I’ve always been fascinated by Jim Crockett as a promoter. In so many ways, he reads similar to Vince McMahon as a second generation wrestler trying to forward the sport/art of professional wrestling forward, something not only meant to be enjoyed by locals in a television studio but by a national audience through syndication or cable television. Crockett and McMahon cultivated a number of talents and other territories to the point where they were both swallowing places like Mid-South and AWA whole. Each man had their own larger than life star who literally defined pro wrestling, guys who even non-wrestling fans can identify. McMahon had Hulk Hogan. Crockett had Ric Flair. What was the difference? McMahon had New York city, MTV, and a want to expand wrestling beyond the diehard fan and into mainstream popular culture. Crockett was content to try and be a wrestling company. He also committed the ultimate American hubris by trying to be bigger than his britches. Expanding too fast and not generating enough revenue cost Crockett money and ultimately his company. While Ted Turner’s WCW certainly had some fantastic moments and runs, they never achieved the magic of the old territory days and in many ways disgraced some of the stars Crockett had created.
In many ways, the story of Jim Crockett promotions/Mid-Atlantic is the typical 80s excess story. For this promotion to essentially be around for 50 years, running the same areas while only making minor changes to their booking model, is very impressive. Then in the span of three years, Jim Crockett Productions swallowed whole by Ted Turner and essentially dead. A shell of multiple companies across the southeast, southwest and lower Midwest became WCW. And well, we all know what happened there.
Some is spent discussing the legacy of Jim Crockett Sr., the man who started it all. He not only promoted professional wrestling but brought all forms of entertainment to North Carolina. Before the Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats and Carolina Panthers, there was Jim Crockett Sr. and his brand of professional wrestling. Primarily focused on tag teams, the group found its niche and excelled until the passing of Crockett Sr. After a bit of chaos, Jim Crockett Jr. took over and allowed things to continue to hum along. The focus shifted away from tag teams and into singles wrestling. And oh boy did they have some wrestlers. Johnny Valentine. Roddy Piper. Ricky Steamboat. Ric Flair. Not even an unfortunate plane accident could deter Jim Crockett promotions through the 1970s.
There are a number of great quotes I wrote down because of the insight provided. This was called the “Cadillac of wrestling territories.” A number of feuds are highlighted. I know I feel watching 60 minute matches. I can’t even imagine watching the Andersons versus Paul Jones and Wahoo McDaniel for 90 minutes or two hours. As Ole Anderson came into power, the territory did witness a bit of a dip since he tried to book TWO TERRITORIES AT ONCE. This obviously didn’t work, so they went to a committee led by Dory Funk. Needless to say this didn’t work. Enter Dusty Rhodes.
We all know how the story of professional wrestling ended by the time December 31, 1989 rolled around. Most of the territories were either dead, dying, or a fraction of what they once were. Each company failed for different reasons. Jim Crockett is one of the few promoters who had the financial resources and audience loyalty to at least form a legitimate alternative to what the World Wrestling Federation. He had an incredible amount of talent, perhaps most importantly Ric Flair. Ric Flair was likely the second biggest star of the 1980s. Unfortunately, the biggest star was in the WWF and may have been a key difference. Hulk Hogan allowed for the mainstreaming of professional wrestling from a series of regional , mafia like pods into a nationalized branding. I guess you could call it a McDonaldization or Wal-Martization of pro wrestling.
The NWA could have at least carved out its part of the country. Dusty Rhodes seemed to understand what was coming and helped bring about Starrcade ’83, 18 months before the first Wrestlemania. It became a Thanksgiving tradition for a number of years and resided out of Greensboro, North Carolina. What is made clear is that Greensboro was the number one town for the NWA. Maybe it didn’t have the cache of a New York or Chicago, but it was home. Jim Cornette, who in many ways serves as a voice of reason and logic, discusses Rhodes as a big picture guy with a grand vision. A key aspect of this was his spend of 50 thousand dollars to make 60 thousand dollars. This high spending mixed in with a grand vision would prove to be the demise of Jim Crockett Promotions.
Both the NWA and WWF went national at the same. Because of the amount of talent and Crockett purchasing territories, they stayed competitive at first. The amount of money being made allowed them to buy fancy cars and even two private airplanes. It was professional wrestling against sports entertainment. As Dusty Rhodes said, they wrestled for one hour while Vince McMahon entertained for an hour. Magnum T.A.’s career ending car accident was the first sign in a series to begin the end for Jim Crockett Promotions.
Instead of waiting for Bill Watts’ UWF to go belly up because of the oil bust in Texas (another example of 80s excess rearing its ugly head), Crockett spent millions of dollars to buy them out and moved the offices out of North Carolina and into Dallas, Texas. The NWA was essentially abandoning its home for the possibility of a new audience. The jet airplanes were revved up for cross country adventures that took the NWA to California, Pennsylvania, and even New York. The NWA further burned their bridges at home by having Starrcade ’87, their first PPV, in Chicago instead of Greensboro. Even the second ever PPV was in…Long island, New York. Jim Cornette’s crack about Long Island fans was pretty spot-on.
Rhodes and Crockett had a vision of the NWA as moving beyond wrestling and into movies and sitcoms. Maybe they enjoyed those private planes a little bit too much. By 1988, the NWA was losing money to the tune of four million dollars. While that might be a drop in the bucket for WWE in 2013, it was a lot for a company that had a number of high-priced contracts and television deals to live up to. Jim Crockett took some responsibility for what happened, and since he is the man charge, logic dictates that Crockett got too big too fast and didn’t have the business sense of a Vince McMahon to compete on a national level. Dusty Rhodes certainly has to share in the blame because of his insistence on using the “Dusty finish” and shifting the NWA away from wrestling and into ancillary projects.
There’s a lot to learn from the latest project from Highspots as funded through Kickstarter. Unlike the Dynamite Kid documentary, this actually felt closer to a real film. They may not have access to a lot of footage, but they were at least able to acquire some footage to use for B-roll and to show the wrestlers in action. Instead of a series of interviews spliced together, this had real pacing. It also helped that the interviewees were able to convey and discuss the subject matter. While Dynamite Kid may be an interesting person, he personally was the worst part of his own documentary and other people had to compensate. This was a significantly better production all around and should be what Highspots strives for moving forward.
I did not have a chance to watch all of the bonus features, but there are number of bonus interview segments with some of the people involved including Ivan koloff, JJ Dillion, Jim Cornette, and an extended portion with Jim Crockett. While thirty dollars is a steep asking price, the bonus footage certainly helps alleviates some of the cost. Not only was this a great production, but unlike the WCW documentary, we were really allowed to dive in and see why Jim Crockett in particular failed. At just over two hours, there are a number of valuable lessons to be learned for wrestling companies in 2013.
Grade: A-
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