Wrestling Territories: Past or Future?

The wrestling world has always been a place where dreams can become a reality.  In the heyday of Hall of Famers such as Jackie Fargo, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Dick The Bruiser, ECT these dreams were sought out by performing their crafts in different   territories throughout the country.

Many of these territories, although competitive with each other, found a way to divide the country for the good of the business.  Hundreds of small, independent companies sprouted throughout the United States, but all seemed in some way affiliated with the three main companies at the time:  The NWA, AWA, and the WWWF (now known as the WWE).   There were many others at the time such as the IWA, WWA, and Stampede wrestling in Canada, but the above three are the major ones I will focus on for these essay.

Several of the talent went back and forth between all three of these major ones back in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.  One of these talents that did that is “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair who started out in Verne Gagne’s AWA but soon went to Jim Crockett’s NWA to become one of their best draws.

To keep the product fresh and new the companies even swapped wrestlers just like our current NBA teams do when it comes to players.  Many times if a certain promoter couldn’t find a good angle or niche for a talent, they would find the talent another job by talking with other promoters across the country.  Or, if a certain talent was unhappy with a promotion there were always other promotions to work for.

Unfortunately, now days wrestlers have very few options in where to go for work.  The top company today, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has a huge roster of talent.  For the past eight years since buying out their competition World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) there seems to be an overflow of great workers who although are on the WWE roster unfortunately have very little opportunity to showcase their talents.  Many of these wrestlers perform during dark matches (un-televised matches to get the crowd warmed up before tapings), various autograph signings, and small charity works on behalf of the WWE.  Although these are important factors in the company, there seems to be little or no way of advancing due to the overflow of talent.  The “cream of the crop” is showcased on all the WWE’s televised shows with little change in the story lineup, while the others perform “curtain jerker” matches.

One good thing is that there does seem to be another company on the horizon to help compete with the WWE.  Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling (TNA) is a young promotion headed up by wrestling superstar Jeff Jerrett and owned by the president of the company, Dixie Carter.  TNA in their early years showcased many young talents such as AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Amazing Red, ECT in their X-Division, which is equivalent to the Cruiserweight division in WWE.

Over the years though in a “Monday Night War” way of thinking, the TNA management has seemed to become obsessed in beating the WWE at their own game. They have adapted a lot of their show to reflect a similar atmosphere to their competition. This is used to persuade more viewers to their product. Unfortunately, they in my opinion, have soured a lot of what made TNA special by main eventing a lot of the older talent with angles that we have seen countless times in other promotions.  This, unfortunately, has dampened down a lot of the younger guys’ time on the show.  They do seem to however mix things up from time to time by having a senior veteran like Kevin Nash putting over a younger guy like Samoa Joe, and for that I applaud them.  What TNA has going for them is that:  they are a young company, they have many talented wrestlers, and they have many long time veterans on staff to help the company grow.

Many of TNA’s roster came from the company Ring of Honor (ROH).  ROH was founded in 2001 by Rob Feinstein and booked by Gabe Sapolsky (former ECW employee).  Feinstein is known throughout the wrestling world as the owner and founder of RF Video, an internet catalog company specializing in wrestling tapes and DVD sales.  When ECW went out of business in 2001, Feinstein wanted to start a promotion of his own to help take the place of ECW (which at the time was his biggest money maker in DVD sales).

ROH started on the east coast in the Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey tri-state area but eventually spread to places like Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and ECT.  ROH has even gone and defended their titles in Japan and cross promoted with such companies as NOAH, IWA, and Dragon Gate.  In fact, ROH is the only promotion to have their titles switch hands to a non-American company when the team of  Naruki Doi and Shingo (Dragon Gate) held the ROH Tag Team Titles while their fellow countryman Takeshi Morishima (NOAH) held the ROH Heavyweight Title.

In October of 2008, long time booker for ROH Gabe Sapolsky was replaced by Adam Pearce.  Gabe in his ROH absence has been employed as vice president of Dragon Gate USA, a division of Japan’s Dragon Gate promotion to be held here in the United States.

Will wrestling territories ever come back?  Maybe.  With today’s competition and this “dog eat dog” way of doing business it’s a wonder why a lot of these small time promotions are still functional. Any mark out there with internet access can take a look at what is happening backstage by logging onto certain internet dirt sheets (I myself included). It’s no wonder why the mystical veil of wrestling has been ripped down, and why the impact of that has caused attendance to local promotions to drop down.

Mixed Martial Arts is the only form of physical competition that is very similar to that of what pro wrestling was in the early 70’s and 80’s.  For the territories to thrive again in professional wrestling, like it is now for MMA,  its going to take many small promotions gathering together to form alliances and swap wrestlers like their forefathers did. That is why I’m proud to say that I work with such groups as the Kentuckiana Wrestling Promoters Alliance and Total All-Star Wrestling.  Even though I have been with them for a short period of time I have come to value their sense of respect for the business that is professional wrestling.  And although I have a lot to learn about the business and in no means a expert at it, I am willing to learn in the traditional way like Jim Crockett, Verne Gagne, and Vince McMahon Sr.

Its going to be a lot of work to get back to tradition but its not impossible.  With alliances out there like NWA, KWPA and top notch companies like ROH and Dragon Gate; we are on our way back to tradition.  Now its just up to the most important factor, The FANS!  Help support your local promotions by bringing a family member or friend to an event. Help bring tradition back to professional wrestling.