasslin. Much more akin to boxing than rasslin ?

 

Wonderful stuff in here, always nice to see some history from JDW.. I feel like he's been up and down these roads a couple times before, and it's interesting getting a more experienced traveler's opinion.

[Ricky Jackson]

I meant "booked" in the manager sense of scheduling his bookings/appearances in NYC and around North America, not "booked" in the sense of coming up with angles and match ups for him