Nothing succeeds like success.
—Alexandre Dumas
Like many forms of entertainment, professional wrestling has evolved into a sophisticated business with many sources of revenue. Whether it’s a local independent selling T-shirts and DVDS or the global empire known as the WWE (which fills its coffers through everything from merchandise to its own cable television channel), promoters have learned to how to draw income from almost everything associated with the business.
Given all of the ways a promoter can make money today, it’s hard to imagine a time when wrestling’s revenue was limited to ticket sales at live events. In the old days even TV revenues were minimal, as most promoters had to pay just to get their shows on the air. Not that long ago, “putting asses in the seats” was the bread and butter of the business.
Like any wise business owner, old school wrestling promoters were always looking to expand their profits. Unfortunately, their options were limited by the technology of the time. Until the introduction of closed-circuit television, even if a promoter ran a wrestling show every night of the week, profits were capped by an arena’s size.
Running shows in large venues was not without risk. The bigger the building; the bigger the potential profit — and the bigger the potential loss. Renting a stadium could be disastrous if a promoter couldn’t fill the building. And in outdoor arenas, the weather was a constant problem. Acts of nature could postpone shows, and while rain checks might be issued, scheduling commitments often made it difficult to rebook star performers. The promoters who took the chance knew that there had to be something very special about a show if they hoped to fill a stadium. A supershow had to be a must-see event, drawing in not only the core audience but also more casual fans. To do this, promoters often brought in big name stars from other territories and featured matches that were the climax to hot angles.
Bill Watts’ booking of the New Orleans Superdome is a good example of how supercards should be promoted. Watts’ shows starred some of the biggest names in wrestling, and featured payoffs to his territory’s biggest feuds. One such extravaganza climaxed with a dog collar match between Michael Hayes and the Junkyard Dog. Thousands upon thousands jammed the Superdome to see the much-anticipated bout, making it one of the greatest box office successes of its time.
As pay-per-view became more common, supercards continued, but they evolved from big shows built around filling a stadium to ones geared toward garnering pay-per-view buys. With pay-per-view quickly becoming the biggest source of revenue, promoters had less incentive to schedule stadium house shows. There was no need to risk half-empty buildings if a million fans were buying the show at home. In recent years, however, the WWE has revisited the idea of big stadium shows, booking WrestleMania in some of North America’s largest venues.
In the 1970s, fans of the World Wide Wrestling Federation bore witness to an event that was wrestling’s equivalent of the Olympics. Like the Olympics, the spectacle would occur once every four years and would feature some of the greatest athletes from around the world. It became known as the Showdown at Shea, and it would create wrestling memories that would last a lifetime.
While Madison Square Garden has always been associated with the World Wrestling Federation (the arena is known as “the Mecca of professional wrestling”), it was far too small to house the blockbuster World Wide Wrestling Federation promoter Vince McMahon Sr. had in mind. McMahon had proven that he could sell out the Garden on a regular basis; with the right event, he believed he could also fill the much larger Shea Stadium.
Best known as the home of the New York Mets, Shea Stadium has hosted some of the biggest events in New York history, including legendary concerts by the Beatles, an appearance by Pope John Paul II, and the reenactment of the marriage of Marvel comics icon Spider-Man to his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. To WWF fans, it would be remembered for the three legendary shows that took place there.
The first Showdown at Shea featured a main event between Bruno Sammar tino and WWWF champion Pedro Morales. The two men were undoubtedly the most beloved stars in the promotion, leading fans to wonder why two good friends were now fighting one another. No one knew for sure. There was the possibility of a hidden grudge; or maybe it was just a matter of pride, with the former titleholder needing to know if he was better than the current. Whatever the true reason, the match was staged when Morales and Sammartino, wrestling as a tag team, were both blinded by a handful of salt thrown by the villainous Professor Tanaka. Unable to distinguish friend from foe, the two accidentally brawled with each other. Fortunately, by the time they faced off on September 1, 1972, their friendship had been repaired. Fans at Shea were treated to a masterful seventy-five-minute draw between the equals.
The second Showdown at Shea would see another Sammartino main event, this time pitting Bruno against Stan Hansen. The supercard also featured the infamous match between Muhammed Ali and Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki that was being broadcast via closed circuit. The WWWF was just one of several promotions that ran a live show the around much-hyped boxer/wrestler bout. The second Showdown reportedly drew 32,000 fans, nearly 10,000 more than the first.
The third and final Shea supercard proved even more successful. Once again, the WWWF called upon Sammartino to fill the seats, this time putting Bruno in a steel cage with his former protégé, Larry Zbyszko. The 1980 Showdown featured several other big matches, including a heel Hulk Hogan taking on Andre the Giant. Andre had sworn revenge on Hogan after receiving a bloody beatdown at his hands on WWWF television. Eight years later, the two would main-event one of the biggest wrestling shows in history. On this occasion, however, Hogan vs. Andre was just one of the many preliminaries leading to the main event. The match saw Andre score a pinfall victory, only to receive a brutal post-match beating.
Another special bout featured the dream team of Pedro Morales and champion Bob Backlund taking on the Wild Samoans for the WWWF tag team belts in a two out of three falls affair. The Samoans had terrorized the WWWF’s tag ranks but they met their match when they faced Morales and Backlund. The babyfaces proved their superiority by beating the Samoans in two straight falls. Their title reign would be short-lived, however, as WWWF rules stated a champion could only hold one belt at a time, forcing Backlund to surrender the belt so he could keep the more prestigious WWWF heavyweight title. (The Samoans would regain the title in a subsequent tournament.)
The third Shea supercard would set an outdoor attendance record for professional wrestling, with 36,295 reportedly in attendance. But it would also be the last Showdown. Whether it was the changing nature of the business, Vince McMahon taking over his father’s company, or something else entirely, Shea Stadium would not host another New York supercard.
Despite Vince McMahon dubbing WrestleMania the “granddaddy of them all,” longtime wrestling fans know that the honor really belongs to Jim Crockett Promotions’ (JCP) Starrcade. While that supercard wasn’t wrestling’s most widely broadcast closed-circuit show, it was the one that really demonstrated how lucrative pay-per-view could be. The success of Starrcade not only led to future, similarly named mega-events, it inspired Vince McMahon to run WrestleMania on closed-circuit television for a nationwide audience.
Before pay-per-views and cable television, house shows were where wrestlers ultimately settled their differences. Television was just a means of hooking people into storylines. Holiday events like JCP’s Thanksgiving shows or WCCW’s annual Christmas card were hyped by promoters as the ultimate house show — the place where long-running feuds ended and babyfaces got their final revenge on their heel opponents. The 1983 Starrcade event was no exception. But because the card was available via closed-circuit television, fans elsewhere were able to see the sold-out show.
Wrestling had already embraced cc TV. When Madison Square Garden was sold out, fans could pay to watch the show from the Felt Forum (now known as the Theater at Madison Square Garden). And as I’ve already mentioned, the Ali vs. Inoki match had been widely broadcast to allow individual wrestling promoters to build a live event around the fascinating boxer/wrestler battle. What was different about Starrcade was that the entire event would be broadcast to several cities in the JCP territory.
The card was main-evented by NWA champion Harley Race facing Ric Flair in a steel cage. Christened “A Flair for the Gold,” the story behind the match was that former NWA champion Flair would finally get Race in a place where no one could help him. (Race had previously put a $25,000 bounty on Flair, and this had led to Dick Slater and Bob Orton Jr. nearly ending his career.)
The pay-per-view was a bold move. At the time, Crockett was already engulfed in the war with arch-rival Vince McMahon’s WWF. McMahon was more than willing to sabotage his competition at every opportunity and he flew Harley Race north just days before the show, offering him $250,000 if he jumped to the WWF. Race refused, and JCP’s show went on as planned. Had he taken McMahon’s offer, there is no telling what would have happened to Starrcade.
Instead, the supercard was a tremendous success. And Starrcade forced promoters to reconsider the way they did business. Roughly 45,000 watched the show in person or on closed circuit. Soon, the rise of cable made promoters realize they could offer supershows to fans in numbers previously unimaginable. And as more and more homes became wired to watch cable, pay-per-view took over the wrestling business.
As far as the actual wrestling goes, with special referee Gene Kiniski looking on, despite a fierce defense by Race, Flair prevailed after hitting a high cross-body block off the top rope. After the match, Rufus R. Jones, Ricky Steamboat, and Angelo “King Kong” Mosca ran into the ring to congratulate him on his victory. Flair then cut an emotional promo, thanking the fans for their support.
Besides its main event, Starrcade is probably best remembered for the brutal dog collar match between Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. (The men were connected by a long steel chain.) This match was signed after Valentine had injured Piper during a battle over the United States heavyweight championship. Piper would defeat Valentine by pinfall, earning him a modicum of revenge.
The David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions represents the zenith of World Class Championship Wrestling’s popularity. The supercard had an unbelievable turnout and featured a who’s who of the mat world. The bittersweet nature of the card was transcended when hometown hero Kerry Von Erich finally captured the NWA world championship from Ric Flair.
The saying “everything is bigger in Texas” definitely fit Fritz Von Erich’s WCCW. The promotion was run like a small territory, but its scope and impact made it seem more like a national venture. Offering some of the biggest names in the industry, it boasted state of the art production values, and was syndicated around the world. WCCW offered a stark contrast to the World Wrestling Federation. While Fritz Von Erich was certainly in wrestling to make money, he followed no apparent blueprint toward national success.
With memories of the Freebirds/Von Erich feud still igniting the popular imagination, WCCW was riding a wave of success. Then, tragedy struck. On February 10, 1984, David Von Erich was found dead in Japan. Before his untimely death, David was rumored to be in line to win the NWA title: he’d had earned the reputation as a draw in WCCW, as well as in other NWA territories like St. Louis, and Florida’s Championship Wrestling. His work rate and charisma made him a viable candidate for a title shot his father lobbied heavily for. Following David’s death, Fritz Von Erich was able to sway the rest of the NWA to give his son Kerry the championship. (Fritz sat on the NWA’s board of directors and always held considerable influence when it came time to name a new champion.) While Kerry was not as experienced as David, he was nonetheless a legitimate babyface contender.
To capitalize on the pending win, Fritz Von Erich arranged for a show designed to honor the memory of his fallen son. Naturally, Kerry dedicated his effort to his late brother, with the story being this was Kerry’s big chance to vindicate the family and win the prize his older brother seemed destined for. Fritz had appeared on WCCW television in the past, and talked of how one of his sons would one day lift the belt that had eluded him. It was like manifest destiny, Von Erich style. The Memorial was held in Irvin, Texas, at Texas Stadium. With business running strong and the strength of the Von Erich/Flair match, the card drew between 32,000 and 40,000 fans (depending on which number was accurate, it may have surpassed the attendance record of 1980’s Showdown at Shea). Texans went home happy that day, with Von Erich using a backslide to pin the champion cleanly. After the match, Flair shook Von Erich’s hand, acknowledging that Kerry was the better man that day. Von Erich’s title reign would be short, however, with Kerry dropping the belt back to Flair less than three weeks later — ironically in Japan. It’s been reported that Von Erich’s unreliability led to the NWA only granting him a transitional reign.
The Texas supercard featured other matches that capitalized on popular feuds, including “Gentleman” Chris Adams teaming with Sunshine to defeat Jimmy Garvin and Precious; Kevin and Mike Von Erich teaming with their father Fritz (who came out of retirement for the bout) to defeat the Fabulous Freebirds for the WCCW six-man tag team championship; and Kamala fighting to a draw against the Great Kabuki. Further matches included the Junkyard Dog beating the Missing Link by disqualification; Butch Reed defeating Chick Donovan; and the team of Buck Zumhofe and “Iceman” King Parsons defeating the Super Destroyers (Bill and Scott Irwin) for the WCCW American tag team championship.
The supercard was not the first event to be known as the Parade of Champions: a 1972 event of the same name had been main-evented by none other than Fritz Von Erich challenging NWA champion Dory Funk Jr. That show was actually run by “Big Time Wrestling,” the Texas promotion that was later bought out by Fritz and renamed WCCW. The success of the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions would spawn future incarnations over the next four years, with the last being held on May 8, 1988.
As big and as important as the first WrestleMania was, WrestleMania III actually topped it. The third incarnation proved the event was no fluke, and it also made it clear that Vince McMahon was no one-hit wonder. If the first WrestleMania started the ball rolling, WrestleMania III shut the door on the WWF’s competitors. When it was all said and done, no one questioned who the big dog was. (And even when WCW was pushing McMahon to the brink of bankruptcy during the Monday Night War, people still associated wrestling with the WWF.)
After the success of WrestleMania I, Vince McMahon took things to the next level. WrestleMania 2 was to be bigger and better. Not only would the show feature three main events — it would actually be held in three cities simultaneously: beginning in Uniondale, New York’s Nassau Coliseum, then traveling to Chicago’s Rosemont Horizon, before concluding in Los Angeles at the Memorial Sports Arena.
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Wrestling magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated told everyone that the main-eventers, contrary to the hype, had met previously. Still, it was clear that Hogan vs. Andre was a true dream match. While the actual paid attendance of WrestleMania III has been disputed, it was clearly a record-breaking wrestling crowd. |
And while WrestleMania 2 was far from a disaster, it failed to meet McMahon’s goals. Clearly, something had gone wrong. The bigger-is-better approach had failed, primarily by focusing too much on celebrity and the multiple site gimmick, rather than on the actual wrestling. While there were several good matches on the card, there was no blockbuster main event to capture the hearts of the fans the way the booking of WrestleMania had.
Billed as “Bigger, Better, Badder,” WrestleMania III would deliver. It featured one of the most anticipated matches in wrestling history — an epic encounter between Andre the Giant and WWF champion Hulk Hogan. Andre, one of the most beloved wrestlers in WWF (and wrestling) history, was in the twilight of his career, perhaps even looking back at what might have been. The Giant had won countless matches and was considered “the King of the Battle Royal,” but he had never held a world championship. Now, in the storyline leading up to the big day, Andre was seen as a bitter monster, looking for one last shot at glory and willing to do whatever was necessary to achieve it — including turning heel and aligning himself with one of Hogan’s most bitter foes, manager Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. To the fans, Hogan talked of how Andre was the man who’d inspired him to become a wrestler, and of how he was shocked and disappointed by Andre’s new attitude.
Wrestling is all about hype — and never was this made more apparent than in the run-up to WrestleMania III. Vince McMahon knew he had a great angle, and he wasn’t about to let the facts get in the way of a good story. He touted the match as the first encounter between Hogan and Andre and claimed that Andre the Giant had never been pinned. Of course, none of this was true . . . but it made for a great story. The two had met before, but this time, clearly, the situation was very different and the storyline so much more powerful. WWF announcer Gorilla Monsoon would put it best, describing the match as “the irresistible force meets the immovable object . . .”
It was a case of the stars being in perfect alignment for the WWF. Andre vs. Hogan was promoted perfectly, painstakingly built toward in the months leading to WrestleMania. The fans’ enthusiasm was shown at the box office. In the end, the show boasted a live attendance of 93,173, filling WWF coffers with a reported $17 million.
The match would be largely remembered for Hulk’s bodyslam of the Giant, but in reality it was arguably, in terms of match quality, one of the worst main events in WrestleMania history. Fortunately there were several very good bouts on the undercard, including a legendary encounter between Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. The Steamboat/Savage battle is still considered by many fans as the greatest WrestleMania match ever.
Unlike WrestleMania 2, the third incarnation did not rely on a slew of unwanted celebrity appearances. While there were special guests, they didn’t overshadow the pay-per-view. Some were even memorable: with Alice Cooper appearing in Jake Roberts’ corner for his match against the Honky Tonk Man, Aretha Franklin singing “America the Beautiful,” and goofy baseball Hall of Famer Bob Uecker being throttled by Andre.
Despite the wild success of WrestleMania III, the WWF did not contemplate another large stadium show for four years. The WWF originally scheduled WrestleMania VII for the Los Angeles Coliseum, but the show was moved to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena at the last minute. (The WWF claimed security concerns caused the move; skeptics claimed it was poor ticket sales — due to the nature of the show’s main event, which was said to exploit the Gulf War crisis between the United States and Iraq.) It wasn’t until WrestleMania XXIV that the company’s biggest PPV would be held in another outdoor stadium. The 2008 event saw more than 74,000 fans fill Orlando, Florida’s Citrus Bowl, giving WWE its biggest WrestleMania ever in terms of gross ticket sales.
The 1980s saw an explosion in the popularity of tag teams, leading many to call the decade “the second golden age of tag team wrestling.” The Jim Crockett Cup was an ambitious tag team tournament held to honor the legendary founder of Jim Crockett Promotions. For decades, Jim Crockett Sr.’s Mid-Atlantic promotion had revolved around tag matches, and even after the territory changed gears in the mid-1970s to focus on singles, it remained a hotbed of duo competition. It was only right, therefore, that the tournament named in his honor revolve around tag teams.
The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup was a showcase of the finest teams from not only JCP, but also from other promotions like the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). The show was took place at the Superdome in New Orleans, the site of many big Mid-South Wrestling (the promotion that evolved into the UWF) cards. The tournament featured so many tag teams that it was presented in two sessions, one in the afternoon and the finale in the evening. To add to the excitement, promoters created a storyline that would award the winning duo the prize of a cool million.
Twenty-five teams competed, with nine selected as the top seeds and given first round byes. At the time Jim Crockett Promotions worked closely with the editors of Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) magazine to select the top seeds. These teams were the cream of the crop — either past champions or the top ranked competitors from North America and Japan.
The main event eventually saw the Road Warriors square off against Magnum T.A. and Ronnie Garvin. Although Magnum and Garvin weren’t as experienced as the Roadies or other tag team specialists in the tournament, they were two of the most popular stars in the company. More importantly, Garvin had defeated the Road Warriors before (in Georgia Championship Wrestling, teaming with Jerry Oates to win for the national tag titles), a rare feat in those days — and something that made him a formidable opponent for Hawk and Animal. Despite a strong showing, in the end, the Road Warriors prevailed, adding the Crockett Cup to the impressive list of accomplishments they’d already achieved.
While tag teams were the focus, two singles matches were featured as well, with North American champion Jim Duggan defending his title against Dick Slater, and Dusty Rhodes challenging Ric Flair for the NWA world championship. In both matches, the champions retained their belts.
Despite the hype and the lure of seeing tag teams from eight different promotions compete, the Crockett Cup was not the smash success the promoters had hoped for. The afternoon show drew a reported audience of only 3,000; the evening show fared better, bringing in 13,000 fans and $180,000. While it is estimated that 10,000 of the fans who saw the action were from outside the New Orleans area, the promoters had clearly planned on far more local support — or it’s unlikely they would have booked the show at a stadium with a capacity of 70,000.
After the first Crockett Cup, the tournament focused mostly on JCP teams. By 1987, Bill Watts was running UWF on his own as promoters from around the country seemed to adopt an “every man for himself” approach to dealing with the WWF. As a result, subsequent Crockett Cups provided exciting tag team action, but nothing matching the scope and grandeur of the original. The Crockett Cup ran for three years until JCP was sold to Ted Turner and the company was rechristened World Championship Wrestling. Following the sale, the Crockett Cup was abandoned.
The combination of a white-hot feud involving Hulk Hogan, a city full of rabid fans, and an outdoor event culminated in a North American attendance record. But if you’re thinking it was WrestleMania III, you’re off by about a year. The year, in fact, was 1986, and the city was Toronto. The show dubbed The Big Event became an outdoor phenomenon and one of Toronto, Ontario’s many great contributions to the world of professional wrestling.
Toronto has always been a wrestling hotbed (a tradition that continues to this day). For decades, the Tunney family promoted the city through Maple Leaf Wrestling, bringing stars from all over Canada and the United States to its home base in the fabled Maple Leaf Gardens as well as to its affiliates throughout the province of Ontario. Over time, Maple Leaf Gardens was home to many historic matches, including four NWA world heavyweight title bouts (the controversial win for Lou Thesz over Buddy Rogers that led to the formation of the WWWF actually took place in Canada). With Toronto so close to the U.S. border, Maple Leaf Wrestling maintained an international flavor while also featuring Canadian legends like NWA world champions Gene Kiniski and “Whipper” Billy Watson.
By the mid-1980s, the face of wrestling was changing drastically and promoter Jack Tunney finally aligned himself with the WWF after years of working closely with the NWA and JCP. The move proved wise, as the WWF ultimately put many of Tunney’s old colleagues out of business. Tunney himself became an important part of WWF television, playing the figurehead role of WWF president for several years, and participating in important storylines such as the signing of the Hogan/Andre match for WrestleMania III, and in an angle where he was beaten up by “Bad News” Brown.
Given Toronto’s large base of wrestling fans, the WWF anticipated a robust audience for The Big Event. It wasn’t Toronto’s first outdoor spectacle. In 1983, Jack Tunney held not one, but two events at Exhibition Stadium (the home of the Toronto Blue Jays at the time). Dubbed The Night of Champions, the July 10 and July 24 shows featured eleven titles being defended as well as several other matches. The two events proved successful, but they paled in comparison to The Big Event.
The key to that show’s success was the feud between Hulk Hogan and Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff. Orndorff’s betrayal of his former ally struck a nerve with Hulkamaniacs, making their subsequent feud a natural. In the United States, the rivalry fueled ticket sales and the program proved just as hot in Toronto. Before long, it was clear to everyone that ticket sales were going to be phenomenal. The combination of the main event, affordable ticket prices, and heavy promotion by the Molson Canadian Brewery were credited for the wrestling attendance record set by the 64,000 fans who packed the CNE.
Fans who attended that evening got their money’s worth, both in terms of quality and number of matches (at least by 1980s WWF standards). At that time, many fans despaired that the WWF was built around short matches that lacked the technical wrestling seen in other promotions. While there were exceptions, the WWF’s bouts were rarely considered technical masterpieces. A total of eleven matches were set for The Big Event. The main event ended in disqualification after Orndorff’s manager Bobby “The Brain” Heenan ran in and hit Hogan with a wooden stool. For the unfortunate fans who could not attend, the WWF aired many of the night’s matches on their Prime Time Wrestling show and released the supercard on VHS through Coliseum Video.