For years, wrestling promoters in each territory had an "unwritten rule" not to invade or bury the other promoters in their respective territories. Vincent Kennedy McMahon and his Titan Sports, Inc. acquired the Capital Wrestling, Co. and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from his father and promoter Vincent J. McMahon in 1982.
The younger Vince McMahon had been working for his father's company starting in 1969. He was a promoter and also was an announcer on WWF TV. McMahon wanted to be a wrestler, but his father was against that saying that promoters should stay away from the wrestlers. His father let him be an announcer so he can appear on television. McMahon would still be an announcer long after becoming the owner of the WWF, but kept it a secret on TV until the mid-to-late 1990s.
The elder Vince McMahon had owned Capital Wrestling since taking over from his father Jess McMahon after he passed away in 1954. McMahon founded the modern day what is now known as the WWE (then known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and changed simply to the WWF in 1979) in 1963 after Capital broke away from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
The Capital-WWF territory was in the northeast, primarily New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Despite not being affiliated with the NWA, the oldest and top wrestling promotion at the time, Vincent J. McMahon did not do anything to ruin or take over the other promoters in their respective NWA territories, you just did not do that in those days.
The younger Vince McMahon, however, did not abide by these unwritten rules. But for McMahon to make his promotion number one and make wrestling as a whole number one, he knew had to break these rules and create a juggernaut instead of just sitting in territories and never growing.
McMahon has stated numerous times: he's not in the wrestling business, he's in the entertainment business. More specifically, he's in the "sports entertainment" business so he's not there to abide by some old unwritten rule and code. He's there to put the best possible product out there to put the most amount of fans in seats to be number one and if you couldn't compete with that, you were out of luck.
McMahon had quickly began expanding the WWF out of the Northeast and into the other territories and began to run them out of business by taking over that territories' market. McMahon went up north and bought out the Toronto-based Maple Leaf Wrestling and made Jack Tunney the on-air President of the WWF. McMahon then moved out west to purchase Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary.
In addition to committing the Cardinal sin of running a territorial promotion out of business and taking them over, McMahon did another no-no and that was take the promotions' top talents and put them in his WWF. McMahon brought in Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, and the Dynamite Kid from Stampede after buying them out.
He raided some of the top wrestlers and managers in both the NWA territories and Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, Junkyard Dog, Mike Rotundo, Dave Schultz, Ken Patera, and "Mean" Gene Okerlund.
The biggest acquisition McMahon made was Hulk Hogan, who was the most popular and top drawing wrestler in the AWA. After Gagne did not want to put the AWA World Heavyweight Championship around Hogan's waist and did not to give him a larger percentage of merchandise sales, McMahon went ahead and hired Hogan to be his top draw in his new powerhouse federation.
Hogan had competed in the older McMahon's WWF from 1979 to 1981. Hogan was a heel and while he was a draw, he wasn't the top guy in the company. McMahon decided to fire Hogan after Hogan went against McMahon's wishes and acted in Rocky III as "Thunderlips." The younger McMahon knew how big of a star Hogan was in the AWA and figured he'd be an ever bigger star by making him the number one in his promotion.
McMahon further drew the ire from Gagne by having the wrestlers not follow the normal procedure for leaving the AWA, which is to give six weeks notice in advance. McMahon allegedly paid the wrestlers to leave the AWA earlier than six weeks.
According to Verne's son Greg Gagne, McMahon attempted to purchase the AWA from Verne the year earlier. Due to a falling out between McMahon and Gagne, the deal fell through and McMahon did everything in his power to put the AWA under, especially bringing in Hogan.
This ticked off the promoters of the other territories who were quickly going out of business after many years. They were furious at the elder McMahon for his son ruining them. Love it or hate it, this was the way the professional wrestling business was heading as it was going more national and international instead of simply in territories.
You either had to compete with McMahon and the WWF or it was over. The older McMahon did not get to see his son's vision of the WWF being the top promotion come to fruition. Sadly, Vincent J. McMahon passed away on May 24, 1984 at the age of 69 years old.
The event that really sparked the tipping point of professional wrestling turning from a local or regional sport to a national and international phenomenon took place in the summer of 1984 when Vince McMahon purchased the NWA's Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and merged it with his WWF.
McMahon bought out the stocks of Jack and Jerry Brisco (who were the primary and majority shareholders of GCW) for less than a million dollars and guaranteed job security in the WWF. Jerry Brisco still to this day works in the WWE for McMahon.
Besides putting another territorial promotion out of business, McMahon wanted to buy GCW for another reason and that was their Saturday Night time slot for their flagship show World Championship Wrestling on Superstation WTBS to put his WWF programming on national television and showcase it to the rest of the country.
The first episode of the new WWF World Championship Wrestling show was on July 14, 1984 and is commonly referred to as "Black Saturday." Fans who turned on Superstation WTBS to watch their favorite NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling show, the World Championship Wrestling Saturday night show on July 14, 1984 were absolutely stunned at what they saw on TV.
Fans who never thought this man would appear on one of their shows saw Vince K. McMahon on the show to announce that he bought Georgia Championship Wrestling and his WWF programming would now be on the Saturday night time slot on WTBS.
The Georgia fans were accustomed to their good old fashioned Southern "rasslin" were turned off by McMahon and the WWF and their "Yankee" brand of wrestling. The WWF on TBS was a ratings disaster from the beginning as the fans demanded to know why GCW was off the air replaced by the WWF. McMahon soon pulled out of the agreement less than a year later.
What angered WTBS owner and founder Ted Turner was that he hoped McMahon would use his WTBS studios to film his WWF TV shows, but McMahon instead used the WWF World Championship Wrestling show as a recap show.
Also in 1984, McMahon started a relationship with a major cable television network, the USA Network to show his wrestling shows. With WTBS, USA, and his nationally-syndicated TV shows, McMahon's WWF was seen by millions of fans each and every week as it gained so much recognition and national exposure.
The biggest story in 1984 was McMahon making Hulk Hogan the WWF World Heavyweight Champion shortly after he rejoined the WWF. When McMahon hired Hogan in December 1983, he was looking for a new face for his company to go global as nearly six-year WWF Champion Bob Backlund was no longer the face of the company due to fans being sick of him and McMahon wanted it to be Hogan.
At Madison Square Garden on December 26, 1983, Backlund lost the WWF Championship after a 2,135-day reign to The Iron Sheik when Sheik put Backlund in his Camel Clutch and Backlund's manager Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel for Backlund. The Sheik was a transitional champion as McMahon took the belt off one babyface to put it on a heel so that he could put the belt on another babyface.
Sheik was supposed to defend the title against Backlund in a rematch at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984, but Backlund was battling a storyline neck injury and was replaced by Hogan. Hogan was locked into The Sheik's Camel Clutch finishing hold, which Sheik has used to beat everyone including Backlund for the title, but Hogan used "super human" strength to power out of the hold.
Hogan picked up Sheik on his back and ran him into the turnbuckles. Hogan then hit Sheik with a running Atomic Leg Drop that would be his signature finishing move to pin The Sheik to win his first career WWF World Heavyweight Championship and his first World Heavyweight Championship of any kind. "Hulkamania" was born that night and professional wrestling would never be the same again.
Hogan would defeat anyone that came his way as he remained the champion for the rest of the year. Hogan became a superstar overnight and was the most popular wrestler. Hogan's fans were known as "Hulkamaniacs" who were swept in the "Hulkamania" phenomenon.
Hogan used the word "brother" a lot in his interviews and told his fans about his three "demandments": training, saying your prayers, and eating your vitamins. Hogan would wear yellow-and-red ring attire with a muscle shit and a headband (later a bandana).
Hogan would play to the audience by ripping off his muscle shirt and begin posing and flexing his muscles. Hogan would also put his hand up to his ear to signal he really wants to hear the audience scream and shout. Hogan would do much of the same in his post-match celebration.
During his matches, Hogan would usually get a second wind when he looked beaten and began to "Hulk up!" as he would be impervious to pain by no-selling his opponents attacks. Hogan would then point at his opponent and shout "You!"
Hogan then gave his opponent three right hand punches and then throw him into the ropes, where he would deliver a big boot. If the opponent was a giant, he would then bodyslam them after the boot. Hogan would then run to the ropes and deliver his signature Atomic Leg Drop to win the match.
The other really big acquisition McMahon made was a boisterous loud mouth by the name of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. If Hogan was the WWF's #1 babyface, then Piper was the #1 heel. Piper came to the ring wearing a kilt and sometimes even playing the bagpipes, a play off his Scottish heritage.
Piper debuted as a manager for "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and "Dr. D" David Schultz as injuries from his Dog Collar match with Greg Valentine at Starrcade before he came to the WWF prevented him from wrestling right away.
Eventually, he became a full-time wrestler. To further cement his status as the biggest heel in the company, he was given his own interview segment shown on WWF TV called "Piper's Pit", which he had until 1987. Piper would spout off on the WWF's babyfaces and fans. His trash talking back in the old school days actually would have made the Attitude Era of more than a decade later jealous.
Piper's heat as a heel really turned up on an episode of Piper's Pit when he interviewed Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. He made fun of Snuka's heritage and then attacked him by hitting him in the head with a coconut and then smashed a banana in his face.
The next big incident involving on December 28 when musician Cyndi Lauper, her boyfriend and manager at the time David Wolff, and Captain Lou Albano were in the ring as Lauper and Wolff were presenting an award to Albano.
Piper came to the ring as he insulted her music and the connection between rock music and the WWF that was starting up at that time. He then took the award and smashed it over Albano's head. Piper then attacked Lauper and Wolff until Hulk Hogan ran into the ring to chase Piper away.
This started the Rock 'n'Wrestling Connection as well as the stepping stone to first-ever WrestleMania Super Card that was ahead in 1985.
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