And then there were none

Coffee Table Thoughts: And then there were none

Welcome everyone to the year end edition of your favourite column to give a miss, Coffee Table Thoughts! A whole year will end tonight and we will embark on a new journey. Wow!

As happens every time a year ends, we like to look back at the year and relive those moments – high and low, which represented that year. In my personal life, it has been nothing except job and studies. I haven’t been able to crack up this accounting degree course for a full 3 year streak now! That’s a 6 attempt losing streak if you count in the fact that these exams are taken every six months. I have given yet another exam in the November and I’m as hopeful of clearing it this time round as George Steele would be of dating Miss Elizabeth. Well, that about sums up my personal life.

What about the year 1989 in general? We have Indian Prime Minister defending the allegations of corruption against his party; the situation upside in the so-called disputed territory of Kashmir seems to have worsened; the sad events of Tiananmen Square in China; Islamic world getting heated over a video err...a book; and what not. In Hollywoodland, we had a knight who critics say was too dark, Batman. In Bollywood, we had a hearty love story of....oh alright, I get it. You are not interested in listening to all that ‘garbage’’. Fine then, I won’t. That doesn’t give you the right, however, of singing ‘Baby I don’t care’ on my face!

Every December 31 gives us a reason to look back at the year and reflect on as to how important it was for any particular field, be it life, sports, politics or in our case, professional wrestling. This year, however, is special. This night signals the end of a decade. And what a decade it was! We go on to the 90s now and I just have to wonder, will the 90s generation be as rebellious as us?

What effect did the 80s have on our beloved sport of professional wrestling? Well, to be honest, the world of difference. When we look at the events backwards, they might not seem extraordinary. When we look at them in the progressive manner, however, we can establish their true importance.

The professional wrestling as it was on the 1 April 1980 is completely different from what it is today on 31 December 1989 (Not December 31 1989). Well, a lot of it has been documented really so I don’t have much to add as far as insider information goes. What I can do however, is share my thoughts on these happenings.

In the early 1980, the NWA was still going strong in America and was considered as the highest promotion even though it wasn’t a promotion in itself. WWF, headed by Vince McMahon, was a part of it, although WWF did not show much interest in bringing in the NWA Champion over on WWF shows. American Wrestling Association was a big promotion in its own right, under the guidance of Verne Gagne and it looked as if it had a bright future ahead with its ability to create new stars. Georgia Championship Wrestling was headed by Jim Barnet who secretly wanted to be the King of entire Professional Wrestling. His first step towards achieving that dream was  going national with his Television offering. Jim Crockett was gaining more and more prominence in the NWA territory in the early 1980s and was named and elected as the President of the NWA soon after. With the seemingly unending pool of talent now under his control because of the powers that were attached to the position of the President, he kept adding more value to his own promotion, Jim Crockett Promotions. Apart from those mentioned above, there were many other medium to large size wrestling promotions that were quite successful in their respective areas. All of this pointed to a bright future for professional wrestling in one way, and surely it was a positive. There was another side to the coin too, however.

The boom that was witnessed by the industry in the late 1940s with the creation of NWA had considerably slowed down by the time the 80s arrived. The very nature of NWA cooperative moment ensured there were enough reasons for conflict to occur between various member promotions. One unique World Championship meant there would be one wrestler above all others for the majority of time and whichever promotion he belonged to would benefit the most. There were small and large conflicts within the NWA which sometimes resulted in member promotions opting out of the NWA. AWA was one such promotion that had opted out of the NWA, so was WWF. WWF had rejoined the NWA back in the 1970s but did not become a major part of it. The biggest negative for professional wrestling was that it had lost its audience, not by a huge margin, but still it was a loss.

These were the positives and negatives that were associated with the professional wrestling. To be honest, they weren’t as huge of a deal. It represented more of a cyclical change in the business, which may be applied to any sport or business or company in the world. Good times and bad times. It’s always a mixed package. Even for Apple Inc, which seemed to have a bright future with the Macintosh, but alas.

Things were going normal.

Until, Vince McMahon Jr. arrived, that is.

Vince McMahon Jr. had aspirations that were a lot more than ambitious. You may as well look at this decade as that of Vince McMahon Jr. (Will refer to him as Vince McMahon or Vince only, somehow that JR so close to Vince McMahon does not seem to be a good idea to me)

There had been promoters who tried to invade the territories that did not belong to them before but Vince took the concept of invading to a whole new level. He completely disregarded the well written law of territory system and made every effort to expand his business wherever he could. He gained a lot of money because of the increased income from both television deals and video tapes sales. He used this money for his evil plan to expand and to destroy other territories. He was on a rampage to acquire new talent at a pace faster than a cheerleader in the college football loses her virginity by each and every member of the team, including the coach. (Rumour has it that he once went to a hitherto unexplored territory without declaring his identity, visited the local wrestling promotion, saw the entire show they had presented, went to the locker room, shook hands with the wrestler who had been the highlight of the night and said to him loudly, in front of the entire locker room watching him, “YOU’RE HIRED!!!” and went out of the room with a wide grin on his face. The wrestler was so shocked by the entire affair he took the next flight to his home country of Mongolia and never returned. Random, I know.)

Vince McMahon, however, was not the only one that was innovating. Jim Crockett managed to present better overall shows as he had a lot of pull in the NWA. He even started the concept of super shows with the inaugural Starrcade in the year 1983 which was widely successful and well received. He had selected Ric Flair as the main man that would lead his company throughout the 80s. Although Ric Flair did not get much appreciation and acceptance from the fans initially, he became a huge star by the time the very first Starrcade ended. He defeated Harley Race in a steel cage after a highly intense feud.

If Starrcade was a Super show, then Vince McMahon intended to change the very definition of Super Show. He brought in Wrestlemania which saw wrestling stars teaming with celebrities. It got a wide media attention and was well received. Wrestlemania also created a huge revenue earning potential with the concept of pay-per views. If Jim Crockett had Ric Flair, the hero; Vince brought in Hulk Hogan, the Super Hero.

Georgia Championship Wrestling hadn’t lasted long and was ultimately acquired by WWF. AWA was the one where Hulk Hogan was created and despite losing ground to major promotions, AWA has still found a way to keep producing new talents. But the question is can it survive? I highly doubt.

Jim Crockett would bring in new concepts and events but would always be one upped by Vince, sometimes in very unethical ways. After giving a lot of fight, Jim Crockett would have to finally give away his dream.

So what was essentially a many horse race in the early 1980s was left with just one winner, thus the column titled, ‘And then were none’. That would have been the case except for Ted Turner buying out Jim Crockett Promotions.