8 Biggest Talent Exoduses In Wrestling History
3. Vince Jr. Gets Aggressive
Vince McMahon Jr.’s World Wrestling Federation had started taking over the wrestling world by 1985. The era of Hulkamania was in full flow, and with the biggest star in wrestling on their books, Vince’s dreams of taking wrestling to the mainstream were about to be realised with WrestleMania I. Other companies started panicking, and, unable to compete with McMahon’s financial clout, they decided that the only way to compete with the WWF was to join forces.
This decision was hastened following a wide-scale talent raid that saw a number of major players depart the territories for the WWF over previous years. The AWA initially lost guys like Ken Patera, Adrian Adonis, and Jesse Ventura, with personalities like Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund soon following. The NWA, meanwhile, lost Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Ricky Steamboat, and Bob Orton, many of whom would become major stars in WWE.
The NWA and AWA combined their talent in the aftermath, with the first SuperClash card drawing 20,000 fans in 1985. While initially successful, however, the union was short-lived. The AWA’s Verne Gagne accused David Crockett of poaching his wrestlers for the NWA, and while those organisations toiled, the WWF soared.
McMahon’s company soon became an unstoppable juggernaut on the back of the NWA/AWA talent exodus, with a number of these wrestlers (and further acquisitions like Junkyard Dog) playing integral roles.