- Joined
- Dec 7, 2020
That's actual bullshit. Crockett Promotions was pretty much in a death spiral at the the time in the late 80s and Turner buying it effectively bought them another 11 years. Turner was extremely loyal to the wrestling genre due to it being one of the highest rated shows on TBS during those early years. And WCW itself pretty much would still be alive today if Turner still held power, as the second he lost all power after the AOL merger, WCW was shut down and sold off to the WWE.
The
Turner buyout ushered in a new generation of management, people like Jim Herd, who quickly pushed the production in a watered down direction. Crocket was actually on the verge of pulling the arena and small show business out of the pits he got into thanks to his TV expansion attempts to counter Vince, and honestly only folded because the family were not willing to risk their retirements on the chance business would turn around in time, and by the time it did, the sale was pretty much finalized
Jim Herd and TBS still have Jim Cornette complaining that they would harass the production for featuring gratuitous violence in a show about gratuitous violence. So you are technically correct that Turner kept the SHOW alive, but he also absolutely killed Southern wrestling as a distinct TV product at the same time, to say nothing of how Southern territories could pull $200,000 earnings out of towns like Greenville SC with the live shows.
So more accurately, Turner bought Southern wrestling, and then it took him 11 years to fully destroy the zombie of the Southern wrestling audience, which was shockingly much more dedicated than random TBS viewers looking for All In The Family.
Turner buyout ushered in a new generation of management, people like Jim Herd, who quickly pushed the production in a watered down direction. Crocket was actually on the verge of pulling the arena and small show business out of the pits he got into thanks to his TV expansion attempts to counter Vince, and honestly only folded because the family were not willing to risk their retirements on the chance business would turn around in time, and by the time it did, the sale was pretty much finalized
Jim Herd and TBS still have Jim Cornette complaining that they would harass the production for featuring gratuitous violence in a show about gratuitous violence. So you are technically correct that Turner kept the SHOW alive, but he also absolutely killed Southern wrestling as a distinct TV product at the same time, to say nothing of how Southern territories could pull $200,000 earnings out of towns like Greenville SC with the live shows.
So more accurately, Turner bought Southern wrestling, and then it took him 11 years to fully destroy the zombie of the Southern wrestling audience, which was shockingly much more dedicated than random TBS viewers looking for All In The Family.
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