Rival Angels

As some of you already know, Yahoo is going to be making the brilliant move to take Yahoo 360 behind the woodshed in the near future. For me it's not a particularly big loss, as almost everyone I know from 360 is either on YIM or have set up shop on deviantArt. Plus my blog there doesn't have anything particularly special... except for one thing. Since it pertains to wrestling, I thought I'd bring it over here for posterity.

This is an excerpt, lightly edited by myself, from a conversation on the April Hunter Yahoo group concerning the days before Vince MacMahon jr. took over the family business... Ladies and gents, I present April Hunter, Goddess of the Ring, on how Vince McMahon killed wrestling


"You have some valid points, but the thing you're way off on is that
wresting was absolutely booming WITHOUT Vince M Jr.

We had territories. A lot of them, in many countries. Nearly all of
them had TV. A wrestler would make a LOT of money those days---get
used up for a bit in a territory, then move on to another. It was
very lucrative, for everyone. Guys were making $2000 a week on the
INDIES. Now, if you make $200-300 a week, you're considered doing
well.

Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico, Germany, England. They all had amazing
territories as well. And Vince killed them too. I can't tell you how
many times I've heard that some Japan company is VERY upset with
WWF/E for ruining Japan. Puerto Rico is just about bankrupt and
Europe doesn't exist for wrestling any longer. The only one running
reg in UK is Brian Dixon...he's a carny, but nearly every Brit
wrestler you've ever heard of...from Bulldog to Burchill has worked
and earned a living from him. You think Burchill just "ended up" on
TV last month? He's been doing indies forever in England and is on
all my old tapes. That's how wrestlers are MADE. Territories.

And that is gone now.

How Vince killed it for wrestlers was making a BRAND NAME. Instead of
Lex Lugar or Hulk Hogan being worth anything, he took that drawing
power away and made the name WWF worth everything instead.
Hulk is the last of the name draws, for the most part.

The interest that was created for new talent to come into those
territories was amazing. The feuds...the buildup..the finishes...And
the crowds were sellout. Boston Garden used to do tremendous
business. Now a Boston area indy can't even get 200 asses in seats,
as we've discussed before. Only 9 years ago NWA New England used to
do 2000-3000 people per show.

So, you tell me.

You have to know more about wrestling history---true wrestling
history---than just a few documentaries."



(Later, when someone responded "Well the Japanese puroresu leagues seem to be doing alright", April explains how the WWE has turned into the insipid slug that it is.)


"WWE isn't affecting the Japanese style, just the busine$$ end of
things. I've heard from Japanese promoters that WWE/F messes business
up in Japan, badly. It's a big part of why things are down over
there. You know how New Japan used to be...and that women's wrestling
is in dire straits.

You know what WWE did to wrestlers. Here's what it's done to it's
fans: As far as here in North America, all the biggest stars we know
and love came from the territory days- Flair, Steamboat, Wendy
Richter, Hogan, Brett Hart, Dynamite Kid, Jesse Ventura, the Von
Erichs, Savage, Shawn Michaels, Art Barr, Guererro's, Moolah, Killer
Kowalski, Bruno Sammartino...the competition back then bred some of
the best talents around, because you had to be able to WRESTLE and
ENTERTAIN as well as look good or you were weeded out.
Without that kind of situation we get who ever they spoon feed
us...which is Cena, Batista, Maria. And we wonder why we're not
thrilled.
(Sure, Maria is f*ckable, but I sure don't want to see her IN a ring.
Are our standards that severely lowered that we're reduced to simple
fans who just want to fuck a girl or who are impressed over a set of
abs, they don't care about anything else anymore? Not me. Give me a
DVD of Madusa or Tiger Mask instead.)

So, do you STILL think Vince didn't hurt pro wrestling?"

I never thought that. Vince is the Grim Reaper of pro wrestling.

Thank you very much for sharing this. I’ve always respected April’s work and what she’s made of herself. It’s wonderful to have an insider’s viewpoint, especially on the global scene. That’s not so obvious. Well not to me anyway. But it does explain why I hardly watch Vince’s shows anymore, yet I’ll go out of my way to catch an indie event that passes through.

I wonder if there’s hope. Seems the glory days happened before I was born or was too young to appreciate them. Wouldn’t it be something to see them come back!

We had an indie show that came through a couple years ago, and it was close to my house, too. Coulda gone and watched the show, then went home. Even got free tickets. Their flier even said they offered wrestling training! I wonder how much they wanted for wrestling training... Ah, but I didn't go. I wanted to, though.

And then some time later, my boss and a co-worker wrestled, and I tried to get them to agree to train me. My co-worker was willing, but my boss took the "Scare him away" approach. I said I'd do it, but then I got fired...