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Post by OneFanGang on Jun 19, 2024 3:34:50 GMT
If anyone is interested in this topic, I am wondering if anybody can find a particular territory where a large portion of talent departed all at once, or at least in rapid succession. The one that come to mind immediately are the mid-to-late 1984 exodus of Dusty Rhodes from Florida and a bunch of "his guys" in favor of Mid-Atlantic. The second one I thought of today was a bunch of World Class wrestlers following Ken Mantell to the UWF in May/June 1986. There are others but it seems some guys worked out a notice and others bolted. But as a promoter, seeing many talents leave en masse leaves them scrambling to rework the lineups.
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Post by Kriss on Jun 19, 2024 4:54:43 GMT
Almost the entire roster left Georgia in 1972 to join Ann Gunkel's All-South group. Paul Jones and Fred Ward had to use fly-ins from neighboring NWA territories for months until a full new roster was formed.
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Post by srossi on Jun 19, 2024 4:59:06 GMT
AJPW when NOAH was formed.
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Post by Sexy Tom on Jun 19, 2024 14:29:56 GMT
Hard to beat the AWA with this one. Hogan, Okerlund, Heenan, Ventura, Schultz, Patera, and Brunzell. I'm sure I may have left other off the list who departed to the WWF.
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Post by khawk on Jun 19, 2024 15:03:09 GMT
Hard to beat the AWA with this one. Hogan, Okerlund, Heenan, Ventura, Schultz, Patera, and Brunzell. I'm sure I may have left other off the list who departed to the WWF. Depends on the interpretation of the question you use. I didn’t consider them a part of it because it wasn’t all at once. If we consider it over a period of a few years then they’re in the running. |
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Post by beejmi on Jun 19, 2024 15:06:45 GMT
Hell even Mad Dog Vachon got up and left
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Post by OneFanGang on Jun 19, 2024 15:26:21 GMT
Hell even Mad Dog Vachon got up and left Poor form; Vachon didn't lose his leg until 1987. As far as the AWA example, that's a little different animal. In the case of the World Class roster joining UWF, it was a slow trickle over a few weeks. You can see World Class dates where the Freebirds may have been gone but John Tatum hadn't left right away, then Missing Link, and so on. The dam may have been breaking and the lineups reflect how substitutions/replacements may have had to be made. The Gunkel office starting up lured all but two guys away initially, as I recall, so it taxed the fellowship nature of NWA promoters to actually support one of their own, while still staying true to their own cards. |
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Post by srossi on Jun 19, 2024 15:27:50 GMT
Most of this is the typical erosion of the territory system as the WWF took over, it's not really a mass exodus.
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Post by beejmi on Jun 19, 2024 15:45:44 GMT
Had no clue Mad Dog lost his leg, I know he was on WWF shows in the mid-80s and he had 20+ years in w Verne
The AWA roster that existed at the end -- I'm not sure where half of them landed (if anywhere at all)
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Post by BlazerTron on Jun 19, 2024 15:50:40 GMT
Hell even Mad Dog Vachon got up and left Poor form; Vachon didn't lose his leg until 1987. As far as the AWA example, that's a little different animal. In the case of the World Class roster joining UWF, it was a slow trickle over a few weeks. You can see World Class dates where the Freebirds may have been gone but John Tatum hadn't left right away, then Missing Link, and so on. The dam may have been breaking and the lineups reflect how substitutions/replacements may have had to be made. The Gunkel office starting up lured all but two guys away initially, as I recall, so it taxed the fellowship nature of NWA promoters to actually support one of their own, while still staying true to their own cards. The first one that comes to mind for me is the World Class to UWF flood from May-June-July of '86. The Freebirds were the big signings, and then you had One Man Gang, Akbar, Missy Hyatt, Tatum, Victory, and Missing Link. In the fall, Chris Adams and Iceman. Also Sunshine. This one's a bit fuzzy related to the Freebirds though. At some point, they were working both Mid-South and World Class bookings simultaneously. They were in the '86 Parade of Champions show, but I'm certain they had already started for Watts. They also worked AWA Wrestle Rock in late April too. I don't know the entire story, but I vaguely that Ken Mantell was moonlighting as Watts' booker while still employed by Fritz, and perhaps even Fritz knew about it at some point? |
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Post by BlazerTron on Jun 19, 2024 15:58:24 GMT
Had no clue Mad Dog lost his leg, I know he was on WWF shows in the mid-80s and he had 20+ years in w Verne The AWA roster that existed at the end -- I'm not sure where half of them landed (if anywhere at all) First "house show" I ever attended was in March of '87 at the Rosemont Horizon, about a week before WM3. I knew the AWA was toast by that point, but I still watched them and everything else. But the opening match, which hadn't been announced on tv, was Dino Bravo against a debuting Brad Rheingans, who had fancy red-white-and-blue tights and slightly bleached blonde hair. I figured Rheingans wasn't going to get a push, as he didn't, but the fact that Vince stole him from Verne and spruced up his look just to have him job out on house show curtain-jerkers told me Verne's days were numbered. Most of the late AWA guys (say '88-'89) didn't really amount to much. The exceptions would probably be Enos and Bloom. I guess Scott Norton had a decent WCW run too, but he had gone to Japan in between. Trooper Del Wilkes had a short push in '97 for Vince. |
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Post by tamalie on Jun 19, 2024 17:42:59 GMT
Robert Fuller booked Memphis during the first half of 1979. He used lots of people we normally associate with Knoxville and to a lesser extent Alabama. It didn’t go well. Attendance fell and Jerry Jarrett fired Fuller in June of 1979.
After getting fired, not only did Robert Fuller leave, the guys he brought in left too. Out went Mongolian Stomper, Professor Toru Tanaka, Mr. Fuji, Tony Charles, Dick Slater, Rip Oliver, Gorgeous George Jr., and Jimmy Golden.
Jerry Jarrett stated much later that the elevation of Wayne Ferris and Larry Latham as the Blonde Bombers from midcard to a main event feud with Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee happened out of necessity due to so many people following Fuller out the door.
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Post by buddypshayesmarkii on Jun 20, 2024 1:14:43 GMT
The World Class exodus to UWF coincided with Watts running shows in DFW, eventually running weekly TV tapings in Ft. Worth.
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Post by joetcullen on Jun 20, 2024 13:52:20 GMT
Poor form; Vachon didn't lose his leg until 1987. As far as the AWA example, that's a little different animal. In the case of the World Class roster joining UWF, it was a slow trickle over a few weeks. You can see World Class dates where the Freebirds may have been gone but John Tatum hadn't left right away, then Missing Link, and so on. The dam may have been breaking and the lineups reflect how substitutions/replacements may have had to be made. The Gunkel office starting up lured all but two guys away initially, as I recall, so it taxed the fellowship nature of NWA promoters to actually support one of their own, while still staying true to their own cards. The first one that comes to mind for me is the World Class to UWF flood from May-June-July of '86. The Freebirds were the big signings, and then you had One Man Gang, Akbar, Missy Hyatt, Tatum, Victory, and Missing Link. In the fall, Chris Adams and Iceman. Also Sunshine. This one's a bit fuzzy related to the Freebirds though. At some point, they were working both Mid-South and World Class bookings simultaneously. They were in the '86 Parade of Champions show, but I'm certain they had already started for Watts. They also worked AWA Wrestle Rock in late April too. I don't know the entire story, but I vaguely that Ken Mantell was moonlighting as Watts' booker while still employed by Fritz, and perhaps even Fritz knew about it at some point? The Freebirds returned to UWF in late April, working a TV taping a week before POC and it appears they wrestled one more match in WCCW on May 18 losing to the Von Erich's first blood match and from then on they were in UWF full time |
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Post by cheapseats on Jun 20, 2024 16:43:48 GMT
Robert Fuller booked Memphis during the first half of 1979. He used lots of people we normally associate with Knoxville and to a lesser extent Alabama. It didn’t go well. Attendance fell and Jerry Jarrett fired Fuller in June of 1979. After getting fired, not only did Robert Fuller leave, the guys he brought in left too. Out went Mongolian Stomper, Professor Toru Tanaka, Mr. Fuji, Tony Charles, Dick Slater, Rip Oliver, Gorgeous George Jr., and Jimmy Golden. Jerry Jarrett stated much later that the elevation of Wayne Ferris and Larry Latham as the Blonde Bombers from midcard to a main event feud with Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee happened out of necessity due to so many people following Fuller out the door. I was about to post what you just said. |
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