Favorite Territory

[KnockOut]

I remember Akbar and his team burning people, but not specifically Hacksaw. The most brutal match I seen in Mid South was the Fantastics vs the Sheephearders in a barbed wire match.

I have that match on tape, as well as the six man with the Fantastics & Terry Taylor against the Sheepherders & Jack Victory. They were brutal as hell. The cage was made of 2x4s.

You know Akbar doesn't really get enough credit. He always had freaks in his stable, but everywhere they went Devastation, Inc. got heat and drew money.

[PITTFOX]

Being to young to actually remember territories and only looking back I like the WWWF New York territory. I actually quite enjoy watching old Bruno Samartino matches.

[Cbear]

Being to young to actually remember territories and only looking back I like the WWWF New York territory. I actually quite enjoy watching old Bruno Samartino matches.

Bruno was the original ethnic superstar and it was on his back that Vince Sr's fortune was built. Vince was a successful territorial promoter in the old NWA and he split from them making Nature Boy Buddy Rogers his champ. One of the biggest reasons for the split was so he could control the champ and get more title defenses and thus more money. In the NWA structure the champ lived on the road travelling from territory to territory and the promoters had to lobby to get championship matches. After Vince created the WWWF he struck gold with Sammartino as the Italian working man's champion and his two reigns were filled with sell outs. The only other ethnic draw of note was Antonino Rocca but he wasnt at Brunos level. If you look at the true mega-draws in wrestling it was:

Bruno Sammartino
Hulk Hogan
Steve Austin
The Rock

Even Flair didnt draw like those guys did. There have been writers play with adjusting for inflation and comparing merch, ticket sales, ppvs and it usually comes down to a debate of Hogan/Austin as to who the no 1 money draw of all time was. Bruno was hampered in that all there was, was ticket sales since there wasnt ppv and merch was non-existant except for vendors selling photos and programs in the lobby.

[Cbear]

Being to young to actually remember territories and only looking back I like the WWWF New York territory. I actually quite enjoy watching old Bruno Samartino matches.

The territories had a very different style too. The WWWF was pretty much Bruno in squash matches. The Southern territories were the blood and guts promotions (Florida, Memphis, Georgia, Mid Atlantic). California, the Northwest and the midwest had their regional guys with their own flavor. Territories were quite different from each other back then with different styles and product.

[Prometheus]

I miss the days where I could watch the AWA, Georgia Wrestling and WWWF, throw in GLOW for good measure.