re: Viceland's new series "The Dark Side of the Ring" is amazing * (Season 2 starts 3/24) *

quote:

---

Don't forget when Fritz sold WCCW to Jerry Jarrett and he wrecked it

---

I think Jarrett mostly bought the territory to see if he could vulture it for a little while and make back his money. Which he managed to do. Eric Embry was... perhaps not the greatest draw in Texas wrestling history, but he did well enough that Jarrett got his money back and then cherry picked the surviving talent and brought them to Memphis.

It is weird how the territories worked in their prime. Jerry Jarrett gave away 6 hall of fame talents (Jim Cornette, the Midnight Express, the Rock and Roll Express, and Bill Dundee) to Bill Watts and still considers it a great deal because at the time Jarrett had so much talent he couldn't find a way to work them all into the card.

Watts is fond of talking about how he'd get calls from Vince McMahon Sr. saying he needed this talent (from Watts promotion) to start with the WWF on such and such a date. Watts would always say "Sure, glad to let you have him!" And then Vince would give him Andre the Giant for a couple of weeks.

Or, when a very young Jerry Lawler announced he wasn't going to make any of the smaller town house shows, Jerry Jarrett shipped him down to Eddie Graham in Florida to be a job guy for 6 months. It was a really different world back then.

We won't even get into Houston being a one city promotion that cherry picked the best wrestling talent from all over the US for their weekly shows or that, at one time, Australia was the home to the biggest wrestling promotion in the world.