10 Wrestlers Who Became Successful Bookers

It was customary for bookers during the territorial days to build their companies entirely around themselves, not through egotism or a misplaced sense of importance, but sheer pragmatism (unless you're Jeff Jarrett, anyway). Fritz Von Erich was no different, but he didn't just make himself the star of the Dallas territory - he included his whole family.

Putting Von Erich at the top would have been a shrewd move by any promotion. A former AWA champion and a star of Sam Muchnick's St. Louis outfit, the Texan played a crucial role in helping Japanese wrestling recover following the murder of Rikidozan, before returning to his home state to take over the running of the Dallas/Fort Worth wrestling circuit.

But the majority of Fritz's career was bolstered as the self-penned main-event attraction of Big Time Wrestling, where he contested a legendary feud with fellow booker Gary Hart's rogues gallery.

It wasn't until the booker's retirement from the ring in 1982 that his promotion experienced their greatest success - though it had nothing to do with the Von Erich dominance ending. After grooming them as territorial stars for the past ten years, Fritz's five surviving sons became the centre of the newly renamed World Class Championship Wrestling, their legendary beef with The Fabulous Freebirds heralding the company's boom period.

WCCW fell into a state of decline when the Von Erichs, the family seemingly beset by personal tragedy, gradually began to die out. Attempts to take the promotion national in 1986 failed as Vince McMahon cast his dragnet across the North American territories, and, roster severely depleted and bullied out of its place in the industry by McMahon's global juggernaut, WCCW closed its doors in 1991.