Jim Cornette on The Early Days Of Wrestling On Cable TV
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ม.ค. 2020
- From Episode 75 of Jim Cornette's Drive Thru
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: CornyDriveThru@gmail.com
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Cable was the real thing that changed the wrestling business. Once the TV was national, it was only a matter of time until the promotions could no longer really be regional.
Damn the cable TV for ruining the territories!
I still remember the cable converter box that you had to put on top of your tv b/c most tvs only had the antenna connector in back.
my dad got a dish a long time ago, and the installer said, you must want wrestling, monster trucks or nascar.
What kind of dinosaurs were grazing in your yard that day
there are a couple of us dinosaurs here.lol
@@vitolopoii7981 eejjyemeee*j*j***e*j**e**multiculturalism je*nm jjm*e*e*e**e***Nagorno-Karabakh the malabsorption*e*e3*em*e3 million*e neurodegenerative j*e*e*e*ejje*e*e*eje*je*e*ej*e*ej mum neovascularization**nm Nagorno-Karabakh*malabsorption mi nm*e*e3jej*e million r
Weird, when got the giant ass one in our yard....actually scratch ALL of that..
WHEN we FIRST went INTO the actual store that sold/rented or whatever, the only thing I recall is the guy showing my Step-Dad the Playboy channel. I mean, that's the only thing that stands out when I look back (84-85 maybe?)and I am sure there where other things that sold him on it. Sports was NOT one of them as we weren't a household who watched sports..UNLESS it was Hockey as we where from Northern Michigan.
Funny enough tho, that satellite (what we called it then) is what first got me into WWF wrestling, even if they where all just showing jobbers with named guys. One of the FIRST things I recall was watching Macho Man VS Steamboat and it may have been a long clip because I think that match was on a PPV maybe? I had NO idea who was who but that match stuck with me and I was flipping out. A few years later I got to see Andre the Giant Vs Warrior at the Lansing Civic Arena (I think) That match lasted 30 seconds and we were all pissed off. I also saw Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, The Genius (this was after he was a poet who thew frisbees...member that?) and Demolition.
Dad’s answer: Yes
Yes I do remember Professional Wrestling being syndicated during The 1980's. I got to see Memphis Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Mid-South Wrestling, The American Wrestling Association, NWA Wrestling, Powerful Women of Wrestling, World Wrestling Federation, World Wide Wresting, Pro Wrestling This Week and Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
This is why people should respect Jimmy Cornette. He is a wealth of knowledge that the young boys have no idea about. They think its carny but it's where their jobs came from! I'm talking bout you K Omega
A lot of the knowledge is useless in the modern wrestling world. There's no reason to go place to place now. Territories are meaningless. Everything is available world wide on TV and streaming.
The territories are not meaningless its wrestling history. Since Jim's still making a living talking about it should let you know that people care about wrestlings hey day. If you say it's useless knowledge, then all wrestling knowledge is useless. Including whatever you spout out to your pals
@@thetreblerebel People may care, but that day is long gone.
@@fjccommish you know TV and streaming deals are the new "territories" right? There are a lot of them and you need savvy to convince them to put your show on their networks.
@@jamirimaj6880 That's true. However, the territory system was quite different from the wrestling world of today.
I'm so glad I lived in Atlanta during the 80s got to enjoy wrestling without having cable...
Me too. I never even heard of cable until the 90s. No-one I knew in Atlanta needed it growing up.
Channel 17, channel 69. We had it good in Atlanta.
Me too
I worked for media one in 96 post Olympics, 1038 w. Peachtree was the studio where GCW was taped early 80s.
I equate Jim's talent of recollection and history of wrestling like an incredibly fast rapper you love. By the time you realize what he said and how he said it, Corny dropped about 3 more minutes of history on your head that you missed.
I grew up watching JCP on our local stations. When we finally got cable, I was able to watch GCW, WWWF, and the AWA. It was cool to finally watch the wrestlers that I only read about in the Apter mags.
I wasn't sure wat is jcp i googgled it. Lol isn't jcp wcw. Just wondering. Lol
@@CesarHernandez-pd1eb yeah
The smaller, more remote rural towns got cable first partly because of infrastructure being cheaper while demand was higher due to the whole "turn that antenna 40 ft in the sky so we can get channel 4" thing.
We got it in Juneau, Alaska, back in 1975. WTCG (pre-WTBS) was must-see TV for this 7 year old every Saturday and Sunday.
Living in Arkansas I got to watch Mid South Rasslin..Great memories!
I remember one of the first cable channels, SPN, that would run Lars Anderson's World League Wrestling way back in 1979.
And now porntube runs Lars Sullivans ass busting videos.
I used to go to my friend John’s house in 1980 to watching Georgia wrestling (cable in our small town in the PNW only added TBS, HBO and ESPN). I’d come home from school and watch the progress of the cable truck coming up our street. We finally got cable in November of that year. Georgia became our go to with Portland still important but a diminishing return year after year as cable, over time, provided us with AWA, Wccw and uwf.
I think one of the big advantages for a cable network is that wrestling isn't seasonal. You don't have to reprogram the lineup after the Super Bowl. You also don't have to worry about audience burnout because there's a new episode every week. With reruns you always had to cycle things around-Gilligan's Island for a few months, then switch it out and fill that spot with Perry Mason, or whatever. Wrestling always had the next show to promote, so there's a constant stream of new content. Sure, the low cost and licensing was a part of it too, especially for the late night time slots where my local channels would show wrestling on Friday night.
That's why FOX payed a billion for it. 56 weeks of guaranteed content.
I loved this video as enjoy the stories by Jim. Always entertaining. Seriously think he could make someone spilling a cup of milk into an hour story that I would find myself listening to from beginning to end without getting bored. Anyway, I remember when our family got cable tv in early 86. How I was fascinated with NWA on WTBS every Saturday night. Starting the show at 6:05 was genius as I would not want to get interested in another channel because I was waiting for NWA. Then it was like they rewarded the viewer with ending it five minutes later than when most of the other shows would have ended then. Plus loved how cable allowed me to watch other wrestling organizations like AWA and Mid-South.
Yup, I'm in the same position. My family didn't get cable immediately in my tiny town (I'm in Maine), but when our area got it, it was basically the build for the 1st WrestleMania, rock n wrestling connection. I was about 5. Over the next few years after cable added more channels I was able to get various NWA promotions, AWA and World Class at different times on ESPN (later in the early 90s GWF) and would rent whatever I could from video stores, mostly when visiting grandparents. Those same trips I would get to stop at a Mr. Paperback and buy an issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated, if lucky, it was the time of year for the PWI 500. I don't necessarily want to be older than I am now, but I would loved to have gotten to see about another 5 years of territory wrestling before it started to going national.
Jim should host his own Q&A wrestling show on tv...I would watch that marathon all day lol....It could be like Wrestlings equivalent to "That Metal Show" on VH1 Classic lol 😂
I would watch that show.
Here in Toronto Ont Canada I started watching just as NWA got kicked out and Tunney went with WWF . On TV we got AWA a little NWA if you could find it . In the late 80s we also got Stampede on TSN where we got to see Pillman Owen and Benoit as rookies.
I always wondered did WCW Nitro air up here and if so what network?
At the time I didnt know that I grew up in a wrestling paradise with cable tv in little ol Murphy NC in the 70's. On saturdays back then I could get Mid Atlantic wrestling from the asheville nc channell with Bob Caudle on commentary. I then got Chattanooga Tn wrestling on WDEF Ch 12 with Harry Thornton on commentary..Then at 6 05 pm Superstation TBS with Gordon Solie...Later Ch 3 from Chattanooga added memphis wrestling with Lance Russell......How lucky to be a young wrestling fan back then growing up in small mountain town in NC in the late 70s... I saw em all !!!!
Could you get Channel 7 out of Spartanburg and Channel 4 out of Greenville? I live in Spartanburg and still get Channel 13 out of Asheville.
I just made an almost identical post, on another messenger's page. Memphis Wrestling was the best! At the time, little did I know that I would never see characters and story lines as real and true, as what was happening in Memphis. Memphis should erect some kind of wrestling Mt. Rushmore for all those guys. I would put Jimmy Hart, Jerry Lawler, Lance Russell and Andy Kaufman on that mountain for sure. The Fabulous Ones, The Rock n Roll Express, Kamala The Ugandian Giant, Dave Brown, The Moon Dogs could be up there too.
I was in King N.C. then.
@@Wadzillia ch 7 yes
I had a neighbor that had the big satelite dish in their front yard. They got all sorts of "cable" channels that didn't last more than a year. All sorts of channels popped up and dropped off from like 76 to the rise of direct t.v. and modern cable networks.
Weasel Dooley makes me laugh every time Jim says the name.
Remember TheOld Brown Zenith CableBoxes with TheRed Channel Indicator, With TheBig Brass Colored Rectangular RemoteControl?
In 1986 I didn't have cable in NW Ohio, but thanks to syndication I could watch WWF (Superstars, Challenge and Spotlight) on three Detroit stations, UWF, AWA and NWA on a low power station in Ann Arbor . Toledo stations carried WWA (Bruiser Bedlam) , ICW (Savoldi) Windsor Ontario had IWA and if the stars aligned right, I could get WCCW on a station out of Cleveland, OH
UHF network programming for WWWF was my first viewing experience of pro wrestling. First cable USA network had MSG matches for WWF and saw the same matches from Baltimore on MSG card, hold for hold. Then came GCW
Grew up watching AWA. Then in the late 70 s , early 80s I found Georgia championship wrestling on TBS, Florida and WWWF on cable. Exciting
I remember Continental on FNN
I remember in early 80s in New Jersey I received World Class on MSG network, WWF, Georgia on tbs and Florida wrestling on UHF ch 47!....
Joseph Carrino same here brother. I’m in South Jersey.
Yep. My first exposure to non-WWWF wrestling(apart from the magazines) was Florida Wrestling on Ch. 47. It came on at 11 or 11:30pm. It was a revelation!
Deadlikecobain remember getting Georgia championship wrestling on the super station then getting Southwest championship wrestling on USA then watching prism wrestling from the spectrum in Philadelphia wwwf !
My earliest memories of pro wrestling on tv was when the Crockett's had acquired access to the Tunney's territory around Toronto around 1978. CHCH (Ch. 11!) out of Hamilton aired "Maple Leaf Wrestling" on Saturday mornings (probably around 11 am) which cable systems all around Western New York "and the Niagara Peninsula!" as their commercials would always say). But what really constituted the bulk of the programming was mostly Crockett''s Mid Atlantic studio footage, and maybe an occasional match that ran from Maple Leaf Gardens. Most standout memories were Ricky Steamboat (often teaming with Jay Youngblood), Ric Flair and Greg Valentine at his most heelish (yes, probably even more than the run against Piper and their dog collar matches, to say nothing of his run in WWF). I don't think at that age we realized there were "territories" at all, and we had no access to MSG at that time, so WWWF was a mystery--it seemed to come out of nowhere in the mid-80s as THE thing everyone paid attention to--especially as Vince partnered with the Tunney's, replacing the Crockett's in '84. So suddenly every network that carried syndicated broadcasting was inundated with WWF in our area. Didn't catch up on the Crockett's activities until....'87 or '88? When cable systems in our area started carrying TBS.
Joseph Carrino And the U68 Power Hour! 🤘
Grew up in Charlotte area through the 1960's but moved to Atlanta in 73 where Georgia Championship Wrestling on Channel 17 became a staple or as Corney calls it, "Gordon Solie Wrestling" and he would be right. But another staple of wrestling in Atlanta was Joe Pedocino's Superstars of Wrestling which you got to see territories like World Class, Memphis, Continental, Mid South/Universal and such. On a given Saturday night you literally could start watching wrestling at 6:05 on the Superstation and then from 8 pm to 3am watch Superstarts for a total of 9 hours. Heaven for any wrestling junkie. Those were the days.
When we first got a television with a vhs tuner in 1974 in rural northern Illinois we could suddenly get Bruiser's Indianapolis territory. Also LaBell's LA territory on the Spanish language channel.
Bruiser's territory did solid business through 1982. It began dropping off then and never came back, though he hung on for several more years. I wondered if exposure to other wrestling on cable TV was a factor there.
Bruiser's territory was actually on fire 🔥 about '74. But he kept himself on top for far too long. Similar to the Sheik in Detroit.
In 85 86 the wwf was Saturday morning and the nwa was in sunday afternoon
The AWA used to be on ESPN in the 80's
And WCCW.
Yep, used to watch that. AWA was fairly good. I still preferred Memphis wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling though.
AWA was being played on ESPN late late night deep into the 2000’s like as recent as maybe 2011-12ish
I think Global Wrestling Federation was briefly on espn.
No cable TV in my area outside of Charlotte NC until 1991 or so..i think we got TBS early on though..almost seems like we got TBS or a rebroadcast of it with antenna TV
GCW had some of the best promos ever.
The real GCW
Yeah not the smark promotion
If I was Cornie's friend, I wouldn't let him come over to watch cable until he quits calling me weasel.
If you have a friend named Weasel Duley its pretty much decided that you will be involved with wrestling in the future.
@@tomr3422 either that or dealing Meth.
4
I wonder if Frank Williams, famously from Columbus, OH, had cable...
i never lost a match in Columbus Ohio
Brian, like myself, is such a mark for dates. Always has to throw in the year that something happened such as Jim becoming a manager in 82
Well, his deep knowledge of the business is part of what makes him a great cohost and foil for Jim.
@@ziweiyuan agreed. I'm the same way as him, if a friend brings up something that happened at a party I will always be the one to say that it happened at new year's eve 2003 because I'm good at remembering dates... I'm not knocking Brian, just recognising he has a specific mind for this sort of thing.
KBLE Cable Columbus Ohio ⭐️
Love the early episodes about the good old days of rasslin!
I didn't have cable until late 1996. Just in time for the attitude era lol.
I know down here all we had were 3 channels 3 5 and 10 and sometimes 15 lol ughh i feel old
I wish Cornette had his own classic wrestling show on WWE network
Let’s talk late 70s Chattanooga wrestling.... hold my beer
It's interesting what Cable Pro Wrestling was in the 1980's Streaming is that now, as I am writing this WWE made a deal to license WWE Network on NBC's Peacock. Also, New Japan Pro Wrestling, with New Japan World.
I wonder if Jim ever saw any of the Pro Wrestling from Al Tomko's NWA group in Vancouver, I believe. It was both good and terribly hilarious.
Rick Davis Ole Olson Moondog Morettie Sgt. Al Tomko Jr Bundy and Diamond Timothy Flowers would disagree
Do you know when the NWA stopped sending its champ and why. , We got it here in Toronto and when I was watching occasionally i never saw Flair or any other NWA stars
@@johngallagher72 I did say it was good. Have you ever seen when Al had a couple of twins demonstrate "aerobics?" It wasn't good.
@@stevewarren4813 lol . You are right it was so terrible it was good . I only really watched it when there was absolutely nothing else on. But you are right about one thing it was so bad it was actually good . Any idea when the NWA actually stopped sending their talent ?
Chattanooga had one weekly hour of Georgia Championship Wrestling on the local NBC station from the late 1970s through 1983, so I don't believe that cable television had much of an impact on Gulas Wrestling being promoted here.
Great picture here. Is Jim dancing with Joy? Or just groovin.
This is where cornette shines
The narrative that Vince destroyed the territories is not exactly fair as more homes started getting cable tv in the mid 80's Vince saw the playing field was now wide open he had the vision to see what cable would do for the wrestling business bill watts verne gagne and jim Crockett were very late in seeing the impact of cable and by the time they realized what was happening it was too late
Hi Weasel Dooley!!!
I thought Harley Race was an event at Hogg Wild?
memphis was on the louisville channel we got before cable woooo
Is that supposed to be Weasel Dooley?
Yes
I love the Weasel in the Thumbnail! Who does he represent?
Weasel Dooley. Jim's Childhood friend and creator of the wrestling 5 star ranking system.
I thought it was 80’s Jim and Augie Doggie
I grew up in a rural town in Michigan with about 1000 people. If we wanted cable it would've cost $10,000 to dig the ditch for the cable(our house was tucked back in the woods far away from the road). We had to wait for satellite to get cable. I can still hear my dad saying "turn the dial for the antenna and you can get more channels, I'm not spending 10k for some stupid tv."
I'm originally from Michigan too, although I grew up in a major city....I was lucky enough to get Cable as a kid in the late 70's / early 80's. We got Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS and Southwest Championship Wrestling (Joe Blanchard's San Antonio territory) on USA network for a time. That was about it until Vince took over Blanchard's time slot. Then the whole business with Georgia / Vince/ Jim Crockett Jr. I much preferred Georgia Wrestling over anything else I saw back then.
10:41 sorry corn its pronounced butt, Montana. And it's rich in natural gas. I had to stand in front of my 5th grade class and read about that town
Nope
@@marklogan8112 yep
Ffs that shirt
Cornie! How you doin' you son-of-a-bitch?!
Some people like to blame Vince McMahon for the death of the Territories but he really wasn't, it was CableTV that killed the Territories. As time moved on in the 70s and early 80s wrestling became more and more centered around their TV shows, major events (title changes and feud starts and stops) were no longer done in the local house shows, they were done on their TV show and the Territory's border became defined by how far the network show could air. Then Cable came, by the mid 80s more and more homes were switching to Cable and away from Network, the long respected rules of Territories didn't work with shows that could broadcast Nationally, and the old codgers that owned the Territories didn't know how to adapt. McMahon didn't actively try to destroy the Territories, he didn't have to, they were imploding all by themselves.
No, it was Vince who killed everything. It's basically WWE historical revisionism to claim that "all the territories were outdated, relied on tradition and didn't go with the times". That's not the case. Promotions tried to go national, they tried to get on cable, they wanted to expand. Don't forget that Georgia was already on Turner's cable station before the "Black Saturday" happened, which was Vince's first big national attack.
The big difference is that no other promoter was as ruthless as Vince. Still best examplified by him basically putting a gun to all PPV providers in 1987 saying "Either you show my Survivor Series and no other wrestling or you never gonna show another WWF show!", the PPV Providers should've laughed in Vince's face because what would he do without PPV? Yet they all caved in to his threats and kicked Starrcade off their air (except 2 providers and guess what? Vince did business with them afterwards anyway)
While of course some of the territorial promoters made mistakes and maybe were a bit hindered by traditions, it really was Vince and not the advancement of Cable (as far as i know, Cable TV in the US started in the late 40's or early 50's, so it's not like it was a brand new thing)
@@melaniel.4269 It's mostly mismanagment by the territories that killed them all off. Vince was a cut-throat businessman but that was only a small part that killed everything.
FerretJohn What were you smoking when you composed this post of disinformation?!?! Vince destroyed the territories by plucking their top talent, sometimes paying them to sit at home. He was and still is a pos who didn’t respect the boundaries. GCW began running shows in West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan in the early 80s, but only after Ole called Vince Sr and The Sheik to ask if they could. Vince Sr told Ole he could have Cleveland because the town was dead, GCW sold it out. Sheik had killed his territory by that time because he did the same thing over and over. GCW sold out everywhere they went in Michigan. Ole respected the boundaries by asking the promoters who had that area, Vince Jr did not.
@@melaniel.4269 "no other promoter was as ruthless as vince"
lmao
George Gulas was the most innovative and exciting high flyers ever i think he created the moonsault LMAO ....
The Moonsault was invented by Mando Guerrero in Mexico in the 70's. Lanny Poffo was the guy who popularized it in the USA years later after he saw Satoru Sayama (Tiger Mask) do it in Mexico.
@@melaniel.4269 Everyone knows George Gulas first did the moonsault against Harley Race when he won the N.W.A Teeny Bopper Title. Get your facts straight. Tiger Mask only had the job because his father was the promoter.
@@Ted_Bell Nope, Mando Guerrero invented the move and even did a "moonsault into a dropkick" move to counter the "opponent gets up/rolls out of the way" move. Sadly the videos on youtube got deleted over the years
And since "everybody" credits Mando with inventing the move, you'd be wrong. What's so difficult in admitting you're wrong?
@@melaniel.4269 Thanks friend..
I was being sarcastic and making fun of George gulas 😇😁👍
@@steveaguiar1934 No, you were just a dumbfuck idiot of course
Yo, Jim can you talk about when you first saw Star Wars?
React to Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1
Jim doesn't watch NJPW as far as I know.
@Joe Greene someone else doesn't watch either I see.
@Joe Greene There was so much more story, just by you saying that, I know you didn't watch the show. There were 4 matches with no flips or dives at all, so you're wrong