The Territory Era
 

There have been a couple of threads recently that have been discussing the territories. AS someone who grew up watching and loving that era I thought a primer might be called for since most posters on the forum were not around in this important time of the sport. The territories basically grew up around media markets, and thrived off low cost/ highly rated television that the local stations loved because they could sell ads. Some of the territory shows dominated their ratings.

I will simply list the Major American territories (there were other smaller territories) and years of exsistence, list their operating area, and list some of the top stars (of course I will miss some of these but this is a start, feel free to add significant ones I missed). I realize you could probably find all this via wikipedia or other sites but here it is in one place, as a good primer for those interested in this era.

Pacific Northwest (1925-1992): Oregon/Washington: Dutch Savage, Buddy Rose, Roddy Piper, Billy Jack Haynes, Tony Borne.

Big Time Wrestling (1968-1981): Northern California: Pat Patterson, Ray Stevens, John Tolos

WWA/ NWA Hollywood (1959-1982): Southern California: Freddie Blassie, Edouard Capentier, Gory Guerrero

Western States (Amarillo)(1969-1981): West Texas: The Funks, Ciclone Negro, Bob Backlund, Karl Von Steiger

World Class: North Texas (1966-1990): Gary Hart, The Von Erich's, Stan Stasiak, Freebirds, Chris Adams, Skandor Akbar

Southwest: Southern Texas (1978-1985): Tully Blanchard, Dale Valentine (Buddy Roberts), Manny Fernandez

Tri-State/Mid-South/UWF: (1950-1990) Louisiana, parts of Oklahoma, and Arkansas: Bill Watts, Junkyard Dog, Butch Reed, Ted DiBiase, Mr Wrestling II, Magnum TA

Central States (1948-1988): Parts of Missouri, all of Iowa and Kansas: Harley Race, Pat O'Connor, Bulldog Brown, Orville Brown, Bob Sweeten

NWA St. Louis (1959-1989): Parts of Missouri: Ted DiBiase, Lou Thesz, Ric Flair, Harly Race, Gene Kiniski

WWA Indiana: Indiana, Illinois (1964-1991): Dick the Brusier, Wilbur Snyder, Baron Von Rashcke, Greg Wojokowski

NWA Mid America (1957-1980): Parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, and Missisippi, even a little in Missouri: Jackie Fargo, Sputnik Monroe, Len Rossi, Don Kent, Luke Graham, Jerry Jarrett, Tojo Yammamoto

CWA/USWA (Memphis)(1977-1997): Parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, and Missisippi, even a little in Missouri: Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, Jimmy Hart, Dutch Mantell, The Fabulous Ones, Jimmy Valiant, Austin Idol

IWA (1978-1984): (Not truly a major territory, considered an outlaw promotion but very influential, and a good history read): Parts of Kentucky: Angelo and Lanny Poffo, Randy Savage, Ronnie Garvin, One Man Gang (then known as Crusher Bloomfield)

Contenintal (1954-1990) (which had a sub territory called Gulf Coast): East Tennessee, Alabama, The Florida Panhandle, Eastern Kentucky: Bob Armstrong and family, Jerry Stubbs, Ron and Robert Fuller

Championship Wrestling from Florida (1949-1987): Florida: Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, Kevin Sullivan, Bob Roop, Eddie and Mike Graham

Georgia Championship Wrestling (1944-merged into what became WCW): Georgia: Ray Gunkel, Mr Wrestling 1 and 2, JJ Dillon, Dusty Rhodes, Ole Anderson, Steamboat

NWA Mid Atlantic (1931-1988): The Carolinas, Virginia: Ric Flair, Blackjack Mulligan, Wahoo McDaniel, Masked Superstar, Jack and Jerry Brisco, Rip Hawk, Paul Jones

Big Time Wrestling (1959-1980): Michigan, parts of Ohio: The Shiek, Bobo Brazil, Fritz Von Erich, Johnny Valentine, Eddie Cretchman, Crybaby Cannon, Mark Lewin

WWWF (1952-nationalized in 1980): The American Northeast: Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Spiros Arion, Killer Kowalski, Gorilla Monsoon, Antonio Rocca, Chief Jay Strongbow, Tony Garea

Some would call the AWA a territory, especially since it had only a couple of territories that recognized it's World Title. However most wrestling mags, and historians considered the AWA as a national company that split off the NWA in 1960, especially since the AWA booked shows all over the Western United States where they had television markets.

AWA (1960-1991): Minnestoa, Wisconsin, and individual cities like Chicago, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas etc...: Verne Gagne, Mad Dog and Butcher Vachon, Baron Von Rashcke, Nick Bockwinkle, The Crusher, Crusher Blackwell, Greg Gagne, Curt Henning

Re: The Territory Era
 

Would love a series from you detailing about each of the era on what was the style and who mattered during it. Whatsay?

Re: The Territory Era
 

I have considered it before. I might do that, but only when I have the time.

Re: The Territory Era
 

So, which of the territories does WWE now own the tape library for?

Or maybe I should say, which of these does WWE *not* own the rights to? I know WWE recently bought the Mid-South/UWF library.

Re: The Territory Era
 

I already done alot of study and research on some of these territories over the years on youtube. I was born right before Wrestlemania 1 so I like catching up on stuff I missed before my time or was just too young at the time to care, NWA/WCW and WWF were my main shows that I watched as a kid growing up and occasionally would catch a rare Contenital Championship Wrestling show if I was in that area and the thing that always bugged me about them is their main title is called the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Title.

Alot of great talent came and worked in that area but I was always thought that word Junior being used as a name for your main title belt...kind of makes it sound so minor league. All these greats , fighting over the right to be the top junior dog? I know its something minor and kind of random but always thought it should of just been called the NWA Contential Heavyweight Title.

Re: The Territory Era
 

Awesome job on this post. The first wrestling match I can remember watching was a CWA match, but I can't remember who was involved in it. That was while visiting grandparents in Arkansas.

Later on when cable TV became more common I found WWF and JCP, and was hooked by both. The NWA in particular intrigued me because they would often reference matches in all kinds of international destinations. I would find out more about wrestling outside the USA through the Apter Mags (what we had to use before that newfangled contraption called 'the internet', and that's the way it was, and we liked it! Now get off my lawn!).

Re: The Territory Era
 

They own almost all of it now. The Pacific Northwest stuff wasn't professionally saved, but supposedly the widow of one of the guys involved has a stash of tapes. Some stuff from this territory has made it to youtube, and it would be impractical for McMahon to try and track it all down.

There is also a lot AWA footage that ESPN still owns, and isn't part of the WWE's AWA holdings. ESPN also still owns the Global Wrestling Federation tapes as far as I know which is quite a lot considering the promotion only lasted around 3 total years. They put out an hourly show of matches every single day (previously taped of course) Monday through Friday after AWA went out of business in 1990. Incidentally, Vince sued the GWF because he argued it was too close to WWF ('global' vs 'world'), but it didn't go anywhere or was dropped, not sure which.

Re: The Territory Era
 

when are they going to release some dvds? I want to see some more territory stuff. They should start by relaesing st louis ewrestling club dvds and more AWA stuff.

Re: The Territory Era
 

Somewhat relevent to this thread

Pretty cool, always heard great things about Watts weekly show but never managed to see it in full episodes, just clips off youtube, be very interested to see it in volumes like JR says.

Re: The Territory Era
 

Nice! My uncle wrestled for them for a few years back in the mid 60s.