1985/1986 transition of MACW

[RowdyRoddy]

I know that Ole Anderson was the booker in Mid-Atlantic and Georgia in 1983 or thereabouts. In 1984, Georgia was losing a lot of its' talent: Tommy Rich, Buzz Sawyer, The Road Warriors, Jake Roberts, etc. In the spring of 1985, Georgia and Mid-Atlantic merged (probably around May 1985). Why?

[Baltimore Jack]

I'm not completely sure of the exact dates, but Ole Anderson was replaced by Dory Funk Jr as booker (and someone else may have been a short term interim between those two) in the late spring of 1982.

In June 1984, Vince McMahon gained control of Georgia Championship Wrestling by acquiring the stock of the Brisco Brothers and Jim Barnett, among others. They released most of the Georgia talent, while others came to work for the WWF. Ole immediately started a new company, Championship Wrestling from Georgia and within a month or so, had TV back on TBS in a 6:30 AM Saturday morning time slot. He hired back some of the previous Georgia talent, and also worked with Jim Crockett, Jerry Jarrett, and Bob Geigel to share talent from their territories.

The arrangement didn't really work out, and by early 1985, the company was crumbling, attendance was poor, and the company was near a state of financial collapse. Ole made a deal with Jim Crockett to buy him out, at the same time Crockett was buying the TV time from Vince McMahon for TBS.

By the last week of March, the deal was done, and Tony Shiavone hosted the final two episodes of Championship Wrestling from Georgia, replacing Gordon Solie. In April, Crockett took over all wrestling time slots on TBS.

[RowdyRoddy]

I know that Dory booked Mid-Atlantic in the 80s when he was the Masked Outlaw and when he was managed by Paul Jones. The Brisco Brothers are traitors. They were NWA guys in the 1970s and early 1980s, but they sold out to Vince in 1984. I know that the Spoiler and the Briscos came to the WWF. So, GCW and CWFG are two different entities?

I liked Pro Wrestling USA that used NWA and AWA talent in 1984 and 1985, some of it from Mid Atlantic and Georgia.

I see. So Jim Jr bought out Ole and Georgia while also getting the TV time from Vince. I miss Gordon Solie and GCW.

[Baltimore Jack]

Dory is widely credited for coming up with the closed-circuit idea which eventually became Starrcade 83, following the huge turn away crowd for the famous 3/83 cage match between Slaughter/Kernodle and Steamboat/Youngblood. It was Dusty, though, who apparently gave it its name.



When “Black Saturday” and all that came down in 1984, I sort of looked at the Briscos as traitors because I hated the direction Vince was taking wrestling, and he likely would have never gotten control of Georgia TV with out the Briscos’ shares. But I really don't see it that way anymore. The Briscos were looking out for their financial interests in a company that was sinking fast, and they couldn't agree with Ole on how to right the ship. I think most of us would have done the same thing. Read Jack Brisco’s excellent book, he discusses this at great length. Ole gives his side of the story in his book as well.

One other note about the TV deal: The Crockett TV deal with Turner hinged on Crockett getting exclusivity on TBS (TBS was currently carrying Georgia, WWF, and Mid-South). He bought the TV time from Georgia and WWF, and insisted TBS drop Mid-South, which Turner agreed to do (despite Mid-South having far better ratings in their late afternoon time slot than either WWF or Georgia.)

[RowdyRoddy]

I got TBS in October 1980 and watched GCW almost every Saturday night; however, I do not recall TBS airing Mid-South in 1984 and 1985. What day and time did those TV tapings air?

I think that Dory Funk Jr. was responsible for coming up with The Final Conflict although Kernodle and Slaugther thought up the idea back in 1982 while travelling in a car to a house show. Dusty believes that he came up with Starcade '83. He was present at the show and issued a challenge to the winner of the main event.

I have read Ole's book, but I have not read Jack Brisco's yet.

[Baltimore Jack]

According to three accounts, all similar, I've heard from three people directly involved with that whole program (Don Kernodle, Ricky Steamboat, and Boris Zhukov/Jim Nelson), the idea of the whole program with the two teams was something Slaughter and Kernodle suggested, and then basically the two of them along with Steamboat and Youngblood developed over the five or six months that the thing played out. These four were booking the angle themselves with permission from the office. Two of the three above told me that Dory Funk Jr. had nothing to do with booking the angle.

Apparently, this wasn't all that uncommon over the years, where certain wrestlers were allowed to book a certain program they came up with.

[Baltimore Jack]

RowdyRoddy said: I got TBS in October 1980 and watched GCW almost every Saturday night; however, I do not recall TBS airing Mid-South in 1984 and 1985. What day and time did those TV tapings air?

I'm not exactly sure how it came to be, but Bill Watts got his show on TBS for about 10 weeks, beginning in early March of 1985 and running until late May, the last show airing May 26th. It aired on Sunday afternoons, and I can't remember the exact time, but I believe it aired at 4:30 PM ET. The show that aired on TBS was a three or four week delay from their current show airing in their territory, so as not to compete with their local affiliates that carried the Mid-South show.

I think it's clear that word was out Turner was unhappy with Titan programming, and I've read that both Crockett and Watts were making a play to get that TV time. I've read that what tipped the scales in favor of Crockett was he was willing to tape a separate TV show in TBS studios, which Turner was insisting upon so as to have exclusive programming and not repeat programming from other shows.

So for about a 4 week period, TBS aired 5 hours of wrestling each weekend, from three different promotions.

SAT 9:05 AM Championship Wrestling from Georgia
SAT 6:05 PM World Championship Wrestling (WWF) 2 hrs.
SUN 4:35 PM Mid-South Wrestling
SUN 6:05 PM Best of Championship Wrestling (WWF)

If you weren't reading the wrestling newsletters at the time, it would have been easy to miss Mid-South, because the GA or WWF shows certainly didn't mention it!

The first weekend of April, Crockett took over the WWF TV time, but the Mid-South show ran until the end of its contract in May. On that last Mid-South show, Bill Watts graciously mentioned that it would be their last show on TBS, and he asked their fans to support the Crockett Promotions programming. I always thought that was a real "stand-up" thing Watts did, and he certainly didn't have to do it. (I doubt if Dusty or Crockett would have done the same thing if situations had been reversed!)

[ironanderson]

In regards to the booking timeline.

George Scott (1973 to Spring 1981)

Ole Anderson (Spring 1981 to Late 1982)

Dory Funk Jr. (Late 1982 to Mid 1984)

Dusty Rhodes (Mid 1984 to Late 1988)

[danpoutsma]

The story goes that Turner was unhappy with the WWF and wanted to kick Vince off in favor of Watts, whose Mid-South show (even though it was several weeks behind) was blowing the WWF show out of the water ratings wise. Vince wanted out himself, but threatened to sue Turner for breach of contract if he kicked him off.

Eventually, a solution was reached. Vince, who was looking to recoup his investment in GCW, had Jim Barnett approach Jim Crockett about buying the timeslot from him. Crockett, who was looking to expand himself, agreed and bought out Vince for approximately $1 million. As mentioned, Crockett also wanted exclusivity on TBS and eventually gained it when the Mid-South show's brief run was over.

It is also interesting to note that it has been said that had Watts been the one to replace Vince, Turner was looking to be partners in the promotion with him. So that may have been another reason why Vince sent Barnett in there to negotiate, as he had a heavy influence on Turner when it came to making wrestling related decisions. Obviously, a Watts-Turner partnership with Turner financial backing would be much more threatening to the WWF than a Crockett-Turner partnership without Turner financial backing. So it's entirely possible that Vince used Barnett to manipulate the best situation for himself.

[danpoutsma]

Fwiw, I picked up the McMahon DVD last week and here's Shane McMahon's version of what happend between his dad and Ted Turner.

He said Vince bought Georgia Championship Wrestling and made a deal with Ted Turner to supply content for TBS. He said it ended up being so successful that Turner wanted to buy a piece of the company. Vince declined and told Turner that he didn't know Ted's businesss and Ted didn't know his, and to just let Vince keep supplying him with content and great ratings. Apparently, Turner didn't like being rejected and subsequently went to court to get out of the contract. However, the judge told him that he didn't have any legs to stand on because Vince was doing everything that was asked of him. He says Vince then went to Turner and told him he didn't want to be in business with somebody who didn't want to be in business with him, ripped up the contract, and told him he was going to sell Georgia to the Crocketts and Ted could buy it from them if he wanted to get involved in the "rasslin business". He eventually did and that's when the war started.

[RowdyRoddy]

I question Shane's veracity. He was only 14 years old at the time.

[Baltimore Jack]

Based on what I've read over the years, the jist of what Shane says is true, but it is being heavily spun here. The ratings for the WWF were not good on TBS. They dropped substantially after Vince took over the slots, although they very well could still have been some of the better ratings on the cable network. Turner wanted to be part of the business, but I don't think it had much to do with the success of the WWF at the time because they weren't very successful at the time. They were gobbling up TV everywhere, but their financials were in horrible shape, and had the first Wrestlemania failed (which took place right around the time Vince sold to Crockett) it might have put them out of business (so it has been reported in many places.) Of course, Turner's perception could have been that Vince and the WWF were a hot commodity at the time and he wanted in. (They weren't really hot at the time, but they were about to be. The MTV exposure and the mainstream media hype that was getting started on Wrestlemania gave many outside the business the impression that it was the hottest thing going.) Also, Turner did want out of the deal with Vince, but much of it had to do with Turner wanting original programming on his station (as opposed to repackaged material from the WWF syndicated shows and USA network shows) and Turner saw that as a violation of the contract. Crockett was willing to provide original programming to Turner, and I'm guessing Watts would have done the same thing.

[ironanderson]

I believe it all revolves around ratings in general.

Vince Jrs' product wasn't able to connect with the market that had grown with the "Southern Wrestling" seed.

The WWE style was always a snoozfest regardless.

[danpoutsma]

Aside from what's already been mentioned, there's a couple of other things that struck me as either odd or inaccurate when he mentioned Vince selling to the Crocketts.

1) According to Shane, Vince sold "Georgia Championship Wrestling". However, my understanding of things is that the actual corporation was legally dissolved under McMahon's watch. If you look at Georgia records, Vince, Linda, and Otto Feil are the last corporate officers listed for the company. So if that's correct, then there was really nothing to sell except for the rights to the show/timeslot.

Point B: When McMahon tookover, the TV show itself was called "World Championship Wrestling". However, my understanding is that the name was changed back to "Georgia Championship Wrestling" sometime thereafter (apparently there was some sort of dispute concerning ownership of the name between Ole's contingent and Turner?) and that it remained such until Crockett took it over. Can anyone substantiate this, or was it always "World Championship Wrestling" even during the time Vince was producing it? If so, it might be possible that that's what Shane was referring to.

C) When Shane mentioned the sale, he said Vince was selling it "back" to the Crocketts, implying that they had owned it before. To the best of my knowledge, they didn't even own a small piece of it. The only names I can recall that were owners prior to the takeover were Ole, the Briscos, Fred Ward, Ralph Freed, Paul Jones, Jim Oates, and maybe a few others I'm forgetting. But I've never heard of the Crocketts holding any sort of stake in GCW.

[Baltimore Jack]

If you are asking about the TV show, it was never called Georgia Championship Wrestling again, but the legal name may have never been changed to begin with. But I really have no idea on the name of the company.

You are right on the Crocketts; they never had a financial stake in Georgia Championship Wrestling, at least not that I've ever heard of.

Further trivia regarding TV, when WWF took over the GA TV time, they used the same set and back drop during the time that they showed WWF footage for matches. Freddie Miller hosted both "World Championship Wrestling" and "Best of Championship Wrestling". In early 1985 (may have been late 1984, but I'm pretty sure it was like Feb. of 1985), WWF acquiesced to pressure from Turner and TBS and began taping matches in the studio. They were probably forced to do so via Turner's legal action. I barely remember this, but I think Gorilla Monsoon was the host and I think their debut show featured the WWF debut of Ricky Steamboat, who had just jumped from Crockett. If I'm right about the timing of that, it had to have been early spring because Steamboat was still with Crockett in the early months of 1985. Anyway, they built a brand new set for the show, which was the same set the Crockett’s continued to use when they took over TBS TV until moving out of TBS and into the Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta for TV tapings.