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00:00On July 14th, 1984, millions of loyal viewers tuned into cable channel WTBS to watch its most popular program, World Championship Wrestling.
00:13Thank you so very, very much.
00:15But instead of a live broadcast featuring the South's most popular wrestlers, fans were shocked by the surprise appearance of New York promoter, Vincent McMahon Jr.
00:26Thank you, it is indeed a pleasure to be associated with WTBS.
00:28And everybody's mouth dropped open.
00:32It seemed like the world of wrestling stopped at that time.
00:36I was watching the TV. I had no idea it was coming.
00:39Nobody knew why. You know, the fans of that promotion were furious.
00:42It was a day that would live in infamy, forever known as Black Saturday.
00:49Vince McMahon's first step toward his goal of total monopoly, he had a vision that wrestling should be national under one person.
00:58Far more than the tale of one man's ambition, Black Saturday is the story of an epic behind-the-scenes showdown between titans of the industry.
01:08They kind of hoodooed him and snuck it out from underneath him more so than him giving it up.
01:13No, he said, let's do it, blood oath.
01:14The first one to break that oath was not us.
01:17So my father, he gets a call. They've stolen the company.
01:21A high-stakes power play that sets Vince McMahon on the path toward building a billion-dollar wrestling empire.
01:29It was all the beginning groundwork of future warfare.
01:34Vince McMahon was a cancer in the wrestling business.
01:37Vince won. He was the best at it. He was the most vicious shark in the sea.
01:40Vince McMahon was a cancer in the sea.
01:51Welcome to WrestleMedia.
01:55For over 40 years, the wrestling business has been dominated by world wrestling entertainment
02:00under the singular control of its owner and mastermind, Vince McMahon Jr.
02:04But in the early 1980s, McMahon is just beginning to stake his claim on an industry divided into regional promotions known as Territories.
02:16In 1983, most wrestling fans saw Vince McMahon Jr. as the announcer of the WWF television program.
02:26Now, everybody in the wrestling business knew that Vince was Vince McMahon Sr.'s son
02:31and was the guy who had just bought the WWF, the World Wrestling Federation, from his father in 1982.
02:39Let's meet Jimmy Cornett and his dynasty of wrestlers.
02:42That's exactly right. Let's meet me. Where did you get that tie, Freddie Miller?
02:44Well, I'm Jim Cornett, and through my 40-year career in wrestling, I've been an historian.
02:48And specifically, I've studied Black Saturday and its effects on modern-day pro wrestling.
02:54When Vince McMahon Jr. bought the WWF, the business in that part of the country had almost never been stronger.
03:02Since the 1940s, regional promoters like McMahon Sr. did business through a governing body called the National Wrestling Alliance.
03:10Well, the N.W.A., they made these bylaws and they had territorial boundaries where you've got this territory and you've got this territory.
03:19My name is Dave Meltzer, and I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and I've been covering pro wrestling since the early 1970s.
03:26In the N.W.A., there was always wars and fighting and things like that.
03:29Wrestling has always been kind of like the mafia without the cement overshoes.
03:33Nobody ends up at the bottom of the river, just a few black eyes every now and then.
03:37Every year the N.W.A. had a meeting, all the promoters came.
03:43It was like the Gambinos and the Bananos and there's the Gottis.
03:47And it was all the families that came together once a year and decided the major decisions for wrestling in the United States for the following year.
03:56The other promoters looked at Vince Jr. like an upstart kid.
04:00They didn't realize he wanted to be the Walt Disney of wrestling.
04:03They didn't understand not only the plans that he had, but the lengths that he was willing to go to to have those plans come to fruition.
04:12While some territories showed signs of struggle, Georgia Championship Wrestling was thriving, thanks to the shrewd leadership of Jim Barnett.
04:21Barnett was one of the great minds in wrestling as a promoter.
04:26When he needed to charm people, he could charm people.
04:29And he had connections outside wrestling.
04:31If you needed to discuss something with a politician, if you needed to talk to a television executive or a station manager or a big sponsor,
04:41Barnett was the guy that they called to make the connection.
04:44Even in today's business, as off the wall as the characters are, Jim Barnett would still stand out as a very unique character.
04:54I'm Gerald Briscoe, better known as Jerry Briscoe in the wrestling circuit.
04:59Let's go see the world tag team champions Jack and Jerry Briscoe in action.
05:03My brother and I became the only two people ever to hold both the Eastern Championship and the Mid-Atlantic Championship.
05:09Right, brother.
05:10They say we're wild and we're mean, we're creating a scene, we're going crazy.
05:14I got along real well and learned so much from Jim Barnett.
05:19All the other promoters were ex-wrestlers, or they were loud and braggadocious.
05:24Jim always wore a beautiful suit with a tie, and he had the hair slicked back, and he had jewelry on.
05:30Has wrestling incurred violence?
05:33I don't think so, no. I never thought so.
05:36He was very different from a wrestling guy.
05:38I mean, he was interested in wrestling, but he's more interested in fine arts, which is kind of unique for a wrestling promoter.
05:45For a while, they wouldn't let Jim in the NWA until, jeez, like 70, because they didn't want somebody gay in their old boys club.
05:54Behind the scenes, he was a cutthroat.
05:58He had the ability to cut your balls off and shove them down your throat, and you'd thank him for it.
06:04Known as a powerful liaison to TV executives, Jim Barnett is close to media tycoon Ted Turner, who airs Georgia Championship Wrestling nationally on his cable network, WTBS.
06:19Wrestling was the first hit on cable television. It was Georgia Championship Wrestling.
06:22Turner just took his local Atlanta Channel 17 TV station and put it up on a satellite, and everybody thought he was nuts.
06:29Who's going to want to watch a local Atlanta television show in San Francisco, right?
06:33There wasn't so many options for TV, so it was one of the stations you got.
06:36So you could watch the Atlanta Braves, and Andy Griffith was big.
06:39But wrestling was the biggest show on the station. You know, that was like must-see.
06:42Coming up next, Georgia Championship Wrestling.
06:45All the stars of the National Wrestling Alliance flew into Atlanta every weekend to appear on the two-hour television program.
06:56A severe amount of punishment to the heads.
06:59It was the number one TV show on cable TV. That's how hot it was.
07:03I mean, what made it so hot was the unique combination of Gordon Soley, the voice of Championship Wrestling,
07:09and the available talent. There's so many Hall of Famers on that original list of talent that it's mind-boggling
07:18that that kind of group of talent could assemble in one small territory like Georgia.
07:24I think what made it so special is it was TBS, first TV station to go all over the country,
07:31and I got to wrestle the best of the best. I mean, the cream of the crop.
07:35My name's Tommy Wildfire, Rich, former NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
07:41Come on, Tommy. Thank you very much, Gordon. You're okay?
07:43It was crazy. A lot of times you sit back and watch the people,
07:48and it would be as big a show watching them as it would be watching the wrestling, you know.
07:52Oh, Lord, yeah, the Georgia Peaches, and the grannies love me too.
07:57I see grannies take their cane and beat Ole Anderson up with it because he's beating me up, you know.
08:02I put the TV ring up every Saturday at the TV station. It was cramped.
08:08The studio would only hold 100 people, and you packed them in like sardines to get 100 in there.
08:12Boy Scout groups, Girl Scout troops, church groups, just fans that love to come every week.
08:19My name's Bobby Simmons. Started working for ABC Booking when I was 14 years old, running errands,
08:24and then went to work for Georgia Championship Wrestling.
08:27We had good crowds, and we did sell out a lot of arenas.
08:30The day-to-day operations are handled by matchmaker Ole Anderson.
08:35Ole Anderson.
08:37A veteran wrestler who rules Georgia Championship Wrestling with an iron fist.
08:42Ole fuckered him that time.
08:43Ole was very intelligent. One of the most intelligent guys, one of the most well-spoken guys.
08:49He was loud. He was opinionated.
08:51Why don't you be quiet for about two seconds and let me talk at Facebook?
08:54But Ole was a great wrestler, and he had also gotten quite a reputation as a matchmaker and a booker.
09:03Either you hate him or you love him or, well, you don't love him, but either you hate him or you like him.
09:09But he's kind of hard to love.
09:11My name is Joe Hamilton, Jr. I refereed and wrestled as Nick Patrick throughout my entire career.
09:18I stopped the match myself.
09:20Two Nick Patrick fairies.
09:22I heard Ricky Morton one time say, I don't think Ole Anderson even likes ice cream.
09:27And I agree, he probably didn't.
09:29You know, he was just so old school and grouchy, but a lot of the old timers back then were like that.
09:35You know, they were being hard-ass on the young guys and making them learn.
09:39He was what you saw.
09:41My father was very no-nonsense.
09:44I think the guy that you saw on the screen was very much the same guy that ate breakfast with me the next morning.
09:49And I think that's really part of the reason he was successful,
09:52was because people could believe what they were seeing.
09:54My name is Bryant Rogowski, and I'm the oldest son of Ole Anderson.
09:59My father obviously spent years bumping in the ring and suffered a lot of physical injuries.
10:05And some years ago he was diagnosed with MS,
10:08and right now he's just in a state where he can't really do a lot for himself.
10:13I think he was all about business.
10:15It wasn't long into his wrestling career that he began to think about being in charge.
10:21Eventually, he bought into the Georgia company.
10:25Ole isn't the only wrestler looking to increase his fortunes by getting involved in the financial side of the promotion.
10:33I started buying my stock in small increments where it built up to over 10%, and the same with my brother.
10:41In 1983, the stockholders in Georgia Championship Wrestling were the original promoter Paul Jones,
10:47a Columbus promoter Fred Ward, his son-in-law Ralph Freed,
10:51Jim Barnett's business partner Jim Oates,
10:54Jack and Jerry Briscoe,
10:56and Ole Anderson.
10:58Although Georgia Championship Wrestling is turning a profit,
11:01Ole Anderson begins to question whether all the live show earnings are being accurately reported.
11:07Wrestling had always been a very cash-heavy business,
11:11and money had always probably been siphoned off the top to some degree.
11:14You know, we had to pay off the politician, or we had to give some money to the commissioner,
11:18or whatever it was.
11:19And I think surely there was some truth to some of that.
11:22But when my dad started to really pay attention in Georgia and realized that it wasn't only him bringing Barnett a few bucks after this show,
11:30but it was seven or eight other guys all doing the same thing,
11:33he realized that that amount of money surely couldn't all be used for those purposes.
11:38I had tremendous concerns, you know, because I wasn't getting a dividend,
11:42and I'd invested tens of thousands of dollars.
11:45We finally got Jim to expand into Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia, part of Pennsylvania,
11:50and we started selling out right and left.
11:54And I was actually doing the settlement at the shows at the time.
11:58So I personally know the amount of cash that I was taking back to Georgia,
12:03and that wasn't getting in anybody else's pocket but Mr. Barnett's.
12:07Oli was the first one, maybe the only one at the time, to question Jim Barnett.
12:17The story went around that while Barnett was in Hong Kong making his annual trip
12:23because he liked to go to Hong Kong and get all his new suits made,
12:27Oli either kicks the door in or busts the door in,
12:31whether the accountant was in the office or not, but Oli got into the books.
12:34It was like Fort Knox trying to get to a box office statement
12:39because he had them on the lock and key, and the people working in the office were instructed,
12:43don't let anybody in my office.
12:45It was actually padlocked, shut.
12:48Oli, you know, started examining the books and everything,
12:50and he saw, like, Jim Barnett spending all kinds of crazy money on phone bills,
12:55$3,000 a month phone bills, and he had a personal chef, and he had a personal driver.
13:00So Oli just thought that, you know, Jim was best-selling money from the company.
13:06They had a meeting of the Georgia Championship owners at a hotel south of Atlanta in a conference room.
13:13And Jim handed out the checks from the proceeds of the calendar we sold.
13:18Supposedly, when Jim left, that's when Oli came in and addressed the owners.
13:27Oli had rallied the troops and gotten the majority of the other stockholders on his side.
13:36When I get to the office, Jim's doors open, lights on.
13:45I thought, what is this?
13:46And I heard Oli go, Bobby, come here.
13:49And Oli handed me all the checks that I had written for the proceeds of the calendar.
13:53He said, put this back in the bank.
13:55And he told me that day, he said, you don't work for Jim Barnett no more, you work for me.
14:00Oli told me, he says, I'm not out to hurt Jim, I'm not out to put him in jail, whatever that meant.
14:05He said, I think I can run this company, and we're going to do it my way.
14:10He thought everything was black and white, there were no gray areas, that it was just business.
14:15You acted like business people.
14:18Well, he found out very quickly that it didn't work that way.
14:26Hell hath no fury, like Barnett scorned.
14:35After reviewing the accounts for Georgia Championship Wrestling, park owner Oli Anderson tries to convince his fellow shareholders that manager Jim Barnett is embezzling funds from the company.
14:49Oli would call me and say, well, Jim's stealing all this money.
14:52Oli, is he stealing?
14:53Well, yeah, he's using it for his limousine, he's using it for this.
14:56And nobody approved those expenditures, and which was true.
14:59Jim would just explain it off its cost of doing business.
15:02We're having both sides of the story.
15:04Oli and Jim were not the best of friends.
15:07They were not even good partners most of the time.
15:10They were always at one another's throats.
15:13I'm Louise Cochran, formerly known as Louise Bennett, in Georgia Championship Wrestling.
15:18We were in a lot of debt.
15:19Because Jim had promised the buildings and the TVs so much per week or per month, and it didn't matter if we didn't make money.
15:29That was a power play for Oli to move in.
15:32I think it was more just of a money power thing than a Jim is tanking us with his spending thing.
15:37My dad and Ralph, another stockholder in Georgia Championship, went downtown to Barnett's penthouse apartment.
15:45And they had a talk with him.
15:46I think my dad probably did most of the talking and explained to Barnett, my dad was going to be elected president of Georgia Championship.
15:54That's the way it's going to be.
15:55And if you don't like it, I'm going to toss you over your railing.
15:58Here you are, a 285-pound monster, and you're bullying this old man.
16:06You did not want to get on the bad side of Jim Barnett because he could actively f*** with you in your wrestling career.
16:14Now, Oli has taken it to a whole new level.
16:17He didn't just no-show Barnett or stand him up or hold him up for more money for a main event or whatever.
16:23He's run him out of the company.
16:24See, Barnett knew that he might not be able to do anything about it then.
16:30You just know that he definitely knew he was going to do something about it eventually.
16:37While Oli reorganizes the company under his own management in early 1983,
16:43Vince McMahon has been quietly strategizing to expand his own promotion into other NWA territories.
16:50When Vince bought the company from his father, at first, everything maintained a status quo.
16:56He had plans, but he didn't start putting them out front of everybody where they could tell what he was doing.
17:02But behind the scenes, Vince Jr. has these plots in mind before even the other promoters know that he's going to do it.
17:10And the first thing that he's thinking about is television.
17:15Vince McMahon's scheme to steal the airwaves from other promoters begins by hiring an unlikely ally as his director of operations, Jim Barnett.
17:25In 1983, they have the annual meeting.
17:30All the promoters are there.
17:32Barnett comes in.
17:33So does Vince McMahon Jr.
17:37And they both give their resignations.
17:42That couldn't be good.
17:44What the f*** is going to happen?
17:46They were all blindsided, for sure.
17:48When they resign from the NWA, that would mean they're either going to get out of wrestling or they're going to run opposition.
17:54That's the only two things it can mean.
17:57And that seems to indicate that they're going to go into business for themselves, with themselves, in some other fashion.
18:04Oli smelled it.
18:05He said, okay, then the gloves are going to be off.
18:08Well, the problem was you couldn't handle the wrestling business in 1983 and 84 like you handled it in 1953 and 54.
18:17And secondly, Vince wasn't going to play that game.
18:21He had one of the most powerful wrestling personalities of the last 30 years in his corner who knew absolutely everybody.
18:31Barnett hated Oli.
18:32Barnett also was looking at survival.
18:35He was getting up there in age.
18:36But he needed to keep working.
18:37He needed to keep that income coming in to maintain the facade that he was a millionaire.
18:42I had Bob Roop, 13-year amateur wrestler, 15-year professional wrestler, five-time Hall of Fame member.
18:54So, Vince Sr. asked Oli to come up and meet with Jr. and see if they could make some kind of arrangement.
19:01And Oli said, no.
19:02He said, absolutely not.
19:04You know, he's trying to steal my territories and stuff.
19:06There was this unspoken agreement that people honored each other's territory.
19:11I'm sure Barnett was talking to McMahon right away and starting to sabotage Georgia Championship.
19:19Things started to happen around that time that had never happened before.
19:24McMahon would go to a station that we were on.
19:27We had a show running and offer them 2,000 bucks a week to take his show.
19:33But they had to get rid of Oli's show.
19:36Nothing on paper.
19:37There was no contract.
19:39Nothing said that they had to honor a championship wrestling from Georgia.
19:42So the station would say, okay.
19:45Next, you start losing buildings.
19:48You call to check on the building and see how ticket sales are going.
19:51They say, well, we stopped selling them.
19:53Bunch of police cars roll up outside the TV station.
19:56Take somebody away.
19:58They got an anonymous tip that he's dealing drugs.
20:01Or they're searching the guys at the airport.
20:04Things that just had never happened before that were just a constant thorn in his side
20:08and making things difficult to operate.
20:11More so than usual.
20:13Is it certain that this was all Vince McMahon Jr.'s doing?
20:16I don't think he ever had any proof and I don't know how he would.
20:19But like I say, it was stuff that never happened until then.
20:23Vince was infiltrating everybody's territory.
20:26Vince got the USA Network time slot from Southwest Championship Wrestling,
20:33another regional promotion out of San Antonio.
20:35Ladies and gentlemen, the Southwest Tag Team Champions.
20:38They couldn't afford the slot anymore.
20:40Vince jumped in and took it.
20:42And all American wrestling debuted on the USA Network.
20:46He would call different promoters and say, hey, I've got this cable show now.
20:50If you'll send me tapes, then I'll put your wrestlers on it
20:54and I'll get them over to a whole new audience.
20:57But the people that he was getting the tapes of and showing
21:00are people that he wanted to sign for the WWF.
21:04He gets the Junkyard Dog from Mid-South Wrestling.
21:08He gets Steamboat from the Carolinas.
21:10He got Kerry Von Erich in Dallas.
21:13He was buying out talent from other areas.
21:18You know, Hulk Hogan was on top in the AWA for Vern
21:21and all of a sudden he went to New York.
21:25Hulk Hogan shows up to win the WWF Championship
21:29from the Iron Sheik in Madison Square Garden.
21:33Now, Vince has the superhero on the top of his cards
21:39that he wants to put in every arena in the country
21:42and all over television to lead his national expansion.
21:46He knew that if you controlled television,
21:49you would control the source of distribution
21:52for all the wrestling programs and all the top wrestlers.
21:56Oh!
21:58And that's what he wanted to corner.
22:00Everything had been done a certain way
22:02and now everything was different.
22:04And Vince was public enemy number one.
22:06Some of the promoters, and they're talking to him,
22:08what if we put a hit on the guy, you know?
22:10And, you know, it's a wild story.
22:13I don't doubt that it's true at all
22:15because, you know, like, these are bad dudes.
22:18It's just like, you know, Vince is breaking the rules.
22:21Through Barnett's calculated maneuvering,
22:24Vince has seized TV time from promotions across the country.
22:28But one remains for the taking.
22:30Georgia Championship Wrestling
22:32and its nationwide slot on WTBS.
22:35And when Barnett comes to him
22:37with a grudge against Ole Anderson,
22:40who has the widest distribution
22:43of any television program in wrestling,
22:46and Barnett says to Vince,
22:49I think I can get it for you.
22:51And that's all he needed to hear.
22:52If he could take over and control
22:55television across the country,
22:57then he could take over
22:59every territory in the country.
23:07While Vince McMahon scoops up talent
23:10in TV spots from territories across the country,
23:13Ole Anderson tries to hold
23:15Georgia Championship Wrestling together
23:16by any means necessary.
23:18Maybe Ole thought he could do everything
23:21at that point in time,
23:22but Georgia Wrestling,
23:24it still had the reputation,
23:25but the product was starting to suffer.
23:28Yeah, I think he was trying to run
23:30a business with, you know, second-tier guys,
23:33people that weren't going to draw.
23:35I mean, he'd employed just about everybody
23:37in the business at one point or another,
23:39and it was those guys
23:40who were now working for Vince and WWF
23:43and becoming his superstars,
23:45leaving my father just scratching around
23:47for leftovers,
23:48and that just wasn't going to sell tickets.
23:51Ole had changed the concept
23:53where we weren't bringing in
23:55a lot of outside talent.
23:57Our live events were not drawing the money
23:59because we weren't spending the money
24:01on the talent that we were spending on before,
24:03and the top guys quit wanting
24:05to come to our territory.
24:06And we were actually getting phone calls
24:10from some of the top talent around the country.
24:12Hey, what's going on?
24:13You better watch Ole.
24:15And not only took their word for it,
24:17but were out there on several big shows
24:19and experienced it.
24:20The payoffs weren't the same.
24:23Frustrated that their investment
24:24is no longer paying dividends,
24:27the Briscoes decide Ole isn't cut out
24:29to manage the company.
24:30But in order to push out Ole,
24:32they will have to get their fellow shareholders
24:34to agree with a majority vote.
24:38We called a stockholders' meeting
24:39because we were going to take over
24:41Ole's dictatorship and do it ourselves.
24:45And we flew into town,
24:47already met with the lawyers,
24:48and the lawyers said,
24:48guys, you can't do this stockholders' meeting.
24:50It's illegal because we didn't state a purpose.
24:52The meeting got put off, of course,
24:54so we went back to the hotel
24:56and wanted to drown our sorrows,
24:58so we were sitting in the hotel bar.
24:59And who all of a sudden showed up in this bar?
25:03It's Ole Anderson.
25:04His purpose struck us down
25:06to find out what the hell we were planning on doing.
25:09And we weren't shy.
25:10We laid out that we're here to take you out of office.
25:15You want to know how much money there is in the bank.
25:18He tells them,
25:19well, why can't you pay it out?
25:21And so I'm sure for the hundredth time,
25:25he tries to explain to them
25:26how you've got to have some operating capital
25:29to run this business.
25:30You know, I've got to pay deposits on buildings.
25:33I've got to pay for advertising.
25:34I've got to buy plane tickets.
25:36Once we get another $100,000 in the bank,
25:39then I'll write the dividend checks.
25:40Of course I want to.
25:42I'll get one too.
25:44We'd done drank as much as we could drink
25:47and argued as much as we could argue
25:49and Ole, well, I'll come up to the room with you.
25:52I've got a deal for you.
25:53Okay, we'll listen to one last pitch.
25:56Ole, you know, well, you're going to Godfather?
25:58Yeah, I've got this deal with you.
26:00If you guys agree, let's do a blood off
26:02so we're all on the same page.
26:04The deal was,
26:06if anybody was going to sell stock,
26:09they had to offer it to the other shareholders
26:11in Georgia Championship Wrestling first
26:14before they could sell it to anybody else.
26:16My dad has a little pocket knife,
26:21sticks it in his head,
26:22gigs it down,
26:23gets some color.
26:27They look at him like,
26:28oh my God, what's wrong with you?
26:32Only my word means more than blood.
26:34I mean, to me,
26:35I mean, if I give you my word,
26:37I'm going to live up to it.
26:38I don't need these little gimmicks
26:40to certify my honesty.
26:45Probably took him about 10 minutes
26:47to convince Jack and I to do the same thing.
26:52So that was the only solution to our problem.
26:54You know, let's cut ourselves and bleed on each other.
26:57My dad was such a man of his word
27:00that if he shook your hand
27:01and said he was going to do anything,
27:03he would do it.
27:04He just, he believed people
27:06because, you know,
27:07he, he would never tell a lie.
27:10As part of the blood oath agreement,
27:12the Briscoes will focus
27:14on increasing ticket sales
27:15in exchange for regular payouts.
27:18But the deal doesn't last for long.
27:20The first one to break the oath
27:22was only because he quit paying us
27:23what he agreed to pay us.
27:24So we felt that we,
27:26we had an open waters there
27:27to do what we wanted to do.
27:29That led a fire under us
27:30that if we stick in this situation
27:32too much longer,
27:33we're not going to have anything.
27:36Desperate to cash out,
27:38the Briscoes begin shopping their shares
27:40outside of the company,
27:41starting with Jim Barnett,
27:43who turns them down.
27:45Knowing the Briscoes are looking to sell,
27:47Barnett knows someone who wants to buy.
27:50Vince McMahon.
27:52So Vince flew us up to LaGuardia
27:54and still to this day,
27:55I ribbed Vince about flying us up, coach.
28:00We met at LaGuardia Airport.
28:02He said,
28:03can you guys deliver me 51% of the territory?
28:07And I looked at him and I said,
28:08yes, sir, I can.
28:11So I had to make a call to Jim Barnett.
28:14Jim Barnett knew everybody
28:16that owned a piece of Georgia.
28:19Jim Barnett knew who they liked,
28:20who they didn't like,
28:21what they were mad about,
28:22what their weak spots were,
28:24whatever the case.
28:24All Jim Barnett had to do
28:26was point Vince McMahon
28:28in the right direction,
28:29not only with the Briscoes,
28:30but anybody else,
28:31or talk to them himself.
28:33He could make you
28:34do something you didn't want to do,
28:36and by the time he was finished,
28:38you'd think it was your idea.
28:40In the end of the negotiations
28:42and all the transactions,
28:44Vince ended up owning 67.5%
28:46of Georgia Championship Wrestling,
28:49which, of course,
28:50also held the contract
28:51for the television program on TBS.
28:54There was an agreement
28:55in the Articles of Incorporation
28:57that before anybody was to sell,
28:59they had to first offer it
29:00to one of the other stockholders,
29:02and he was told repeatedly
29:04by the attorneys
29:05that that was going to protect him.
29:08Well, turned out not to be true.
29:17Behind the back of Ole Anderson,
29:20the Briscoes aligned with Jim Barnett
29:22to give Vince McMahon control
29:24of Georgia Championship Wrestling,
29:26a move that will forever reshape the industry.
29:30In March of 1984,
29:32my grandmother passed away very suddenly.
29:35My father and I go up to Minnesota, Wisconsin,
29:38and take care of their arrangements
29:39and family business.
29:41He gets a call from the office.
29:43I think it was Louise who called him.
29:44I was in my office and the door opens
29:47and Vince walks in.
29:49Good morning.
29:51I now own the company.
29:55I called Ole
29:56and told him that Vince had sold the company.
30:02I thought it was real sneaky.
30:04It's not that they did it.
30:06It's just how they did it.
30:07He and I got on a plane right away.
30:11He parked me in a hotel in Atlanta.
30:13He immediately met with the lawyers.
30:15They filed for injunctions,
30:16and they fought for three or four months
30:18before it was finally all over.
30:20But he wanted to stop Vince
30:21from taking over Georgia Championship.
30:24With Ole's legal efforts
30:26to block the takeover thwarted,
30:28all that's left for him to do is concede.
30:31There was a deal in the bylaws
30:33for our corporation
30:35that said if a majority of the stockholders
30:37decided to change all the damn rules
30:40that are written up here,
30:41they could do that.
30:42And they just changed all the rules
30:43that we've been going by for years.
30:45So we lost it
30:46because Barnett was smart enough
30:47to realize that he could have done it.
30:48And I didn't know.
30:49I can remember the Saturday morning
30:51TV at TBS Studios.
30:53Vince McMahon is in the building.
30:55It's the only time
30:56I've ever been in the same room
30:57as Vince McMahon to this day.
30:59But from there, the fight was on.
31:01Vince was still at that point
31:03trying to talk to Ole
31:04because Vince is a guy
31:06that used to get in his own way
31:07and used to being able to talk people
31:09into anything he wants them to do.
31:11I think, you know,
31:12Vince would say,
31:12Ole, Ole, I'll give you a job.
31:14You know, tried to tell him over and over.
31:16It's just business.
31:17It's just business.
31:19Vince says, Ole,
31:20I'd like you to meet my wife, Linda.
31:21Well, my dad,
31:23in a typical fashion,
31:25responds,
31:25you know what?
31:27F*** you and F*** Linda.
31:31Despite Ole's fury,
31:33few outside the company
31:34are even aware
31:35of the change in ownership
31:36until Vince McMahon
31:38takes to the airwaves.
31:40So I go in there
31:41on this particular Saturday
31:42and there's this guy
31:43standing there
31:44with his arms folded
31:44and he's making his face.
31:45As it turns out,
31:50the man was
31:51Vincent K. McMahon.
31:54None of the talent
31:55knew anything.
31:56It was all inner office stuff.
31:57Nobody knew who sold to what
31:58or who was on what side
31:59or nothing.
32:00The camera guys
32:01and all of them,
32:01they didn't have a clue.
32:03I got a call.
32:04I was told not to come to TV
32:06that we weren't going
32:07to be taping that day.
32:08I didn't go to TV
32:09on Saturday that Saturday
32:11because I'd just gotten fired.
32:14Vince had a meeting
32:15with all the talent
32:16that was here
32:16and he said,
32:17none of you have jobs anymore.
32:19He said,
32:20if we want to use you,
32:21we'll contact you.
32:22And that was it.
32:23It was over.
32:26The wrestling program
32:27on TBS
32:27had been an institution
32:28for years.
32:29Every wrestling fan
32:30that was able to get cable
32:32at that point in time
32:33was going to watch
32:34Georgia Wrestling
32:35every Saturday.
32:36July 14th, 1984,
32:39they turn on
32:40World Championship Wrestling
32:41and they didn't see
32:43Gordon Soley.
32:43They see Freddie Miller
32:45Hello, everybody,
32:46and welcome
32:46to World Championship Wrestling.
32:48Freddie Miller
32:49introduced Vince McMahon.
32:51Here's Vince McMahon.
32:53Vince,
32:53thank you very much,
32:54Freddie.
32:54Welcome.
32:54When Freddie Miller
32:56introduced Vince
32:57and just the silence
32:59of the dead air time,
33:01you know,
33:01no, no,
33:02no crackling fan,
33:04no nothing.
33:04Let's take you now
33:05to Minneapolis
33:06and Jesse the Body Ventura.
33:08They started showing
33:10videotapes of matches
33:11from other WWF
33:13television programs
33:14and other WWF arenas
33:16and TV shoots.
33:17One of the many stars here
33:18in the World Wrestling Federation.
33:20The fans of Georgia Wrestling,
33:22they practically rioted.
33:27They were just bombarding
33:28the TBS switchboards.
33:30We want our wrestling.
33:34Georgia wrestling
33:35was a lot different
33:36than Vince's wrestling.
33:38Vince brought his style
33:40down here
33:40and I don't think
33:41they bought it
33:42or just didn't like it
33:44because it wasn't homeboys,
33:45you know.
33:46So I think
33:47that they just wasn't
33:49buying what he was selling.
33:51He didn't want
33:52the Georgia wrestling territory.
33:53All he wanted
33:54was that TV.
33:56And I'm getting excited
33:57because I'm seeing
33:57a new future
33:58starting to be made.
33:59I call it Green Saturday
34:01because it changed
34:02my fortune.
34:05But obviously
34:06a lot of fans
34:07that were fans,
34:08true fans
34:09of Georgia's
34:09championship wrestling
34:10didn't see it
34:10the same way I saw it.
34:13Ousted from the promotion
34:15he helped build,
34:16Ole makes no secret
34:18of his resentment.
34:19If Jack and Jerry
34:20had agreed with him
34:22to wait things out
34:23a few more months
34:24and then taking advantage
34:26of the time
34:26when he's dealing
34:27with his mother's funeral
34:29to sell out
34:30behind his back,
34:32I think that that
34:32would have really
34:33impacted his opinion
34:35strongly for quite a while
34:37to the negative.
34:38And I was pissed
34:39at the Briscoes
34:39and they got
34:42whatever money they got.
34:44Ole had supposedly
34:45hired an armed guard
34:46to stand there
34:47and actually do
34:48body harm to us
34:49if we tried
34:49to get in the office.
34:51Not the promoter,
34:52but Paul Dunn's
34:53the old raster
34:54called and said
34:55there's supposedly
34:56a hitman out
34:56on you guys
34:57for two days
34:58be very careful
34:59where you go
35:00and who you associate
35:01with because
35:02I think it's real.
35:10Ole Anderson
35:11is on the hunt
35:12for revenge
35:13as rumors circulate
35:14about a potential plot
35:15to have the Briscoes
35:16killed.
35:18We waited
35:19the two days,
35:19nothing happened
35:20to us
35:20and we threw
35:21at one of the
35:21biggest parties
35:22we ever thrown.
35:23Do you think
35:24he would have done that?
35:25No.
35:25First of all,
35:26he would have never
35:27got rid of the money
35:28and stick it me
35:29he'd have done it himself.
35:31He would have never
35:32asked anybody else
35:32to do it.
35:33He would have been
35:33glad to do it himself.
35:35The only negative way
35:36that I think
35:37it affected us
35:38is the loss of friendship
35:39and the negative things
35:41that were said about me.
35:42The threats
35:43that my brother
35:43and I got
35:44during this time frame
35:45too was phenomenal.
35:46I mean,
35:47our families
35:48were receiving phone calls,
35:49you know,
35:49we were no good
35:50back-sabbered.
35:52It was a very rough deal.
35:55Determined to keep
35:56the spirit of
35:56Georgia Championship
35:57Wrestling alive,
35:59Ole sells his shares
36:00and starts his own promotion.
36:03Ole was able
36:03to work out a deal.
36:04He called up Vince
36:05and said,
36:05Vince,
36:06I'm going to sell you
36:06my piece too.
36:08Which, you know,
36:08I guess,
36:09thank you Vince
36:10because Vince could
36:12very easily have just said,
36:13okay, I'm closing up.
36:14Your shares
36:15aren't worth anything.
36:16Ole went to
36:17Ted Turner directly
36:18and he said,
36:19hey,
36:19the people want to see
36:20the Georgia Wrestling
36:22and the Georgia Wrestlers
36:23and I've got them.
36:24Give me another time slot.
36:26And when I went
36:26to Ted Turner later on,
36:29I said,
36:29who do you think's been
36:30wearing this damn thing
36:31for the last
36:32eight, nine years?
36:33Me.
36:34So he gave Ole
36:34Saturday morning
36:35at 7.30.
36:37A very spirited crowd
36:38here today
36:39at the WTBS Sports Arena
36:41where we're very proud
36:42to bring you once again
36:43Championship Wrestling
36:44from Georgia.
36:46While Ole attempts
36:47to mount a comeback,
36:48Vince is struggling
36:49to connect
36:50with Georgia viewers.
36:52They were used
36:52to seeing a certain style
36:53and it wasn't something
36:54that they'd seen before.
36:55They didn't know
36:56who these guys were.
36:57They didn't care.
36:58They were looking
36:58for the people they knew.
37:00Vince is getting crowded
37:01out of the Saturday
37:03night time slot.
37:04Turner's on his ass.
37:05It's not doing him
37:07the good that he thought
37:07it was going to do him.
37:09This is one of the first
37:10and only Vince McMahon
37:11complete failures.
37:12Looking to offload
37:14his valuable WTBS time slot,
37:17McMahon once again
37:18turns to Jim Barnett
37:20to land a deal.
37:21Barnett finds a buyer
37:23in one of McMahon's
37:24other major competitors,
37:25Jim Crockett Promotions.
37:27How long did Vince's run
37:28last on TBS?
37:29One year.
37:31Turner was going to
37:32kick Vince off
37:32as soon as he legally could
37:33and so Barnett
37:35opened the door
37:35to Crockett.
37:36You know,
37:36that TBS time slot,
37:37at the time
37:38it probably sounded
37:39like a great deal.
37:40Vince will sell
37:41the time slot
37:43on Saturday night
37:44on TBS
37:45to Jim Crockett Promotions
37:48and Vince McMahon
37:49would get
37:49a million dollars.
37:51And everybody
37:52becomes happy with that.
37:54So,
37:54with Barnett
37:56putting all the pieces
37:57together,
37:58Vince McMahon
37:58temporarily monopolizes
38:00cable TV wrestling
38:02in the United States
38:03but is a failure
38:04at that
38:05so he uses
38:06that flop
38:07to make money
38:08to finance
38:09WrestleMania.
38:10WrestleMania!
38:10where he then
38:13started on the road
38:14to put every other
38:15promoter out of business.
38:17The wrestling extravaganza
38:19of all-time
38:20WrestleMania!
38:22All in that 80s period,
38:23that's where he got
38:23the big jump.
38:24WWE became the name brand
38:26of pro wrestling
38:27and he's got
38:28Cyndi Lauper
38:28and he's building up
38:29WrestleMania
38:29Hulk Hogan's getting big
38:30and he's just
38:32shooting way past
38:34everybody else
38:34and they don't have
38:35the outlet
38:36to compete with him.
38:37Black Saturday
38:40forever altered
38:41the trajectory
38:41of the wrestling business,
38:43something no one
38:44understood better
38:45than Ole Anderson.
38:47It was almost like
38:48he had just cleared
38:48his desk off
38:50and scraped
38:51everything into it.
38:53Honestly,
38:53the state my father
38:54is in today,
38:54I don't know
38:55that he can hate anybody,
38:56sadly enough.
38:57But I think
38:58he held a grudge
38:58against Vince
38:59for a long time.
39:00I'm just trying
39:02to see what
39:02all I got here.
39:04Bill Watts,
39:05himself a pioneering
39:06promoter
39:07in Mid-South Wrestling,
39:09writes a letter
39:09to Ole in 1987
39:11reflecting upon
39:12the significance
39:13of Black Saturday.
39:15Dear Ole,
39:15I know actions
39:16and words
39:17once said
39:17or done
39:18cannot be recalled.
39:19You were seeing
39:20the beginning
39:21of the metamorphosis
39:22of change
39:22of the very fiber
39:24of our business,
39:25all precipitated
39:26by McMahon
39:26in my opinion.
39:27I certainly agree
39:29his legacy
39:29will be the destruction
39:31of an industry
39:32as we know it
39:33or knew it.
39:35After the
39:36Black Saturday incident,
39:38Barnett was Vince's
39:39right-hand man,
39:41but Barnett was still
39:42more old-time wrestling
39:44and Vince wanted
39:45to be modern.
39:46And somewhere in 87,
39:48they had a difference
39:49of opinion
39:50and Vince let Barnett go.
39:59Jim Barnett
40:00only worked for WWF
40:02for a fraction
40:03of his long career,
40:04but his actions
40:05during the company's
40:06expansion
40:06helped solidify
40:08a new way
40:08of doing business
40:09in wrestling,
40:10the Vince McMahon way.
40:12Vince McMahon
40:13for 40 years,
40:15he made his business
40:16based on
40:17taking TV time slots
40:20or companies
40:21out from under people,
40:24doing takeovers,
40:25buying stock,
40:26issuing stock,
40:28public offering
40:29of the WWE
40:30that made him
40:31a billionaire,
40:32but his downfall
40:33eventually came
40:34through the same way.
40:37You know,
40:37there's an old saying,
40:38what goes around
40:39comes around,
40:40and or
40:41f*** around
40:41and f*** around,
40:42pretty soon
40:42you won't be around.
40:44Well,
40:44Vince had,
40:46it came out
40:46in the Wall Street Journal
40:47that he had
40:48allegations of paying
40:49certain women off,
40:50you know,
40:51non-disclosure agreements
40:52for infidelities
40:53and,
40:54you know,
40:54even worse.
40:55McMahon paid
40:56a former employee
40:57$3 million
40:58to keep her quiet.
41:01You take a picture
41:02of Vince McMahon
41:02and that there
41:04is the reason
41:05why there is
41:06a human resources
41:07now in companies.
41:09That is the reason why.
41:11As far as
41:12revolutionizing
41:14our business,
41:14yes,
41:15he did.
41:15Is there a dark side
41:16and a bad side?
41:17Yes,
41:17there damn sure is.
41:20It was enough
41:20of an embarrassment
41:21to the company
41:22that Vince stepped down.
41:23They forced him
41:24out of the company
41:25because his son-in-law
41:28and his daughter
41:28and all these people
41:29that he's worked with
41:30and trusted
41:30were saying,
41:31Vince,
41:31you got to go.
41:32This is not going to do
41:33the stock price any good.
41:34It's not going to do
41:35our business any good.
41:36You got to step aside.
41:37And the thing he learned
41:38from the Georgia takeover,
41:40he still owns
41:4280% of the company.
41:44So,
41:45after six months,
41:48then he comes back
41:49in a whirlwind of action
41:51Let me just say
41:52I don't make mistakes,
41:53obviously,
41:54both personally
41:55and professionally
41:55through my 50-year career.
41:57I owned up to
41:57every single one of them
41:58and then moved on.
42:00And then announces
42:01I'm coming back
42:02because we're going to
42:03sell this son of a bitch.
42:04And the time is right.
42:07Endeavor announcing
42:08WWE and UFC
42:10will combine to form
42:11a $21 billion
42:12global live sports
42:13and entertainment company.
42:15And that's what worries
42:16all the wrestling fans.
42:17Say what you want
42:18about Vince,
42:18at least it was
42:19the family business.
42:20He's done it
42:21for 50 years.
42:23Now,
42:24Endeavor.
42:25What mental,
42:26romantic attachment
42:28do they have
42:29to the wrestling business?
42:30To its history,
42:31to keeping it alive?
42:33We're going to lose
42:33a lot of history
42:34and we're going to lose
42:36the,
42:36you know,
42:38the last vestige
42:39of what old-time
42:40professional wrestling
42:41was for 100 years.
42:42I think Black Saturday
42:43was kind of a tipping point
42:45in the wrestling business.
42:46that was the,
42:47the moment
42:48it started to evolve
42:49away from the wrestling business
42:51and into show business.
42:53Black Saturday
42:54in and of itself
42:55wasn't
42:56a groundbreaking moment.
42:59It was the canary
43:00in the coal mine.
43:02That's the band
43:02put anywhere
43:03from hundreds
43:04to maybe thousands
43:05of wrestlers
43:06out of work.
43:07Didn't Vince make
43:08a lot of those guys
43:09millionaires though?
43:10Maybe 3% of them.
43:16The other 97%
43:17didn't get to work anymore.
43:19That's when all the change
43:21is going on
43:21and you can't go back.
43:23I mean,
43:24and that's life.
43:25Just times change,
43:26you know,
43:27and I'm just holding
43:28on to them 80s.
43:30Do you think guys
43:31like Barnett,
43:32Jack, Jerry, Briscoe,
43:34do people blame them
43:35for the demise
43:35of the territories?
43:37I don't think
43:37they blame the Briscoes,
43:39but they definitely
43:40blamed Vince.
43:41But it was the move.
43:43It was the move to make.
43:45What killed the territories
43:46was cable television
43:47and that would have been
43:48with Vince McMahon
43:49or without Vince McMahon.
43:50It wasn't Vince McMahon
43:50going national.
43:51It would have been
43:51Vern Gagnier, Jim Crockett
43:53and they wouldn't have
43:54done as well as Vince did.
43:56Somebody was going
43:57to be successful.
43:57Wrestling wasn't
43:58going to go away
43:58but would they have been
43:59as successful as Vince McMahon
44:00was, I'm going to say no.
44:09The End
44:22The End
44:22Amen.
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