1980s professional wrestling boom
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The 1980s professional wrestling boom (more commonly referred to as the Golden Era or the Rock 'n' Wrestling Era) was a surge in the popularity of
History
In the early 1980s, professional wrestling in the U.S. consisted mainly of three competing organizations: the
National Wrestling Alliance
Multiple NWA territories were very successful in the 1970s and continued that success in the early 1980s. TBS became a cable television superstation based on broadcasting Georgia Championship Wrestling with both Mr. Wrestling II and Tommy Rich being the top headliners in the territory. Ric Flair rose to prominence in Mid Atlantic Wrestling, while Dusty Rhodes was the fan favorite in Championship Wrestling from Florida. Mid South Wrestling had the first significant African American champion babyface Junkyard Dog.
Meanwhile, the NWA's affiliate in Memphis, Tennessee, the Continental Wrestling Association, had Jerry Lawler, who rose to national prominence thanks to his "feud" with Andy Kaufman. After Lawler piledrove the comedian during a 1982 match in Memphis, the two got into an altercation on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman, in which Lawler slapped Kaufman on-air and Kaufman responded by shouting profanities and throwing coffee at Lawler before storming out of the studio. The act, later revealed to be staged, is largely credited with giving rise to modern-day professional wrestling.[1]
American Wrestling Association
At the beginning of the 1980s, the AWA had the largest television business with distribution of their weekly broadcast in Chicago, Denver, Green Bay, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Winnipeg. The AWA expanded into the top-ten media market of the Bay Area after Roy Shire ran his last battle royale (the annual Royal Rumble continues this idea) at the Cow Palace on January 24, 1981, demonstrating that the AWA was positioned to prosper as other promotions failed.
The AWA had the talent that would ultimately lead Vincent K. McMahon's World Wrestling Federation to pre-eminence in professional wrestling. Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan were AWA's major on-air talent. Hulk Hogan became the top babyface after Verne Gagne retired from full-time wrestling in 1981 and Nick Bockwinkel became the AWA World Heavyweight Champion. Hogan faced Bockwinkel on April 18, 1982, and on April 24, 1983, with both matches being decided with "Dusty finishes" where Hogan pinned Bockwinkel for a three count, but was then stripped of the title. Hogan said Gagne offered him the championship on the latter occasion in exchange for his merchandise rights and money from touring with other promotions which would show that Gagne understood wrestling was becoming a bigger business in the 1980s; however, Hogan refused. Gagne's failure to keep his fortunate position is a significant factor in the history of professional wrestling.
World Class Championship Wrestling
In 1982, Continental Productions, a subsidiary of Dallas independent station KXTX, began syndicating a one-hour show internationally from the Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas, of former NWA affiliate World Class Championship Wrestling run by Fritz Von Erich. Channel 11 had broadcast Von Erich's professional-wrestling television program as Saturday Night Wrestling for over a decade before Channel 39 began the second broadcast.
The channel 39 broadcast was innovative because it was more like professional sports with host Bill Mercer, a former broadcaster for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, mobile cameras at ringside with multiple shotgun microphones as used by Don King to capture and enhance the sound of impacts and crowd noise for boxing pay per views, and vignettes and interviews inspired by the Rocky movies to accentuate the heel or babyface of a wrestler outside the ring.
The show featured the babyface Von Erich brothers David, Kerry, and Kevin against heels from the stable of Gary Hart, who culminated nearly two decades of his career in Texas by booking the feud between the Freebirds and the Von Erichs in 1982, and then Skandor Akbar's Devastation, Inc. stable in 1983. The channel 39 syndicated show earned extremely high ratings – higher than Saturday Night Live and many wrestling promotions in the United States, including the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and the WWF.[2]
The Von Erichs were the most recognizable babyfaces in professional wrestling throughout the United States in 1982 and 1983. The fall of the Von Erichs and death of nearly every wrestler associated with the promotion are attributed to abuse of drugs, primarily steroids, stimulants including cocaine, and pain-killing opiates.
The World Wrestling Federation expands
In 1982, Vincent K. McMahon purchased the business from his ailing father Vincent J. McMahon. On December 23, 1983, he signed AWA superstar Hulk Hogan to return to the organization in 1984. To play Hogan's nemesis, he signed talents including Jim Crockett Promotions babyface "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, turning him heel, and AWA manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. McMahon stated in the documentary The UnReal Story of Professional Wrestling that he did not think his father would have ever sold him the company if he knew what he was planning to do. "He probably would have said, 'Vinny, what are you doing? You're gonna wind up at the bottom of a river'," he explained.
At the end of 1983, two major developments increased competition to be the premier professional wrestling promotion. On November 24, 1983, Ric Flair defeated
Fortune for the WWF came at the expense of WCCW and AWA. On January 23, 1984, Hogan defeated
With competition from cable superstations broadcasting WCCW, AWA and NWA, McMahon syndicated WWF television shows outside the promotion's traditional Northeastern territory and began a home-video distribution label called Coliseum Video. McMahon would use the additional income generated by advertising, television deals, and video sales and rentals to further his bold ambition to tour nationally. However, such a venture required huge capital investment – one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse.
McMahon did not meet immediate success. In May 1984, in a failed attempt to garner a greater appeal in the Southeast, McMahon bought a controlling interest in
By the end of 1984, the regional territory[5] system of the NWA in Canada and the United States was clearly in jeopardy. In June 1984, Jack Tunney transferred his control in Maple Leaf Wrestling to the WWF. The AWA, WCCW and Memphis-based Continental Wrestling Association formed Pro Wrestling USA in 1985 but the endeavor failed by the end of the year.
Many fans, especially those in the Deep South, were angered by the collapse of their local wrestling promotions. Some of the more well-known promotions included Championship Wrestling from Florida and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in Charlotte, North Carolina, were affected. These fans turned to Atlanta-based WCW broadcast on TBS. In most of these areas, WWF shows were not financially successful until 1997–98.
Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection
The WWF would go on to a period of unprecedented success in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s.[6] The success was in part precipitated by the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection," a period of cooperation and cross-promotion between the WWF and elements of the music industry.[6] The idea was formed by WWF manager Lou Albano, who met singer Cyndi Lauper on a trip to Puerto Rico.[6] Lauper asked Albano to appear as her father in her video for the single "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" in 1983.[6] McMahon later booked Lauper and Albano on a segment of
On September 14, 1985,
The inaugural WrestleMania
In 1985, to counter the AWA's Super Sunday, the NWA's Starrcade and WCCW's Star Wars, the WWF created its own flagship show, WrestleMania I, held at Madison Square Garden and broadcast on 135 closed-circuit networks. The future of not just the WWF's national experiment but the whole professional wrestling industry came down to the success or failure of this pay-per-view. WrestleMania was an extravaganza marketed as "the Super Bowl of professional wrestling". The concept of a wrestling supercard was nothing new in North America; the NWA had been running Starrcade a few years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had marketed large Shea Stadium cards viewable in closed circuit locations. However, Wrestlemania I drew the interest of the mainstream media by including celebrities such as Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper to participate in the event. MTV's popularity and coverage of the women's wrestling feud generated a great deal of interest in WWF programming at this time.
The show was a huge success. Hogan, who won in the main event, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated which, after the swimsuit issue, was the magazine's best seller of 1985. Professional wrestling began to become mainstream, thanks, in large part, to the appeal of Hulkamania among children. Large television networks took wrestling into their weekly programming, including Saturday Night's Main Event, premiering on NBC in May 1985, as well as the syndicated weekly show WWF Championship Wrestling (which was also broadcast internationally). While Championship Wrestling was generally taped in Poughkeepsie, New York, Saturday Night's Main Event was taped in front of packed arenas around the country.
WrestleMania's popularity and ratings appeal made professional wrestling a television mainstay. Professional wrestling, now synonymous with the WWF, began to throw more grandiose matches. In November 1985, a second pay-per-view "The Wrestling Classic" took place. The concept, a one-night tournament, was a huge success and would become a regular event, titled King of the Ring.
NWA competes with WWF
Jim Crockett, also envisioning a nationwide promotion, absorbed several other NWA members into a single entity known as
Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, Randy Savage, and Miss Elizabeth
WWF held its most successful event,
At
End of an era
Generally,
Fans who were kids in the mid-late 1980s were teens by the 1990s, and many grew bored with the comic book style of wrestling of the 1980s, turning their attention away from their childhood favorites such as Hogan, Junkyard Dog, and
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Drash, Wayne (April 7, 2012). "The Great Ruse: The comedic genius who rocked wrestling". CNN. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
- ^ Mackinder, Mack (June 13, 2006). "Heroes of World Class DVD a definite treasure". CANOE – SLAM! Sports. Retrieved April 12, 2015
- ^ a b c d e Molinaro, John F. (April 3, 2001). "End of an era on TBS Solie, Georgia and 'Black Saturday'". Slam Wrestling. Retrieved April 10, 2007.
- ^ a b The Rise and Fall of WCW DVD.
- ^ "WrestlingTerritories.png". Freakin' Awesome Network Forums :: Freakin' Awesome Wrestling Forum :: (w)Rest of Wrestling. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p. 166–167.
- ^ a b c d Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p. 169–170.
- ^ Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s, p. 87.
- ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p. 171–173.
- ^ "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling". Archived from the original on February 14, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
- ISBN 0-609-60690-5.
- ^ Nemer, Paul (September 27, 2003). "Ask WV (9/27/03): WM III attendance, Hart/HBK, Sting/4 Horsemen, & More". Wrestleview. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
- ^ Powell, John. "Steamboat — Savage rule WrestleMania 3". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "A Look at Randy Savage's Departure from the WWF in 1994".
References
- ISBN 978-0-06-001258-8.
- Shields, Brian (2006). Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s. World Wrestling Entertainment. ISBN 978-1-4165-3257-6.