10 Times WWE Tried To Kill Wrestling
8. Vince McMahon Kills The Territories
Vince McMahon's drive to monopolise pro wrestling is invariably termed an "expansion".
It is a misnomer, because the opposite is true. He expanded the WWF but shrank the industry and reshaped it under his own singular vision. All live gate data confirms this, but the monopoly was so successful that the rhetoric of smoky bingo halls has become a shoot, shot through WWE's revisionist lens.
The New York territory was always the most moneyed; McMahon used those resources and his ruthless vision to execute his plan specifically by capitalising on shifting market conditions. The advent of cable allowed him to promote TV with talent under the auspices of other promoters, obscuring sabotage as a favour, and swiftly bought out the time slots using his success and money as leverage. The top talent fell in line, because it was all about the money - modern talk of creative fulfilment is very much a paradigm the old guard are mystified by - year by year, hold-out by hold-out. Soon, the men he ruthlessly buried on TV by barely-concealed code were dancing at his whim.
The old NWA promoters not named Jim Crockett Jr. soon had nothing or near enough to it: no national TV, no stars, no means to compete. Various attempts to rebrand and or collaborate were beset by politics and a foundation of quicksand.
By the 1990s, it was over, and only the newly-corporate WCW remained as serious competition - despite his best efforts...