The 1980s professional wrestling boom, more commonly referred to as the Golden Era "The Golden Era of what we now call the WWE is defined as 1982-1993." or the Rock 'n' Wrestling Era, was a surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and elsewhere throughout the 1980s. The expansion of cable television and pay-per-view, coupled with the efforts of promoters such as Vince McMahon, saw wrestling shift from a system controlled by numerous regional companies to one dominated by two nationwide companies: McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The decade also saw a considerable decline in the power of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), which had until then dominated the wrestling landscape, and in the efforts to sustain belief in the kayfabe of wrestling.
History In the early 1980s, professional wrestling in the United States consisted mainly of three competing organizations or promotions: the World Wrestling Federation in the Northeast, the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the Midwest, and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), which consisted of various wrestling promotions which operated within a territorial system around the country.
National Wrestling Alliance
Multiple NWA territories were very successful in the 1970s and continued that success in the early 1980s. WTBS in Atlanta, Georgia, became a cable television superstation based on broadcasting Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), with both Mr. Wrestling II and Tommy Rich being the top headliners in the territory. Ric Flair rose to prominence in Mid Atlantic Wrestling, while Dusty Rhodes was the fan favorite in Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF). Mid-South Wrestling had the first significant African-American champion babyface, Junkyard Dog.
Meanwhile, the NWA's affiliate in Memphis, Tennessee, the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), had Jerry Lawler, who rose to national prominence thanks to his "feud" with Andy Kaufman. After Lawler piledrove the comedian during a 1982 match in Memphis, the two got into an altercation on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman, in which Lawler slapped Kaufman on-air and Kaufman responded by shouting profanities and throwing coffee at Lawler before storming out of the studio. The act, later revealed to be staged, is largely credited with giving rise to modern-day professional wrestling.
American Wrestling Association
At the beginning of the 1980s, the AWA had the largest television presence, with distribution of their weekly broadcast in Chicago, Denver, Green Bay, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Winnipeg. The AWA expanded into the top-ten media market of the San Francisco Bay Area after Roy Shire ran his final battle royal at the Cow Palace on January 24, 1981, demonstrating that the AWA was positioned to prosper as other promotions failed.
The AWA had the talent that would ultimately lead Vince McMahon's WWF to pre-eminence in professional wrestling. Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan were AWA's major on-air talent. Hulk Hogan became the top babyface after Verne Gagne retired from full-time wrestling in 1981 and Nick Bockwinkel became the AWA World Heavyweight Champion. Hogan faced Bockwinkel on April 18, 1982, and on April 24, 1983, with both matches being decided with "dusty finishes" where Hogan pinned Bockwinkel for a three count but was then stripped of the title. Hogan said Gagne offered him the championship on the latter occasion in exchange for his merchandising rights and money from touring with other promotions, which would show that Gagne understood wrestling was becoming a bigger business in the 1980s; however, Hogan refused. Gagne's failure to keep his fortunate position is a significant factor in the history of professional wrestling.
World Class Championship Wrestling
In 1982, Continental Productions, a subsidiary of Dallas independent station KXTX, began syndicating a one-hour show internationally from the Sportatorium of former NWA affiliate World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) run by Fritz Von Erich. Dallas station KTVT had broadcast Von Erich's program as Saturday Night Wrestling for over a decade before KXTX began the second broadcast.
The KXTX broadcast was innovative because it more closely resembled a professional sportscast, with former football broadcaster Bill Mercer as host, mobile cameras at ringside with multiple shotgun microphones to capture and enhance the sound of impacts and crowd noise for boxing pay-per-views, and vignettes and interviews inspired by the Rocky movies to accentuate the heel or babyface of a wrestler outside the ring.
The show featured the babyface Von Erich brothersDavid, Kerry and Kevinagainst heels from the stable of Gary Hart, who culminated nearly two decades of his career in Texas by booking the feud between the Von Erichs and the Freebirds in 1982, and then Skandor Akbar's Devastation, Inc. stable in 1983. The KXTX program earned extremely high ratingshigher than Saturday Night Live and many wrestling promotions in the U.S., including the AWA and the WWF.Mackinder, Mack (June 13, 2006). "Heroes of World Class DVD a definite treasure". CANOE – SLAM! Sports. Retrieved April 12, 2015
The Von Erichs were the most recognizable babyfaces in wrestling in 1982 and 1983. However, the family would become marred by death of nearly every wrestler associated with WCCW in the ensuing years, attributed to abuse of steroids, opiates and cocaine.
World Wrestling Federation expands
In 1982, Vince McMahon purchased the WWF from his ailing father, Vincent J. McMahon. On December 23, 1983, the younger McMahon signed AWA superstar Hulk Hogan, who previously wrestled with the WWF from 1979 to 1981, to return to the company in 1984 after he had appeared in Rocky III. McMahon booked longtime WWF Champion and previous face of the company, Bob Backlund, to lose the title to The Iron Sheik in December 1983, only to lose it to Hogan weeks later. Shortly after the match, the WWF began promoting matches with Hogan in the main event in parts of the U.S. outside the Northeast, which changed a long-standing non-aggression pact between the WWF and other wrestling promotions. To play Hogan's nemesis, he signed talents including Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) babyface "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, turning him heel, and AWA manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. McMahon later stated in the documentary The UnReal Story of Professional Wrestling that he did not think his father would have ever sold him the WWF if he knew what he was planning to do. "He probably would have said, 'Vinny, what are you doing? You're gonna wind up at the bottom of a river,'" he explained.
Meanwhile, other promotions tried to counter McMahon throughout the mid-1980s. On November 24, 1983, Flair defeated Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the pay-per-view wrestling event Starrcade, which inaugurated Flair's golden era and was credited with showing that a major event could earn significant income across many locations. On February 10, David Von Erich died of reported acute enteritis in Japan. Although there was a short-term boost culminating in Kerry Von Erich's victory over Flair for the NWA World title in front of a packed Texas Stadium crowd on May 6, both the death of Gino Hernandez and the suicide of Mike Von Erich placed a cloud over WCCW that became its legacy. The AWA signed a television contract with ESPN, but the revenue was insignificant compared to the WWF's pay-per-view business, which was based on annual March/April events featuring Hogan in a landmark championship match each year from 1986 to 1991. With competition from cable superstations broadcasting WCCW, AWA and NWA, McMahon syndicated WWF television shows outside the promotion's traditional Northeastern territory and began a home video distribution label called Coliseum Video. McMahon would use the additional income generated by advertising, television deals and video sales and rentals to further his ambition to tour nationally. However, such a venture required huge capital investmentone that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse.
McMahon did not meet immediate success. In May 1984, in a failed attempt to garner a greater appeal in the Southeast, McMahon bought a controlling interest in GCW, an NWA member which held the lucrative Saturday timeslot on Atlanta-based independent station WTBS—known outside Atlanta as Superstation TBS. On July 14, 1984later dubbed "Black Saturday"WWF programming began airing in the WTBS timeslot formerly occupied by GCW programming. The WWF programming was not successful and viewed as comical compared to the NWA. Due to low ratings and viewer protests, WTBS began airing wrestling by Ole Anderson's new promotion, Championship Wrestling from Georgia, as well as Bill Watts's Mid-South Wrestling, both of which garnered higher ratings than McMahon's WWF show. Later, McMahon sold the WTBS timeslot to rival promoter Jim Crockett, Jr. for $1 million. In the WWE documentary The Rise and Fall of WCW, Crockett explained that his purchase of the timeslot basically paid for McMahon's first WrestleMania.The Rise and Fall of WCW DVD.
By the end of 1984, the regional territory system of the NWA was clearly in jeopardy. In June 1984, Jack Tunney transferred his control in Maple Leaf Wrestling to the WWF. The AWA, WCCW and Memphis-based Continental Wrestling Association formed Pro Wrestling USA in 1985, but the endeavor failed by the end of the year.
Many fans, especially those in the Deep South, were angered by the collapse of their local wrestling promotions. Some of the more well-known promotions, including JCP and Championship Wrestling from Florida, were affected. These fans turned to WTBS, where station founder Ted Turner had launched World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In most of these areas, WWF shows were not financially successful until 1997–98.
Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection
The WWF would go on to a period of unprecedented success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The success was in part precipitated by the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection", a period of cooperation and cross-promotion between the WWF and elements of the music industry.Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p. 166–167. The idea was formed by WWF manager Lou Albano, who met singer Cyndi Lauper on a trip to Puerto Rico. Lauper asked Albano to appear as her father in her video for the single "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (1983). McMahon later booked Lauper and Albano on a segment of Piper's Pit. During the segment, the Rock 'n' Wrestling storyline began when Albano called Lauper a "broad", while Lauper retaliated by hitting him with her purse.Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p. 169–170. She then challenged Albano to a match between two female wrestlers of their choice.
MTV broadcast the first live wrestling match on cable television as well as the first live women's professional wrestling match. Lauper chose Wendi Richter, while Albano chose The Fabulous Moolah. The match was scheduled for July 23, 1984, at The Brawl to End it All, broadcast live on MTV.Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s, p. 87. Richter defeated Moolah for the WWF Women's Championship, which the WWF had promoted as having been held by Moolah for the previous twenty-eight years.Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p. 171–173. The connection between Lauper and the WWF continued with the video for the song "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", "Time After Time", and "She Bop", all of which featured WWF wrestlers.
On September 14, 1985, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, an animated television series starring the character of Hulk Hogan, premiered on CBS. The series ran until June 6, 1987, in the process expanding Hogan's young fanbase.