This Article is a response to FRANK's articles about the Great Raids of Wrestling if anyone hasn't read it I suggest you do so now... it was a Great Freaking Article! I loved it man, kind of like a brief history of the death of regional wrestling territories and the push for National Expansion by Vince and the WWF (WWE).
I liked how Frank made the Gagne/ Hogan clash the focal point of the fate of small wrestling territories, one wonders if Gagne would have backed off of Hogan, let him carry the AWA strap as a true face and not request a high percentage of all merchandise and royalties, if the AWA would still be alive and kicking today, as well as other promotions.
Mid-South may have been the eventual winner of the war if this scenario played out considering their immense talent pool of both old-school and new-age wrestlers.
But like many have said before, any of these promotions could have made it to the top if they had a Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr. to run things. His ambition, drive, vision, passion and ingenuity and disregard for the health of the business as a whole led to his success.
Vince buried regional "Rasslin", and turned his promotion into the International Face for "Professional Wrestling," he created the image, made it mainstream, and kept it interesting enough to beat all competitors for more than 25 years.
WCW, while they had the money, the power of network syndication, and prime-time cable TV slots, lost it all due to over-confidence, under-management, and stale storylines which always saw the same handful of wrestlers get their shots at main-eventing.
ECW was the last regional powerhouse, their departure from NWA by Shane Douglas' discarding the NWA Heavyweight Title in favor of the ECW title was historic, and led to a different direction in wrestling, something that was edgy, real, hardcore, drenched in sex appeal and so counter-culture that the masses of fans who had become accustomed to campy WWE and stale WCW programming were instantly drawn.
While ECW did try to go national, as a start up promotion with little capital, owner Paul Heyman was unable to create the revenue needed to push his vision into the mainstream and keep the promotion afloat, often leaving many performers unpaid until they were frustrated and left for greener pastures.
A lot can be said for the talent, and how "raiding" smaller territories for their big stars put them out of business, well that's true, but Vince also stole or repackaged ideas and sold them better to the masses, making them not only more popular, but also marketable, and more accessible to the public.
He even went as far as having a "good faith" initiative by promoting ECW on WWE programing, in a way trying to put them in the mainstream and keeping them afloat in a crucial period in their war with WCW. Many still don't understand this move by Vince during 1997, but I have a theory which makes perfect sense.
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