16. Vince Unites The Territories, Black Saturday, July 14, 1984
Vince McMahon is a ballsy individual. He doesn't really do fear. He saw something which no other wrestling promoter could see, the potential for a national wrestling company. Lots of wrestling territories under one umbrella was an obvious way to create more lines of money coming in. Vince looked at the territory business model and realised nothing was stopping him. Why shouldn't he expand into new locations? Well, there was the promise he made to his father. In addition to this, there was also the threat of death. Jim Ross in 'WWE Unscripted' mentions that the regional promoters all met and discussed how to deal with Vince Jnr's agressive expansion into their areas of business. "Kill him," was one un-named promoter's response. J.R who was attending the meeting knew there and then that Vince would beat these guys. The regional heads had became old and lazy, they thought that killing Vince was the best idea rather than actually being creative and thinking how to make their own success. The old timers were blowing smoke and weren't going to kill anyone, Vince meanwhile was a young hungry force of nature. He snapped up region after region, syndicating WWF television shows in the process. Vince's more exciting events and better produced TV shows soon put the lazier promoters out of business. While at first the aggressive strategy was costly, almost putting Vince out of business, he soon started signing up rival promoter's talent with the additional lines of income he made from advertising and merchandise. Vince was changing the way a promoter made money. The biggest day in the expansion was Black Saturday, when McMahon went into the Southern territories in 1984. Vince bought the time slot for Georgia Championship Wrestling, effectively owning WCW, his future rival. Vince now had events and tv shows across the USA. He did however end up selling his Georgia slot to Jim Crockett, believing it lacked value. Crockett would end up snapping up the rest of the southern NWA regions and eventually sell what became modern day WCW to Ted Turner in 1988. Vince had established himself as a national business, but also set the vulnerability for a future North / South wrestling war. The seeds of WWF vs WCW had been planted.